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Annex D
Local Transport Strategy: Consultation and
Engagement Plan
Our Big Transport Conversation
Background
1. On the 15 December 2022 Council adopted the York 2032 10 year Strategy and Policy framework, which comprises the Climate Change, Economic and Health and Wellbeing 10 year strategies and the emerging 10 year City Plan.
2. York 2032 recognises Transport as one of five city-wide priorities and sets out the ambition and targets for the decade ahead:
· Ambition: York's transport networks will be inclusive and sustainable, connecting neighbourhoods and communities.
· Targets: York will have a transport plan which enables and promotes modal shift to sustainable transport. It supports the Climate Change, Public Health and Economic Development strategies, and mitigates the transport consequences of the growth of the city. It will support the equality, health and wellbeing of York’s current and future residents, businesses and visitors and enables inclusive economic development whilst respecting the city’s heritage. Through the Plan, York will seek to minimise any negative environmental impacts of transport. A key part of the strategy will be supporting measures which reduce the need to travel, as well as those promoting modal shift.
3. In addition, the Climate Change Strategy 2022-2032 identifies transport as one of the biggest carbon emitters in the city (2nd only to buildings) and has set a target of reducing carbon from transport systems by 71%. In the meantime, guidance is expected from the Department of Transport that we anticipate will set carbon reduction targets for transport as well.
4. The reason for adoption of York 2032 the 10 year plan and 10 year strategies was to engage partners, city leaders, businesses, stakeholders and residents to work together on these five key agreed priority areas that aim to actively improve the quality of life for all York's residents. This, the Local Transport Strategy Consultation and Engagement Plan sets out how it will engage different communities in the emerging draft Local Transport Strategy.
5. The Local Transport Strategy Consultation and Engagement Plan follows the principles of the council’s resident engagement strategy approved at Executive in April 2021 and builds on the Local Transport Plan Engagement Plan approved at the Executive Member (Transport) Decision Session in May 2021.
6. Since 2021, different aspects of how people travel and experience transport have been explored through iterative engagement activities, under the banner of Our Big Conversation, such as the attitudinal survey in Summer 2021 which also informed the Climate Change, Health and Wellbeing and Economic strategy development process, the 10-year strategies consultation in Summer 2022, and focus groups commissioned to hear from groups that typically did not engage.
7. This, the Local Transport Strategy Consultation and Engagement Plan, learns from feedback the council has already collated and takes the Our Big Conversation consultation to a deeper level of engagement.
8. It will be called Our Big Transport Conversation.
9. It draws on lessons learned through Our Big Conversation when residents challenged the inclusivity of previous consultation exercises and sets out to ensure the consultation is representative and engages under-represented or seldom heard voices from the outset.
10. Feedback gathered through previous Our Big Conversation consultations has informed the draft Local Transport Strategy, as indicated throughout.
Our Big Conversation
11. The Our Big Conversation consultation and engagement programme has iteratively explored different aspects of transport issues and opportunities in York since 2021, specifically in the context of the economy, climate change and health and wellbeing, but also exploring how people access and engage in the city centre:
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Our Big Conversation consultations |
2021 |
2022 |
2023 |
Publication |
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Resident engagement strategy and transport consultation approved |
April / May |
Agenda for Executive on Thursday, 22 April 2021, 5.30 pm (york.gov.uk) item 123 |
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My City Centre |
March - June |
My City Centre Summer Consultation 2021 - My City Centre Results Final Report - York Open Data |
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Attitudinal survey |
June - August |
Our Big Conversation Summer 2021 - OBC Final Report - Residents Survey - York Open Data |
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Targeted focus groups |
July |
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10 Year strategies consultation |
June - August |
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Budget 2023 |
November - |
January |
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Transport – stage 1 |
February+ |
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Transport – stage 2 |
June + |
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Transport – stage 3 - 5 |
May + |
Scope
12. This, the Local Transport Strategy Consultation and Engagement Plan describes the actions that will take place to collate resident, business, stakeholder, visitor, commuter, and community group feedback to contribute to the completion of the Local Transport Strategy.
