Agenda item

Councillor Wallace addressed the Committee on this item.

In summary, Councillor Wallace made reference to the following points:

·       Four years into the ten-year Winchester Movement Strategy (WMS) plan he stated that progress had been poor, whilst officers highlighted the small steps that had taken place, he suggested that resident’s deserved better than any pretence that the plan was on track.

·       Councillor Wallace stated that no reference had been made to the delays to the LTP4, the City’s local walking and cycling infrastructure plan, the Winchester district walking and cycling infrastructure plan and spending on new cycle parking which was also behind plan, whilst infrastructure projects continued to be approved to increase traffic in the city centre.

·       The Mini-Holland project had been cancelled by the Government so funding for this initiative was no longer available.

·       Bus services in the district continue to be reduced or cut in some areas.

·       Although many of the issues raised were out of the council’s control, Councillor Wallace stated that the council should not be part of perpetuating the myth that there was an effective plan being worked.

·       A need to re-evaluate matters going forward to align with the council’s net zero priorities.

·       The priority to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

·       He suggested that the emissions savings from each of the schemes needed to be quantified to help with prioritising the key actions.

·       The next steps need to be bolder to have any significant impact on reducing traffic in Winchester and the carbon impact across the district.

In response to the points raised above, Councillor Learney stated that whilst she understood the sentiment expressed by Councillor Wallace, it needed to be recognised that transport schemes were extremely costly and that government funding requirements to support these schemes were fast-changing, with the competitive process requiring a council to place significant resource into putting bids together. Currently local authorities were struggling and needed to work practically within the resources that were available to them.

The Chair welcomed Geoff Hobbs and Stewart Wilson of Hampshire Highways to the meeting to contribute to the presentation and answer questions thereon.

The Cabinet Member for Climate Emergency introduced the item which provided an update on the Winchester Movement Strategy. The committee were reminded that the strategy was a joint city and council transport strategy agreed in 2019, with the aims of reducing traffic, increasing levels of walking and cycling and improving air quality whilst supporting economic growth. Since the agreement, there had been many changes with the declaration of the climate emergency. However, given the timescales involved in transport projects, the benefits of the long-term partnership work and continuing the workstreams of the Strategy, still remained strong and would result in significant benefits to the city for the future.

The Transport Planner and the Hampshire Highways representatives gave a detailed presentation which provided an update on the Winchester Movement Strategy and transport actions, its priorities and set out the latest on the plans, schemes and workstreams involved within the process.

The committee proceeded to ask questions and comment on the following matters which were responded to by the relevant Cabinet Member, the Transport Planner and Hampshire Highways representatives:

(i)       Plans to improve cycling access links into the city centre for those       wishing to cycle from surrounding wards and villages such as       Colden Common and Twyford.

(ii)       Reassurance from data that the measures within the WMS are      sufficient to deliver the necessary reductions in carbon and traffic    required to achieve the 2030 target, following the recent Carbon          Neutrality Action Plan (CNAP) presentation indicating that transport, as        a whole, was the biggest contributor to carbon emission.

(iii)      Funding requirements and pressures.

(iv)      The ability to meet the Department for Transport decarbonisation       targets of 50% of journeys to be walked or cycled within the city by     2030 and the world class cycling network by 2040.

(v)      The scope of the WMS relative to the transport elements of the overall           CNAP.

(vi)      The park and ride expansion.

(vii)     The inclusion of an emission impact on each of the schemes within the WMS updates going forward.

(viii)    Re-evaluation of the schemes to establish if any matters could be        delivered in the short-medium term.

(ix)      The reliability of the bus service provision.

At the conclusion of debate, thanked officers for the update and the informative presentation received.

RESOLVED:

                     That the contents of the presentation be received, and the         comments raised by the committee, as summarised above, be noted.