Agenda and minutes

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.

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.  The following personal non-prejudicial interests were declared in agenda item 4 (Minute 23 refers):

• Councillor Healey – Governor of Rufforth Primary School
• Councillor Simpson-Laing – Governor of Carr Infants School and mother of a child attending a school that had been part of traffic survey
• Councillor Firth – Governor of Wigginton Primary School
• Councillor Funnell – Governor of Burnholme Community College

To approve and sign the Minutes of the meeting held on 1 February 2010.

RESOLVED:That the minutes of the meeting held on 1 February 2010 be confirmed and signed 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. The deadline for registering is 5:00 pm on Friday 12 March 2010.

Councillor Alexander outlined the background to his decision to submit a scrutiny topic registration form on the issue of school travel plans and safe routes to school.  He informed the committee that he had received a number of complaints from residents and parents regarding issues in respect of irresponsible parking and vehicle speeds in the vicinity of schools.  School travel plans could assist schools in addressing some of these issues but there were resource implications in terms of reviewing the effectiveness of the plans.  Government funding was due to come to an end and it was unclear what would happen when the funding ceased.  Councillor Alexander stated that he believed that the concerns that he had raised were widespread and hence he had submitted the topic registration form.

The Chair, referring to the fact that safe routes to school generally had implications for capital funding whereas school travel plans were more focussed on encouraging behavioural change, asked Councillor Alexander if it was his view that the two issues should be looked at together.  Councillor Alexander confirmed this to be the case.

This report asks the committee to consider forming a crosscutting Joint Scrutiny Task Group to look at issues in respect of school travel plans and safe routes to school.

Members received a report that asked them to consider a referral from the Economic and City Development Overview and Scrutiny Committee requesting that a crosscutting Joint Scrutiny Task Group be established to look at issues in respect of school travel plans and safe routes to school.

Officers gave details of the work that was currently taking place with schools to seek to address some of the ongoing issues and the current uncertainty regarding future funding.  They explained that they would be looking at the school census information that had recently been received in order to ascertain the impact of the school travel plans that were in place.

Members agreed that the issues that had been raised in respect of parking and vehicle speeds were common to many schools.  The key issue continued to be the reluctance by some parents to make arrangements for their child to travel to school other than by car. 

Officers drew attention to the proposed composition of a crosscutting Joint Scrutiny Task Group, as detailed in paragraphs 10 and 11 of the report.  It was noted that if the committee agreed that a Task Group should be established it would be for the task group to prepare a remit and scope for the review.

RESOLVED:            (i)            That a crosscutting Joint Scrutiny Task Group be

established to look at issues in respect of school travel plans and safe routes to school.

(ii)That the composition of the Task Group be in accordance with paragraphs 10 and 11 of the report.

REASON:      In order to address the concerns raised in the Topic Registration Form at Annex A to the report and the discussions of the Economic and City Development Overview and Scrutiny Committee at their meeting on 22 February 2010.