Agenda and minutes

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

Contact: Debbie Pons, Principal Democratic Services Officer 

Items
No. Item

1.

Minutes of the previous meeting held on 15th May, 2019 pdf icon PDF 77 KB

Minutes:

Consideration was given to the minutes of the previous meeting of the Transportation Advisory Board held on 15th May, 2019.

 

Agreed:-  That the minutes of the previous meeting be approved as a true record.

2.

Matters arising from the previous minutes

Minutes:

Arising from Minute No. 39 (Transportation Capital Programme), it was noted there had been no progress with regard to possible contribution from Academies to the introduction of 20 mph zones outside their premises.  The introduction of such zones was to be rolled out across the Borough in priority order

 

Arising from Minute No. 40 (Clean Air Zone), it was noted that the Council deadline for the end of consultation was 2nd September, 2019, however, the message had been conveyed that  the democratic process should be followed and therefore a report would be produced for consideration by Cabinet.  It was included on the Forward Plan for a report to be submitted to Cabinet in December.

3.

Questions on Transport Issues pdf icon PDF 89 KB

Minutes:

The Transportation Advisory Board noted the details of questions on transport matters and answers that had been provided.

 

It was noted that a request was to be submitted to the Passenger Transport Executive to change the name of the bus stop on Doncaster Gate to a more appropriate name reflecting the new educational facility.

 

It was requested that, if the name change was approved, that the appropriate Ward Councillors be informed accordingly.

4.

South Yorkshire Passenger Transport Executive

Update and Bus Service Changes including overview of Journey Card

Minutes:

Apologies had been received from South Yorkshire Passenger Transport Executive.

 

The Board was disappointed that there was no representation and therefore no updates provided to Members.  If no-one was available a written update should be submitted.

 

Agreed:-  That a letter be sent to the Executive Director of the South Yorkshire Passenger Transport Executive regarding the non-attendance at the meeting.

5.

Bus Operators - Update

 

(1)       First Group

(2)       Stagecoach

(3)       Rotherham Community Transport

Minutes:

Elliot Brockett, Stagecoach Rawmarsh, reported:-

 

-          5 for £5 ticket – valid on all services throughout South Yorkshire apart from the X10 service to Leeds and X6 service Doncaster Sheffield airport.  Up to 5 people can travel together.

 

-          Evening Rider - £2.50 for travel between 6.00 p.m.-4.00 a.m.  It was not valid on the X6 service

 

Stagecoach East Midlands – No-one represented.

 

First Group – No-one represented.

 

Agreed:-  That the update be noted.

6.

Railway Operators - Update

Minutes:

A representative was not in attendance.

 

Disappointment was again expressed at the non-attendance of the company particularly in light of the recent press announcement that pacer trains would remain in operation in South Yorkshire until 2020 despite previous statements.

 

Matthew Reynolds, Transportation Manager, reported that he had raised the issue at the last meeting of the Sheffield City Regional Rail Forum which was attended by the train operators.  Northern Rail had stated that they did not have the resources to attend the Transportation Advisory Board meetings. 

 

Transportation was one of the 5 thematic Boards of the Sheffield City Region. The Leader was Vice-Chair of the SCR Transportation Board.  Issues could be fed into the Board by the Leader.

7.

Doncaster Sheffield Airport - Update pdf icon PDF 180 KB

Minutes:

Consideration was given to the minutes of the Doncaster Sheffield Airport Consultation Committee held on 11th April, 2019.

 

Agreed:-  That the information be noted.

8.

Community Safety Concerns Fund pdf icon PDF 3 MB

Presentation by Matt Reynolds, Manager, Planning, Regeneration and Transport

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Matthew Reynolds, Transportation Manager, gave the following powerpoint presentation on the Community Safety Concerns Fund:-

 

Setting the Scene

-          Local Transport Plan allocation

-          Worst first principles from the Safer Roads Partnership

-          Community Safety Concerns Fund

Address local concerns

3 year programme of works - £150,000 per year (includes assessment and design)

-          Working across the Council aligning with Neighbourhood Working

 

A number of examples of possible initiatives were described.

 

Three Stage Assessment of Schemes

Stage 1 – Two key areas of acceptability

-          Based on feasibility and legality

-          Officers will assess each scheme to determine deliverability

Stage 2 – Three key areas of prioritisation

-          Number of collisions

-          Improvements to the environment

-          accessibility

Stage 3 – Formulating the Programme

-          once all schemes known, a programme will be developed

 

Your Ideas

-          Each Ward to submit a maximum of 3 schemes

-          Details required are

·           Scheme name

·           Location

·           Issues to be addressed

·           Recommended suggestion

·           Your priority (1 to 3)

-          To help prioritise, Members are asked to score the following from 1 to 4

·           Speeding

·           Parked cars/visibility

·           Crossing roads

·           Local environment

 

Timescales and Next Steps

Timescales

-          Scheme submissions by 30th August

-          Assessment and Feedback in Autumn

-          Programming and implementation from November onwards

Next Steps

-          Officers will offer support where required through the submission

-          Consider using Ward budget as match funding?

-          Ward plans are a good place to start

-          Send any enquiries to Andrew Lee (Andrew.lee@rotherham.gov.uk)

-          Send submissions to transportation@rotherham.gov.uk or the paper forms to the Transportation Infrastructure Service

 

Discussion ensued with the following issues raised/clarified:-

 

·           Members could use their Ward budgets as match funding

·           The Fund was Capital funding and could not be used for maintenance issues but for enhancement of existing/new provision

 

Agreed:-  That the presentation be noted.

9.

