A road safety campaigner from Stonea has accused Cambridgeshire County Council of “penalising rural communities” after a car towing a caravan became stuck at a notorious bridge with a 50mph speed limit.
James Fuller, who lives near Stonea Bridge, captured a photo this week showing a car and caravan stopped just short of the narrow crossing. With no safe space to turn, the driver was forced to uncouple the caravan, push it back onto the road split, and recouple before crossing — a manoeuvre Mr Fuller says is “alarmingly common” on that stretch.
“It’s a perfect example of how unsafe some of our roads are,” Mr Fuller said. “Drivers are left improvising on a 50mph section that should have been made safer years ago. If this was in another part of the county, the speed limit would already have been reviewed.”
Mr Fuller has written to Cllr Alex Beckett, chair of Cambridgeshire County Council’s Highways and Transport Committee, calling for a full explanation of how the council allocates its 20mph funding — and why Fenland villages appear to miss out.
In his letter, Mr Fuller highlighted figures from the council’s latest 20mph funding round, which show only nine applications came from Fenland — about 10 per cent of the total — with most covering only short sections of road. Yet the costs of these smaller schemes are significantly higher than full village-wide 20mph zones elsewhere in Cambridgeshire.
He pointed to Wisbech St Mary, where a short 20mph section outside the primary school was listed at £24,000 — more expensive than entire village-wide schemes in Landbeach, Barrington, Comberton, Wilburton, Harston, Madingley and the Offords.
“Lowering the speed limit outside a single school in Wisbech St Mary costs more than introducing a 20mph zone across a whole village elsewhere,” he said. “The numbers don’t make sense — and they suggest something is fundamentally wrong with the way these schemes are costed.”
Mr Fuller warned that the council’s funding model may be embedding inequality in road safety provision, with more affluent districts benefitting from proactive measures while rural areas are left behind.
“In Fenland, schemes are often reactive and imposed by the council rather than coming from residents,” he added. “That leaves people feeling they have no say — and less protection. It’s creating a two-tier system of road safety.”
He has asked Cllr Beckett to clarify how 20mph scheme costs are calculated and what steps the council will take to ensure rural districts such as Fenland are treated fairly in future rounds.
