The City Mayor will answer questions raised by members of the Overview Select Committee on issues not covered elsewhere on the agenda.
Minutes:
The following questions were put to the City Mayor at the meeting:
a) Parking Bays for Disabled Drivers
Councillor Joshi stated that he understood that parking bays for disabled drivers were no longer being installed and asked if there was any progress on changing this decision, as many requests for these bays were received by Ward Councillors.
The City Mayor advised that he was not aware that they were not being installed and asked Members to provide details of any examples of this in order that the circumstances could be investigated.
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Members to advise the City Mayor of any examples of which they aware of requests for parking bays for disabled drivers being refused, in order that their circumstances can be investigated |
All Members |
b) City Centre Parking for Councillors
Councillor Porter noted that City Councillors received free parking in the city centre and asked if this was appropriate when the Council was considering introducing a Workplace Parking Levy (WPL).
In reply, the City Mayor reminded Members that, at present, only the potential for introducing a WPL was being considered. All comments would be considered and if a WPL scheme was introduced the system developed would take comments in to account.
c) Putney Road Scheme
Councillor Porter asked whether the Putney Road scheme had been deferred until a scheme had been agreed for the Evesham Road boundary road.
The City Mayor advised Councillor Porter that the Putney Road scheme would be considered under minute 33, “Capital Budget Monitoring – Period 3, 2019/20”, below.
d) Potential Evesham Road Boundary Road Scheme
Councillor Porter asked whether progress had been made with developing proposals for an Evesham Road boundary road scheme, or whether this had been abandoned.
The City Mayor reminded Members that he had repeatedly stated that there was no Evesham Road boundary road scheme. However, a proposal for a road that crossed the edge of Aylestone Meadows was being considered, to provide some relief from traffic for Aylestone. This would be considered by the Economic Development, Transport and Tourism Scrutiny Commission, including in the context of the forthcoming consultation on the developing Local Plan.
Councillor Porter noted that currently there was no highway line across this land and questioned why it would be considered by the Scrutiny Commission.
The City Mayor explained that the road scheme that would be considered by the Scrutiny Commission had been requested for many years by people in Aylestone, due to significant problems with traffic. It would be very expensive to provide a boundary road and it was not considered to be a realistic possibility that funds could be found for such a scheme in the near future. The development of the Local Plan therefore provided an opportunity to consider if one could be justified at any point. Other roads in the city had similar problems with traffic, (such as Upperton Road and Middleton Street), but no funding was available for schemes to alleviate traffic on them either and no bids for any had been made.
The Chair reminded Members that this Committee’s work programme included consideration of the draft Local Plan, which also would be considered at relevant Scrutiny Commissions and by full Council.