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 items 4 (Draft Final Report) and 5 (Residents Consultation Survey) as an honorary member of the Cyclists’ Touring Club and as a member of Cycling England.

Councillor Holvey declared a personal non-prejudicial interest in agenda items 4 (Draft Final Report) and 5 (Residents Consultation Survey) as he was employed by Leeds City Council and had been involved in City Region issues.

To approve and sign the minutes of the last meeting of the Committee held on 5 June 2008.

RESOLVED:             That the minutes of the last meeting of the Committee held on 12 June 2008 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 Wednesday 6 May 2009 at 5.00 pm.

It was reported that there had been two registrations to speak under the Council’s Public Participation Scheme.

One from Cllr D’Agorne who had been unable to attend the meeting owing to illness but he had forwarded emailed comments in relation to the Scrutiny Committees draft final report, which were circulated at the meeting. He confirmed that the report was an excellent analysis of the difficult transport choices facing the city.

The second was from Paul Hepworth who spoke on behalf of the CTC (Cyclists Touring Club). He stated that the report highlighted the very serious consequences if the threats posed by congestion were not addressed. He confirmed that York’s Local Transport Plan 2 bid had been designed to address some of the congestion issues detailed in the report but he stated that others would require funding via LTP3. As a representative of CTC, he requested that Members consider the establishment of an LTP style public Congestion Review Group involving all local transport stakeholders to supplement the planned public consultation.

To consider the draft final report and Annexes of the Traffic Congestion Ad-Hoc Scrutiny Review.

Consideration was given to the draft final report of the Committee, which focused on tackling traffic congestion. The aim of the review had been to identify ways, including Local Transport Plans 1 and 2 and other evidence, of reducing present levels of traffic congestion in York, together with ways of minimising the impact of the forecast traffic increase.

Members also considered             the following additional documents:

·        Annex Ah – Table of issues/findings, identified solutions, possible impacts and draft recommendations (circulated prior to the meeting but not with the agenda)

·        Reactions to the Report from the York Quality Bus Partnership (QBP) in which they made suggestions regarding possible amendments, circulated at the meeting and attached as an Annex to these minutes.

·        Email from Cllr D’Agorne expressing his support for the final report and his suggestions for campaign promotions to run in conjunction with the Committee’s recommendations, circulated at the meeting.

Officers reminded Members that the broad overall solution to both congestion and the climate change challenge was a concerted approach using the following hierarchy of measures:

i.               Reducing the need to travel (through IT, video conferencing and other solutions like encouraging workers to live closer to work)

ii.             Undertaking more of the journeys that still need to be made by green and environmentally less damaging modes

iii.           Improving engine efficiency and switch to lower / non-carbon based fuels

iv.            Undertaking a greater proportion of car based journeys on a shared basis

v.              Improving driving standards (for fuel efficiency and safety, and to make roads safer and more attractive to green travel modes)

vi.            Reducing congestion delays and fuel wastage in traffic queues.

Consideration was then given to all the information in the covering report, the draft final report at Annex A and it’s associated Annexes and it was

RESOLVED:    i) That agreement be given to the inclusion of paragraphs 19, 20, 29, 34, 35 and 58 which contained information and recommendations that had not previously appeared in any of the interim reports;

ii)            That agreement be given to the inclusion of the following additional information and amendments to the draft final report and annexes:

Paragraphs 19 & 69 – Amend all references to 2020 to 2025;

Paragraph 20 – Update required;

Paragraph 22 – Amend fifth bullet point to include reference to ‘lower embedded carbon models’;

Paragraph 37 Graph – Amend abbreviation references into alphabetical order and ensure graph contents readable;

Paragraph 58 – amend intermediate plans in line with any subsequently agreed changes;

Paragraph 69 - include the words ‘because of their affordability,’ before ‘good quality’ in the final point;

iii)          That footnotes be included in the final report to cross reference points;

iv)          That Annex Af, ‘Scenarion9 – Road User Charging’ be updated to reflect current views in relation to charging;

v)            That Officers examine the suggested wording alternatives for the long-term transport vision shown at paragraph 69, and circulate their revised suggestions to Members;

vi)          That the draft recommendations be amended and amalgamated to reduce their overall number, in line  ...  view the full minutes text for item 8.

As part of concluding the Traffic Congestion Scrutiny Review, Members agreed to issue a city-wide survey outlining the review findings and the possible solutions. The Head of Marketing and Communications will be in attendance at the meeting in relation to this item.  

Consideration was given to a report, which looked at the preparation of a city-wide survey to engage the wider York community and interested parties in the traffic congestion review.

The Committee were reminded that they had previously agreed to the issuing of a survey which detailed the review findings and possible solutions and that this had been deemed crucial in identifying views on future transport policy, given the difficult and crucial choices to be made.

Officers referred to the imminent consultation in relation to the Local Transport Plan 3 and the need for clarity in relation to this consultation survey.

The Head of Marketing and Communications, who was in attendance for consideration of this item, confirmed that recommendations of the draft review could be incorporated into a survey of around four A4 sides. He stated that to enable residents to make informed choices the survey would have to detail the full list of possible scenarios.

Members stated that consultation on the review needed to take a number of different forms, which included the survey, press releases and presentations at Ward Committees etc. 

RESOLVED:    i)That residents views be sought as part of the Short/Medium TermRecommendation (iv) arising from the Traffic Congestion Review which stated that the following should be a key priority – ‘Adopt an on-going public engagement strategy in terms of the future transport strategy and solutions for the City’

REASON:           In order to conclude the review

ii)              That the Committee make a formal request to the Scrutiny Management Committee for funding for broader consultation originally allocated from the scrutiny budget of 2008/09, carried forward into 2009/10.

REASON:            To enable consultation to be carried out.

iii)                That the Head of Marketing and Communication, in consultation with the Officers concerned, prepare a draft survey for consideration by Members at the next meeting.

REASON:                  To enable the survey to be carried out.