Agenda item

The Director of Planning, Development and Transportation submits a report on the Transforming Cities Schemes – Connected Leicester.

The scheme proposals being presented for discussion are:

·         Connected Neighbourhoods – Beaumont Leys

·         Anstey Lane

·         Abbey Park Road

Scrutiny Commission Members are requested to note the officer comments made in response to issues raised by them at the recent informal commission briefing. Further comments can be made at the Scrutiny meeting and these can be considered as the schemes are developed in detail prior to scheme delivery.

The Director of Planning, Development and Transportation submitted a report updating on the Transforming Cities Fund (TCF) programme and Connected Leicester aimed at providing improved choices for commuters who travel by bus, cycle or walk as alternatives to car use.

The City Centre Streets Programme Manager briefly introduced the report noting that Members had received a separate informal briefing in February regarding three schemes at Beaumont Leys, Anstey Lane/Buckminster Road and Abbey Park Road which were briefly recapped.

Officers had given consideration to a cycle way along Brading Road, however the issue was that this would be twice the length of Buckminster Road, also Brading Road was relatively narrow with no space to widen footways so bikes would have to share space with vehicles and that road had quite a lot of traffic.

The Chair acknowledged that Brading Road was quite narrow and it would be difficult to put a cycle lane in,  it was suggested it would be preferable to see a cycle lane created along the grass verge of Buckminster Road rather than the closure of that road.

A member stressed a point made previously about Leicester East being included in this type of development programme in future.

A member raised concerns about the success of such schemes, whilst road surfaces and footpaths for example were in poor states and whether these types of schemes were improving congestion, lowering journey times, reducing air pollution and carbon emissions.

A member commented that the costs of owning and running a car was prohibitive to many and indirect costs such as air pollution, accidents, health aspects, should be borne in mind and, perhaps more should be done to discourage driving. The city is built on assumption of being able to drive but the biggest obstacle to getting around city by alternative means is its infrastructure, as a lot of design decisions favoured the car driver. It was suggested that the Beaumont Leys scheme could be more ambitious.

Responding to Members comments it was explained that these schemes were intended to encourage people to use more sustainable and active modes of transport, such as cycling or bus transport but acknowledging that some people do need to continue to use a car. Radial trips around the city were not well catered for but officers were trying to develop a city less dependent on cars although the way the city had been built up over more than a hundred years made that challenging. There was also continuous growth in terms of population and road users to take account of.

The Director Planning- Development & Transportation commented that some important points had been made and there was a need to consider the city we want to live in future, a lot of cities saw sustainable transport as part of their place making and Leicester was a successful growing city, with an enormous amount of growth and have to keep working at investing resources to help people move around the city and investing in sustainable transport was important too. Equally important was the state of road and footways and much of this investment benefits states of roads too as it also includes resurfacing roads.

The Chair thanked everyone for their contributions and in summary noted that there was considerable support for most proposals, noted the concerns raised about the issue on Buckminster Road which would be subject to consultation, there was a wish to see more of this type work in Leicester East and there was some concern also about the impacts.

AGREED:

1.    That the contents of the report be noted,

2.    That the comments of the Commission be noted and considered as the schemes are developed,

3.    That Officers include alternative options to closure around the Buckminster Road location when the consultation is undertaken.