Issue - meetings

This report highlights the strategic importance of Crichton Avenue as a cycle route, examines options for making the route more cycle friendly, develops an outline scheme proposal and discusses how this might be taken forward towards implementation.

Advice of the Advisory Panel

That the Executive Member for City Strategy be advised to give in principle support to the outline scheme proposals put forward in the report and, subject to funding being allocated for the scheme to progress in 2009/10, agree that officers arrange to carry out public consultation on the proposals.

Decision of the Executive Member for City Strategy

RESOLVED:That the advice of the Advisory Panel be accepted and endorsed.

REASON:        Officers consider that these proposals will provide significant improvements for cyclists on Crichton Avenue, support the Council’s aspiration of providing an orbital route and contribute to the aims of the Council as a Cycling City.

Members considered a report, which highlighted the strategic importance of Crichton Avenue as a cycle route and examined the options for making the route more cycle friendly. The report developed an outline scheme and detailed the problems involved and proposals were put forward which it was felt offered a positive response to the problems cyclists currently experienced in the area.

Detailed plans of the proposals were displayed at the meeting. Officers updated that there had been 7 accidents involving cyclists at this junction in the last 3 years. That a recent cycle survey had shown that there were 318 cycle movements per day over the bridge and 360 movements in the opposite direction.

The Executive Member stated that there was a need to show the % increase in cycling that would arise from any scheme that “Cycling City” funded.  He confirmed that, in future, there was a need to ensure that major cycling schemes were targeted towards those people that were not regular cyclists.  Officers confirmed that targeted marketing was to be undertaken with both Nestle and York Hospital together with adjacent schools. They also confirmed that they were confident that this scheme would achieve a significant growth in the use of this route.

Members thanked Officers for their work on this scheme and then considered  either supporting the scheme in principle, supporting the scheme with some changes or abandoning the existing approach.

Advice of the Advisory Panel

That the Executive Member for City Strategy be advised to give in principle support to the outline scheme proposals put forward in the report and, subject to funding being allocated for the scheme to progress in 2009/10, agree that officers arrange to carry out public consultation on the proposals. ^1.

Decision of the Executive Member for City Strategy

RESOLVED:That the advice of the Advisory Panel be accepted and endorsed.

REASON:        Officers consider that these proposals will provide significant improvements for cyclists on Crichton Avenue, support the Council’s aspiration of providing an orbital route and contribute to the aims of the Council as a Cycling City.