Agenda item

Councillor Hunt submits a report which considers the Leicester West Transport Scheme following its referral from the full Council meeting on 5 June 2003.

Councillor Hunt submitted a report, which referred to the Council’s recommendation at its meeting, held on 5 June 2003 in response to a ‘call-in’ of the decision taken by Cabinet on 22 April 2003 on the Leicester West Transport Scheme. The Council resolution was as follows:-

“that the decisions of the Cabinet in relation to the Leicester West Transportation Scheme be referred back to Cabinet with a recommendation that Cabinet review the location of the Southern Park and Ride site”.

An addendum report was circulated to the Cabinet which outlined the options available to the Cabinet. Councillor Hunt reaffirmed that Park and Ride was an issue of high priority for the new Cabinet as it affected wider issues regarding investment, wealth and regeneration within the City. He stated that if the proposals for Park and Ride didn’t go ahead then the City may be forced by the Government into some form of congestion charging which the Cabinet did not support.

Councillor Scuplak also commented that the new administration was open to ideas about the location of the sites. He confirmed he felt the choice of the proposed site in Aylestone was incorrect and he felt the City’s site would have better been located in the north or west of the city where there was more open land. Councillor Hunt recommended that Option 2 contained within the addendum report be the option pursued to take the matter forward.

RESOLVED:

(1)that the City Council, in partnership with the County Council, submit a bid for Major Scheme funding to the Department for Transport to fund the Leicester West Transport Scheme, based on the originally submitted report, but without reference to the site at Aylestone, as per Option 2 in the report, subject to resolution (3) below;

(2) that the Highways and Transportation Scrutiny Committee be invited to comment on the report prior to its further consideration by Cabinet; and

(3)that a further report be brought before Cabinet no later than 31 July 2003, confirming the final details of the bid, including resource implications and detailing the share of risk and benefits between the City and County Councils on the basis that no call-in may then be made due to technical reasons and timescales required as outlined in Section 11 of the report.