Equality impact assessment (EIA) form: evidencing paying due regard to protected characteristics

(Form updated April 2019)

Transforming Cities Fund proposals

If you would like this information in another language or format such as Braille, large print or audio, please contact the Communications Unit on 01609 53 2013 or email communications@northyorks.gov.uk.

Equality Impact Assessments (EIAs) are public documents.  EIAs accompanying reports going to County Councillors for decisions are published with the committee papers on our website and are available in hard copy at the relevant meeting.  To help people to find completed EIAs we also publish them in the Equality and Diversity section of our website.  This will help people to see for themselves how we have paid due regard in order to meet statutory requirements. 

Name of Directorate and Service Area	Business & Environmental Services – Highways & Transportation
Lead Officer and contact details	Aidan Rayner aidan.rayner@northyorks.gov.uk
Names and roles of other people involved in carrying out the EIA
How will you pay due regard? e.g. working group, individual officer	Working group
When did the due regard process start?
Section 1. Please describe briefly what this EIA is about. (e.g. are you starting a new service, changing how you do something, stopping doing something?) This EIA looks at the impact of proposed new transport infrastructure under the Transforming Cities Fund in Skipton, Selby & Harrogate.

Section 2. Why is this being proposed? What are the aims? What does the authority hope to achieve by it? (e.g. to save money, meet increased demand, do things in a better way.)

The Transforming Cities fund is an initiative funded by Department For Transport aimed at driving economic growth through sustainable and inclusive access to employment and education opportunities.  The aim is to deliver improved Station Gateways in Skipton, Harrogate and Selby with enhanced access for Pedestrians & Cyclists, balanced with the needs of car users to encourage more people to use public transport and to access public transport by sustainable travel modes.

Section 3. What will change? What will be different for customers and/or staff?

The proposals seek to make changes to railway stations and the surrounding streets with the introduction of cycle lanes, widening of footways, replacement of bridges, new one way traffic flows and in the case of Selby the replacement of the main waiting and ticketing building.

Section 4. Involvement and consultation (What involvement and consultation has been done regarding the proposal and what are the results? What consultation will be needed and how will it be done?)

Public Consultation has been undertaken on proposals for all three towns in addition to stakeholder engagement with other key bodies including:

Network Rail

Northern Rail

Canals & Rivers Trust

Local Businesses

Taxi operators

Disability Action Yorkshire

Mailings to range of Seldom Heard Groups in the 3 towns

The proposals are at a feasibility level of design and consultation was designed to understand any early concerns, issues and suggestions in order to incorporate into more detailed design.

The consultation shows broad support for proposals with more than half of survey respondents feeling Very Positive, Positive or neutral about them.  Where people felt negatively about the proposals key themes were around potential risks of traffic congestion, parking and cycle lane configuration.

A majority of respondents felt that the proposals would make access easier and safer for disabled users although some felt that they could make access more difficult.

Further engagement will be undertaken as part of developing more detailed designs which will show exactly how the proposals will work once implemented.

Section 5. What impact will this proposal have on council budgets? Will it be cost neutral, have increased cost or reduce costs?

The proposals are funded predominantly by the Department For Transport’s Transforming Cities Fund and District Council contributions, with a £300k contribution from the Council.  Future maintenance will be split between the Council and District Council partners, Network Rail and Northern Rail and the Canals & Rivers Trust – it is anticipated that the maintenance impact will be modest as much of the infrastructure replaces older infrastructure – detailed maintenance impacts will be finalised following the conclusion of detailed design.

Section 6. How will this proposal affect people with protected characteristics?	No impact	Make things better	Make things worse	Why will it have this effect? Provide evidence from engagement, consultation and/or service user data or demographic information etc.
Age	x			New infrastructure will be designed to comply with current best practice standards and legislation facilitating accessibility by all Whilst some feedback has suggested a concern that those in higher age categories may rely on cars to travel, the proposals retain access and parking within the town centres and this will be kept under review to ensure provision remains adequate.
Disability		x		New infrastructure will be designed to comply with current best practice standards and legislation facilitating accessibility by all, this will provide improved public realm at the heart of the towns – consultation with Disability Action Yorkshire on the Harrogate scheme identified key concerns as access to toilets, taxis and parking.  All the proposals include the need to reallocate some town centre parking and it will be necessary to ensure equivalent accessible quality provision exists for disabled users. Some taxi parking may need to be relocated under the proposals and the schemes will need to ensure as part of preliminary design that equivalent or improved provision is made if this is required. Toilet facilities are not within scope but any opportunities will be identified Specific comments were received with regard to the sharing of space at One Arch, Harrogate and concerns this may impact disabled users, this will be reviewed as part of preliminary design
Sex	x			New infrastructure will be designed to comply with current best practice standards and legislation facilitating accessibility by all
Race	x			New infrastructure will be designed to comply with current best practice standards and legislation facilitating accessibility by all
Gender reassignment	x			New infrastructure will be designed to comply with current best practice standards and legislation facilitating accessibility by all
Sexual orientation	x			New infrastructure will be designed to comply with current best practice standards and legislation facilitating accessibility by all
Religion or belief	x			New infrastructure will be designed to comply with current best practice standards and legislation facilitating accessibility by all
Pregnancy or maternity	x			New infrastructure will be designed to comply with current best practice standards and legislation facilitating accessibility by all
Marriage or civil partnership	x			New infrastructure will be designed to comply with current best practice standards and legislation facilitating accessibility by all