13. This plan sets out the approach the council will follow to collate as diverse and nuanced feedback as possible, consulting on the broad principles, whilst encouraging participation in feeding back on specific schemes and opportunities.
14. It will deepen insight into the needs of key audiences, identify audience barriers and opportunities to implement improvements to transport and informing recommendations to further develop the Local Transport Plan (LTP) 4.
15. When appropriate, it will integrate with North Yorkshire Council’s LTP development process to support the development of a regional perspective. Pre-empting this, demographics will collate postcode information to understand the split between York and North Yorkshire residents feeding back in the consultation.
16. This Local Transport Strategy will not revisit questions already asked and instead, will publish feedback already collated together with a We Asked/You Said/We did/didn’t to show how feedback has already informed the development of the draft Local Transport Plan. Strategy.
Engagement Strategy
17. The aim of the engagement and consultation plan is to:
· Encourage broad participation from the many different people, groups and organisations who use York’s transport infrastructure
· Increase representation that encourages as many diverse voices as possible to share their experiences.
· By the end of the engagement plan, everyone who wants to have had a say, should have had the opportunity and means to do so.
· This feedback will then inform development of the Local Transport Strategy and be presented at appropriate decision sessions
18. To encourage this, engagement will take place over five stages throughout 2023, with information becoming more detailed and complex as the plan progresses:
Stage 1 – build audience understanding (Feb 2023)
Stage 2 – targeted engagement
Stage 3 - strategy, policy themes and traffic issues (May 2023)
Stage 4 – detailed proposals (when ready 2023)
Stage 5 – other strategies and plans, including development of the Mayoral Combined Authority (MCA) Strategic Transport Plan if appropriate – as and when ready 2023
19. Participants will be able to join at any point and any depth of the consultation and easily be able to access different aspects of the consultation.
20. At it’s heart will be a online engagement platform that provides polling, surveying and geospatial consultations to allow participants to take part in different ways to provide their feedback.
21. Anyone who has already participated will be prompted to return when new engagement activities or questions are available.
22. Regular analysis of feedback will inform each stage to create a continuous improvement loop until October 2023.
23. Regular analysis of who the participants are will inform the targeted activities to ensure voices are representative. At present, planned targeted activities will reach the seldom heard voices identified in previous Our Big Conversation consultations.
Engagement Objectives
(i) With the Access Officer in post, ensure the consultation is inclusive and accessible building understanding and interest
(ii) Develop and deliver an engagement programme of on and offline activities designed to prompt participants to prompt participants to learn about complex ideas and challenges to make for a more informed conversation, including building audience understanding of key transport issues
(iii) Raise awareness of the different stages and opportunities to engage through corporate and partner channels, signposting the engagement activities and drawing participants to a shared online conversation via an engagement platform and encouraging greater participation in Talkabout panel
(iv) Facilitate targeted opportunities to ensure that under-represented groups are reflected by analysing participation, putting in place activities that collate feedback from the seldom heard
(v) Create universal opportunities to provide feedback with on and offline engagement activities collating demographical information to ensure inclusive
(vi) Publish the decision-making schedule relating to the LTS development allowing participants to influence through open democracy, sharing feedback at key moments
(vii) Deliver all engagement through the Our Big (Transport) Conversation programme (brand) – publishing feedback throughout the process, including reports from previous Our Big Conversation consultations
Audiences
(1) Universal: residents, businesses, visitors, commuters
City wide to all households, in public spaces, the mobile/online engagement platform, and via social media and digital communications
Demographic data will be collected where possible
(2)Targeted: resident, community, partners, business representatives
for example:
• Resident - seldom heard voices (identified through OBC focus groups)
• Disability Independent Advisory Group (and members)
• Citizens Transport Forum (Civic Trust)
• Age Friendly York
• City partners, York Economic Partnership etc.