Name

Subject

Reason

Interest

Councillor Browne

Plymouth Third Local Transport Plan

(minute 36 refers)

Member of Planning Committee

Personal

(a)

the Tamar Valley discovery trail runs from Tamerton Foliot to Launceston and has approximately 1km of trail within Plymouth;

(b)

the Tamar Valley AONB were looking into ways of promoting and improving the trail as well as trying to increase local involvement in walking the trail;

(c)

improvements to the trail included increased and more visible signage and the creation of new check points and marker points;

(d)

promoting the trail to local communities was being dealt with by the local Stepping Stones to Nature Project, additionally the Tamar Valley AONB was liaising with Tamerton Foliot School with the aim of them adopting a small section of the trail;

(e)

with Natural England funding becoming available for walking for health schemes, local health walk groups were being communicated with to try and set up new walking projects. The overall aim was to increase the number of volunteer walks in the area.

(f)

the information about the trail had been passed to the Ordinance Survey mapping agency;

(g)

the health walks were only started last year and the information was available in local libraries.

(a)

the timeframe for the LTP3 had been selected at 15 years, which was a longer timeframe than previous LTPs;

(b)

the LTP3 had two distinct elements which were to set out a Transport Strategy for Plymouth and a Transport Implementation Plan;

(c)

the transport strategy would be used to help the council deliver the city’s growth, carbon reduction and reducing inequality agendas, as well as enabling the authority to prioritise investment and support funding bids;

(d)

the LTP3 followed five national transport goals, which were –

·         

supporting economic growth;

·         

tackling climate change;

·         

promoting equality of opportunity;

·         

improving safety, security and health;

·         

improving quality of life;

(e)

the five national transport goals led to six local objectives, which were;

·         

to link communities together;

·         

to reduce the negative impacts of transport;

·         

to provide high quality transport standards for a vibrant city;

·         

to make walking, cycling and public transport the desirable choice;

·         

to maximise the transport contribution to Plymouth’s carbon reduction target;

·         

to use transport to drive the local economy;

(f)

the Transport Implementation Plan had been developed with a flexible approach as it needs to be able to evolve and respond to funding streams and developments as they emerge;

(g)

some of the effects on Transport following the Comprehensive Spending Review included a cumulative 28 per cent saving on local transport revenue grants over the next four years, an 11 per cent saving on transport capital expenditure and a 20 per cent reduction in subsidy (fuel cost reimbuirsement) paid to bus operators from 2012 – 2013;

(h)

the consultation for the LTP3 ends on 14 January 2011 with final approval of the LTP3 at Full Council on 11 April 2011.

(i)

the council was very mindful that small scale walking and cycling schemes often provide excellent value for money;

(j)

the LTP3 was trying to address a number of issues and the LAF should direct its opinions and comments via the consultation process in order to improve the aspects relating to public rights of way.

(a)

the plan had a lot of merit and it was very impressive to see such a large green space being opened up in Plymouth;

(b)

the forum should have a position statement in which it directly responds to consultations particularly in regard to public rights of way.

(a)

there were a number of changes happening to many public sector organisations and bodies, and the LAF also needed to change;

(b)

one change to the LAF had already been implemented with web links attached to the agenda where possible, rather than hard copies of consultation requests;

(c)

the changes proposed were to enable the LAF to become a more effective, efficient and focused body, particularly with regard to their role in advising section 94 bodies;

(d)

the proposed changes were to the agenda and the administration and delivery of the LAF;

(e)

the changes to the agenda included –

·     

replacing the agenda item ‘Any other business’ with a new agenda item called ‘Issues arising from Forum members’;

·     

including two new items onto all future agendas; the items would be called ‘Tracking resolutions’ and ‘Work Programme’;

(f)

replacing the ‘Any other business’ item would remove any ambiguity that surrounds this item and make the agenda item focus solely on issues that have arisen from Forum members since the last meeting;

(g)

adding an item called ‘Tracking resolutions’ on to the agenda would enable Forum members to understand what actions had been taken since the last meeting and if there were any outstanding actions that hadn’t been dealt with;

(h)

the ‘Work programme’ agenda item would allow Forum members to become more focused on strategic issues that the Forum could deal with;

(i)

the changes to the administration and delivery of the LAF were more complex and as a result each Forum member would be able to have their say on the proposals by filling in a consultation questionnaire.

(1)

if the agenda has a web link attached Forum members should view the content and make comments so that they are prepared for the meeting;

(2)

that all proposed changes to the agenda be implemented for the next meeting of the LAF;

(3)

that all members complete the evaluation questionnaire and return them to the LAF secretary by Friday 10 December.

(a)

Groundwork and other volunteers were doing some amazing work at the Radford Woods project and the feedback received so far had been excellent;

(b)

the project had created new public rights of way, a nature trail, a circular path and had also improved signage and fencing;

(c)

the new public rights of way that were created had recently been signed off and would be added to the Definitive map;

(d)

drainage issues within Radford Woods had been targeted to for improvement.

(a)

having the South West Coast Path as an item on the LAF’s agenda was a good way of highlighting the continued closure of the section of footpath at Jennycliff and Staddon Heights;

(b)

the footpath was closed in February 2010 as a result of a landslip, since then further small landslips have led to Plymouth City Council commissioning a ground stability survey, the results of which have yet to be published;

(c)

the closure of the footpath could have had negative ecological impacts as well as a negative impact on health of local residents and tourism.

(1)

a letter be sent to Asset Management asking for an explanation to be provided as to the continued closure of the Jennycliff and Staddon Heights section  of the South West Coast Path;

(2)

the South West Coast Path would be added as an agenda item for the next Forum meeting.