How many engineers does it take to plan some traffic calming? And how do they know the money is in their bank account? Never have I encountered more bureaucracy than developing plans for traffic calming in the village
See below a series of messages from Nick Chapman, Amey to the Parish Council from November on, regarding our unending quest for a traffic calming scheme to be funded with section 106 ("planning gain") money from the University business park. CBC/Amey have the money, only a few tweaks are needed and we are getting no response.
Nick Chapman: The situation is that we were in the process of finally modifying drawings based on the Parish Council's last communication. On discovering that the S106 trigger had not been met and as a result there had been no payment of the balance of the monies due I stopped my staff working on it as effectively I had no further budget, the extensive changes to the proposals over time having already exceeded the allocated design budget.
The next step, when funding is reinstated, will be to do this and then immediately to issue all of the plans and notices for the statutory consultation required for the various features.
After more prompting Nick Chapman writes again in December
Nick Chapman: I am well aware that CBC has invoiced for the S106 money as yet there is no money on the table and I have no budget to do any more work. This may of course be the
situation until well into the new financial year.
This makes it rather difficult to utilise any resources on the project. When we stopped work due to lack of finance most of the 'tweaks' suggested by the PC had been incorporated but there is still some work to do before I can present that as a completed set of drawings to a meeting of the PC. I believe that this process really does need to wait till the S106 has been
paid to CBC.
Finally the money comes through and Cllr Ken Matthews writes to Amey in January:
Ken Matthews: I'm advised that CBC has now received payment. Presumably work on the "tweaks" can now resume with a view to presenting a completed set of drawings to Cranfield PC.
The clerk then writes to Amey AGAIN in March:
PC clerk: I am receiving enquiries from residents of the village, asking when the traffic calming scheme is due to commence. Do you have any idea of the timescales we are looking at?
Finally (did I say finally?) the clerk has written this week to Amey
PC Clerk: Dear Nick, would you be kind enough to let me know where we are with the proposed traffic calming measures for Cranfield High Street? (my bold)
See below a series of messages from Nick Chapman, Amey to the Parish Council from November on, regarding our unending quest for a traffic calming scheme to be funded with section 106 ("planning gain") money from the University business park. CBC/Amey have the money, only a few tweaks are needed and we are getting no response.
Nick Chapman: The situation is that we were in the process of finally modifying drawings based on the Parish Council's last communication. On discovering that the S106 trigger had not been met and as a result there had been no payment of the balance of the monies due I stopped my staff working on it as effectively I had no further budget, the extensive changes to the proposals over time having already exceeded the allocated design budget.
The next step, when funding is reinstated, will be to do this and then immediately to issue all of the plans and notices for the statutory consultation required for the various features.
After more prompting Nick Chapman writes again in December
Nick Chapman: I am well aware that CBC has invoiced for the S106 money as yet there is no money on the table and I have no budget to do any more work. This may of course be the
situation until well into the new financial year.
This makes it rather difficult to utilise any resources on the project. When we stopped work due to lack of finance most of the 'tweaks' suggested by the PC had been incorporated but there is still some work to do before I can present that as a completed set of drawings to a meeting of the PC. I believe that this process really does need to wait till the S106 has been
paid to CBC.
Finally the money comes through and Cllr Ken Matthews writes to Amey in January:
Ken Matthews: I'm advised that CBC has now received payment. Presumably work on the "tweaks" can now resume with a view to presenting a completed set of drawings to Cranfield PC.
The clerk then writes to Amey AGAIN in March:
PC clerk: I am receiving enquiries from residents of the village, asking when the traffic calming scheme is due to commence. Do you have any idea of the timescales we are looking at?
Finally (did I say finally?) the clerk has written this week to Amey
PC Clerk: Dear Nick, would you be kind enough to let me know where we are with the proposed traffic calming measures for Cranfield High Street? (my bold)
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