Minutes:
The Chief Executive
reported that questions had been received from Mr M. Hunt CC under Standing
Order 7(3) and 7(5).
1.
Funding
for road maintenance
At our last meeting we were told that our present level of funding from
Government was not adequate to maintain our road network and from 2009/10 we
have had no inflationary increases leading, in effect, to an notional reduction
of £10million a year for maintenance funding. To what extent as this been
mitigated by risk-based asset management?”
Response by the Chairman:
An increased focus on risk-based asset
management has allowed us to better prioritise the available funding on both reactive
safety maintenance and longer-term preventative maintenance but spend is still
skewed towards reactive short-term maintenance. The reduction in funding over
the years has meant we have had to modify the types of treatments that we carry
out, to minimise the increasing severity of the road defects, to ensure that
roads are in a safe condition for motorists. However, this is not sufficient to
address the deteriorating condition of the assets and a substantial increase in
capital investment is still needed to address the decline.
2.
“The Passenger Transport Policy & Strategy Oct 2018
For two years I have been trying to get a
bus shelter for residents of Shapley Road, Loughborough which is a deprived area
of the town with low access to private cars and consequent high dependence on
buses for trips to essential services.
Having no Parish Council, the District
Council previously supplied bus shelters under the local Agency agreement with
the County Council but can no longer provide these. In their reply I was
quoted the County Passenger
Transport Policy & Strategy (Oct
2018) which states that (11.1) Leicestershire County Council will continue
to provide and maintain infrastructure
that facilitates passenger transport use,
in cooperation with operators where appropriate. This
includes bus stop poles/flags and shelters, information display case sat stops, and
interchange facilities. Selection of locations for any new bus stops and shelters will follow good practice and will particularly
consider accessibility for people with impaired mobility.
On application to the County Council it
appears that there are no consistent criteria and the application was duly
rejected, despite the additional need required by nearby accommodation being
completed for sheltered LCC accommodation for adults. On further enquiry
it appears that the County Council receives very few applications all of which
are refused or put on a list for indefinite review. On further
investigation, other good county transport authorities appear to recognise a
corporate responsibility to provide bus shelters rather than lower tier authorities
i.
What are the criteria,
if any, for approving applications for bus shelters and what is the relevant
appeal procedure?
Response by the Chairman:
Where
there is no third-party funding, requests for bus shelters are considered on a
case by case basis, taking in to account factors such as frequency, usage and
locality. Currently, the County Council does not have a defined criteria for
the level of usage, and use officer’s knowledge and experience to determine
such requests. Officers recognise this approach requires a review
and going forward it is intended to work towards developing a clear policy for
bus shelter requests. Staff resources permitting this work will be
underway soon. If new or additional information is provided relating to a
previous shelter request, then this can be reassessed.
ii.
What reviews take place
to remove shelters that are no longer on bus routes or do not meet the
criteria?
Response by the Chairman:
Once shelters are installed, we do not
monitor usage and we would only look to remove them in extenuating
circumstances as the cost to remove shelters is far greater than the ongoing
cleaning and maintenance costs. In addition to this, the bus network is subject
to change and where operators reinstate services, a stop may once again come
back in to use.
iii.
What Section 106 applications for public
transport infrastructure (notably bus stops and shelters) were made for the
Sustainable Urban Extensions at Lubbers Thorpe, Thorpebury/NE Leicester and
West of Loughborough?
Response by the Chairman:
West of Loughborough SUE – There is an
obligation on the developer to submit a Public Transport Strategy that would
contain the detail of public transport provision. The planning application
requires the applicant to ensure that within the development, dwellings are
generally within 400 metres of a stop and that these are to be comprised of
raised kerbs, timetable information, shelters, and Real Time Information. There
is also written in to the S106 agreement a requirement for a contribution of
£15,896 towards bus stop improvements at the two nearest stops on the A512.
Thorpebury/NE Leicester – A condition on the
Outline Planning Permission application requires each Reserved Matters applications
for this site, to include details of bus stops (at a maximum walking distance
of 400m from each dwelling), and each to comprise of shelters, RTPI, raised
kerbs, timetable information, lighting.
Lubbesthorpe - The Public Transport
conditions attached to the public transport element stated that there should be
bus stops located within the development , however, the public transport
strategy was revised in November 2018 to reflect a new demand led service and
therefore fixed stops were not required. This service is known as ‘Arriva
Click’ and operates using virtual stopping points with no fixed route.
iv. What
bus services are planned for these SUEs?
Response by the Chairman:
West of Loughborough SUE – see response for
Q3 – however, Highways comments submitted in response to the planning
application, referenced phased provision of a bus service from first occupation
at a 30 minute frequency between the site and the town centre between 07:00 and
19:00 Monday to Saturday; hourly Sundays and evenings.
Thorpebury/NE Leicester – The S106 agreement
stipulates that a Bus Service Scheme must be submitted and approved in
consultation with the County and City Councils. The agreement also references a
Bus Strategy, with proposals on how the bus service might be delivered
diverting existing services.
Lubbesthorpe - Arriva Click was launched in
April 2019, providing a demand led public transport solution covering the site
as well a wider geographic area.
v. Basic
Public transport infrastructure requires little investment in comparison to
roads. Why is this not given the priority of other assets under this
authority?”
Response by the Chairman:
Leicestershire County Council assesses and
reviews requests for bus shelters as they are submitted and also secures public
transport infrastructure through the planning process. Through the recently
launched National Bus Strategy, public transport infrastructure will be central
to improving and enhancing bus travel, therefore going forward consideration
and prioritisation will be given to this area.
The following supplementary questions were
received from Mr. M Hunt CC
Can the Chairman
clarify whether the determining factors in awarding a community a bus shelter include
the following in regards to the ’frequency, usage and locality’ set out within
the answer;
i.
the
level of car ownership in an area,
ii.
usage
and whether this is measured by peak usage, or averaged across a week, or per
bus;
iii.
frequency
of service demand such that a shelter is more likely to be provided for say a
half hour service than an hourly service;
iv.
the
knowledge of the particular officer. and whether the relevant scores for these
determining factors are recorded?”
Response by the Chairman:
i)
This
factor is not currently considered. However, in areas of lower car ownership we
would expect to see increased bus usage which is taken in to account.
ii)
Analysis
of usage is based on an average. The changing passenger numbers during the
pandemic have been considered and where appropriate pre-pandemic data is
reviewed too
iii)
This
factor is taken into account as a higher frequency would point to there being
higher usage.
iv)
Experienced
officers make the assessment and use their knowledge of the network and carefully
consider requests based on frequency, usage and locality. As there is no
defined scoring criteria to determine shelter requests, it is recognised that
this approach requires a review and going forward it is intended to work
towards developing a clear policy for bus shelter requests which could include
a scoring framework which would see outcomes recorded.
Supporting documents: