Our first in a series of opinion pieces from Newnham residents:

The Barton Road/Newnham Road/Grantchester Street junction had considerable money spent on it in the relatively recent past, because it was notoriously dangerous for cyclists. At that time, the no-right-turn was established (coming into town from Barton), and new sets of lights were introduced for cyclists. Newnham Road also benefits from a pedestrian crossing a short distance from this junction towards the garage. Grantchester Street has traffic-slowing measures on either side of the street leading to the school, introduced by a Labour councillor. This is one of the most carefully planned and engineered junctions in Cambridge.

By contrast, speeding is a huge problem on Grantchester Road, in particular for the families from Fulbrooke Road trying to make their way to Newnham Croft with their children. Our local Labour team has worked hard to bring this to the attention of the County Council, pleading for traffic-slowing measures. At election time in the past two years, the Newnham Liberal Democrats have made much of their supposed efforts regarding Grantchester Road, following the Labour lead. And yet, nothing there has changed, and a new and unnecessary initiative is being pushed  for a relatively safe junction. Why are our elected Liberal Democrat councillors focusing on the wrong junction? Could this just be an eye-catching measure to bring the name of the councillor up for re-election before the voting public?