Agenda and minutes

To approve and sign the Minutes of the meeting held on 26 March 2007.

The minutes of the last meeting held on 26 March 2007 were agreed 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 20 April 2007 at 5pm.

The Chair reported that no registrations to speak had been received under the Council’s Public Participation Scheme.

At this point in the meeting, Members will be invited to declare any personal or prejudicial interests they may have in the business on the agenda.

The Chair invited Members to declare any interests they might have in the business of the meeting.  Councillors  D’Agorne and Merrett declared  personal but non-prejudicial interests in item 5 on the agenda (Update on the  implementation of recommendations of a previous scrutiny review – Cycling Policy & Provision of Facilities).

This report provides Members with an update on the work completed to date in regard to the Ad-hoc Scrutiny Review of Traffic Congestion in York.

Members considered an interim report from the ad-hoc scrutiny committee undertaking a review of Traffic Congestion in York.

The report detailed the progress made to date in regard to the first objective – Accessibility to services, employment, education and health, and requested that any final report include clarification on the following:

·          where the report stated that 12% of the active population in York was disabled – what was the definition of disabled in that context?

·          more than one in four York households do not own a car – how did that compare nationally?

Members also requested that the report be updated in relation to the effects of current legislation where relevant.

Finally, Members acknowledged that additional mapping work may be required to investigate the effects of the factors identified within the report, and had requested an extension to the timeframe for the review to allow full consideration of the remaining objectives.

RESOLVED:       That the interim report and progress so far be noted and that the timeframe of the review be extended by six months.

This report provides Members with update information on the implementation of recommendations made as a result of the scrutiny review on ‘Cycling Policy and Provision of Facilities’, completed in October 2004.

Members considered a update report in regard to the implementation of recommendations previously made as a result of a completed scrutiny review on ‘Cycling Policy and Provision of Facilities’.

Members had previously requested the attendance of the relevant officers at the meeting to provide a full understanding of the implementation to date and expressed concern that no officer was present.

Having considered the limited update provided in the annex to the report, Members were unhappy with the work completed to date and questioned the context of some of the information provided.  Members went on to request that the following specific information be provided at their next meeting:

·          Evidence of the gaps filled in the network

·          Evidence of where on-road cycle lanes have been put on main roads to allow cycles to bypass the queues

·          Evidence of which existing cycle routes have been converted from advisory to mandatory routes

·          Evidence of the recommendations being taken into account as part of the new cycling strategy

RESOLVED:

That the Assistant Director (City Development & Transport) be re-invited to attend the next meeting to discuss progress on the implementation relating to the above review.

This report introduces the annual reports from Cllr Ian Cuthbertson and Cllr Charles Hall that will update members on the recent work of the Health and Education Scrutiny Committees respectively.

Members considered a report which provided an annual update on the work of the Health and Education Scrutiny Committees respectively.

Having noted the content, Members thanked both committees for their work throughout the year and specifically Cllr Hall who was retiring as Chair (Education Scrutiny Committee) and Member.