Council warning after Mill Road protests

Work to install the Mill Road bridge bus gate has been disrupted by protestors.

In October 2024, controversial plans were approved to permanently ban drivers from crossing Mill Road railway bridge in Cambridge.

Only buses, pedestrians, cyclists, emergency services, taxis and blue badge holders’ will be able to drive through the bus gate.

Overnight work on the bus gate was supposed to start on Monday 11 November 2024, but workers have been unable to carry out the work due to the protests.

As a result, Mill Road was closed fully between Kingston Street and Headly Street on Friday 15 November 2024 to allows workers to catch-up.

Cambridgeshire County Council released this statement on Wednesday 13 November 2024:

Everyone has the right to a peaceful protest, however the safety of our workforce and welfare of other road users is paramount. We would urge those wishing to protest to do so peacefully and not to interfere with the works as this may present a risk to the workforce and other road users. Also, we’d like to highlight that any interference with equipment on the site may be a matter we need to refer to the police.

We have also experienced vandalism to the Automatic Number Plate Recognition cameras. This criminal damage will not be tolerated, and we will be sharing any CCTV evidence with the police.

The decision to introduce the bus gate was made by the special Highways and Transport Committee last month, following a statutory consultation that was conducted in line with the required regulations. As the highway authority, we have the appropriate powers to carry out the work to make the required changes to the highway before the Traffic Regulation Order comes into effect.

We have reviewed the pre-action letter, indicating a potential challenge, and have responded to this. We are confident we have followed the statutory process.

We will be continuing with the works and if necessary, we’ll look at different ways to carry out the work so that they are completed in time for the bus gate to go live.

The authority released this statement on Friday 15 November 2024:

As per our statement on Wednesday, the work has been disrupted by protestors so we looked at a different way to carry out the work so that they would be completed in time for the bus gate to go live.