Agenda and minutes

Venue: Town Hall, Moorgate Street, ROTHERHAM. S60 2TH

Contact: Debbie Pons, Principal Democratic Services Officer 

Items
No. Item

17.

Appointment of Chairman for the Meeting

Minutes:

Agreed:- That Councillor A. Atkin be appointed Chairman for this meeting.

 

(Councillor Atkin in the Chair)

18.

Minutes of the previous meeting held on 2nd December, 2015 pdf icon PDF 32 KB

Minutes:

Consideration was given to the minutes of the previous meeting of the Transport Liaison Group, held on 2nd December, 2015.

 

Agreed:- That the minutes of the previous meeting be approved as a correct record for signature by the Chairman.

19.

Matters arising from the previous minutes

Minutes:

With reference to Minute No. 14(3) of the minutes of the meeting of the RMBC Transport Liaison Group held on 2nd December, 2015, Councillor Sansome attended the meeting alongside eleven residents of the ‘Wentworth Parks’ area of Swinton, concerning the petition requesting the provision of a bus service to Piccadilly Road and onto Wentworth Road at Swinton. It was noted that the residents had already submitted a petition to the Council about this matter and had attended a public meeting in Kilnhurst. One resident had attended the Borough Council meeting on 2nd March, 2016 (Minute No. 143(2) refers) and had asked a question about this matter. Several residents spoke in support of this request, which was for the provision of one bus per hour, between the hours of 09.30 a.m. and 03.30 p.m., Mondays to Saturdays. The opinion of residents was that such a bus service would have a positive impact upon the quality of life of people living in that area of Swinton, especially elderly people and those who did not have access to a car. Reference was made to current bus services in the wider area of Swinton and Kilnhurst and also to those services which were provided in the past, but have now ceased to operate.

 

Reference was also made to the answer to the resident’s question made at the Council meeting, which had stated that : where bus companies do not operate a commercial service, a supported bus network could be introduced by the South Yorkshire Passenger Transport Executive, where defined criteria have been met. The current criteria aimed to provide access to a 30 minutes’ daytime service within either 400 metres (or a five minutes’ walk) or within 600 metres (or a 7 or 8 minutes’ walk) to a frequent bus service of 10 to 15 minutes’ frequency.  This criteria extended to 800 metres on Sundays and during evenings.  Much of the Wentworth Parks estate, Swinton, was within 600 metres of an available bus route and, therefore, was unlikely to benefit from a publically funded service.

 

It was noted that the matter would be referred to the commercial department at the Stagecoach bus company, for assessment of the viability of providing the requested service. The First bus company did not currently operate buses in the Swinton area.

 

The residents offered the opinion that the bus companies ought to consider placing the genuine needs of a community as a priority over the need to make a business profit. Residents also stated their willingness to discuss and work with the local Councillors, bus companies and with the South Yorkshire Passenger Transport Executive in the continuing endeavour to secure this specific bus service.

 

Members noted that the South Yorkshire Passenger Transport Executive had been asked to respond to the petition and there was the likelihood of the residents’ request being considered by the Rotherham Bus Partnership.

 

Agreed:- That the residents’ request for the additional bus service in the Piccadilly Road and Wentworth Road area of Swinton  ...  view the full minutes text for item 19.

20.

Updates from the Transport Operators pdf icon PDF 43 KB

 

1)    First Group

 

2)    Stagecoach

 

3)    South Yorkshire Passenger Transport Executive

 

4)    Rotherham Community Transport

 

5)    Northern Rail (report at pages 5 and 6)

 

6)    Robin Hood Airport - Consultative Committee meeting - minutes of the AGM on 14 January, 2016 (pages 7 to 11) and the ordinary meeting, also on 14 January, 2016 (pages 12 to 16), together with a report about the new link road to the airport (pages 17 and 18)

Additional documents:

Minutes:

(1) First Group – with effect from Sunday. 15th May, 2016, various changes would be made to services operated by First in South Yorkshire, including services in Bramley, Maltby and Wath upon Dearne. The X78 service will run every 15 minutes between Rotherham and Doncaster, but remain every 10 minutes between Rotherham and Sheffield. Roadworks in the Rotherham area was contributing to some service delay and disruption. The First company had recently made a significant investment in some new double-decker buses.

 

(2) Stagecoach – There have been some timetable changes to services 108 and 109 (affecting services on Sundays) and service 228 might eventually be withdrawn. The Stagecoach company has also invested in some new vehicles. The traffic congestion in the Parkgate area of Rotherham continued to be the cause of some service delays.

 

(3) South Yorkshire Passenger Transport Executive (SYPTE) – no report.

 

(4) Rotherham Community Transport – no report.

