Agenda item

Members of the public may ask questions or make statements at this meeting if they have given notice (including the text of the question/statement) to Mark Codman of Democratic Services at mark.codman@northyorks.gov.uk by midday on Monday 20 October 2023. Each speaker should limit themselves to 3 minutes on any item. Members of the public who have given notice will be invited to speak;

 

-       at this point in the meeting if their questions/statements relate to matters which are not otherwise on the Agenda (subject to an overall time limit of 30 minutes);

-       when the relevant Agenda item is being considered if they wish to speak on a matter which is on the Agenda for this meeting.

Public Questions and Statements

 

There were two statements that had been submitted prior to the Committee:

 

The following statement concerned an item not on the agenda and was read out by Gia Margolis on behalf of Harrogate District Cycle Action:

 

Thank you for the opportunity to speak to you today.

 

I am here to ask you to scrutinize the council’s lack of delivery of Active Travel schemes. Consultants over many years have written reports which have all come to the same conclusion. Most short journeys are less than 1.6 miles and too many are made by car. We have yet to see any implementation of recommendations to increase use of public transport, to walk and cycle.

 

The proposed Active Travel team is not due to start until at least next year and will have no budget. Officers tell us that no schemes can be delivered without getting funding bids. Yet despite receiving millions of pounds of funding no schemes of any value have been delivered. Schemes have repeatedly been abandoned, consultations completed, reports written but not made public. NYC’s Active Travel England rating is only 1 and unlikely to get raised any time soon.

 

We are asking you to stop talking, give us false hope that things will change, and look at why the council has failed to deliver any significant active travel scheme over the last nine years.

 

Planners and Highways between them failed several years ago in allowing a local plan and developers to build large housing estates on the edges of Harrogate with no safe cycle or walking routes or frequent bus services into the town centre and most of the estates served by rural country lanes which have become rat runs.  The local parish councils, HAPARA and ourselves have all tried to work with officers and councillors to come up with solutions. The latest round of solutions for the “Western Arc” proposed by the developers together with officers have come up with a raft of junction improvements to get traffic through. Any cycling or walking elements are entirely within the developments themselves.

 

We believe that as councillors and officers our town has lost what were great opportunities to make changes to the way we get around. The council introduced a great scheme on Beech Grove which worked for 18 months but was withdrawn. Every other scheme has been abandoned and you will be told the same things, that schemes are being worked on and conversations held with Active travel England.

No doubt you will be told the next set of delays will be because next year the appointment of a Mayor and changes to more direct funding will be the solution. And so it goes on.

 

Until there is a change of policy and officers are given the directive to design and deliver effective sustainable transport schemes we will not see any delivery in our lifetime.

 

Harrogate could by now have had a first-class cycle and walking network which would make such a difference to all our lives, but we are bound by the focus on people in their cars and to keep them moving.

 

We have failed our children and grandchildren in not considering their future.

 

Councillors, please learn more about the failure of delivery of any meaningful scheme for safe cycle infrastructure, the failure to spend funding bids and to fall back time and again on allocating more space at junctions to cars. Investigate what is going on and stop accepting a litany of excuses why not.

 

The Chair thanked Gia Margolis for the statement and invited Mark Codman (Democratic Services) to read out a response on behalf of the Council’s Highways Team:

 

“North Yorkshire Council Highways Officers would like to thank the Harrogate District Cycle Action Group for their submitted statement regarding their concerns with active travel scheme progress in Harrogate. The group's disappointment in active travel project delivery has been noted and previously acknowledged via emails and detailed meetings with senior managers. The west of Harrogate promoters have given consideration towards active travel as part of the west of Harrogate parameters plan with a proposed bus route extension to service the new housing sites together with funding for the pump priming of the service. In addition, walking and cycling schemes have been put forward which includes; Otley Road phase three, Windmill Farm housing sites at Harlow Moor Road, plus an active travel scheme encompassing Whinny Lane and Panal Ash Road. Planning applications will include a cumulative transport assessment which will have appendices to the indicative layouts for all proposed off-site highway schemes and active travel proposals allowing those with interest to offer their comments through the plan planning process. North Yorkshire Council are committed to delivering successful active travel projects and the highways team will continue to submit bids that they are eligible for to enable active travel across the county. The team have had a successful year engaging positively with local user groups such as HAPARA the road safety campaign group and local school communities. Such positive partnerships will prove to support successful delivery going forward in addition to this it should also be noted that at the request of members from the Harrogate and Knaresborough Area Constituency Committee there will be quarterly updates regarding active travel progress to this committee and the next one is planned for March 2024. Thank you Chair.”