Section 7. How will this proposal affect people who…	No impact	Make things better	Make things worse	Why will it have this effect? Provide evidence from engagement, consultation and/or service user data or demographic information etc.
..live in a rural area?	x			The proposals focus on town centres, whilst the towns and the stations service wider rural hinterlands where car travel may be necessary the proposals will not remove the ability to access the town centres and stations by car or park in the near vicinity
…have a low income?		x		Provision of new infrastructure enabling easier lower cost cycling and walking access is anticipated to benefit those on low incomes who may not have access to a car
…are carers (unpaid family or friend)?	x

Section 8. Geographic impact – Please detail where the impact will be (please tick all that apply)
North Yorkshire wide
Craven district	x
Hambleton district
Harrogate district	x
Richmondshire district
Ryedale district
Scarborough district
Selby district	x
If you have ticked one or more districts, will specific town(s)/village(s) be particularly impacted? If so, please specify below.
Selby, Harrogate and Skipton will be affected

Section 9. Will the proposal affect anyone more because of a combination of protected characteristics? (e.g. older women or young gay men) State what you think the effect may be and why, providing evidence from engagement, consultation and/or service user data or demographic information etc. The proposals will not affect those with a combination of protected characteristics more
Section 10. Next steps to address the anticipated impact. Select one of the following options and explain why this has been chosen. (Remember: we have an anticipatory duty to make reasonable adjustments so that disabled people can access services and work for us)	Tick option chosen
1. No adverse impact - no major change needed to the proposal. There is no potential for discrimination or adverse impact identified.	x
2. Adverse impact - adjust the proposal - The EIA identifies potential problems or missed opportunities. We will change our proposal to reduce or remove these adverse impacts, or we will achieve our aim in another way which will not make things worse for people.
3. Adverse impact - continue the proposal - The EIA identifies potential problems or missed opportunities. We cannot change our proposal to reduce or remove these adverse impacts, nor can we achieve our aim in another way which will not make things worse for people. (There must be compelling reasons for continuing with proposals which will have the most adverse impacts. Get advice from Legal Services)
4. Actual or potential unlawful discrimination - stop and remove the proposal – The EIA identifies actual or potential unlawful discrimination. It must be stopped.
Explanation of why option has been chosen. (Include any advice given by Legal Services.) At this stage the feasibility designs are not considered to have any adverse impacts on people with protected characteristics. The decision to complete a full EIA at this stage was based on feedback as part of the consultation process. This highlighted some areas within the feasibility study that will need careful consideration should they proceed to a full design stage to ensure that they do not disadvantage those people with mobility related characteristics. As the design process progresses these areas will be kept under regular review, including further stakeholder engagement where necessary.

Section 11. If the proposal is to be implemented how will you find out how it is really affecting people? (How will you monitor and review the changes?)

The next stage of the proposals is preliminary and detailed design – as part of this phase the monitoring plan will be developed for approval alongside the final designs once they have been completed.

Section 12. Action plan. List any actions you need to take which have been identified in this EIA, including post implementation review to find out how the outcomes have been achieved in practice and what impacts there have actually been on people with protected characteristics.
Action	Lead	By when	Progress	Monitoring arrangements
Review parking changes as part of preliminary design ensuring equivalent provision is available	Project Manager	Point of Preliminary design acceptance		Bi weekly progress meetings
Ensure any changed taxi parking is equally or more accessible then current if this is required	Project Manager	Point of Preliminary design acceptance		Bi weekly progress meetings
Identify opportunities for accessible toilet facilities	Project manager	Point of Preliminary design acceptance		Bi weekly progress meetings
Review proposals to ensure safe segregation of users	Project manager	Point of Preliminary design acceptance		Bi weekly progress meetings

Section 13. Summary Summarise the findings of your EIA, including impacts, recommendation in relation to addressing impacts, including any legal advice, and next steps. This summary should be used as part of the report to the decision maker.

The proposals are currently at an early stage and have completed a first round of feedback, the intent of the schemes is to improve accessibility to and within the town centres and the design philosophy moving forward will be to comply with current legislation, relevant standards and best practice and to seek to incorporate views received.  The action Plan developed will be maintained and evolve through the next design phase and subsequent stakeholder engagement and ensure that concerns can be addressed.

Section 14. Sign off section

This full EIA was completed by:

Name: Aidan Rayner

Job title: TCF Delivery Manager

Directorate: Business & Environmental Services

Signature:

Completion date: 10 May 2021

Authorised by relevant Assistant Director (signature): Barrie Mason

Date: 12/05/21