A consultation on a road in Cambridge could “set a new standard” for a wider strategy on city access, a councillor has said.

Liberal Democrat Cllr Jamie Dalzell, who represents West Chesterton on the city council, says there is a need to reduce car journeys and promote active travel and public transport, as well as tackling rising congestion and pollution.

Fellow Labour city councillors say the full impact of the current Histon Road closure and the planned Milton Road closure must be “fully investigated” before a modal filter is put in place.

Cllr Dalzell told the Cambridge Independent: “Residents living on Arbury Road have suffered considerably from rising congestion and pollution outside their homes, whilst the IPCC report last week further highlighted the need for urgent action to tackle climate change.

“As a community, we need to reduce the number of car journeys and promote active travel and public transport. To deliver this, the county council and mayor will need to develop a radical strategy for our area. To succeed they will need to trial new approaches and schemes, like the proposals for Arbury Road, so that we can properly evaluate the evidence, address problems and adjust strategy accordingly.

“Experimental Traffic Regulation Orders allow us to test schemes and assess their impact on the entire community before anything is made permanent and should be used accordingly. I do appreciate that there have been weaknesses in the active travel scheme process so far, with a lack of baseline data and no clear criteria for success or failure. This has led to incredibly divisive arguments on Mill Road, but we can do things much better.

“If we take lessons from the past year, the consultation on Arbury Road could set a new standard for the wider city access strategy.”