Just a month ago, I posted an entry about
proposals to light the southern section of the Busway. I said then that the plans were very much on track. What a difference a month makes!
Yesterday's meeting of the County Council's
Economy and Environment Committee considered the proposal. Actually, the proposal covered both the northern and southern city sections. I can't easily summarise the details, but will instead
provide a link to the relevant agenda item, and the council officer's report. The key issue, though, is that instead of the £100,000 provisionally set aside in December 2012 for the southern section, detailed costings have come in at £400,000 [sic]. Council officers made clear, though, that there was enough unspent money from the pot of "developer contributions" (the levy that larger developments have to contribute to general infrastructure - NB, that's only my personal definition!) to meet the additional cost.
We'll know exactly what happened at the meeting when the official minutes are posted on the County Council website. But there's no reason to doubt the veracity of the
Cambridge News report. Here's a taste:
Cllr Amanda Taylor, who represents Queen Edith’s, said it would
improve safety and encourage more people to use the track, but
councillors from outside the city expressed misgivings about allocating
this much money when streetlamps in their areas were being removed or
dimmed.
This prompted Petersfield’s Cllr Ashley Walsh to attack
what he described as “petty-minded parochialism”, but Roman Bank and
Peckover’s Cllr Alan Lay recalled blackouts during the Second World War
and questioned why there was now “a lot of fuss saying we must have
lights”.
Something to keep in mind next time you're cycling in the dark along the southern section.
