Legal fees to quash Mill Road Bridge bus gate TRO

Keep the Bridge open! I’m Pam Wesson, chair of a four-person volunteer team: Friends of Mill Road Bridge (Cambridge, UK). We are dedicated to keeping the Mill Road Bridge free and open, with no bus gate and no £70 fines!

Too many residents, workers and traders all across the county need to be able to drive over the Bridge without incurring these exorbitant £70 fines. Train station, hospital visits, the list of local needs filled quickly by Bridge access is infinite. Re-routing drivers to nearby Coldham’s Lane, Coleridge Road or Hills Road will only snarl up traffic and waste valuable time.

So far since March 2023 we’ve managed to delay the implementation of the Traffic Regulation Order by legal means till at least Oct 2023, but we want to see the Order quashed entirely.

We initiated a statutory review of the TRO (Traffic Regulation Order) in July 2023 that required professional legal consultation and fees. So far, o 13 October 2023 at the High Court in London we won an interim 'undertaking' (a legal promise) to prevent start of Bridge bus gate works, till after the main TRO judgement later in the year.

Update: The first phase cost £6724 incl VAT, now covered by all of you! Taking it all the way (*two court dates) will be about another £15,000, so I've adjusted the total to £20,000.

Any unused funds at the end of all proceedings, taking into account legal costs "won and lost" (depending on judgements and cost caps) will be returned to donors on a pro-rata basis. Want to know more? Write us at [email redacted]

Our legal work is being performed by London law firm Fortune Green Legal Practice. Their specialism is in city planning with particular experience in acting for community campaign groups.

We feel that reasons given for the Traffic Order only disguise a grab for money by local authorities.

Please help stand up to Cambridgeshire authorities who are pushing a political anti-car agenda over the welfare of ordinary residents all over the county, as well as small traders along Mill Road.

Friends of Mill Road Bridge is an unincorporated Community Group with a constitution and bank account. We are independent of any other group, association or political party.