Keith's gripes on the ridiculous Rat-Run through Upwood!
Keith who has lived in the area all his life asks - "ARE UPWOOD AND THE RAVELEYS HUNTINGDON'S FOURTH BY-PASS AND RELIEF ROAD?"
Why no School Zone? In other parts of Cambridgeshire school zones are common, yet at Upwood where cars keep crashing, there is NO SCHOOL ZONE! Why? Below, School Zones locally, but NOT at Upwood!
PICTURES BELOW, ALL TAKEN WITHIN A FEW MINUTES OF THE SCHOOL!
These are my thoughts on the traffic situation, the rat-run that goes through Ramsey Heights, from South Lincolnshire, the fens and eastern Peterborough to Longholme Road, into Upwood joining traffic from Bury, to exit the parish via the Raveleys.
The history of our roads...
In the sixties there was no A14 and the A1 was only just becoming a dual lane road. Villages such as Alconbury, Fenstanton, Eaton Socon and many others were in need of by-passes. The A1 was first, becoming a series of by-passes, followed in the 1970s by what is now the A14. In the 70s what is now the A14 started to provide a dual lane road to Huntingdon, later to Brampton and more recently, the euphemistically named A1-M6 link road (it was never any such thing). The A14 which replaced the A604 went through Cambridge down Trinity Street and past King College! There was no M11 until the mid 70s.
Huntingdon in the early 60s had the A604 (now the A14) coming over the old bridge at Godmanchester, down Huntingdon High Street and turning left at the George Inn for the Kettering direction and straight ahead, up Ermine Street, for the Alconburys and A1 north (The Great North Road). The Ring Road provided a needed remedy to the congestion in Huntingdon High Street. Also the road was widened that runs out towards Brampton from Huntingdon, the old Nunns Bridge can still be seen near Hinchingbrooke House. Road building in the 1960s and 70s was generally of a high standard. At the beginning of the sixties the road plan was pretty much how the Romans left it in 400AD!
On the map below, which is post WW2 there is no Ring Road with the A604 coming down Huntingdon High Street. Hartford is not by-passed, and there are no roundabouts - anywhere! The road from Kings Ripton comes past Sapley and into St. Peters Road. The Oxmore and other estates simply do not exist.
Note, the A141 through Huntingdon continues through Brampton, this is now reclassified as the B1514 with the introduction of the Northern By-pass. There is no A14 to the south.
The map below shows a single lane A1 going through Eaton Socon and Eaton Ford (St. Neots) which are not built up.
In the 1970s what is now the A14 was built becoming Huntingdon's southern by-pass. In the 1980s the Northern By-pass was provided. The Northern By-pass failed to provide a safe junction from Kings Ripton onto the fast moving A141, road building was not of the quality of the previous decades and only supplied short term solutions. The classic example has to be the Spittals roundabout, despite spending millions of OUR money, the Spittals has always been a disaster!
Traffic congestion in Ramsey in the 1970s and 80s was such that Ramsey Town Council and Chamber of Trade rightly demanded a by-pass for Ramsey. A high profile campaign was run for nearly two decades for a relief road. This was inadvertently provided when the roundabouts at Brampton (A1/A14) and Wyton (A141/B1090) were built. Traffic could now by-pass Ramsey via Ramsey Heights, Upwood and the Raveleys. Traffic seeking to the join the A1 southbound previously used the A141, Huntingdon Ring Road and out through Brampton on to the A1. Traffic heading towards St. Peters Road, Huntingdon now uses Little Raveley, Wennington and Abbots Ripton, and lastly, traffic going towards St. Ives and Cambridge comes through Upwood or Wistow, and joins the B1090 at Kings Ripton.
The map below from the 1950s shows Upwood, Wistow and the Raveleys, apart from new housing and diverting the road from the Airfield, nothing has changed, these quiet country lanes now being the Huntingdon Relief Road!
During the 1970s the A141 from Huntingdon to Chatteris via Warboys had major improvements costing in today's money - millions! The map below shows Old Hurst before it was by-passed, along with Warboys, yet despite a fortune being spent drivers avoid the A141 preferring Wistow, Upwood and the Raveleys, country lanes which still follow their pre-WW2 design. In the good old days of public transport Ramsey had two railway stations and Warboys had one. It was possible to get to Huntingdon, Peterborough, St.Ives and Cambridge easily by rail. Even Ramsey Heights and Ramsey St. Marys had their railway station, but had to share!
