Agenda item

The City Transport Director submits a report providing members of the commission with a proposed scope for the review of the operating hours of bus lanes within Leicester and the opportunity to comment on the scope for the review, suggest items to include, and consider joining the working group.

The City Transport Director submitted a report providing members of the commission with a proposed scope for the review of the operating hours of bus lanes within Leicester, giving the Commission the opportunity to comment on the scope for the review, suggest items to include, and consider joining the working group.

A representative from Climate Action Leicester and Leicestershire, Nicola Royale, attended the meeting and asked the following with reference to this item and the subsequent item on EV Charging:

·       How will the limited National Grid capacity affect the Council’s plans for the city?

·       How is the Council going to manage the competing demands for more electricity?

·       Will the Council start building a network of car-free streets, specifically for cyclists, pedestrians and buses? This would both reduce the need for electric cars, support people who cannot afford cars to get around, and it would leave more of the available electricity to be used on heating homes – which is more essential than owning a car for most people in low-income neighbourhoods.

The following response was given:

• Had engaged with National Grid as part of the preparation of its Local Plan to ensure they see plans for future city development and could plan their infrastructure and any competing demands accordingly over the longer term.

• The Council’s Draft Local Transport Plan that CAL was consulted on identified a transport hierarchy on page 36 that, in priority order, supported reducing the need to travel, Active Travel, zero emission bus travel, shared mobility and finally zero emission private vehicles. The plan also promoted accessibility for all including low-cost transport, acknowledging the low car ownership within many neighbourhoods.

• Ultimately modal shift to sustainable transport was preferred to simple conversion of petrol/diesel cars to EV as the latter would not address congestion and did not completely tackle air pollution.

• To support this strategy the council had invested substantial resources through its Connecting Leicester Programme over the past 13 years to deliver extensive pedestrianised streets and cycleways supporting Active Travel, and bus infrastructure, including bus priority measures to encourage bus patronage.

• Over that period 25km of cycleway have been constructed and the central city centre streets have largely been rebuilt creating the largest Pedestrian Priority Zone in the country for walking and cycling.

The Chair introduced the item noting that the scope had needed to wait until government guidance had been produced.  This had now been produced and a task group cold now be organised.

The report was presented, and key points included:

• Bus lanes and similar priority systems enabled improvements to punctuality and reliability for passenger transport users and were a key part to ensuring bus services remained a viable journey choice.
• 21.9m bus services began within the city boundary in 22/23, and Leicester was ranked eleventh in the country for number of bus journeys.
• The majority of the network was commercially operated and was supported by a strong partnership between operators and the local authority.
• Leicester’s bus lanes network was found mostly on 13 key transport corridors and supports the 44 main network bus services and other routes including the park and ride services, orbital, and intra-urban routes into county destinations and beyond. Most of these operated 24/7
• In terms of national context, the government had published a plan for drivers with stronger guidelines on bus lanes for local authorities.  These guidelines could be found form p56 onwards of the document.
• In terms of scoping the scrutiny review, the review looked to consider the location and hours of operation of current and future bus lanes within Leicester and the impacts associated with the deployment and usage of bus lanes.

The Chair outlined the three-meeting approach for the review, with the first meeting looking at the issue at hand, the second hearing form stakeholders and the third drawing up recommendations.

The Commission were invited to ask questions and make comments. Key points included:

• Opportunities to improve the service were always being looked at.
• The scope of the review would look at both current and future bus lanes.
• It was suggested that an effective and frequent bus service was necessary for the city and for bus lanes to make sense.  This in mind, it would be useful to gain information on whether the government could fund the city to increase the service.

Councillors were asked if they wished to take part in the review.

Councillors Bajaj, Singh Sangha and Osman expressed interest in joining the group.

Councillors Orton and Haq expressed interest on behalf of Councillors Rae Bhatia and Porter respectively.

AGREED:

1)    That the report be noted.

2)    That a working group be convened on the issue.

3)    That comments made by members of this commission to be taken into account.

4)    That members to be kept informed of any key issues related to this topic.