 

The Chair invited Hazel Peacock to read out a statement on behalf of Oatlands & Pannal Ash Road Safety & Active Travel Campaign:

 

Thank you chair. I am Hazel Peacock from the Oatlands & Pannal Ash Road Safety & Active Travel Campaign and I am here today to ask for your help.

 

The final sign off of the 20mph zone for Oatlands and Pannal Ash presented to you in September is shortly to be made. There are important additions to this which without only 5 of the 9 schools in the zone will be fully covered with 20mph roads immediately surrounding them; leaving 4 schools (with over 3,000 pupils) without; and 30mph at St John Fishers and Willow Tree Primary Schools and a mixture of 30mph and 20mph in the case of Harrogate Grammar School and Oatlands Infant School.

 

With 16 children killed or seriously injured in road crashes every week on their way to or from school, we are all acutely aware of the case for 20mph around schools and across communities (especially in urban areas) and sadly the death of two pedestrians (aged 70 and 90) involved in separate collisions in Harrogate in the last 2 weeks, is a very sad reminder of the catastrophic outcomes of road accidents.

 

The NY 20mph policy and the DfT Guidance (from which the NYC policy is developed) has been repeatedly cited as the barrier to implementing 20mph on these roads and was also cited to you here in September. The NYC policy states, “Officers will check…The Road is not a network hierarchy Category 2 road”. However, the DfT Guidance 01/2013 includes two clauses allowing for 20mph on “main streets”, which could be and are not currently included in the NYC policy. It states: ‘’Traffic authorities can, over time, introduce 20mph speed limits or zones on major streets where there are - or could be - significant numbers of journeys on foot where pedal cycle movements are an important consideration, and this outweighs the disadvantage of longer journey times on the motorist”. This is in addition to residential streets, in cities, towns and villages, particularly where the streets are being used by people on foot and on bicycles, there is community support, and the characteristics of the street are suitable.”

 

At Full Council last week, Cllr Duncan replied to our request for this amendment stating: “our current 20mph speed limit and zone policy does in fact already allow for the implementation of 20mph on major streets as defined by DfT guidance, therefore no amendment to that policy is required”. This reassurance is welcomed, but it is not stated, nor explicit in the NYC policy. So this is where we need your help; for the purposes of openness, transparency and clarity, and to deliver the best outcomes for the Oatlands and Pannal Ash scheme and other future ones, we are urging you to:

 

-           support a motion at the next Full Council meeting on the inclusion of the DfT clauses in the NYC 20mph policy

-           and secondly to ask NY to supply the categories of the roads mentioned, as outlined in the NYC Carriageway Infrastructure Asset Management Plan.

-          

With your support, we hope we can get the best possible scheme for the schoolchildren and community in Oatlands and Pannal Ash and future ones.

Thank you.

 

Mark Codman (Democratic Services) read out the following statement on behalf of the Council’s Highways Team:

 

“Officers would like to thank Hazel Peacock for the submitted statement. The 20 MPH review has considered and applied the guidance within North Yorkshire Council 20 MPH speed limit and zone policy and the department for transports DFT circular 01 2013. It has been acknowledged that the existing NYC 20 MPH speed limit policy does already allow for the implementation of 20 MPH on major streets but the policy is also clear that this should be considered in line with the appropriate function and place with suitable characteristics and highway environment. Both NYC’s policy and the DFT guidance recognise the need to ensure that any 20 MPH implementation is self- enforcing this is achieved by ensuring the correct sites are taken forward. Officers would also like to remind members and the road safety campaign group that these proposals will be subject to further consultation with the public before implementation. The report is to be submitted to the Environment Executive Member’s meeting for consideration on the 18 December and will detail the roads considered and provide the rational to support the final recommendation. The report will be publicly available a week before the meeting date and there will be an opportunity for both members and the public to offer comments at this point should they wish thank you chair”

 

Councillor Hannah Gostlow proposed that the public statements be forwarded to North Yorkshire Councils Transport, Economy, Environment and Enterprise Scrutiny Committee for consideration for scrutiny, this proposal was seconded by Councillor Mike Schofield. Members voted to approve the motion with seven Members voting for the proposal, two against and three abstentions.