 

(5) Northern Rail / Arriva Rail – Members welcomed Alison Bell (of Northern Rail) to her first meeting of the RMBC Transport Liaison Group. Members were informed of the new franchise arrangement, beginning on 1st April, 2016, for the operation of train services in South Yorkshire and in the wider North of England region. The Arriva company will offer a wider range of ticketing, especially in respect of advance bookings. Currently, there were many positive aspects of rail services operating locally : employee engagement and customer satisfaction are good; service performance timings and rolling stock fleet reliability are good. New customer information screens had been installed at nine railway stations in the South Yorkshire area, as part of the significant improvements made to stations during the current rail franchise. In the next franchise, Arriva Rail North will operate more trains. There will be new trains and refurbished rolling stock to and “as new” standard. The outdated Pacer trains will be phased out of use by the end of 2019.

 

Members noted the contents of the submitted report, from the South Yorkshire Passenger Transport Executive, concerning car parking at the two Kiveton stations.

 

(6) Robin Hood Doncaster Sheffield Airport – Consideration was given to the minutes of the two most recent meetings of the Robin Hood Airport Consultative Committee, both held on 14th January, 2016 : (i) an ordinary meeting; and (ii) the annual general meeting.  The contents of these minutes were noted. Additionally, Members noted that the new link road had opened in the south of Doncaster, from Junction 3 of the M18 motorway. The official opening ceremony had taken place on Monday 29th February, 2016. To be known as ‘Great Yorkshire Way’, the new road had been constructed as part of the Finningley and Rossington Regeneration Route Scheme (FARRRS) and would serve the area near to the airport.

 

The RMBC Transport Liaison Group was informed that the Civil Aviation Authority was currently reviewing surface access to UK airports to better understand how they are operating and how that affects consumers, focussing  ...  view the full minutes text for item 20.

21.

Updates from RMBC Transportation Unit

Minutes:

The Senior Engineer (Environment and Development Services) reported on the following highways and transportation issues:-

 

·  Clifton Lane junction (adjacent Clifton Park) nearing completion.

·  St Ann’s roundabout nearing completion (Toucan crossings on the Fitzwilliam Road and St. Ann’s Road south arms of the roundabout, widening of the Centenary Way approach to the roundabout from College Road roundabout, and removal of the signals from the junction with Kenneth Street).

·  New York junction (formerly Pool Green roundabout), Rotherham – completed and operating well.

·  East Herringthorpe 20 mph zone – currently on site and will be completed early in the 2016/17 financial year (also includes resurfacing of some roads).

·  Ferham area 20 mph zone extension – recently completed and now incudes Ferham Road and side roads up to Kimberworth Road.

·  School 20 mph zones – plans in place to introduce 20 mph advisory speed limits outside Brinsworth Academy, Thurcroft Junior and Infant School, Wickersley Northfield Junior and Infant School, and Rawmarsh Sandhill Primary School. It is likely that other schools will follow in the 2016/17 financial year.

·  Manvers Way Toucan crossings – work is currently taking place to install a crossing near to the Holiday Inn; a further crossing near to the Capita building will follow.

·  Mansfield Road at Aston – a scheme to introduce a series of pedestrian refuges has recently been completed.

·  Safety cameras – some of the fixed speed cameras in Rotherham are currently being upgraded to digital cameras; a contract to upgrade the red light cameras to digital will be let in the next few weeks.

·  ‘Drive for Life’ young driver education project. This is a South Yorkshire wide project managed by this Council to reduce the number of young people killed or seriously injured in road accidents (young drivers make up 10% of the driving population, but are involved in 30% of all collisions where somebody is killed or seriously injured). Over the last twelve months, 6,000 young drivers have attended presentations at schools, colleges and their workplaces. This has also included apprentices at the five South Yorkshire football clubs. Independent evaluation shows the project is starting to have an effect on the attitude of young drivers to issues that affect their safety while driving (such as speeding, mobile phone use, peer pressure, drink/drug driving).

Agreed: That the information be noted.

22.

Any other business

Minutes:

(1) Tram-Train between Meadowhall, Rotherham and Parkgate

 

Members expressed concern at the current delay in the construction of the Tram-Train route from Meadowhall to Rotherham and to Parkgate. It was agreed that details of the progress of these construction works should be reported to the next meeting of this Transport Liaison Group.

 

It was also noted that, with effect from September 2016, the First Company will be providing more buses per hour on the routes between Rotherham and Sheffield.

 

(2) Retiring Councillor

 

Members placed on record their appreciation of Councillor G. Whelbourn’s contributions to the work of the Transport Liaison Group. Councillor Whelbourn’s term of office would end in May 2016 and he was not seeking re-election to the Council.

23.

Date and time of the next meeting

Minutes:

Agreed:- (1) That the next meeting of the RMBC Transport Liaison Group be held at the Town Hall, Rotherham on Wednesday, 29th June, 2016, commencing at 2.00 p.m.

 

(2) That the next following meetings of the RMBC Transport Liaison Group take place on Wednesdays in September and in December, 2016.