Issue - decisions

Matter for Decision

The City Council, South Cambridgeshire District Council and Cambridgeshire County Council have a history of joint working on planning matters, particularly on plan-making. As part of the duty to cooperate, the three councils have agreed to work collaboratively and in parallel on new local plans and a transport strategy for the Cambridge area. This approach will ensure that cross-boundary issues and relevant wider matters are addressed in a consistent and joined-up manner.

 

The City Council published its Local Plan on 19 July 2013. On the same day, Cambridgeshire County Council published its Draft Transport Strategy for Cambridge and South Cambridgeshire.

 

In appraising the draft strategy, the key issue for the City Council is to ensure that the draft strategy reflects the strategic transport aspirations for Cambridge and the sub-region, and helps secure the implementation of the City Council and South Cambridgeshire’s local plans.

 

The Officer’s report included representations to the draft Transport

Strategy for Cambridge and South Cambridgeshire (Appendix A) for submission to Cambridgeshire County Council following member steer at Development Plan Scrutiny Sub-Committee.

 

Decision of Executive Councillor for Planning and Climate

Change

Agreed the representations to the Draft Transport Strategy for Cambridge and South Cambridgeshire set out in Appendix A of the Officer’s report, plus amendments from 10 September DPSSC; and that these are submitted to Cambridgeshire County Council as Cambridge City Council’s formal response to the consultation.

 

Reason for the Decision

As set out in the Officer’s report.

 

Any Alternative Options Considered and Rejected

Not applicable.

 

Scrutiny Considerations

The Committee received a report from the Head of Planning Services.

 

The Committee made the following comments in response to the report:

 

       i.          Agreed with statements in ‘1.0 General Comments On The Strategy Document’ that the Transport Strategy was aspirational and required further details regarding deliverability.

     ii.          ‘General Comments In Relation To Cycling’: Strategic routes needed to be gritted and maintained. This applied equally to vehicle, foot and bicycle routes

   iii.          ‘General Comments In Relation To Air Quality, Noise And Nuisance Issues’: The Transport Strategy appeared not to have identified segregated bus routes as originally proposed. The City Council should periodically ask the County Council to review network capacity for bus services.

   iv.          ‘Section 2. The Strategy Approach’: Supported the Low Emission Zone in principle, but sought clarification how car park visitors would be distinguished from other visitors to the area.

    v.          4. The Transport Strategy: The Strategy should set benchmarks for high quality bus routes, such as frequency and predictability.

   vi.          Councillor Blencowe asked if the Committee supported the Core Traffic Scheme extension. The Executive Councillor said he supported the County Council investigating proposals using the normal process and subject to consultation.

 vii.          Councillor Reid said that section 4.30 of the Transport Strategy appeared to be a change of direction regarding on-street parking and controlled parking zones. The policy currently disallowed on-street parking and controlled parking zones, but appeared to consider allowing them in future. The Head of Planning Services undertook to emphasise the need for consultation on these issues. A staged implementation would be desired if schemes were implemented to observe the impact of these measures on city traffic flow.

 

In response to Members’ questions the Head of Planning Services said the following:

 

General Comments In Relation To Cycling

 

       i.          The Cambridge City response was a composite of comments from various officers. The response could be amended to put greater emphasis on public transport to encourage a modal shift away from cars to other forms of public transport (not just bicycles) when visiting Cambridge. In effect to support the County Council encouragement of modal shift.

 

Section 2. The Strategy Approach

 

     ii.          The Head of Planning Services undertook to clarify areas affected by the Low Emission Zone Traffic Management Scheme in the East Area. She said that Low Emission Zone would cover most of the city, but some areas would be exempt, such as arterial routes.

 

4. The Transport Strategy

 

   iii.          Housing developments and growth areas would benefit from planned cycle routes. This could lead to a change in behaviour where people favoured cycling to work instead of driving.

 

5. The High Level Programme/Walking and Cycling

 

   iv.          The Committee agreed nem con to add the following wording:

 

“Could consider the removal of car parking in order to improve the city cycle network on roads such as Lensfield Road, Davy Road and Coleridge Road”.

 

The Head of Planning Services undertook to circulate a copy of the City Council response document showing amendments as tracked changes based on DPSSC comments; for Chair and Spokes sign off prior to submission.

 

The Committee resolved by 3 votes to 0 to endorse the recommendation as amended, subject to review of final response wording by Chair and Spokes.

 

The Executive Councillor approved the recommendation.

 

Conflicts of Interest Declared by the Executive Councillor (and any Dispensations Granted)

No conflicts of interest were declared by the Executive Councillor.