Cutting of verges

Last year's the subject of cutting of the verges prompted a lot of responses after the contractors smothered the path with debris, hiding the stud lights that were until then still visible, and giving cyclists lots of punctures.

This year, the verge cutting finally commenced last week, (St Ives to Swavesey) and the good news is that they have made a much better job of sweeping up the debris.

But the bad news, is that they have not cleared the overgrowth back to the edge of the path, and many of the studlights remain buried under the weeds.

In a few places they appear to have cleared around a studlight, but the clearing is so short it can only be seen a few meters away - and the lights are approx. 25m apart! The following picture - near Fen Drayton - shows an example, but the next few lights they have not even managed to find.

Verges Cut but not trimmed back to edge

I emailed Shaun Harrison-Fuller, and Campbell Ross-Bain at the beginning of this week, but have received no replies yet.

Busway neglect - latest photos of debris

This week I've been in contact with my two local County Councillors about the dire state of the cycle track, especially between St Ives and Fen Drayton.

There is a lot of tree debris lying on the track, made worse by the recent gales. In the last  few days, a Council maintenance team has been working on the track. They've strimmed the verges for about 300 metres either side of the Ouse Viaduct, and have left the track covered in even more debris, including chopped up bits of bramble (puncture hazard!). The solar lights are still covered by vegetation encroaching from the verges,  and now also with strimmed debris.

Here are a couple of photos showing the state of the track BEFORE the Council team has worked on it.

And here are some taken AFTER the team has done its not very good work.

Photo below was taken on 18 November, after the maintenance team had cleared away vegetation around the lights. Note that they haven't cut the entire verge back, just a small patch at each light. Most likely the leaves and debris will soon encroach on the lights again.

Starlight bike ride on guided busway

Cambridgeshire County Council is organising a late night cycle ride between Cambridge and St Ives to celebrate the new solar stud lights that were recently installed along the cycle track. Any cyclist is welcome to join in. Groups will start from either end at 10.30pm on Friday 12 April. Meet at the Golden Hind, Milton Road, or at St Ives Town Hall. Refreshments will be provided at  Longstanton Park & Ride until midnight.

Full details here.

Also reported in the Cambridge News.

Several comments about the cycle ride in the Cambridge News here.

Solar lighting for busway cycle track

Some time ago it was announced that solar lights would be installed on the busway cycle track, to help guide cyclists using the route at night. Similar lights were earlier successfully trialled on other local  cycle tracks.

Focus on Bar Hill has revealed that work on installing the lights is now beginning between Orchard Park and St Ives,between Longstanton Park & Ride and Longstanton, between Oakington and Girton. This may explain the  works going on between Orchard Park and Histon yesterday evening as I returned from Cambridge on a late evening bus.

It will be interesting to see how they cope when they reach the flooded section of  track near Swavesey, and how the lights perform when submerged for weeks on end!

Also in Huntingdon & St Ives News & Crier ( February 28, page 17).

Priorities for busway cycle track

A few weeks ago it was announced that Cambridgeshire County Council was to spend £95,000 on installing solar powered lights on the busway.

A letter in this week's Huntingdon & St Ives News & Crier ( 3 January, page 6) calls on the County Council (and Councillor Ian Bates in particular) to make the St Ives end of the cycle track usable before 'the section nearest Cambridge was given gold-plated treatment'. The writer, from Godmanchester, is referring to the fact that the cycle track  between St Ives and Swavesey has been under water for the past 4 weeks.

The letter also refers to a comment by Nigel Brigham of Sustrans about wanting people to 'still feel able to ride their bikes for their everyday journeys' - which they can't do while the track is flooded.