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Traffic Congestion Problems: Swansley Lane

1st February 2023

Traffic Congestion Problems

A number of Swansley Lane residents have contacted us recently due to the number of cars now using your road as a drop-off point for their children attending school. This is despite numerous appeals to our parents not to do this. We have now contacted the Police to ask for their support.

Unfortunately, the schools do not have sufficient staff to be able to be present in the road in the mornings, although the College does try to do this in the afternoon when pupils are leaving en masse. When school staff are present, although we ask drivers waiting in their cars to use the main schools’ carpark, we have no legal means to enforce this or to control the traffic. 

We have raised this issue with Cambridgeshire County Council’s Highways department and asked for ‘No Stopping’ markings and flashing lights to be installed at peak times.  Unfortunately, we are told that because Swansley Lane is not the direct access road to the school and is more than a specified distance from our entrance, it is not possible to put in any traffic-restricting measures. 

You may wish to raise this issue yourself by contacting the Cambs County Council Highways Department on 0345 045 5212 or by visiting the ‘Improving the local highway’ page of the Cambridgeshire County Council website to start an application:  If you’d like to start a petition online, the information is here, of if you’d like to make a general enquiry to the County Council, there is an online enquiry form.

We are also working hard to try to get a cycle lane installed along one side of the road; this is under consideration, but with no imminent timescale.

Implications of Change to Main Schools’ Access Road

You may be aware that the main access road to the College is due to be diverted onto a longer, narrower route through the new housing of West Cambourne. This may make Swansley Lane an even more popular drop-off venue for parents as they seek to avoid this longer route to school.   A possible solution to this problem would be for the current planning application from SCIP for a housing development near the Business Park to include a route for cars directly from the SCDC offices onto Sheepfold Lane – at present the plans only include a bus and cycle link.

Please see the reverse of this letter for details of how you can see and comment on the proposed change of access to the schools.  Please note that if you wished to ask for a change to allow access for cars from the Business Park Road directly onto Sheepfold Lane, you would need to use the word ‘object’ in your comments on the current plans.  The deadline for comments is 3 February 2023.

Yours sincerely

Cate Thompson (Headteacher, Hardwick and Cambourne Primary School)                        

Claire Coates (Principal, Cambourne Village College)

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