THE members of Stuntney Village Council felt that the public consultation document and questionnaire on the draft Ely Masterplan does not start to address their concerns on the southern link bypass. There are times of the day when we are trapped within

THE members of Stuntney Village Council felt that the public consultation document and questionnaire on the draft Ely Masterplan does not start to address their concerns on the southern link bypass. There are times of the day when we are 'trapped' within our community because the traffic backs up into Ely on the A142. It is felt that the present link road strategy with its proposal of roundabouts will put a brake on any free-flow of traffic. Look at the bottleneck at Stretham.)

With the proposed development of Angel Drove becoming more of a reality, can we seriously envisage a huge flyover bringing pollution, noise, light and fumes, to that new development? How much better to take the heavy traffic away from Ely altogether by re-routing it off the A142, south of the treatment works thus moving a great bridge that would detract from the outstanding view of Ely Cathedral.

Alternatively, why not put more efforts into encouraging the improvement the A14? The inadequacy of this main arterial route (the A14) is, we would suggest, the main cause of traffic congestion on the A142. If HGVs were 'deterred' from using this section of the A142 (or, preferably, encouraged onto the A14), we would suggest that the need for a southern link bypass would cease to exist!

Incidentally, we would ask how many surveys of origins and destinations of HGVs have been carried out on the A142? Such surveys would provide the authorities with the necessary accurate data that would be required before embarking on masterplans. We, as a village council, would be most interested to see the results of any such surveys.

If the proposed development to the north of the city of Ely were to go ahead, the existing roads and a southern link bypass would not cope with the increased traffic. Consequently, Kingfields through Thistle Corner and Queen Adelaide to the 'back road' joining the A142 will become a "rat run" causing danger to the public and increasing the congestion on the A142.

In our opinion, the whole of proposed traffic solutions for the bulk of Ely are most unrealistic and lack any real foresight and planning for any timescale beyond the next five years, by which time the Masterplan will not have even been implemented!

WENDY FOX

For and on behalf of Stuntney Village Council.