The Greater Cambridge Partnership has reaffirmed that buses are needed to beat gridlock in Cambridge, not just in the short term but even when the Cambridge Metro is up and running.

And its not only physical infrastructure such as bus priorities that are needed but also revenue funding because a commercial network on its own will not deliver to meet the huge increase in population and employment numbers expected in the next 10 years.

I have been pushing to get started on some of the demand management charging such as higher parking charges to deliver revenue that can be borrowed against to introduce the bus service improvements ahead of further demand management.

There has to be a carrot and stick, but giving the stick first with only a promise of a carrot will not gain the support of our residents.

For South Cambs residents this has to include free parking at the Park and Ride sites and there needs to be more of them.  For most of our villages public transport and cycling will never be a viable alternative to the car and we need to give them access to fast and frequent buses from the Park and Rides.  With the removal of the Tory parking charge just a couple of months ago we have seen a dramatic increase in usage.

We cannot wait for the Tory Mayor’s Cambridge Metro which in any case will take decades to serve all of the Greater Cambridge region – if it ever gets off the ground with its dubious funding dependent upon not yet planned large scale housing developments in our countryside.