Campaigns

The Rt. Hon. Eric Pickles MP and Rt. Hon. Philip Hammond MP have highlighted the Government’s commitment to reducing street clutter, an announcement that is welcomed by CambridgePPF.

In the past the Society and some of its members have been involved with the reduction of street clutter (for details please click here) and more work needs to be done to improve the existing historic and wider city environment.

Bridge Street in Cambridge

(at St Clement's Church)

View taken in June 2004 and then again July 2010 following a successful campaign and liaison with the Highways Authority.

Currently only some influence through public consultation process is possible on elements of street design. However, in recent years Cambridge City Council’s Area Committees, Environment Scrutiny Committee and Planning Committees have taken more interest in local design and exerted some influence in street design elements where they relate to city funded-projects or new developments. A few years ago the City Council were ahead in thinking and compiled a list of unnecessary signage and redundant posts for removal in the city.

Good design is essential when developing proposals for the new urban quarters on the fringes of Cambridge or proposals in the city itself, such as the area around the train station. A wide array of background information is available to assist the achievement of good design and CambridgePPF welcomes real commitment by local developers to embrace these opportunities and to ensure that their design professionals work together – from the lighting engineer to highway advisor, landscape architect and utility providers etc. Good design can be achieved and welcomed by local people e.g. Cambridgeshire Quality Charter for Growth.

There is extensive experience which can be borrowed from other European countries as well as expertise gained from good schemes now completed in the UK. A famous example being the wonderful improvements to Kensington High Street in London; which resulted in the traffic calming of the busy road, significant accident reduction, improved parking for cyclists and crossings for pedestrians. Here a quality layout has been achieved that is both visually pleasing and practical.

Unfortunately the removal of street clutter is not easy to achieve without funding and it is not clear from the Government’s announcement where the financial support will come from; although long-term some cost savings would be achieved through the reduced maintenance costs. It may take a long time to reduce street clutter in some areas and require some expertise (professional design fees) to interpret the minimum legal requirements of signage and the government’s promised new design guidance and manuals for roads. We believe that clear guidelines are essential and would welcome a city-wide design code jointly formulated by the County Council’s Highway Authority and the City Council.

In the city centre we need to ensure the protection of the historic environment. Despite attempts to prevent damage have you noticed the harm delivery lorries cause when cutting corners and scraping the oriel windows often jutting out of historic buildings at first floor level (pictured below is the street corner at Sidney Street at a supermarket delivery entrance).

Street furniture can serve a useful function only if it’s well placed!

If you have any particular suggestions as to which areas of the City and surrounding countryside you feel have too much signage and other ‘street clutter’ (lamp columns, traffic and other signs and posts, CCTV, railings, bollards, benches, bins, city information maps, advertising hoarding etc.) - please contact us – by end September 2010 ¬ and we will pool the comments and prepare a brief report (and audit) to be sent to the relevant local authorities for action.

If you have any particular suggestions as to which areas of the City and surrounding countryside you feel have too much signage and other ‘street clutter’ (lamp columns, traffic and other signs and posts, CCTV, railings, bollards, benches, bins, city information maps, advertising hoarding etc.) - please contact us - and we will pool the comments and prepare a brief report (and audit) to be sent to the relevant local authorities for action.

Please send us any photographs of local area you think need urgent improvements.

For further (technical) design expertise and good practice guidance, background information and case studies please check the following active weblinks:

- Civic Voice and campaign street pride

- CABE and campaign 'clear cluttered streets'

- Department for Transport

- English Heritage and Women’s Institute - campaign 'save our streets'

- Englsih Heritage - Street Clutter Audit

- CambridgePPF - reference list for Conservation Areas

- FixMyStreet

- Living Streets

- Ripon Civic Soicety - Civic Society takes Council to task of placing "insensitiv" placing of signs
or see Open space signs an unessecary intrusion

- Specialist design company with national and international expertise – Hamilton-Baillie Associates see articles published

- CPRE and their campaign Stop the Drop

all above photographs - copyright CambridgePPF

Labels: planning