Funding has been secured to explore options that will help alleviate traffic issues around Impington Village College (IVC). Last week, HI HUB reported that Cambridgeshire County Council had allocated £35,000 to develop a safe route to school scheme for New Road around IVC.
The funding, included in the Council’s 2026/27 highways budget, will be used to explore possible solutions to ongoing traffic problems around the college, particularly at the end of the school day.
‘Incredibly dangerous’
IVC Principal Johanna Sale said the situation becomes particularly hazardous during the afternoons when large numbers of students leave the site.
She told HI HUB: “The traffic issue at IVC is really at its worst between 3.20pm and 3.40pm each day when New Road becomes incredibly dangerous.
“Approximately 1,000 students leave via the front of College in six large buses, on bikes, on foot and in the presence of increasingly irate drivers – members of the public who for some reason speed, make very bad driving decisions, are often visibly (and verbally frustrated) and endanger children.
“This is exacerbated by the parents collecting children who still park on the double yellow lines close to the College despite being asked repeatedly not to. The road is often blocked, buses cannot get down it, which then compounds the situation.”
Consultation
Cambridgeshire County Council confirmed the funding has been set aside “to explore options to improve safety for people travelling to and from” the school.
A Council spokesperson said: “This work is at a very early stage but a number of different options are currently being reviewed. As the work progresses, no decision will be made without engagement with the school, the Parish Council and the local community.
“We will share updates on the proposals being considered in due course.”
Following early discussions with councillors, Johanna says one potential option to be explored could involve introducing another School Streets scheme in the village.
This would temporarily close a road to most vehicles during key times of the day to improve safety around a school site. A similar scheme is due to be trialled at Brook Primary School.
“… however there will certainly be discussions about whether such a scheme is feasible on New Road,” Johanna added.
‘Longstanding problem’
H&I County Councillor Ros Hathorn said she had “lobbied hard” for the Council to take the situation at IVC seriously.
She said: “This has been a longstanding problem. IVC sits on a historic road that simply wasn’t designed for the volume of traffic it now carries.
“At the end of the school day you have buses, bikes and cars all trying to move through the same area while hundreds of students are leaving the site at the same time.
“It’s easily one of the busiest parts of the village at that time of day, and the current layout just isn’t equipped to cope with that level of traffic.
“With the college and the other amenities on the site attracting so many people, it’s really important that we now look seriously at how the situation can be improved.”
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The danger is just being moved into Impington Lane and creating more of a hazard due to increased concentration of parked cars when the volume of children cycling and using the Lane is at its highest and the traffic down the lane is peaking The school should make provision to accommodate the cars during pick up and drop off before there is a serious accident.