March Town Councillors told dossiers needed for highway funding bids

Town councillors have been urged to gather a ‘dossier’ of information ahead of making applications for funding for highway projects.

March town clerk Sarah Lemmon told Monday night’s meeting that the process for applying to Cambridgeshire County Council for cash under the Local Highways Improvements bid initiative was more arduous than ever.

She said the county is now demanding a raft of details on schemes being put forward by town and parish councils and they also want to see plenty of evidence to back up the need for a particular project.

“A couple of photos and saying people want it, won’t cut it,” she said.

“The process is quite burdensome now, they want lots of details, photographs, letters of support, data and as much information as possible.”

Among the schemes being looked at is tackling poor parking on Creek Road at the crossroad junction with Wigstones Road and St John’s Road, which councillors described as “appalling”.

The deadline for applications is January 10 but Ms Lemmon is urging councillors to act now to ensure all the necessary data is available for completion of the necessary forms. She wants to have the information before Christmas because of the time it will take to apply.

Councillors agreed to do the necessary work, speaking to residents in their wards where there are specific problems.

They also pointed out that getting double yellows installed in areas where parking was a problem would make no difference if the police did not enforce it.

It was agreed that double yellow lines would stop most people from parking but there would always be those who felt “entitled” and would ignore them unless they were enforced.

Ms Lemmon said police need to patrol streets other than the main roads in the town to help tackle the problem.