.
Ros Hathorn, Edd Stonham and Yvonne Murray have been talking with Mr Jonathan Newman of Histon & Impington Park School about the traffic at the new school in Glebe Way, Histon.
The school have been asking parents and carers at the school to contribute to their traffic and travel survey. 168 responses have been received which will feed into their school travel plan. All parent contributions have been shared with the Local Authority and subsequently Highways. All emails from local residents have also been passed on. An additional Road Safety Audit was requested by the school and they are currently awaiting the final report.
There has also been discussion on how to improve travel to the school and the need for parking. Edd Stonham of Greenleas Estate Management Ltd has been working with residents and parents to highlight the need for considerate parking at the school. Yvonne has had the pleasure to work with Edd, Mr Newman and the School Eco Group to put up signs on Greenleas Estate, prepared by the school children, about where not to park.
Attached (click here) is the letter sent by Mr Newman to Parents and also the issues mentioned above in this post for your consideration. Please do take a look at the suggestions and issues raised and add your comments to this post. Please prefix each of your comments with ‘Road Safety:’ or ‘Parking:’ so we can identify and consider the action needed to address your concerns.
As you consider items you wish to add, please note the table of suggested improvements now confirmed by Mr Newman is very specific. Broad issues are difficult to resolve, except in terms of requesting a lower speed limit. If there is an issue, for example, with a dropped kerb or driveway, if you can give specific details e.g. about the location that would be most helpful.
You will see that the village Speedwatch Volunteers have also been at the school identifying issues around speeding and sending letters to those where speeding issues have been identified.
A lot of work has been put in by the School, residents and parents to highlight the issues and to look at action needed. After considering all your comments, Yvonne will look to set up a meeting after half-term with Ros Hathorn for the public to raise any questions.
Unrealistic planning has resulted in a staff car park with inadequate capacity. Cars are therefore having to be parked on the purpose built drop-off circuit, precluding its use at rush hour by parents. An extension to the current staff car park would at least enable some parents to use the drop-off zone. (Which of course in the fullness of time will also need extending, using the County Council farmland adjacent to school and B1049.) Not helpful I know, but these potential problems were brought up time and time again by residents during the planning consultation for the new school. It rather makes a mockery of planning consultation when important issues like these apparently fall on deaf ears!
This is indeed a great initiative and a step in the right direction so thank you to Ros, Yvonne, Edd and David. Can I please ask that the consideration of speed bumps is not taken forward. Our bedroom backs onto the B1049 on the approach to the school and the removal of the undergrowth has already made a negative difference to the noise level. Whilst I accept that new trees have been planted and am grateful for this, they will take many years to mature and contribute to reducing noise levels. The introduction of speed bumps will increase the noise levels from large commercial vehicles and given that these are intended to solve a problem for 30 minutes during the morning and afternoon during school terms I would rather that any solution did not contribute to greater noise levels outside of school hours. I hope you can understand my comment in the spirit it is intended. Regards Richard.
I just noticed the request for a prefix. Sorry but: Road Safety.
I am not a parent of children attending this school so some may be inclined to suggest that I am not parti pris and therefore have no right to comment. However, I would suggest that a fundamental issue has not been addressed and that is should there be a drop-off area.close to the school entrance. The government is considering legislation to phase out liquid-fuelled vehicles in an effort to reduce pollution and there is plenty of evidence of the raised pollution levels both in terms of particulates and noxious gases at the ideal height to meet children’s faces. Should someone be considering another option maybe slightly more inconvenient for parents but immeasurably safer for their children.. I merely pose the question..
There is a drop of area. Parents have been told not to use it!
Parking
Please be aware that some parents have no option but to drop via car and to repeatedly suggest walking/cycling is frustrating. It is not always feasible for working parents. I was able to cycle whilst we were in lockdown but now must work at the office in Cambridge, starting at 9.30. To arrive on time, I have to drive. I am left with no option but to park on nearby residential roads which understandably frustrates those that live there, despite my attempts to be as considerate as possible. It is extremely poor planning to have a redundant drop off area that is not being used, and this is contributing to children being at risk, having to cross the road on a main thoroughfare to Cambridge. Cars are not always stopping!
The location was a poor choice.
