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) as an honorary member of the Cyclists’ Touring Club and a member of Cycling England.

To approve and sign the minutes of meetings of the Committee held on 4 September, 19 November and 12 December 2007.

RESOLVED:             That the minutes of the meetings held on 4 September 2007, 19 November 2007 and 12 December 2007 be approved and signed by the Chair 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 Tuesday 15 January 2008 at 5pm.

It was reported that there had been one registration to speak at the meeting from a resident.

A York resident addressed the Committee and said that he had moved to the City a few years ago after having lived abroad. He felt that the standard of public transport in the City was of a very low standard and the worst he had experienced in any European Union City. He suggested that a simple pre-payment system be introduced to reduce dwell time and allow the bus drivers to concentrate on driving. He felt that it would only need a small amount of investment and understood that it would not be possible to change things over night. He also felt that there was no provision of direct cross city transport and therefore travel costs for certain journeys were high and it was much cheaper to use a car even though one had to pay for parking and fuel. He felt that the City of York Council should have more influence over the bus companies and there was no room for complacency.

This report asks Members to consider and agree any necessary changes/additions to the draft of an interim report, the method for carrying out a survey of residents and how much additional budget to request from the Scrutiny Management Committee.

Members considered the Traffic Congestion Ad-hoc Scrutiny Review interim Report which was due to be presented at the Scrutiny Management Committee on 28^th January 2008.

Annex A

Members made the following comments:

·        Members felt that the Interim Report to the Scrutiny Management Committee did not outline the position of the Council in relation to the level of influence they had on the local bus companies and asked for this to be reflected.

·        Paragraphs 5, 6, and 7 should be under the heading of ‘Background to Congestion Issues’. Members suggested that the maps included in the Assistant Director of City Strategy’s original presentation be included to assist people’s understanding of the scale of the problem.

·        It was suggested that an additional heading be added entitled ‘Overall Conclusions’. This should be added after ‘Background Information’.

·        In the section headed ‘Accessibility to Services, Employment, Education and Health’ reference should be made to the extent of the subsidies provided by the Authority and the routes of the subsidised services.

·        Paragraph 18 should indicate that the figure of 24,000 is a national figure and not a local figure.

·        An additional paragraph/sub-heading should be added to the section headed ‘Air Quality, in particular looking at the five hotspots identified in the LTP2’ and this should be entitled ‘Potential Actions’.

·        The ‘Alternative environmentally viable and financially practical methods of transport’ section should mention the fact that walking and cycling also have beneficial health factors.

·        Paragraph 26 should also include the walking figures.

·        Some Members felt that the list in paragraph 30 was too long for the amount of resources available. It was suggested that this be looked at again at a future meeting in order to prioritise.

·        That the following recommendation be added to the Table of Issues/Findings, Identified Solutions, Possible Impacts and Draft Recommendations: ‘More thought should be given to alternative environmentally friendly modes of transport when designing junctions on the inner ring road’           

·        Remove the first sentence from paragraph 36.

·        Delete the third bullet point regarding Fuel Cell Vehicles in paragraph 38.

·        Change the third bullet point in paragraph 39 top read ‘ Maximise the uptake of car sharing’.

·        In relation to paragraph 43 dwell times should be allowed for in constructing timetables in order that they do not effect the perception of bus reliability.

·        The additional information section should have a separate heading rather than a sub-heading and it was suggested that this section could re renamed ‘Other Issues Effecting Congestion’.

·        Under the heading ‘Utility & Roadworks on the Highway’ it was noted that a new phase of the Traffic Management Act 2004 was being phased in from April 2008 which would hopefully reduce disruption and improve traffic flow.

·        Under the heading ‘On Street Parking’ it was suggested that the paragraph be expanded to incorporate the fact that there were recognised hotspots which caused frequent delays i.e. along some of the major bus routes. It was suggested that pressure be applied to the Government regarding enforcement of bus lane usage and implementation of red  ...  view the full minutes text for item 34.