Agenda item

To present the Draft Kirklees Transport Strategy including policy themes contained within the Draft Strategy document. Decisions are needed to commence a district wide public consultation on the Strategy and to endorse the Consultation Plan.

Contact:  Rory Davis, Transport Strategy & Policy Lead Tel: 01484 221000.

Cllr Moses Crook, Portfolio holder for Transport and Housing, introduced the Draft Kirklees Transport Strategy, advising the Panel that the Kirklees Transport Strategy in draft form is on route to Cabinet for approval to progress to public consultation and suggestions and comments from the Panel are welcomed.

Currently there is a great deal being developed in transport regionally, with the West Yorkshire Combined Authority’s (WYCA) local transport plan which is in progress.  In addition to the active travel position statement which has now been introduced. The Panel was informed that it is important to note that the draft strategy being considered is aligned with and compliments the WYCA’s local transport plan. 

The aim is to help deliver local priorities and to contribute to delivering the overall regional plan.  The strategy reinforces application of the local transport plan in the local setting, and ensures that policies, and ultimately the development of the transport offer through projects are compliant with and support the West Yorkshire aims. It will align with other council priorities locally and meet the hyper needs of local communities in Kirklees.

It is positive that this strategy is being developed at the same time as so much transformative development is underway in the region, with mass transit bus franchising and additional powers devolved to the mayoral authority through devolution.  It maximises the benefit for the area and also ensures that all development is co-ordinated regionally and working towards delivering the same outcomes.

Having a strategy can also bring additional focus to specific areas to prioritise in a local context to support regeneration and investment priorities.  It will also support prioritisation of net zero ambition through development of the active travel modal shift and move towards sustainable transport locally.

This is an excellent draft strategy document and there is confidence it will be adopted, albeit with some amendments through the governance process in due course. The officers in the Transport Team are to be thanked for all the work they have undertaken on this document.

Rory Davis, Transport Strategy and Policy Lead, advised the Panel that the Transport Strategy provides an opportunity to show, that as a district, there is compliance with the West Yorkshire Mayor and West Yorkshire Combined Authorities vision for transport.  Through this, Kirklees as a local authority draws down large amounts and increasing amounts of investment through bids put forward to the WYCA and to other bodies such as the Department for Transport (DfT).

This presents a good opportunity to consolidate the council’s position on transport matters across a range of themes, and this will enable the council to more successfully draw down funding and bring projects into the district.

The approach that will be taken with regard to consultation is that the consultation is anticipated to start in March 2025, and it is anticipated that communities will be given eight weeks of a conversation that will be taking place with the communities. A number of events will be held including on street events in some of the town centres, train stations and libraries.  It is important to have a two-way conversation with local communities, to capture the views of a broad range of stakeholders, including businesses, community groups, individual members of the public and partners.

The Panel was informed that in the development of the draft strategy, which is going to consultation, a great deal of work has been undertaken behind the scenes with WYCA, with neighbouring districts both inside and outside of West Yorkshire including Rochdale and High Peak.  Through that process, partner thoughts and views have been embedded into the draft strategy. 

With regard to the consultation going forward, the aim is to understand partway through the consultation who has not responded which will enable the effective targeting of those people.  People will be asked where they are coming from within the district, where they live, where they work and also asking the protected characteristic questions under the Equalities Act.  This will mean that where there is an underrepresentation of people from certain groups, they can be targeted and brought into the conversation.

In response to the information presented, the Panel made comment and asked questions including some of the following:

-       There appears to be a number of problems with this draft strategy, but the most pertinent is the limited reference to people with protected characteristics which seems to be an afterthought.  The document states that an Equality Impact Assessment is advisable and doesn’t say if one has been carried out.  The question is, has it been carried out, and if it has how has it influenced the proposed strategy?

-       The way the strategy has been written it seems to suggest that people are happy and able to take part in active travel, however people with physical impairments are not able to and this does not seem to have been considered in the strategy, or there is no evidence that it has been considered.  Has the Equality Officer been involved in this because it has a profound impact on disabled people?

-       There are a lot of very dark non-pavemented roads around the region, therefore as well as car drivers and a transport strategy, there should also be a person strategy that needs to be addressed.  The issue is that people often go out at night wearing black clothing, when there are no lights.  It is important that there is a message encouraging the wearing of something luminous, that they can be seen.  It would be nice to have something in the strategy about the pedestrian’s role in this net zero strategy.

-       Referring to the Council Plan, it states that the transport strategy is centred around five key strategic objectives, and when looking at the five objectives, it is difficult to see how they will be measured.  For example, improving health and wellbeing, is it one percent or 20%, how would this be measured?  Protecting the environment, again, how would you know if you had achieved that objective?  Reading through the document, there wasn’t anything in there to show this is how the objectives will be measured.

-       With regard to the net zero target and the government’s commitment towards electric charged vehicles.  Presently it is difficult to say how many houses in the Kirklees district that does not have off street parking, which could be a barrier to achieving that. 

-       The strategy has identified some good objectives, that we want to see for transport in Kirklees and some good policies, however what appears to be missing are the particular actions and also the measurables in terms of following this up.  For example, in five years what will be measured to show that these policies have been a success or a failure?

Cllr Susan Lee-Richards, attended the meeting and made comment and asked the following questions:

-       While there are many positives in this document, the document states that there is an extensive network of greenways, and this has to be disputed.  Some of the greenways are patchy or broken, e.g the Meltham Greenway, the only stretch in south Kirklees that does not go anywhere other than onto a busy and unwelcoming B6108.  There is no safe route from Huddersfield Town Centre to the Birkby/Bradley Greenway.  The Calder Valley Greenway is broken in Mirfield where people on cycles are expected to mix with the traffic on the A644 and the Spen ringway does not connect back with the Spen Valley Greenway at Heckmondwike.  Whilst the aims can be admired, it cannot be said that there is an extensive network of greenways at the moment.  The hope is that there will be improvements when funding is received from WYCA.

-       Referring to page 21 of the document which refers to shifting some trips to more sustainable modes of transport, by switching away from private cars, encouraging this mode shift for people to drive using the best option.  What is meant by best?  Quickest, cheapest, safest, most fuel efficient, what is meant by best in that instance?

RESOLVED:

That Cllr Moses Crook and Rory Davis be thanked for providing an update on the draft Kirklees Transport Strategy, Policy Themes and Consultation Plan.