As a local resident living on ‘old’ Cottenham Road I understand that there will be many parents who cannot walk or cycle to the new school and accept that for half an hour each morning and afternoon that it will be busy with people parking outside our house. However, the problems arise when people park too close to the junctions, especially the Glebe Way/ Cottenham Road junction which has caused traffic to back up onto Glebe Way. Also when parents park on both sides of the road then the road becomes a chicane which is particularly difficult for the Citi 8 bus to negotiate and I have witnessed it having to mount the kerb to get through (this often happens between Glebe Way and Parlour Close). I am not keen on having double yellow lines but some marker on the edge of the pavement to indicate a safe distance to park from the junctions would be helpful (I understand 10m is the legal distance to park from a junction but I think it needs to be more due to the very sharp turn from Glebe Way onto ‘old’ Cottenham Road). Also if all parents are encouraged to park on just one side of the road rather than parking on both sides this will help the traffic flow through the area. Often a car is already parked on the north side of the road before school drop off time but parents prefer to park on the south side – I would suggest that if a car is already parked on the road that they simply park on the same side. I can see that a number of speed bumps may cause other issues but another idea would be to raise the crossing area outside the school which should encourage drivers to slow down.
Living opposite Heather and witnessing what she has described I completely concur with her observations and suggestions.
Parking: I think the long term option would be expand the car parking into the field for both parents and staff.
A short term expedient might be creative road markings. Simplest could be white lines coming in from the side of the road and over a distance making the road appear narrower. zig zags or some other pattern might remove the “fast open road” vision to motorists. Surely, someone has somewhere in this country, or even internationally, found a way of marking a road to cause a slow down?
Road Safety. I think the suggestion on Facebook of narrowing the road to allow a verge to be put between the path and the road has a lot of merit. It would go some way to help addressing the speeding, and would provide a much more attractive (and arguably safer) barrier between the path than metal barriers.
It might be worth asking for more invasive measures too. If you look at the B1049 on the North side of Cottenham it has multiple priority narrowing sections, perhaps something like that would help.
It would also be worth looking at the where the path of then East side crosses Garden walk. if there any option to narrow that opening, it feels like a very wide space to have to cross, with poor visibility on the North side, even though the road itself is very low trafficed.
Parking. There are some short term improvements that would help, such as markings to make it clear where parking should not be allowed, Longer term I think the best thing to help would be to reduce the number of people trying to park. There are still plenty of people who, understandably, find it too unpleasant or unsafe to consider not driving their children to school. I think that working to improve the routes to the school from elsewhere in the village (re-surfacing Pages close and the narrow Lane cut through, removing through traffic from Station Road, looking at providing access via the fields from Butt Lane, and probably many other things that I haven’t thought of. The issues may also lessen as a higher proportion of pupils will end up being older once the school has all Years, rather than only infant as it is at the moment.
So much car addiction here. Just back from nursery drop off – by bike. Several drivers yelled, beeped or dangerously passed me rather than wait a few moments for a safe location to pass. Do we have any plans for then the coast reaches this lovely new school?
Parents are Parking on Narrow Close and Narrow Lane .They are parking on the curbside and blocking residents access to there homes .The road is Narrow so it is difficult to drive at school pick up and drop off for residents
Also as children and parents are walking down Narrow Lane and crossing into Narrow Close there is potential for an accident as cars are reversing at speed from Narrow Close in to Narrow Lane.
I appreciate it is difficult for parents who have to drive to work after dropping there children at school .
The problem is down to poor planning .The issue was raised before the school was built .What we predicted has happened.
A solution would be to have a car park built on the field next to the school .Using the rest of the field as nature reserve for the village .
Putting yellow lines on old Cottenham
Road would make parking worse on Narrow Close/Narrow Lane
we live on the north side and cycle a cargo bike down to the school. I have been taking to the road when I pass the school, or getting off and walking when we reach the busy bits. not all cyclists do this though and I see teenagers cycling to get to IVC seem to have a hard time and wobbling all over the place. I think a narrower road would feel really hostile for a cyclist along that route. instead I would prefer lots of road markings that make the road seem narrower but not taking away the space – could this achieve the same thing? Even a cycle lane on the road would be good but seeing as the cycle lane is supposed to be on the path I don’t think that is realistic.
Sadly I don’t allow my 3year old son to cycle his bike at peak times anymore due to safety concerns. (Although I’m really glad there is finally a crossing)
I’m not sure why a temporary 20mph limit during school times is not an option? to be honest I was really, really surprised that it wasn’t installed when the school opened and just felt underwhelmed and deflated when I realised it wasnt. I don’t understand why a 20mph limit is present by other schools, girton, oakington, but not in histon.? I really hope it’s not because of a tragedy in these areas.
In the meantime I’d like to see some signage designed by children “slow down” signs and such like all the way along Cottenham and glebe road. Similar to what I have seen on Milton Rd. This is not to replace any other traffic calming ideas but to add to it. I think the more signage, markings etc, the better. Not sure if there is other support for children designing signage along the road?
I agree with your observations regarding a 20mph limit. I understand that the bottom end of Histon Road will be 20mph when the changes are complete. This is also the B1049, so if there why not here?