Agenda and draft minutes

At this point Members are asked to declare any personal or prejudicial interests they may have in the business on this agenda.

Members were invited to declare, at this point in the meeting, any personal or prejudicial interests they might have in the business on the agenda.

No interests were declared.

To approve and sign the minutes of the last meeting of the Committee held on 12 October 2009.

RESOLVED:             That the minutes of the last meeting of the Committee held on 12 October 2009 be approved and signed by the Chair as a correct record.

At this point in the meeting members of the public who have registered their wish to speak regarding an item on the agenda or an issue within the committee’s remit can do so. Anyone who wishes to register or requires further information is requested to contact the Democracy Officer on the contact details listed at the foot of this agenda. The deadline for registering is Monday 17 May 2010 at 5.00pm.

 It was reported that there had been three registrations to speak at the meeting under the Council’s Public Participation Scheme.

Guy Wallbanks made representations in relation to the survey results and pointed out that it was vital full account was taken of climate change and air pollution in any proposals. He provided detailed information in relation to the affects on the climate if nothing was done to cut emissions. He referred to the Council’s targets in this respect and that transport played a large part in these reductions. He went on to refer to the Climate Change Action Plan for Yorkshire and Humber and that radical polices would be required to reach targets. He made reference to air pollution which was rising in a number of areas and which the Air Quality Management Areas were not reducing. He stated that this had wider health implications and went onto list a number of these. He ended by stating that any new transport policy should not perpetuate traffic levels but should aim to reduce them.

Richard Lane as a York resident confirmed that everyone was in agreement that a reduction in traffic was necessary, however this could restrict movement. He stated that it had been found that many car journeys were less than 3 miles in distance. He referred to the green streets plan which had proved to be a cost effective method of getting people to save energy, and engage people locally to use public transport, encourage employment and use cars less. He stated that there was a need to promote the use of fuel efficient vehicles, to make sure that local shops and services were available and that new developments were car free.

Jennie Dodson, a resident of Fishergate pointed out that there was public support for tackling congestion in the city. She stated that she was the coordinator for the ‘Jam’ campaign which had been set up in response to the authorities survey but that the proposals were not as radical as had been hoped. She stated that the authority should be aiming for a 10 year vision, which included cheap available public transport, rather than a short term policy.

This report presents the findings from the recently completed residents survey together with feedback from individual residents on the quality of the survey and their views on the findings from the scrutiny review.  Members are asked to consider the information provided and agree any further recommendations resulting from the review in light of the survey responses.

Members considered a report, which presented the findings from the recently completed residents survey together with feedback from individual residents on the quality of the survey and their views on the findings from the scrutiny review.

The Committee expressed their appreciation to Officers in Marketing and Communications and Scrutiny for their work on the report and analysis of the survey results.

Members admitted that the survey results had not shown any unexpected findings and they went on to discuss the results in detail and raised the following points:

·        Concern that it appeared that both men and women in the over 55 age group did not propose to radically change their behaviour in relation to modes of travel;

·        Any solution would require a major culture change;

·        Concern was expressed that without any firm financial commitment at this time Officers should be requested to work up alternative options to deliver the most benefit for the city;

·        It was recognised that the rail element of the schemes had the least certainty of deliverability;

Officers stated that it was important to assess how the recommendations would feed into the Local Transport Plan 3 as this would present the long term strategy and action plan. From this the authority would undertake as many measures as was possible with the finance available.

RESOLVED:             That the Committee

i)       note the findings from the residents survey;

ii)     agree to the addition of the following recommendation to the list of review recommendations:

That Option C which restricts congestion without charging be included as the recommended option with Officers being requested to examine innovative and creative ways in which to deliver this strategy to obtain maximum traffic reduction.

iii)        agree to the recommendation identified at the meeting being added to the final report, and the delegation of the signing off of the completed final report to the Chair of the Committee and a representative of each Group.

REASON:                  To inform the Executive of the full outcome of the Traffic Congestion Ad Hoc Scrutiny Review.