Agenda item

To receive a written report from the Executive Member for Economy and Transport and to question the Executive Member thereon, in accordance with Standing Orders B9 and B10.

A written report was received from Cllr Kilbane, Executive Member for Economy and Transport.

Members were then invited to question the Executive Member on his report. Questions were received from the floor from the following Members in relation to the subjects listed, and replied to as indicated:

From Cllr Rowley: Would the Executive Member join me in welcoming the additional £366,000 from central government to help with pothole repairs this year and another £366,000 for pothole repairs next year.

Response: Yes, we welcome the investment. Unfortunately, I think the amount of money they gave us amounts to around 3% of the entire budget. The MP for York Outer did put a message out to all of York Outer constituents stating that we had this extra money and where would you like it spending. If your MP would like to tell me which 3% of the road network they would like fixing with the additional money, then we can see where it is on the priority list. To get our roads up to reasonable standard it would cost £190m and we have a revenue budget of £140m, so, the £8m allocated this year and £10m next year is for patching. All praise to the teams that work on spending the money far more efficiently. We do appreciate the money, but it’s nowhere near enough.

Supplementary from Cllr Rowley: Are you confident that should a labour government take control at some point next year that you will receive that £190m you alluded to?

Response: No, I suspect that going into the election belts will be tightened.A labour administration will still deliver even though resources are tight, it doesn’t stifle our ambition.

Supplementary from Cllr Ayre: Will you commit to maintaining this level of spending and rule out cuts to the road maintenance budget?

Response: Keeping on top of the road network is very important to us and it’s a high priority. We are trying to fill the hole you left us and the difficulties we inherited from your administration and the lack of central government funding.

Castle Gateway

From Cllr Fenton: Can you tell us about the engagement that occurred with businesses in the run up to the decisions being made, and also why decisions have been taken in relation to car parking ahead of a wider review of parking provision in the city centre?

Response: Following on from the consultation the previous administration undertook, we can clearly see the hopes and desires of the residents of York for the repurposing of Castle Car Park. The solution from the previous administration was to build a multi-story car park but the business case was incredibly flawed and we had to scrap that, costing the city up to £1m. York Bid has actually undertaken a survey of parking in the city. This data has shown that throughout the city we have capacity for car parking for all the cars that are currently coming in. The only time Castle Car Park is full is at 2pm on Saturday afternoon but the data showed spare capacity at that time within Piccadilly Car Park and the Shambles Q Car Park. The conversations we have being having with all businesses have shown us that it’s not about car parking it’s about footfall to businesses.The Transport Plan needs to ensure we have the same amount of people calling into the area but without the harm that’s caused by too much traffic on the road.

Supplementary from Cllr Ayre: Given the two car parks you mentioned, Piccadilly which you have committed to removing all non-essential traffic from accessing and Q Park which is not CYC, can you explain how the council will be better off closing a car park that generates £1.6m in order to save £1m in borrowing?

Response: I don’t quite understand your point about Piccadilly.

Supplementary response from Cllr Ayre: It’s a city centre car park and your motion said to remove all non-essential traffic.

Response: So how do you know what’s essential and what’s non-essential?

Supplementary response from Cllr Ayre: You’re not answering the question, I will ask a second supplementary, do you think parking your car in the city centre is essential travel?

Response:  I recommend you contribute to the Local Transport Strategy and Plan because it’s through that process that we are going to be asking those questions. The Transport Strategy sets out to reduce the number of driven miles by 20%, that’s going to be quite tough and not everybody is going to like it. Your administration had four years to answer this question.