LABOUR'S PLAN FOR LOCAL RESIDENTS TO 'ADOPT A VERGE'

10 November 2007

Labour City Councillors today called on the city's Environmental Scrutiny Committee (6/11) to investigate a citywide action plan for Cambridge residents to 'adopt a verge' in front of their homes. Under the plan, streets affected by the scourge of verge parking would be able to vote whether to place bollards or 'white rocks' at strategic locations along the worst affected roads, 'adopted' by adjacent residents.

Only two streets have had major works since 1992 when action on verges was promised by then Council Leader David Howarth, one street every 2.5 years. The Committee recommended adoption of Labour's three point citywide scheme, to develop plans for:

1 - Residential streets with grass verges to have the option of a local vote on which verges should be protected with rocks and other barriers, to then be 'adopted' by adjacent residents

2 - Local residents on other streets also to have the option to 'adopt a verge' where its immediately in front of them and where they are willing to protect it

3 - More of the council's 2008 environmental budget to be spent on verge protection and restoration, via Area Committee budgets, including local parking improvement, and pressure also on the county council to restore its cuts in yellow lining and local parking budgets.

Labour City Council Leader Coun Lewis Herbert said 'Residents have already waited over five years for action, while precious green verges have been decimated. It is not enough for there to be one or two more tiny trials, given that a hundred streets have waited and waited for action, that then leader David Howarth promised five years ago. Labour's policy for residents to 'adopt a verge' would make a real and permanent difference. Why should residents be kept waiting and waiting by the council?

' We also recognize that some streets may have to wait for a chunk of environmental improvement funding for the parking changes they need, and that the county council has to play its part by ending its suspension of yellow lining, but that's no reason for five more years of citywide delay.'

With Autumn rains due, Labour Councillors want action before grassy verges become a mudbath again, following huge damage last winter.