Agenda and minutes

At this point Members are asked to declare any personal or prejudicial interests they may have in the business on this 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.

Councillor Merrett declared a personal non-prejudicial interest in agenda item 4 (Interim Report for Traffic Congestion Ad-Hoc Scrutiny Committee) as an honorary member of the Cyclists’ Touring Club and a member of Cycling England.

To consider the minutes of the meeting of this committee held on 4 September 2007.

Revised comments on these minutes will be distributed to Members prior to the meeting.  

It was agreed that the minutes from the meetings held on 4^th September 2007 and 25^th September 2007 would be approved at a later meeting.

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 Monday 15 October 2007 at 5 pm.

It was reported that there had been no registrations to speak at the meeting under the Council’s Public Participation Scheme

Members considered a report which updated them on the work carried out for this scrutiny review.

The Assistant Director of City Strategy presented a report to the Committee that outlined some of the issues that cause impediments to  traffic flows  on the highway network. He reported that some measures had more impact on traffic flows than others.  He also stated that the Traffic Management Act 2004 imposed a network management duty on all Local Traffic Authorities.

“ It is the duty of a local traffic authority to manage their road network with a view to achieving, so far as may be reasonably practicable having regard to their obligations, policies and objectives, the following objectives:

a)     Securing the expeditious movement of traffic on the authority’s road network; and

b)     Facilitating the expeditious movement of traffic on road networks for which another authority is the traffic authority.”

The report was split into the following sections:

• Traffic Management
• Utility Works on the Highway
• Road Works on the Highway
• Accidents on the Highway
• Junctions
• Signals and Crossings
• Traffic Calming Measures
• On Street Parking
• Public Events, School Terms
• Inner City Goods Deliveries

Traffic Management

Members asked for clarification in relation to the Freeflow project mentioned at paragraph 11 of the circulated report and the Co-opted Member explained that it was aimed at curing congestion by:

o       improving bus journey times

o       better use of information

o       better use of traffic lights and more subtle use of signage

The project involved several cities, universities and businesses and had the potential for drawing in a tremendous amount of expertise that would not usually be available to York. It was hoped that York would be able to profit from the various methodologies the project would offer. The funding for the project would be a public/private collaboration.

It was noted that day to day traffic management in the city relied upon a complex system of information gathering and control. There were two main components of the management of traffic flows, urban traffic control (UTC) and urban traffic management and control (UTMC). At the moment York’s links with external sources were fairly basic and therefore there was plenty of room for improvement and development.

Members discussed the use of CCTV as a tool for traffic management and it was noted that it was primarily used for policing. The cameras were not necessarily in the most beneficial places to aid traffic management and there were no CCTV cameras on the outer ring road. Staff from the traffic team monitored the cameras at peak times but not at non-peak times. CCTV could be more beneficial to traffic management if the CCTV screens could be monitored on a more frequent basis. There were also arguments for monitoring traffic during non-peak times, such as Saturdays and Sundays, although it had to be realised that traffic flow problems may occur in different places at the weekend compared to those during weekday peak times.

There were opportunities to use more intelligent traffic signal strategies and the variable message signs around the city were modest in size so there were limitations as to  ...  view the full minutes text for item 22.