Agenda and minutes

At this point Members are asked to declare any personal or prejudicial interests they may have in the business on the agenda.  A list of standing declarations of interest is attached.

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 other than those recorded in the standard declarations for the committee.  The standard declarations were amended to note that Councillor Merrett was an honorary member of the Cyclists’ Touring Club and that he was also the parent of a child who attended St Paul’s Primary School.

To approve and sign the minutes of the last meeting of the committee held on 27 July 2010.

RESOLVED:That the minutes of the last meeting of the Committee held on 27 July 2010 be approved and signed by the Chair as a correct record subject to minute 2 being amended to read Councillor Merrett was an honorary member of Cyclists Touring Club.

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.  The deadline for registering is 5.00 pm on Tuesday 7 September 2010.

It was reported that there had been one registration to speak at the meeting under the council’s Public Participation Scheme.  A representative from 20s Plenty for Us informed the committee that Safe Routes to Schools and non motorised travel to and from educational establishments would be enormously enhanced by a Total 20 policy in York i.e. 20 mph limits as the default speed for residential roads.  The speaker gave details of cost implications, how limits could be enforced and the positive impact that such limits had on pollution, climate change, air quality and health.  She stated that the 72% of drivers supported 20 mph speed limits on residential streets and that such limits encouraged children to travel independently. 

This report presents Members with information received to date regarding School Travel Plans.

The committee received a report which presented further information relating to the review that they were undertaking on School Travel Plans.

Officers clarified the following points in the report:

Paragraph 3:26 travel plans had been produced since the present post-holders had been appointed but it should be noted that School Travel Plan Co-ordinators had been in place prior to the current incumbents.

Paragraph 4:Although it may be necessary for an action plan to be in place for a two-year period in order to ascertain longer term benefits and to indicate if the benefits were being sustained, the impact of a travel plan becomes evident much sooner than this.  An example of this was a decrease in car use at York High School following the introduction of a plan.  In some cases the initial success eventually reached a plateau and hence it was important to maintain the momentum.

School Travel Action Plans

The Committee gave consideration to the action plans that had been submitted and considered which schools should be visited as part of the process of identifying factors in high performing travel plans as well as the challenges faced by schools.

Members noted that the school travel plans were variable in quality.  Whilst it was recognised that the plans had to be tailored to meet a school’s particular needs, concerns were expressed that some of the plans had been accepted by planning officers when they had been submitted as part of a planning application but they did not meet government standards in terms of school travel plans.

Visits to Schools

Members considered the arrangements for their visits to schools and indicated their availability to attend.  The arrangements would be finalised by email following the meeting.

Members considered the draft parent/carer Travel Plan Survey (Annex B of the report).  It was noted that, as part of the process of drawing up a plan, parents would have been consulted and were likely to have been requested to complete a similar form.  Concerns were expressed at the resource implications of issuing the survey and it was agreed that the information could be obtained through other means, including the proposed discussions with travel plan co-ordinators.

Consideration was given to the draft letter to schools (Annex E of the report) and amendments were agreed. 

Car Parking in the Vicinity of Schools

Discussion took place regarding parking in the vicinity of schools and the problems that this caused for pedestrians and cyclists.  Officers were asked if the Local Authority was able to support schools in tackling this issue.  They gave details of the following initiatives:

• They were able to carry out postcode plotting to inform schools as to the areas from which pupils and staff were travelling.  This enabled schools to encourage car sharing.  The different start and finishing times for primary and secondary schools meant that it would be more difficult to extend the car sharing between the two phases but such problems could be addressed through the provision of after-school clubs. 
• Previously  ...  view the full minutes text for item 8.