Elections

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Question 15 - we asked:

Coaches have been using Woodhead Drive to park overnight, often for a week at a time. The area is unsuitable for coach parking because of the obstruction caused, the dangers of using side roads for turning and the large numbers of cars that arrive to collect/drop off students. If elected, what would you do to stop coaches using Woodhead Drive, and to provide suitable alternative coach parking?

We asked this question only in King's Hedges.

3 of the 4 candidates (75%) who were asked this question responded as below.

Matthew W ADAMS
(Conservative Party)

I often walk down Milton Road, and have noticed the coaches parked up, and the increased traffic that they cause (it can be quite hazardous crossing at the point as a result, since Woodhead Drive is nearly 4-lanes wide at the junction).

I think that the first action should be to contact the coach companies themselves, and find out whether they were aware of the problem, and to try to organize a suitable alternative location.

James C YOUD
(Green Party)

Large vehicles parked anywhere where they should not can cause a hazard. Cars pull out to get round them and ignore the right of cyclists to go first. Cyclists may pull out and be hit by on coming traffic. It is an all to common occurrence.
In Woodhead Drive I would ban coaches from parking all together. Alternatives could be made available just north of here near one of the business parks the other side of the old rail line.
We would also encourage any organised coach trip to urge people to walk or cycle to the rondevu point.

Andrew R PELLEW
(Liberal Democrat)

I'll be honest this is the first I've heard of this issue. Clearly this is undesirable and shouldn't be allowed to continue - if local residents can contact me with more details (dates, times, registration numbers, bus companies, etc) I feel the first step is to contact the companies that own the Coaches and find out why they are using this road. If the situation cannot be resolved with the coach companies then we'll have to look at alternate methods of preventing them parking there.

My contact details, and those of the rest of the King's Hedges team are available here; http://kingshedgesfocus.blogspot.com/

Camcycle is a non-partisan body. All candidates are given an equal opportunity to submit their views. Information published by Camcycle (Cambridge Cycling Campaign), The Bike Depot, 140 Cowley Road, Cambridge, CB4 0DL.