Issue - meetings

This purpose of this report is to provide and update on the City Centre access action plans as agreed at 18 November 2021 Executive meeting.

Resolved:

                      i.         That the progress on City centre accessibility and the action plan be noted.

Reason:     To update the Executive Member on the progress of agreed actions.

                     ii.         that the dropped kerbs in the city centre programme be prioritised and to be funded from the Pedestrian and Cycling Schemes element of the Transport Capital Budget.

Reason:     As part of the access improvement work is the review of dropped kerbs in the City Centre footstreets. The intended funding for this work was subject to a bid, £250,000 to the Department for Transport for Active travel. The announcement on this funding is yet to be made. To mitigate this and to ensure this important work could proceed, one of the decisions at the 18th November 2021 Executive meeting in the “Consideration of Changes to the City Centre TrafficRegulation Order” paper was for the Executive Member for Transport to be delegated authority to fund this work through the Transport Capital Programme in the absence of an announcement from Government.

Officers noted that the report was an update on the actions agreed by the Executive regarding City Centre Accessibility, therefore, they noted that the Executive Member was not able to amend the decisions made at Executive. The Executive Member considered the report and noted that the Council’s engagement with residents and interested groups regarding city centre access should be enhanced by the appointment of an Access Officer and welcomed further engagement to improve access to the city.

Improving access across the city centre was discussed and it was noted that officers would propose in minute 55 to provide funding to deliver dropped curbs alongside cycle path improvements which would be funded by the Active Travel fund. The Executive Member felt that the Executive’s decision in relation to foot streets was not an easy decision to make and that this current program of work aimed to make the city centre as accessible as possible. 

Resolved:

                      i.         That the progress on City centre accessibility and the action plan be noted.

Reason:     To update the Executive Member on the progress of agreed actions.

                     ii.         that the dropped kerbs in the city centre programme be prioritised and to be funded from the Pedestrian and Cycling Schemes element of the Transport Capital Budget.

Reason:     As part of the access improvement work is the review of dropped kerbs in the City Centre footstreets. The intended funding for this work was subject to a bid, £250,000 to the Department for Transport for Active travel. The announcement on this funding is yet to be made. To mitigate this and to ensure this important work could proceed, one of the decisions at the 18th November 2021 Executive meeting in the “Consideration of Changes to the City Centre TrafficRegulation Order” paper was for the Executive Member for Transport to be delegated authority to fund this work through the Transport Capital Programme in the absence of an announcement from Government.