Agenda, decisions and minutes

Decision Session - Cabinet Member for Environmental Services, Planning and Sustainability - Thursday, 30 October 2014 1.00 pm

Venue: The Giles Room - 1st Floor West Offices (F022). View directions

Contact: Laura Bootland

Items

No.

Item

25.

Declarations of Interest

At this point the Cabinet Member is asked to declare any personal, prejudicial or pecuniary interests they may have in the business on this agenda.

Minutes:

At this point in the meeting, the Cabinet Members were asked to declare any personal prejudicial or pecuniary interests they may have in the business on the agenda. None were declared.

26.

Minutes PDF 36 KB

To approve and sign the minutes of the meeting held on 20^th March 2014 (Cabinet Member for Transport to sign).

Minutes:

Resolved: That the minutes of the Decision Session held on 8^th March 2014 be approved and signed by the Cabinet Member for Transport as a correct record.

27.

Public Participation - Decision Session

At this point in the meeting, members of the public who have registered their wish to speak at the meeting can do so. The deadline for registering is 5pm on Wednesday 29^th October 2014. Members of the public may speak on item on the agenda or an issue within the Cabinet Member’s remit.

Any written representations should be with the Democracy Officer by 5pm on Tuesday 28^th October 2014.

Filming or Recording Meetings

Residents are welcome to photograph, film or record Councillors and Officers at all meetings open to the press and public. This includes the use of social media reporting, i.e. tweeting. Anyone wishing to film, record or take photos at any public meeting should contact the Democracy Officer (whose contact details are at the foot of this agenda) in advance of the meeting.

The Council’s protocol on Webcasting, Filming & Recording of Meetings ensures that these practices are carried out in a manner both respectful to the conduct of the meeting and all those present. It can be viewed at http://www.york.gov.uk/downloads/download/3130/protocol_for_webcasting_filming_and_recording_of_council_meetings

Minutes:

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

Councillor D’Agorne had registered to speak on the agenda item and raised a number of detailed points regarding progress made since the last Air Quality Action Plan. In particular he queried the progress made in improving air quality, what low cost measures were being implemented and the progress made with the introduction of low emission buses and taxis.

28.

A Draft Framework for York's Third Air Quality Action Plan (AQAP) 2014 to 2020. PDF 324 KB

This report presents the Cabinet Members’ with a draft framework for approval for York’s third Air Quality Action Plan (AQAP3). This will be the main delivery plan for measures in the York Low Emission Strategy (LES). The draft framework takes into account the findings and recommendations of the York LEZ study, the York anti-idling study and the York electric bus study.

Additional documents:

Decision:

Resolved: That the Cabinet Members’ approved Option A and approved the draft framework for the Third Air Quality Action Plan (AQAP3) as set out in Annex 2 of the report (subject to amendments requested at the meeting) and allowed Officer’s to proceed directly to the development of a draft consultation AQAP3.

Reason: To enable the draft consultation AQAP3 to be drawn up by December and a final AQAP3 to be adopted by the end of 2014. This will allow the Clean Air Zone to be introduced by April 2015 ensuring external funding to support low emission buses and the attraction of low emission industry and jobs can be maximised

Minutes:

Consideration was given to a report which presented a draft framework for York’s third Air Quality Action Plan (AQAP3).

Officer’s addressed the points raised by Councillor D’Agorne and drew Member’s attention to the following:

· The figures in the table on page 21 of the agenda showed an improvement in Nitrogen Dioxide (NOx) and indicated the NOx objectives may be met in a number of areas in the City.

· Significant progress had been made towards electrification of York’s buses, including the new Park and Ride buses operating out of Poppleton Park and Ride. In terms of taxis, discussions were ongoing with the taxi trade regarding various incentives to improve emissions.

· Accessing the City Centre – it is difficult to incentivise people not to bring cars into the City Centre and any work needs coupling with other initiatives to discourage car use.

· Low cost measures such as anti –idling signs – Officers’ could not recall including anti idling signs in the previous action plan but confirmed that they had undertaken an anti-idling study and work had been done with the bus companies to discourage drivers from idling.

· As vehicles move from conventional fuels to low emission and zero emissions then anti idling becomes irrelevant.

· Public Health – work will be undertaken with the Public Health team and work is also being undertaken with researchers at the University on the impact of air quality on the economy.

Councillor Richardson had also submitted comments in respect of the report, in particular he felt strongly that all buses should be electric hybrid vehicles. Officers referred to the report and advised that work was ongoing to electrify as many buses as possible.

The Cabinet Member for Environmental Services, Planning and Sustainability suggested amending the draft action plan to state that the Council will encourage low emission vehicles for all transport rather than focusing on just buses. He noted the progress made since 2012 and wished Officers’ success in their current bids for funding.