Road closure debate sees no formal complaint to Cambridgeshire’s highways by Whittlesey Town Council

Poor communication over continuing road closures around Whittlesey was discussed at Thursday’s town council meeting.

Cllr Bob Wicks raised the issue and asked councillors to back his calls for making a formal complaint to Cambridgeshire County Council highways over the use of Temporary Traffic Regulation Orders (TTROs).

He said some recent closures were in danger of leaving villages within the Whittlesey area isolated and he highlighted closures of Benwick Road and also Burnt House Road.

He said there was no indication of when the Benwick Road would re-open, while the closure of Burnt House Road was also causing problems for the residents of Turves, with limited information available.

Cllr Wicks said the highways website was not kept up to date, so the information was of no use to residents who were looking to see what was happening.

He wanted to press highways into ensuring the website is updated in a “timely manner”. Cllr Wicks gave examples of lack of information on Wype Road and also Benwick Road, stating the information had not been updated for weeks.

He also said there was no update on the Kings Dyke crossing bridge pointing out that all it said was the county council is looking at what was going to need to be carried out but there was no time scale.

Cllr Jason Mockett, however, said he did not have a problem with highways and found they were always very helpful when he rang to speak to officers about any issues, such as clashes of proposed road closures.

He felt it would be wrong to make a formal complaint and suggested individual councillors complained when they had an issue.

Cllr Dr Haq Nawaz suggested a formal complaint could be viewed as “antagonistic” by the county council and that it “would likely polarise the relationship between the council and officers”. He agreed councillors should make their individual concerns known.

But Cllr Barry Wainwright disagreed with that suggestion and agreed the highways website was not properly maintained and said the website appeared to have last been updated at the end of January.

He also said the work to the bridge was due to start in May, and there was still no indication of what was being planned.

Cllr Gurninder Singh Gill said he had also found highways officers helpful and illustrated how plans to close Dry Bread Road and the A605 at the same time were changed after he had contacted them to raise concerns.

He felt the council needed to be careful how it moved forward with such a complaint.

However, Cllr Elisabeth Sennitt Clough said she had always found it easy to speak to officers initially, but agreed with Cllrs Wicks and Wainwright, that they did not always follow-up.

But she felt now was not the time to complain as they would likely be pre-occupied with the upcoming county council elections.

Cllr Eamonn Dorling felt the council should make its voice heard.

While Cllr Chris Boden agreed the county council’s communication was not great but said councillors were always aware of upcoming TTROs as they were forwarded to all members by the town clerk Sue Piergianni, which meant they could raise any issues as they arose.

He agreed complaints should be made by individual councillors on an ad hoc basis rather than formally from the council.

A vote was taken at the end of the debate with seven councillors voting against a formal complaint and four in favour.