Agenda item

Andy Salkeld, Transport Development Officer will be present to talk about sustainable transport initiatives.  

The Chair explained that members of the community would be asked for their views as to possibility of setting aside part of the community meeting budget to encourage greener transport. He explained that people who commuted into the city by car, might be encouraged to cycle if they were provided with a bicycle. They would be asked to keep a diary for a period so that their use of the car and bicycle could be logged and evidence collated.

A question was raised as to whether there were any other similar schemes in Leicester and was advised that there had been a similar scheme in the Westcotes Ward. There was a query as to whether congestion on the local roads was caused by Aylestone residents, or whether it was motorists from outside Aylestone, driving through the area who were causing the congestion. The Chair commented that he was keen for evidence to be collated which would provide this sort of detail.

John Dowson, Team manager in the Transport Strategy Section was then introduced to the meeting. He made the following comments:

·         He believed that the idea was workable and a similar project had been successful in the Westcotes Ward.

·          As part of the package in Westcotes cycle training and support had been offered including training with cycle maintenance. The scheme had worked well. 

·          A log of the participants’ activities had been kept, to show the reduction in the use of the motor car and the resulting increase in health benefits.

·         From Aylestone, it could take approximately 20 minutes to cycle into town which was long enough to provide good exercise for the heart and lungs.

·         The journey between the city centre and Aylestone along the Great Central Way was also an enjoyable route for cyclists.

·         It was suggested that the cost of a new cycle would be £250 but the council could offer refurbished cycles at a very reasonable price.

The following comments were raised:

·         Could there be more parking facilities/cycle racks provided for cyclists?

·         Where training was provided for cyclists, could the council ensure that the staff who delivered the training wore cycle helmets? There had been a situation where in a school, where the children were expected to wear a helmet although the trainer did not.

John responded that their council trainers must wear helmets and he asked for further details of this particular incident.

·         How often was a clean up carried out on the Great Central Way because there was broken glass there?

John asked that members of the public reported broken glass so that the problem could be dealt with.

·         Were people generally aware that a cycle permit was need to people to cycle along the Great Central Way?

John confirmed that a permit was required. It was free and could be downloaded from the Waterways website on the internet.

·         Would it be possible to offer bicycles on load for a period of 3 month. After that, if people enjoyed cycling they could purchase their own.

Councillors commented that this was a good idea.

John also referred to buses and explained that bus companies were private companies and the council had very limited authority over them. However a Bus User Panel was being set up, with the aim of opening up a better dialogue with the bus companies. A representative from the Aylestone Ward would be welcome to participate on the panel.  Councillors explained that in the budget for the new financial year there was a proposed cut in bus subsidies which would affect the local bus as it was non-profit making. Members of the community were asked to talk to the councillors if they thought they would be affected by the proposed cut in subsidies.

Members of the public were asked to indicate whether they were in favour of setting aside £3000 of the Community Meeting budget for a project to encourage greener and more environment friendly transport.  Once a decision had been made to ring-fence money for this purpose, a separate meeting could be held to discuss the next steps.  Members of the public proposed and seconded the ring-fencing of £3000 of the Aylestone Community Meeting budget for this purpose and other members of the public indicated by a show of hands that they were in favour of this proposal.

Julie Harget, Democratic Support Officer explained that if all the pending funding applications were supported, this would leave a balance of £8883. If £3000 was set aside for Greener Transport initiatives, approximately £5,883 would be left in the budget. Julie stated that it would be advisable to assume that there would be no carry forward of unspent monies to the new financial year.