On the map below the B1040 from Ramsey can be shown crossing what is now Wyton Airfield, a road was lost to St. Ives which could take traffic which is now using the Wistow, Upwood and Raveleys relief Road! Also note traffic in St. Ives, like Huntingdon, crossed the River Ouse via the old town bridges.
The map below of Peterborough is before it was built up in the 70s. Stanground is a small village and the Parkways do not exist traffic crossing the river Nene by the town bridge! Now much traffic leaving Peterborough for Cambridge, St.Ives and Huntingdon chooses to avoid the Parkways and A1 and use the 'Upwood and Raveleys relief Road'! Note the raod from Horsey Toll has NOT changed apart from bypassing some houses at Pondersbridge because of visibility problems on the bridge!
Below, carnage at Raveley!
SUMMARY - Being taken for a ride!
Traffic wishing to go to the 'Tescos' roundabout, Huntingdon, is using the rat-run from Somersham, Warboys, Wistow and the single lane road to the Raveleys and then off to Wennington. From the fens, South Lincolnshire, Ramsey and Eastern Peterborough the choice again is Upwood via the Heights.
Ramsey has its Relief Road, as does Eastern Peterborough along with Brampton, Hartford and Huntingdon - it is the 'Wistow, Upwood and Raveleys relief Road'!
Huntingdon has had four by-passes, the Ring Road (1960s), the Southern By-pass (1970s, A14) the Northern By-pass (A141) and now the fourth - Upwood and the Raveleys which is the much needed Huntingdon relief Road! This same by-pass/relief road has also solved much of Ramsey's and Warboys traffic problems!
The unlisted C class roads through Upwood and the Raveleys are now relief roads taking A road traffic to relieve existing A roads which have had millions spent on them! The C111 road running through Upwood was twenty years ago a country lane, it is now a major traffic route from South Lincolnshire and the south western fens. Nothing is spent on these roads except basic maintenance, whilst local taxpayers money provides improvements elsewhere - not fair and madness!
In my opinion poor planning has led to drivers avoiding 'A' roads preferring to rat-run through local villages, which the authorities refuse to properly acknowledge by spending properly to alleviate dangers making the roads safe. The safety of local residents is being sacrificed to provide projects elsewhere which leads to the question - is a child's life in Upwood, The Raveleys or Wistow worth less than elswhere?
So what plans has Cambridgeshire County Council to alleviate this problem - NONE! Yet they are responsible, with the Highways Agency for providing the poor junction from the Kings Ripton road onto the A141, which results in traffic looking elsewhere, the A141/B1090 roundabout, which results in traffic avoiding the A141 preferring the back roads, and the Brampton Hut A1/A14 roundabout, which has taken traffic out of Huntingdon, off the A141 and through the Raveleys and Upwood!
Now due to the chaos created by inadequate road planning and forward thinking, Cambridgeshire County Council are considering spending £160,000 of OUR money (councils nor governments have THEIR money) on "improving" the Kings Ripton Road junction onto the A141. This "improvement" is of course no such thing, they plan to prevent vehicles from turning right making the junction impractical for a considerable proportion of drivers. This is not an "improvement" but a travesty for villages which will have to contend with more traffic, as alternative routes are sought. That such an "improvement" is even being considered says it seems something is terribly wrong with those who seek to plan on our behalf. If they cannot do the job - resign! Sending more traffic through villages is not an "improvement"! Whilst ordinary people are having "health and Safety", "risk assessments", "care of duty" and more such legislation forced upon them, this clearly does not apply to those who come up with such apparent nonsense!
What would I like to see? For starters, how about Cambridgeshire County Council actually admitting there is a problem, followed by sticking us on a list so that in time we will rise to the top for remedial action! I am no fan of speed humps but better signage and maybe slower limits at junctions may improve matters. At the moment NOTHING other than MORE traffic is being offered by preventing traffic turning right from the Kings Ripton Road onto the poorly designed A141 Northern By-Pass!
Views expressed are entirely those of a frustrated Keith!