Issue - meetings

Representatives from the GCP will inform Councillors of the current consultation which runs until 23 December 2022. 

www.greatercambridge.org.uk/mc-2022

The Committee received a presentation from the Greater Cambridge Partnership (GCP) Senior Delivery Project Manager on the Making Connections consultation which runs until 23 December 2022 GCP Making Connections 2022 | Consult Cambridgeshire (engagementhq.com).

In response to comments made by the Committee, the GCP Senior Delivery Project Manager, and the Transport Planning Director for WSP, said the following:

i.       Officers had not captured responses to the consultation in person/verbally, instead they directed residents to go online, email, or write in, to respond to the consultation.

ii.       If rural residents were not represented in the bus service proposal, they would look at this issue as it had now been captured because of Councillors bringing it to their attention at this meeting. Demand Responsive Transport services were proposed for rural areas but the technical team would reflect on this.

iii.      A workplace parking levy would require further consultation and furthermore, would require Secretary of State for Transport permission

iv.      The GCP Communications team had been focussing on trying to reach as many people as possible, particularly those from harder to reach groups.

v.      GCP Officers had been going into schools to engage with young people. They had also been going into sixth form Colleges. Teachers had assigned students homework to fill in the consultation.

vi.      Two events at the Mill Road Mosque had already taken place.

vii.     They had been to Blackwell Road Traveller’s site and would be doing a further visit to the Fen Road Traveller’s site (post meeting note: this took place on 15^th December).

viii.    They had met with the Citizens Advice Bureau (CAB), particularly in connection with the proposed low-income discount. The CAB had offered to pass along information to users of their service.

ix.      QR codes were going on the back of bus seats that direct people to the consultation to fill in survey.

x.      Bus wraps, signs at bus stops, a leaflet drop (over 200,000 distributed) and newspaper and radio media campaign were used  to advertise the consultation.

xi.      Had already engaged with the University of Cambridge and Anglia Ruskin University Students. They were going to the West Cambridge site to engage there next.

xii.     They were unable to advise which areas of the city were responding most to the survey. Would take this question back to the team. Post-meeting note: the geographic spread of responses would be part of the analysis once the consultation closed.

xiii.    Regarding those doing charity work in their own vehicles, they stated that they must maintain balance between people doing good work and additional administration involved for the system to administer discounts/exemptions for this. This was an area that needed to be looked at in more detail.

xiv.    They were engaging with Food Banks e.g. FoodCycle Cambridge, delivering leaflets there and encouraging attendees to fill out the surveys. Councillor Smith clarified that they should be engaging with Food Hubs. Stated they will look into this.

xv.     Advised that paper copies of the brochure were available at libraries. Needed to check if the survey was also there. Post-meeting note, hard copies of the survey were also sent to libraries.

xvi.    Had been engaging with GP Surgeries about the consultation. Would check on text/push service at GP surgeries. Would investigate how to work with immunocompromised people.

xvii.   Would be willing to work with affected groups to ensure they were aware of all exemptions and discounts.

xviii.  The most inexpensive way to run the scheme was for users to be registered with an account.