A petition signed by more than 2,400 people called for Cambridgeshire County Council not to block some of the existing informal crossings over the guided busway.

The guided busway runs through Histon and Impington.(Image: Google)

A plan has been proposed to reinstate an informal crossing point over the guided busway, after thousands raised concerns that blocking up some routes could cut a village in half. Cambridgeshire County Council said it has to block off some informal crossing points as part of work to install new fencing along the busway for improved safety.

The authority said it has committed to working with communities to look at reinstating some of the crossings and making them safe to use. Work is underway to install new fences and barriers along the guided busway, between the shared pathway and the bus track.

The £6.5million project was started after the county council was prosecuted by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) following the deaths of three people on the busway. The county council was fined £6million and has said it accepts “full responsibility for the historical failings” and has apologised to the families and friends of those affected.

The HSE is currently also investigating a crash involving a bus and a 13-year-old boy on the busway in March. As part of work to install new safety fencing along the busway, the county council said it identified 23 locations of informal crossings that have been used regularly.

It said these crossing points have either been closed off or will be closed off as part of the perimeter fencing work. A petition signed by more 2,400 people raised concerns about the impact that closing off some of these informal crossings would have in Histon and Impington.

Sheila Gill, who presented the petition at a county council meeting on Tuesday (December 2), said people feared the restrictions would “completely change the nature of the village, cutting it in half and damaging community spirit”.

She said: “The data showed that more than a fifth of respondents have used the unofficial crossings for over 20 years, and over 90 per cent use them for health, exercise and leisure purposes.

“They also reveal that the official crossing at St Audrey’s is in fact the least used of the three crossings at Histon. People have chosen to live in Histon or in their specific home for its easy access to nature and some say they may actually leave the village if the crossings remain closed.

“There are fears that closures will affect physical and mental health, particularly for those with limited mobility, or limited opportunity to get out, and as one wrote St Audrey’s Close is not far mathematically, but it is a huge distance when you are disabled.

“Closing the crossing at Impington means access to the nearby green spaces and woods now entails traversing the B1049, a busy main road with a 40mph limit and no pedestrian crossing for half a mile.”

‘We recognise these crossings have been used for many years and are important’

Officers at the county council said they recognised this issue and that there is a “strong requirement for the informal crossing points” that the authority had “unfortunately had to close off” as part of the safety work. They said they have been doing “a lot of work with the community to understand where crossing points should be reintroduced”.

They recognised that in Histon some of the crossings had been used for “many years and are important to the community”. Officers said this is why they were asking for £2million to take forward design and implementation work to reinstate one of the crossing points and to improve others.

They added that the crossing points would be reinstated in a “very controlled and safe way” and that they would be “lit and level and very much fit for purpose”. Officers said the county council will also consider the reintroduction of additional crossing points along the busway.

Ms Gill said the news that some of these crossing points could be reinstated had been met with “great relief and gratitude”. Councillor Tom Sanderson (Independent) asked if there was a timetable for when the proposed new crossing points could be completed. Officers said they could not give a definitive date, but said they have “committed to doing this as quickly as possible”.

They added that they not only recognised the importance of the crossing points to people in the area. They said it would also increase safety to have new formal crossings rather than risk people attempting to cross the busway in places the authority would rather they would not.

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