Safety concerns over new busway after deaths

Rob Sadler has given his closing submissions to the inquiry regarding the proposed busway

Safety concerns about a proposed busway have been raised after deaths on another design elsewhere in Cambridgeshire.

A two-month long public inquiry is discussing the £200m proposal to link the new town of Cambourne with Cambridge, and recommendations will be made to government.

Planners want the route to ease congestion on the roads and cater for 10,000 daily trips.

Family farmer Rob Sadler said in his closing statement that the busway route would "sever" his land and pointed out that Cambridgeshire County Council was fined £6m over three deaths on the busway elsewhere in the county.

A guided busway takes a modified bus along a track, and this route would be 8.6 miles long (14km).

Inspectors have visited the sites affected by the plans, including Coton Orchard

Jennifer Taylor, Steve Moir and Kathleen Pitts died on separate occasions between 2015 and 2021, after collisions on the already existing busway which runs from Huntingdon to Cambridge.

He said "similar design conditions" had "resulted in repeated vehicle intrusions including joyriders accessing the track, stolen vehicles being driven along it, and fatal accidents".

"This is not a speculative concern. It is a foreseeable risk.

"Creating another isolated, unprotected, high-speed corridor will inevitably create problems.

"And if or more realistically, when an incident occurs on this section, I will almost certainly be the first responder to any accident, because the line runs directly through the farm."

The charity Cambridge Past, Present and Future and Coton Parish Council asked the transport secretary - who will make the final decision - to reject the scheme.

Their closing statement said there would be "significant ecological harm, as well as harm to landscape, the green belt and other environmental harms".

There would be compulsory purchases of land, they added.

Buses instead being driven on the road would be safer and less costly, the two groups said.

A busway network already serves the Cambridge area

The plans have been developed by the Greater Cambridge Partnership on behalf of Cambridgeshire County Council.

The council said in its closing statement that more reliable public transport was needed to help with the government's ambitions for economic growth in Cambridge.

"There is no realistic and deliverable alternative means of meeting that need," said the council.

It quoted from Peter Freeman, chairman of the Cambridge Growth Company, who gave evidence at the inquiry.

"As Mr Freeman said, if the order is not made, you will be 'shooting Cambridge and the government in the foot'. With all the difficulties facing this country now is not the time to inflict such a wound.

"As Mr Freeman also said, if you do make the order, there will be no regrets. It might also be said, if the order is not made, there will be regrets aplenty."

The inquiry concluded earlier, but a date for a final decision on the scheme is not yet known.