Transportation Update

(a)          A630 Parkway Improvement

(b)          College Road Roundabout

(c)          Clean Air Zone

(d)          SCR Integrated Rail Plan

Minutes:

A630 Parkway Improvement

The detailed design was almost complete for submission of the business case to the Department of Transport in October.  If successful, the funding would be passported from the Department to the Sheffield City Region and onto Rotherham to commence implementation in early 2020.  The scheme would take approximately 18 months to construct.

 

A public consultation event was to be held on Wednesday, 21st August 3.00-7.00 p.m. at the Brinsworth Parish Centre.  Consultants, contractors and representatives of the Highways Team would be present with drawings and plans to inform members of the public about the scheme.

 

The scheme would widen the Parkway from 2 to 3 lanes in each direction but contained within the existing highway boundary.  It would be subject to a lower speed limit of 50 mph which assist with air quality.

 

There would also be comprehensive improvements to the motorway roundabout at junction 33.

 

College Road Roundabout

The Council had successfully secured £3.5m from the Department of Transport to improve the College Road roundabout with work starting on Monday, 19th August.

 

There would be traffic management in place and the construction operated through lane closures whilst maintaining 2 lanes on the roundabout at all times.  There would be a road closure for the duration of the work – College Road from the Lidl store would be closed in the direction to the roundabout.

 

The work was scheduled to complete in April 2020.

 

Clean Air Zone

-          Government mandate to improve levels of Nitrogen Dioxide

-          Evidence indicates 4 locations where compliance was not achieved:-

A629 Wortley Road

A630 Fitzwilliam Road

A630 Sheffield Parkway

A633 Rawmarsh Hill

-          Rotherham would not introduce a charging regime to target these areas

-          Sheffield would have a CAZ ‘C’

-          Early Measures Fund to install EV charging points across the Borough

-          Consultation would close on 3rd September – see Minute No. 2

 

SCR Integrated Rail Plan

What is the ambition?

-          Permanent operation of Tram Train

-          Park and Ride expansion at Parkgate

-          New Tram Train station at Magna

-          Waverley Station

-          Regional Tram Train services

-          A new mainline station

 

A new mainline Station for Rotherham would improve direct connectivity and reduced journey times to core cities. The project would:-

-          Support and grow our housing market

-          Regeneration of existing neighbourhoods

-          Enhance our economic centre and support the Town Centre Master Plan

-          Improve the investible proposition

-          Employers have access to a wider talent pool of human resource

 

Discussion ensued on the updates with the following issues raised:-

 

·           It would be helpful if a flier could be produced explaining very clearly the implications of Sheffield imposing a CAZ ‘C’ charging regime on licensed taxi drivers and their vehicles

·           The naming of any stations at Waverley and Magna should include ‘Rotherham’ in their title

·           Reissuing to Members of the locations of the electric vehicle charging points

 

Agreed:-  That the updates be noted.

10.

Any other business

Minutes:

Mayoral Bus Review

Jo Kaczmarek, Sheffield City Region Executive Team, attended the meeting to inform Members of the Mayoral Bus Review which was underway across South Yorkshire, undertaken by Clive Betts, on behalf of the Mayor of the Sheffield City Region, Dan Jarvis.

 

The review was focussing on 4 main areas:-

 

1.     Approach of the review

In light of his stated desire to improve bus services, Clive Betts had been asked to be the Independent Chair of the review to examine the bus system that was currently operating across South Yorkshire and review:-

 

What were the current challenges in the bus services as they currently stood and how to address those challenges regardless of what mode of operation in the future;

 

What improvements do you think should be made and how to make those changes collectively within South Yorkshire.

 

2.     Process

A panel of commissioners had been appointed to assist the Independent Chair in an advisory capacity and consisted of individuals who either worked in transport or national experts from the private sector

 

The panel would consider it from the end user prospective.

 

The panel met on a monthly basis and examined the thematic challenges for the service as well as hearing evidence/information from other studies of towns across the country.  It was important to learn from what others had done.

 

The Independent Chair and the panel would consider the issues until the end of the year when they would submit their findings and a set of recommendations to the Mayor and Combined Authority.

 

3.     Agreed approach to how evidence would be collected

An external group of partners had been commissioned to assist in building the evidence base; Sheffield Hallam University were working with the Open Data Institute and Public Transport Institute.  Passenger data would be examined along with journey times etc. overlaid with regional social and economic research.

 

There had been assurance from all bus operators that they would share all their data and allow it to be used for the evidence base.

 

Evidence from stakeholder engagement mechanisms would also be taken into account as well as the online survey (https://sheffieldcityregion.org.uk/south-yorkshire-bus-review/).

 

The survey asked questions about the responder’s current experience of the bus service either as an existing bus user or a non-bus user.

 

4.     Wish list of what would be helpful to take away from today

Work was taking place to reach those that did not usually participate in consultation and the hard to reach groups.

 

       How could the Council help to get the survey out as far and wide as possible?

 

Jo was willing to meet as many individual, organisations and groups as possible and could be contacted at SYBusReview@Sheffieldcityregion.org.uk

 

Discussion ensued with the following issues raised:-

 

-          Urban bus travel was an issue

-          Use of the Neighbourhood Working Groups for the cascading of information to communities

-          Availability of surveys on buses for passengers to complete

-          Contact large employers across South Yorkshire

-          Reliability of buses and public perception of the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 10.

11.

Date and time of the next meeting

To discuss the date of the next meeting

Minutes:

Agreed:-  That a further meeting of the Advisory Board be held on Wednesday, 20th November, 2019, commencing at 2.00 p.m.