Submitting an objection to the Department of Transport
If you support the C2C busway campaign, please consider submitting an objection to the Secretary of State for Transport before the deadine of 8th January 2025.
If you are going to submit a letter, please take note of the following guidelines to ensure that your objection is accepted and effective.
1. You can submit a letter of objection by post or by email, but please note that the department will not accept duplicate letters sent in the same postal delivery, or duplicate emails emailed from the same email address. The advice is therefore for each person to draft their own short, individual objection.
2. The title of your letter or email should be:
Objection to Transport and Work Act Order to the Department for Transport (DfT) for a new busway linking Cambourne to Cambridge
2. Your objection must include:
your name
your full postal adddress – even if you are sending it by email
3. It is recommended that you begin the letter with this form of words:
I [Your name] of [Your full postal address] am writing to make a formal objection to the “Application for a Transport and Work Act Order to the Department for Transport (DfT) for a new busway linking Cambourne to Cambridge”, as submitted by the Cambridge Greater Partnership on 12 November 2024.
4. You should state the precise grounds of your objection in your own words. Below there is a list of what we consider to be valid objections. You do not need to include all of these, and it will be best to choose a small number, or even just one, and focus on those. There is more information about the scheme and a wealth of resources on this website that may help you formulate your response.
5. Send your letter before 8 January 2025:
By email to:
[email protected]
OR
By post to:
Secretary of State for Transport
c/o Transport Infrastructure Planning Unit
Department for Transport
Great Minster House
33 Horseferry Road
London SW1P 4DR
If you are going to submit a letter, please take note of the following guidelines to ensure that your objection is accepted and effective.
1. You can submit a letter of objection by post or by email, but please note that the department will not accept duplicate letters sent in the same postal delivery, or duplicate emails emailed from the same email address. The advice is therefore for each person to draft their own short, individual objection.
2. The title of your letter or email should be:
Objection to Transport and Work Act Order to the Department for Transport (DfT) for a new busway linking Cambourne to Cambridge
2. Your objection must include:
your name
your full postal adddress – even if you are sending it by email
3. It is recommended that you begin the letter with this form of words:
I [Your name] of [Your full postal address] am writing to make a formal objection to the “Application for a Transport and Work Act Order to the Department for Transport (DfT) for a new busway linking Cambourne to Cambridge”, as submitted by the Cambridge Greater Partnership on 12 November 2024.
4. You should state the precise grounds of your objection in your own words. Below there is a list of what we consider to be valid objections. You do not need to include all of these, and it will be best to choose a small number, or even just one, and focus on those. There is more information about the scheme and a wealth of resources on this website that may help you formulate your response.
5. Send your letter before 8 January 2025:
By email to:
[email protected]
OR
By post to:
Secretary of State for Transport
c/o Transport Infrastructure Planning Unit
Department for Transport
Great Minster House
33 Horseferry Road
London SW1P 4DR
Suggested points of objection
- You support improvement of public transport but not this scheme.
- You are only objecting to the off-road section between Madingley Mulch and West Cambridge.
- There is an excellent on-road alternative including new bus lanes and bus priority measures following the A1303 which has never been properly assessed by the Greater Cambridge Partnership (GCP).
- The on-road alternative would provide a more direct route to the Cambridge biomedical campus and allow other buses and emergency vehicles to use the priority lane.
- Although the GCP scheme includes facilities for active travel these would be better provided by the GCP-sponsored Comberton to Cambridge Greenway which avoids Madingley Hill.
- The Benefit Cost Ratio for the GCP scheme is less than 0.5 which indicates extremely poor value for money and does not meet the Department’s criteria for considering such a scheme.
- The suggested on-road alternative would cost a fraction of the cost of the GCP‘s proposed off-road route.
- Working patterns have changed since the Covid pandemic and the justification for this environmentally destructive busway has not been properly assessed in the light of this.
- The new Labour government has confirmed in its October 2024 budget that it intends to proceed with the East West Rail development which will provide a direct link between Cambourne and the new Cambridge South station adjacent to the Biomedical Campus. This is a far better transport option.
- Once East West Rail is built, the Benefit Cost Ratio of the busway will fall further making it extremely poor value for money.
- The GCP route which terminates in Grange Road does not serve either major employment destinations or Cambridge’s sixth form colleges which commuters would have to traverse the city centre to access.
- A busway built across the greenbelt on the side of Madingley Hill, visible from many miles around would disturb the setting of the American Cemetery.
- The busway would transect Coton Orchard, a County Wildlife Site and East Anglia‘s largest remaining ancient orchard, which is the eighth largest in the UK.
- The busway would urbanise Coton, one of Cambridge’s historic necklace villages.
- Many residents support the need for a tram or light rail system to serve Cambridge. The proposed route of the Cambourne to Cambridge busway would not be the preferred route for light rail.
