Agenda item

Report of the Director of Climate Change, Environment and Transport (CET/23/80).

The Chair exercised his discretion to allow oral representations from nominated members of the public as follows:

·         Ian Frankum (representing those against the Trial);

·         Professor Richard Betts (representing those in support of the Trial);

·         Marilyn Lant (representing the views of the blind against the Trial); and

·         Nanna Teeg (representing the views of the disabled community against the Trial).

Councillors P Holland, A Sheridan and A Jobson from Exeter City Council also attended in accordance with Standing Order 25 to speak against the Trial Scheme.

The Committee noted the Report of the Director of Climate Change, Environment and Transport (CET/23/80), which provided an update on the Active Streets Heavitree and Whipton Trial Scheme.

The trial scheme had been approved by the Committee on 20 June 2023 and had been implemented through Experimental Traffic Regulation Orders (ETRO)s, which came into force on 3 August 2023.

Since the commencement of the trial, the Council had been receiving feedback on the changes through several channels, including:

-       Responses to the Statutory Consultation relating to the ETROs

-       Other emails, letters and telephone calls

-       Public exhibitions

-       Engagement with stakeholders, such as emergency services and taxi operators.

A key emerging theme among feedback received had been concern around impacts of the trial scheme on taxi and private hire vehicle operations (PHV).  Feedback had indicated that the trial scheme had made some taxi/PHV journeys longer, increasing passenger costs, many of whom were reliant on taxis, used bus services or drove for health reasons, shopping and education needs.

In light of public and stakeholder concerns, a delegated decision had been made (in accordance with *Minute103 of the 20 June 2023 committee meeting) to modify the ETROs for the trial scheme to exempt taxis and PHVs from the bus gate restrictions, to enable more direct access for taxis and PHVs to locations within the scheme area. It was hoped to implement these changes from 9 November 2023. 

For consistency, a separate ETRO would be implemented to exempt taxis and PHVs from the bus gate restrictions on Wonford Road, for which a statutory consultation would also be undertaken to last for six months from the date of implementation (unless subsequently modified). The implementation date for this change might be slightly later than the Active Streets modifications.

Further, the Council were working with Exeter City Council on the installation of air quality sensors around the Trial boundary roads and looked forward to seeing the results when in situ.

Questions and discussion points with Members and Officers included:

·       Exempting blue badge holders to use the bus gates was not currently supported because blue badges were not vehicle specific and would be difficult to enforce. Currently, moving traffic offences were only enforceable by the Police, but a change in the law could give local authorities the ability to enforce these offences in the future.

·       Bus gate compliance – officers confirmed that monitoring would continue throughout the statutory consultation and further information on this would be included in an update to the next meeting in January.

·       As the statutory consultation was still ongoing, the results would not be released until the end of that statutory period.

·       Manual traffic count data on Polsloe Road would be shared with Members when available.

·       It was anticipated the air quality sensors on the boundary roads would be installed in the coming weeks, and those results would also be shared with Members.  

·       Members’ requested that exemptions also applied to Carers in using the bus gates.

·       Traffic light sequencing – this would be looked at by the Traffic Signals team.

·       At present, data showed that traffic had increased on the boundary roads, particularly north/south direction, however this was only a small 10-week sample. A better understanding would be gained by continued monitoring to produce a more accurate picture.

·       Weekend monitoring was also being carried out and would be included in the next update report.  Members agreed that data was crucial.

An update report to include the above requested data would be provided at the next Committee meeting in January.

The Chair thanked the speakers for their attendance and wished to reassure people that their views were being heard and considered. The public were urged to continue feeding into the statutory consultation.