Agenda item

Further to minute 34 of the Development Plan Panel held on 2^nd February 2010, to consider a report of the Director of City Development providing further information on the comments received in respect of the transport theme

(report attached)

Further to minute 34 of the Development Plan Panel meeting held on 2^nd February 2010 where Panel considered a report on the initial feedback on the consultation exercise for the Leeds LDF Core Strategy ‘ Preferred Approach’, Members considered a report of the Director of City Development setting out further detailed consideration of the comments received in respect of the transport theme

Officers presented the report and stated that the main theme of the transport chapter was a ‘well-connected city’ based on the delivery of a sustainable and integrated transport strategy to support economic growth and the RSS housing targets, whilst seeking to address climate change issues; safety; security and health; equality of opportunity and quality of life

The four main policy areas in this theme were:

·  Transport investment and management priorities

·  Accessibility requirements and new development

·  Freight

·  Managing the growth of Leeds Bradford Airport

A total of 150 individual responses had been received and that in

general there was support for the majority of the policies.  Members were informed of the main areas of concerns which were:

·  the need to integrate the location of transport infrastructure and potential housing growth areas

·  increased traffic at Leeds Bradford Airport

·  that there were insufficient proposals contained in the document

·  concerns about the availability of funding for the existing proposals and that the economic downturn could mean that some of the proposals could not now be delivered

Members were informed that Transport Leeds were looking at transport

requirements for the next 20 years; that subject to further commissioning by the Government, that ongoing work would be undertaken on delivering a sustainable transport system and that a new transport model would be available for use in the next few months

  Members commented on the following matters:

·  provision for roadside services and whether this referred to formal or informal facilities.  Officers stated that this related to formal services and that they were of the view that the current services were sufficient to meet the needs of road users

·  the comments received on the inadequacy of transport to the airport and where the thrust of these comments emanated from.  Members were informed these were largely responses from individuals and that in terms of funding new infrastructure for Leeds Bradford Airport, it was expected that the airport would make a significant contribution to this

·  the tram train; the view that the situation on this had moved on and that there was no intention of increasing the frequency of the tram train

·  regarding carbon emissions, that there was a policy for a 40% reduction across the Leeds economy and that the document had to take this into account.  Officers stated that the proposals would help to reduce carbon emissions

·  that the strategy should be more ambitious

·  the importance of ensuring that the proposals could be funded and would be capable of being delivered and that this could lead to some difficult decisions having to be made

·  that the current economic situation could not be ignored but that the ambitions in the transport proposals had to be retained to ensure Leeds was ready when the recovery began.  Whist Officers were supportive of this, it was stated that it would be challenging to match ambitions with the resources which were available

Regarding funding, Officers stated that the Department of Transport

Programme looking at the delivery of a sustainable transport system was looking at funding up to 2019.   However, future funding provision was currently uncertain, within the context of wider reductions in public spending.   Despite this difficult context, the City Council and its partners were committed to delivering sustainable transport initiatives

  RESOLVED -  To note the report, the comments now made and the course of further action as set out in appendix 1 of the submitted report in preparing a draft Publication Core Strategy