Concerns that the west to east construction of the Oxford-Cambridge Arc could see Cambridgeshire businesses miss out were raised with the Combined Authority’s Business Board last Tuesday.
The board’s deputy chairman, University of Cambridge professor Andy Neely, said the infrastructure connecting Oxford and Cambridge is mainly being built from west to east, meaning Cambridgeshire businesses may lose out to those connected via rail and road earlier on.
Professor Neely told the meeting of the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority’s Business Board: “It seems to me when you think about the infrastructure of the Arc it’s being built from Oxford towards Cambridge and so the construction work is starting at the Oxford and Milton Keynes end and joining that up.
“We need to put pressure on government to speed up our side of the Arc otherwise the danger is all the economic activity will develop along the Oxford and Milton Keynes end of the Arc and when we finally get connected we will be a bit late to the party.”
Professor Neely stressed the potential benefits, saying: “The opportunity it to create an Arc here that will get mentioned in the same breadth as the Northern Powerhouse and the Midlands Engine - that in turn attracts significant investment and funding from government and energy and excitement. So there’s some really significant opportunities here.”
Mayor of the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority, James Palmer, told the meeting he felt the government does not understand the economic significance of Cambridgeshire.
He said: “Cambridgeshire is a world destination and I continually say that we are not just in a fight with Manchester, Birmingham or Milton Keynes but we are in a fight with international destinations in the USA and the Far East. But our government still doesn’t recognise that Cambridgeshire is a world destination for science and technology.”
He added: “I have seen documentation that suggests that this area between Swindon and Norfolk could be on its own the eighth biggest economy in the world - that’s the opportunity here.”
But he said “the government has to understand that Cambridgeshire is already a world destination” and invest in the area.
Making a further pitch for the Greater Cambridge Metro, he said the two strategies need to be linked.
He said there is no point in thousands of people arriving in Cambridge’s stations “if they cannot get anywhere, it’s another problem not a solution. So ultimately any discussion on this we have to mention the Metro.”
He added: “If we don’t sort out the last mile the rest of it is an irrelevance to a certain extent”.
