Agenda item

To consider the report of the Chief Officer Highways and Transportation which briefs Ward Members on the Leeds Streets for All campaign which will now go live in September.

The report of the Chief Officer Highways and Transportation briefed Ward

Members on the Leeds Streets for All campaign which was to go live in September 2024.

The Team Leader (Transport Strategy) and Senior Project Officer from City Development, presented the report and outlined the following information:

• The marketing and consultation branch of the Highways Department was scheduled to run a consultation for the Inner South Wards, beginning in September 2024 and running for 6 weeks. The consultation was to be public facing, requesting local people to outline their traffic and highway infrastructure issues in the area to inform travel plans.
• An animation was played for Members to explain the process for the online consultation, allowing residents to drop a pin and leave an explanation where issues were noted. The aim was to increase accessibility of local areas and amenities and create a more diverse range of travel options.
• The service was attending Community Committee meetings across all Wards to better understand local travel infrastructure issues. The consultation allowed residents to have their say on local area plans and then issues were to be prioritised when funding became available. The consultation was to be primarily ran through a dedicated webpage.
• Issues had been divided into 5 categories: vehicles and parking, walking and wheeling, cycling, bus stops and rail stations and street environment. Upon dropping a pin on the website, it then required selection of one of the 5 categories, in addition to a further text box to provide an opportunity for detailed explanation.
• There had recently been significant works to highways and traffic infrastructure within the city centre and better provision was needed to spread out into outer areas and local communities. Detailed plans based on local consultation responses was to capture funding as it came available with well prepared ideas which would reduce delays.
• Funding was secured from central Government and also allocated by the West Yorkshire Combined Authority (WYCA).
• The consultation also covered green spaces and route plans, supported by traffic engineers and the Climate Energy and Green Spaces department.
• Council initiatives, data and strategies were also considered as part of plan development, including, Vision Zero, school travel patterns, public transport routes, key destinations, Connecting Communities and Local Cycling and Walking Infrastructure Plans.
• As an example, data from the Inner West consultation, ran in November 2023, was noted as, 2,300 website visitors, 610 dropped pins, with vehicles and parking being the highest selected category. Paid social media advertisements were the most effective way of building engagement.
• The Inner South consultation was to begin on the 23^rd of September 2024 and was to run for 6 weeks. Although the consultation was focused on the webpage, methods to be accessible were outlined as, information and help at Community Hubs, stakeholders sharing the consultation with wider groups and Leeds Involving People assisting with submissions and information sharing.
• Members were encouraged to share the material with residents and spread the word through schools and surgery sessions.
• Progress monitoring was to be through review of responses and detailed data analysis.

Members discussions included the following points:

• A link to the animation showed to Members at the beginning of the presentation was to be provided so it could be shown to the public as a useful tool for engaging with the consultation.
• When requesting local residents to engage with consultations, clear timeframes needed to be outlined for the process to provide some clarity as to when alterations to highways and relevant infrastructure would occur.
• A similar consultation had been conducted through the same private partner, Commonplace, and frustration with repat consultations was noted as many accessibility issues had previously been identified yet residents had not seen the required alterations come into fruition. It may thus be difficult for Councillors to promote another run of consultation. In response it was noted that the previous active travel survey had been through a different service department.
• The pathway for providing solutions was queried as Members were mindful of not raising expectations without clear plans that addressed issues. In response it was noted that implementing plans was dependent on funding, but the consultation was thorough, with the text box tool providing use for large scale analytics. The plans and maintenance were linked to Asset Management and consultation results were to be shared across services and any forthcoming proposals were to match public responses.
• No additional cost of running the consultation through Commonplace was noted as there was a rolling fee as part of the 3 year contract.
• The 6 week consultation period was able to be extended if expenditure could be justified. There was an intention to create a suite of active schemes which would be specific to each local area.
• Accessibility issues were noted, and given the demographic make up of the Inner South area, the translation tool was not fit for purpose. The methods for addressing barriers to access were queried. In response it was outlined that demographic data was to build a picture of received responses and then there was to be an aimed focus to speak to less heard from demographic groups.
• Demographic breakdown should incorporate vast data sets, including super output area and Census data to provide an accurate scope of who the consultation reached, Members also noted they may be best suited to assist with bridging gaps to less heard people.
• Members outlined that the notion of the consultation being dependant on future funding needed to be better communicated in order to allow better scrutiny of prioritisation.
• Data sets should be linked other Council statistics, such as health inequalities. This would allow schemes to be developed under better scrutiny and to allow best practise and to front load the consultation to best inform dynamic plans as funding became available.
• It was suggested that site visits were sometimes needed to follow up consultation responses, as they were often required to understand issues properly.
• Third sector input was required in order to provide fair engagement for people who were not able to access the online consultation. iPads were also available for use at Community Hubs, with technical support offered.
• It was confirmed that prize draws were not being considered as a method of encouraging engagement, this was due to budget constraints.
• Neighbourhood associations were suggested as a good arena for engagement. Using local individuals or organisations as champions to open discussions and feedback to the service was also a method that would not be onerous to the Council.
• Increased effort and investment in communications and engagement was needed to drive efficiency, manage expectations and reduce costs.

 RESOLVED – That the report, along with Members comments, be noted.