Pandemonium, bedlam, turmoil, and disarray is an understatement.
Below is a précis (AI) of what Cllr Boden has sent to CCC.
Full e-mail after.
Councillor Chris Boden is warning that Whittlesey faces potentially severe traffic chaos next week because of what he describes as poor coordination of planned roadworks by Cambridgeshire County Council (CCC).
The main concerns are:
- Current A605 closures: Two planned A605 closures that were originally intended to overlap have instead been arranged consecutively, extending disruption for around a week. This follows a 12-hour postponement caused by an A47 closure.
- Three main routes affected: The A605 carries around 12,000 vehicles per working day, while the B1040 via Dog in a Doublet carries around 9,000. The alternative B1040 route via Pondersbridge is poorly suited to handling diverted traffic.
- Next week’s problem: From 24 August, the B1040 northbound from Whittlesey is due to be closed for two weeks.
- Simultaneous A605 restrictions: On 25 August, Anglian Water is permitted to install temporary traffic lights at Kings Delph, reducing the A605’s peak-hour capacity by more than half.
- Resulting concern: This means Whittlesey’s main route to Peterborough will be heavily restricted at the same time as its secondary route is completely closed.
- Boden argues that emergency works are unavoidable, but says this situation involves planned works that should have been coordinated to avoid such a serious cumulative impact.
- He has therefore asked the Chair of CCC’s Highways & Transport Committee to personally intervene and have the planned works changed before next week.
In essence: Boden’s complaint is not about the need for roadworks, but about the apparent lack of coordination between different planned closures, which he believes could unnecessarily bring traffic in and around Whittlesey to a standstill.
WORSE TO COME NEXT WEEK. A605.
I have just written to the Chairperson of the County Council Highways and Transport Committee seeking his intervention to stop even greater roads chaos next week, especially on the Tuesday, than we are going to experience in the next few days this week.
We all have to accept that emergency road works can be massively disruptive. But when County Highways allow planned work to clash so badly, you have to start wondering if anyone is properly co-ordinating these road closures and road restrictions?
The email speaks for itself.
“Good afternoon, Alex.
In your capacity as Chairperson of the County Council Highways & Transport Committee may I request your personal intervention to stop decisions about planned roadworks in Whittlesey turning into absolute and utter chaos on our roads?
You will be aware that Whittlesey residents and businesses have had to put up with more than their fair share of temporary traffic lights over the last few years, most notably on King’s Dyke Bridge.
There is currently, this week, massive inconvenience to local residents as a result of two road closures on the A605 in Whittlesey. Instead of carrying out the two closures simultaneously, minimising the pain and concentrating the works at the weekend, the two closures have been changed by your Officers to run consecutively, prolonging the traffic disruption (which I fear will be really serious) for a whole week. A Highways England closure of the A47 meant that the planned co-ordinated closure (agreed between CCC Highways Officers and Councillors) needed to be put back by 12 hours. Instead, and without coming back to Councillors, Officers have made a decision to run one closure immediately after the next which will undoubtedly cause increasing inconvenience and uncertainty for the 20,000 vehicle drivers a day travelling between Peterborough and Whittlesey.
That, unfortunately, is now fixed. Local Councillors are having to bear the brunt of angry phone calls from residents, whose comments about County Highways are unrepeatable in this email.
On top of all that, we have in the last couple of hours received notification of CCC’s planned and permitted roadworks in the area till the end of the month. We all must accept that road repairs and utility works need to be done, and there will always be some (sometimes a lot) of inconvenience involved. But what is planned for the next few weeks is beyond belief, and it will leave residents and businesses here in Whittlesey bemused, angry and in despair.
As you know, there are effectively only three road routes between Whittlesey and Peterborough: the A605 is the main route, with over 12,000 vehicle movements on a working day. Our secondary route in on the B1040 northbound out of Whittlesey, vis Dog in a Doublet. That has some 9,000 movements a day. We do have a third route, which is barely suitable as a diversion, going southbound from Whittlesey on the B1040 via Pondersbridge.
You can imagine my incredulity when I saw in the CCC TMC Roadworks & Events Bulletin, published a couple of hours ago, that CCC has agreed, despite all the traffic chaos we are experiencing this week, that virtually as soon as the current closures on the A605 finish, it’s planned by CCC to (a) close the B1040 northbound out of Whittlesey from 24th August for 2 weeks yet, (b) on 25th August CCC are permitting Anglian Water to reduce the A605 peak hour capacity by more than 50% at (yet again) Kings Delph where they’ll be allowed to set up temporary traffic lights with one-way working for their “utility asset works”.
Deliberately planning to choke Whittlesey’s main route to Peterborough on a working day, whilst at the same time entirely closing our secondary route is astonishingly inept, if I may be pardoned for using such a strong word. It’s different when there are emergency works – by definition, they can’t be planned. But deliberately to timetable one way working under temporary traffic lights on the A605 when the secondary route to Peterborough from Whittlesey via the B1040 northbound is closed is a truly dreadful decision.
I know there’s only a week to go before this happens, but could you, Alex, please speak to someone in Highways to bring some common sense to bear on this, and to make changes to next week’s planned double works on the A605 and the B1040?
Kind regards,
Chris Boden
County Councillor, Whittlesey North”
