East Cambridgeshire District Council

Work to tackle road congestion around Ely's Railway station is to progress with investigations set to establish the full extent of the problem and what can be done in the short and long term to relive the pressure.

District Councillors are set to ask officers to clarify the impact that the closure of the level crossing has on a daily basis - as well assess the effect of the proposed increase in rail freight traffic through Ely station in the future.

With the delivery of major improvements to the A142 in Ely still the authority's main priority, work will also progress on producing a delivery programme as well as investigating the viability of short-term options such as traffic management and lorry stacking.

At a meeting of East Cambridgeshire District Council's Growth Delivery Sub-Committee on Tuesday 6 June, members will also consider progressing further feasibility work to look at long term options, including the question of whether to investigate deepening the underpass at the rail line.

Councillor Peter Moakes, Chairman of Strategic Development Committee at East Cambridgeshire District Council, said: "We all agree that the bottleneck at the level crossing by Ely’s railway station will only get worse creating more and more congestion. What we are now working on are the options to improve the A142 and ensure that our future is not blighted by the failure to deal with this problem.

"The District and County Council are working closely together to progress the long term solutions as well as shorter term options. With the upgrading of the A14 now on hold, there will be pressure now building on other roads as traffic attempts to escape the congestion on the dual carriageway. This may mean more traffic coming through the A142 but, conversely, there could be smaller pots of funding available for relatively smaller scale improvements to the highways - improving the A142 would be an obvious candidate for such money.

"Ely is set for significant housing growth over the period of the Masterplan and this can only be managed sustainably by improvements to transport infrastructure, including improved walking, cycling and public transport links between the city centre, housing areas and the railway station.  Removal of traffic congestion in the station area is an essential part of this and needs to be delivered through a mixed funding package of both government and developer funding.

"Our priority as defined by the Ely Masterplan is to fully realise the Railway station as a transport interchange to benefit us all. This will be the best way to improve the infrastructure and viability of not just East Cambridgeshire but the whole region."

Work on the Ely Station Gateway project has been funded through the Housing Growth Funding Grant and Department of Transport resources.

For more information please call 01353 665555 or logon to www.eastcambs.gov.uk.

ENDS

Notes for editors:

For further information contact Tony Taylorson in the Communications Team on 01223 699285.

Political contacts: Councillor Peter Moakes (Con) 01353 659910 and Councillor Shelia Friend-Smith (Lib Dem) 01353 663118