Cambridge Past, Present and Future (Independent Charity) started this petition to the Greater Cambridge Partnership and Cambridgeshire County Council.

This petition is presented by Cambridge Past, Present and Future, and supported by an alliance of organisations including the Parish Councils of Stapleford, Great Shelford and Babraham, Cambridge Connect, Magog Trust, CPRE and Railfuture East Anglia.  They are working together as Better Ways for Busways!

The Greater Cambridge Partnership (GCP) want to build a large Park & Ride car park on the A11/A1307 junction and a new bus road from there to the Cambridge Biomedical Campus.

The bus road would be 5 miles long, built through open countryside, crossing the River Granta twice. It would be a 14m wide tarmac and concrete road but would only be used by buses.

The busway would be a tragedy for the local area, it will:

• Go over the lower slopes of the Gog Magog Hills, one of the most important landscapes in the Cambridge area.
• Destroy the habitat of Water Voles and concrete over the top of Hobson’s Brook chalk stream close to Ninewells Nature Reserve.
• Bisect the River Granta twice creating the need for two huge road bridges.
• Ruin the tranquillity and countryside views for walkers using the popular Stapleford Farm Track and a new Country Park that will be built on the Gog Magog Hills.
• Carve up the Green Belt creating parcels of land for future development and further loss of countryside.
• Urbanise the countryside by creating signalised road crossings and bus stops with traffic lights, signs, lighting and drop off parking.

The busway will not benefit local communities and taxpayers, it:

• Would not be significantly quicker than alternatives.
• Is too far from villages, so will provide little benefit to most residents
• Is very expensive. £132.3 million and a benefit-cost ratio of only 0.71, which represents a negative return on public investment

We support improved transport networks around the fast-developing city of Cambridge, but do not accept that the route proposed is the best or only solution.  There is a better alternative that delivers similar transport benefits, without the damage to the countryside and at much lower cost to taxpayers.

This alternative is to create new sections of bus lane on the A1307 from Babraham to Hinton Way and a final bus road section from Hinton Way to reach the Biomedical Campus.

This alternative uses new bus lanes and a section of new bus road to avoid congestion, so that buses would be fast and reliable. It makes use of the road where there is no congestion, meaning that there is significantly less harm to the countryside and its also a lot less expensive.

There are also some other benefits of this option:

• It would serve a planned extension of the Cambridge Biomedical Campus and also both the eastern and western parts of the Campus, including the planned new Children’s hospital.
• It would not need to be “guided” so it could be used by a wider range of public transport vehicles and emergency services.

We call on the Greater Cambridge Partnership/Cambridgeshire County Council to listen to public opinion, save the green belt countryside, protect the Gog Magog hills and choose a better solution. 

Find out more about what is being proposed and other ways you can support this campaign.