Dying cancer patient feels ‘trapped’ by traffic-calming bollards making it much harder for loved ones to visit her

• EXCLUSIVE: Bollards erected last year to prevent street being used as a rat run
• But Karen Kelly who has ovarian cancer claims she feels ‘trapped’ in her home
• Claims she has been affected as nurses and carers face longer journey times

A dying cancer patient has told how she feels like her ‘world is shrinking ‘ due to traffic calming measures making it more difficult for people to visit her home.

Karen Kelly, 57, who has Stage Four ovarian cancer claims that she feels ‘increasingly trapped’ in her Victorian terraced house because of the closure of a nearby road.

The bollards were permanently erected halfway down Vinery Road in Cambridge last year to prevent the residential street being used as a rat run by motorists while allowing space for cyclists and pedestrians to pass.

The road closure is one of several to have sprung up in the city as part of a campaign to discourage car driving and get more people to cycle, walk and use buses.

But Ms Kelly claims she has been adversely affected as it means her nurses, carers, friends and her cleaner face longer journey times to visit her.

Karen Kelly, 57, who has Stage Four ovarian cancer claims that she feels ‘increasingly trapped’ in her Victorian terraced house because of the closure of a nearby road. She was diagnosed with her cancer in January, 2019

The traffic calming measure in Vinery Road, outside St Philip’s Church of England primary school. The bollards were permanently erected last year to prevent the residential street being used as a rat run by motorists

Terminally ill cancer patient Karen Kelly who has complained about a traffic measure near her home in Cambridge, pictured at her home

Taxi drivers taking her back to her home in nearby St Phillip’s Road also sometimes end up driving further to avoid the barriers.

She and other residents have slammed the traffic calming measure as ‘unnecessary’ and ‘poorly thought out.’

Ms Kelly said: ‘It is all very well trying to promote a green agenda, and of course I am concerned about climate change, like everyone else.

‘But it seems that not a lot of thought has gone into how blocking off this road affects people like me who can’t cycle and have difficulty walking.

‘I just feel like the whole thing is making my world smaller and smaller by making day to day life more difficult.

‘It is all very well for people who can just jump on their bikes – but it is hard if you are someone like me and cannot go out very far.

‘I have tried to protest about it, but I feel like the authorities are not listening. There seems to have been little in the way of public consultation.

‘They seem more interested in following the agenda of cycling pressure groups who want to promote active travel rather than thinking about people like me who can’t get on a bike or walk .’

Ms Kelly said fears facing even more problems if plans go ahead to close off nearby Mill Road which is the main route from her neighbourhood into Cambridge centre.

She had to undergo brain surgery as a result which led to her being told she was unable to drive for a minimum of 12 months, forcing her to sell her Toyota Corolla hybrid car

Taxi drivers taking Ms Kelly back to her home in nearby St Phillip’s Road also sometimes end up driving further to avoid the barriers

A Cambridgeshire County Council spokesperson said the changes in Vinery Road were part of an ‘active travel works programme’

 The works programme had been introduced ‘to allow walking and cycling to be safer and more accessible across Cambridgeshire’

She sees the proliferation of traffic calming measures in the university city as an attempt to ‘quietly copy’ so-called Low Traffic Neighbourhoods in cities such as Oxford which have met with widespread opposition.

LTNs in London have been slammed by fed-up residents, whose homes have been cut-off by the schemes, and motorists blocked from popular rat-runs, have voiced continued anger over the eco-friendly schemes.  

Last November it was revealed that London councils issued 1.1million fines – worth up to £100million – to motorists who drove through low-traffic neighbourhoods (LTNs) over three years.

The multi-million pound schemes, which were put in place to encourage a long-term move towards more cycling and walking, have been branded as council ‘cash cows’.

The widely hated schemes have been accused of making little impact on pollution and simply moving congestion and CO2 emissions to other areas. 

During the pandemic 62 miles of bike lanes were constructed throughout London, with evidence suggesting they added to – rather than reduced – congestion.

In January, Labour-run Haringey Council was been accused of using motorists as ‘cash cows’ during the cost of living crisis by bringing in LTNs.

It was revealed the local authority could earn an eye-watering £6.1million in fines across four months from two schemes set up in August last year.

Drivers in the St Ann’s area of the north London borough were hit with 32,620 penalty charge notices by November 22 last year after being caught by cameras driving down seven restricted roads.

The council received £949,390 from these PCNs but if the £130 fines were paid in full it would pocket more than £4.2million. Drivers in Bounds Green, where there are ten roads with restricted access, were hit with 14,758 PCNs by late November, Freedom of Information requests showed.

Ms Kelly who lives alone had to give up working as a marketing consultant after being diagnosed with her cancer in January, 2019.

She is currently on her fourth round of chemotherapy after having had a radical hysterectomy after her diagnosis.

Her condition was further complicated when she was found to have a two inch tumour on her brain last October after repeatedly falling over and being trapped in her bath for two hours.

She had to undergo brain surgery as a result which led to her being told she was unable to drive for a minimum of 12 months, forcing her to sell her Toyota Corolla hybrid car.

Ms Kelly said that bollards first began to be used during Covid when they were put in place in Vinery Road outside St Philip’s Church of England primary school.

But she added: ‘They were only there when pupils were being dropped off at school and picked up in the afternoon.

‘The rest of the time they were taken down do cars could drive through. I was quite supportive of that – but then around last November they were put up full time.

‘There is a lock on one of the bollards, and emergency services supposedly have a key so they can get through – but nobody else can.

‘I don’t think the traffic in Vinery Road as that bad to begin with, so I can’t really see the point of it.

‘Some people say there is a problem with boy racers, but I don’t believe there is much of an issue with anti social behaviour. I have previously lived in London and Manchester, and it is nothing like those places.’

Ms Kelly said she had to be visited every day by district nurses checking on the syringe driver pump which she used to give her morphine and sickness-relief drugs.

Ms Kelly said she was further worried about the impact of closing Mill Road on the railway bridge. But she said she had been assured that taxis, NHS staff and other medical workers would be allowed to continue using the route

She added: ‘They now have to go round the long way to reach my house. It might mean they are delayed by five minutes which does not seem much – but it is a long time if they have ten people to see and they have a five minute longer journey time for each one.

‘After I had my brain surgery, I had to have a number of visited from re-enablement health visitors who could not reach me in the slot they had been given.

‘They had to park at the local Sainsbury’s, and then walk about 500m here.

‘It is also difficult for my best friend who takes me to medical appointments, and my cleaner who comes twice a week. She has to come from Arbury and it takes her another five or ten minutes to get here.’

Ms Kelly said she was further worried about the impact of closing Mill Road on the railway bridge.

But she said she had been assured that taxis, NHS staff and other medical workers would be allowed to continue using the route as well as possibly blue badge holders.

She hopes to be able to apply for two blue badge passes for the use of her cleaner and her friend taking her to hospital appointments.

The measure is in addition to a proposed congestion charge for Cambridge city centre which is still out for public consultation.

A Cambridgeshire County Council spokesperson said the changes in Vinery Road were part of an ‘active travel works programme’ which had been introduced ‘to allow walking and cycling to be safer and more accessible across Cambridgeshire’.

The programme involved 11 scheme including ‘modal filters’ on Church Street and Vinery Road.

The spokesperson added: ‘All the schemes are being installed on a trial basis, some using an Experimental Traffic Order. We’ll be regularly reviewing the impact of the schemes and would welcome everyone’s views during the trial.

‘These will be considered when the decision is made later this year if the schemes should be made permanent or not.’

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