Brunswick & North Kite Residents Association
Raising your concerns and looking after your interests
Latest: Council consultation on 20mph signage improvements
The City Council is consulting on proposed improvements to the 20mph signage. The proposals don't go as far as we had hoped but we believe represent an improvment over the current situation. The changes consist of new 20mph roundel road markings on the carriageway and amendments to the 20mph limit entry points at Victoria Avenue and East Road are planned, including more prominent signs and proposed coloured road surfacing.
Importantly the Police have stated that they will finally enforce the 20mph speed limit once the signage is improved. See:
proposals and survey
Last year, BruNK was involved in chasing up several issues- these are just a few:
20 mph limit - getting visible signage and roundels on the road - due to be finally installed in early 2013 - and persuading the City Council to continue this as a priority regarding police enforcement.
HCV's on Newmarket Road & Maids Causeway - we are lobbying to prevent restricted delivery vehicles using this illegally as a through route.
Salmon Lane trees- after almost 7 years, new trees have been planted but the situation is still unresolved - some trees died over the summer.
Midsummer Common - working closely with Friends of Midsummer Common & City Council regarding illegal parking, general maintenance, mowing and better management of events.
Our Ward City Councillors, Tim Bick, Colin Rosenstiel and Andrea Reiner and our County Councillor, Sarah Whitebread will be there and Tim Bick will give a quick resumé of 2012 and what's likely to be happening in 2013.
Of course this will be a chance to ask them about any concerns you might have, or just to find out what might be happening in 2013. Also a chance to meet up with BruNK Committee members and fellow residents in relaxed and convivial surroundings. We
really hope you can be there!
Celebrating the Queen's Diamond Jubilee June 5th
BruNK and Christ Church Cambridge held a Diamond Jubilee Street Party to celebrate in Parsonage Street.
There was live music and attractions for children including a bouncy castle and a play area.
We were lucky with the weather and a good time was had by all.
We are grateful to the Cambridgeshire Community Foundation for a generous grant towards the Diamond Jubilee Street party costs.
BruNK and Community Speedwatch
BruNK volunteers ran two weeks of Community Speedwatch operations in the area in July / August 2011. The scheme is run with local volunteers and the police working together. The aim is to raise driver awareness of the 20mph limit.
Details of speeding vehicles have been passed to the Police. In the first instance, offenders will get a letter from the Police but persistent offenders may get a Police visit!
More details on the Speedwatch scheme are
here.
The Cambridgeshire Constabulary webpage is
here
Now in 2012 it has been observed that buses and taxis often speed and we will be checking on this.
Strawberry Fair 2012
It seems to be generally felt that SF went well, although number were down this year.
BruNK worked with all parties to ensure problems for residents were minimised.
There is more information on the
Strawberry Fair website
Police enforcement of the 20mph speed limit
Under a local policing priority, set at the April 2011 West/Central Area Committee meeting, police have were requested to enforce the central city 20mph speed limit.
Initially there will be an 'education' phase, and now the policing priority has been renewed in the August meeting, the Police will apparently move to actual enforcement.
There is such widespread speeding that the Police have expressed concern is concern that magistrates courts would become clogged with speeding cases.
Our view is that this cannot be a reason not to enforce the law. Local policing priorities are listed on the
Police website. In late November 2011 two Police officers were spotted near the old Zebra pub, undertaking speed checks. They stated that in 30minutes of work they had issued only one speeding ticket. They admitted that impact of their fluorescent jackets was sufficient to slow the traffic during their presence.
Policing of 20mph speed limit
The Saturday 28th August 2010, Cambridge News front page
headline announced that the police would not enforce the new limit.
This article was based on proceedings at the Council Area Committee on August 26th 2010 where councillors failed to set a policing priority of enforcing the new limit despite having the opportunity to do so. Local blogger Richard Taylor has published an excellent article on proceedings at the meeting.
On 1st September 2010, BBC Radio Cambridgeshire interviewed our County councillor Sarah Whitebread about the issue. We are delighted that she has taken up this issue, and hope that her city council colleagues will soon join in with their support.
The BBC also interviewed Mark Kemp, Head of Highways at Cambridgeshire County Council. He dodged around the question of enforcement, "we're just putting up the signs and seeing what happens". Speed cameras are still not an option apparently.
The Park & Ride Operations Manager of Cambridgeshire County Council has said that a team will be monitoring Park and Ride buses and that Andy Campbell the MD of Stagecoach, at a Love Cambridge meeting, advised that offenders will be penalised. We hope that this includes all buses, not just P&R ones. We note that the X5 service is a particular offender, and is either not aware of or deliberately flouts the 20mph limit.
We wrote a letter to the Cambridge News, published on Saturday 4th September, expressing our astonishment that the police are apparently not going to enforce the new speed limit.
20mph speed limit trial
In August 2010 the 20mph speed limit was introduced in Maids Causeway and Newmarket Road West, along with the outlying streets as part of the new city centre trial. We are of course delighted that the speed limit has been reduced, albeit on a trial basis, and look forward to seeing real speed reductions on the major roads in the city. However driver awareness and compliance does not look good so far, but we shall see.
For more information, the Cambridge News has a report The 20's Plenty for Us campaign has some useful information. Police officers hope the Speedwatch scheme, which is already actively supported in many Cambridgeshire villages, will be taken up with gusto in the city says the Cambridge First newspaper.
Community Orchard
The
conservation plan for Midsummer Common proposed a community orchard. This has been championed by the
Friends of Midsummer Common. The first batch of trees have now been planted, and work continues to improve the orchard area.
Council Area Committee Meetings
See the
Council web page
Contact us
If you wish to send us a message, you may use the contact form (see '
Contact' on the left hand menu) where you can also sign up for our occasional emails, or email: chair (at) brunk.org.uk
