Agenda item

(A)     Mr Hunt asked the following question of the Leader or his nominee:

“1.  The Cabinet report on the Charnwood Local Plan 2021 -2037 in September 2022 stated that there would be “a proportionate and reasonable deterioration in traffic conditions in the Borough as a result of developments being permitted prior to the overall mitigation package being put in place.”

 

From a traffic management point of view, what should we understand to be a “proportionate” deterioration in traffic conditions, and how is it measured?

 

2.    Traffic conditions in the above report are also described as a “reasonable” deterioration in traffic conditions, Highways improvements in Hinckley are described in the Annual Performance Report as meaning “smoother and more efficient” journeys.  Cabinet members are apt to refer to roads as being “congestion-busting”.  All these may signify a level of congestion (or in the latter case the complete absence!) but the authority commits considerable resources to obtain reliable estimates of peak hour congestion to support business cases.  Why are members not provided with such proper estimates rather than these meaningless phrases?

 

3.    What were (a) our best estimates of the peak hour congestion at the beginning of the Charnwood Plan period and (b) what are now projected for the end of the Plan period?”

 

Mr O’Shea replied as follows:

 

“1.  What constitutes a ‘proportionate’ deterioration in traffic conditions will vary according to circumstances, and correspondingly there is no single, universal way to define this, as is the case for other key terms used within the planning arena (perhaps most notably the term ‘severe impacts’ as referred to within the National Planning Policy Framework). As with such other terms, it should instead be understood as a principle, to be applied on a case-by-case basis to Local Plan site allocations as they come forward individually as planning applications, based on professional judgement (and where necessary informed by the outputs of transport assessment work undertaken as part of planning applications).

 

In coming to a decision about whether the deterioration in traffic conditions arising from particular developments is ‘proportionate’ or otherwise, the Local Highway Authority has to consider a range of factors in the round. For instance, the scope for proportionate deterioration in traffic conditions is likely to be lower at locations (normally junctions) where such deterioration is likely to result in wider network impacts (e.g. congestion spilling over to other locations/junctions, or displacement of traffic to less suitable roads), significant impacts on accessibility to key services and facilities or adverse effects on key road safety hotspots. Conversely, the scope for deterioration is likely to be greater in locations where the opposite is true. Furthermore, the Local Highways Authority’s acceptance of proportionate deterioration in traffic conditions is conditional on securing proportionate (and reasonable in planning terms) contributions from development towards the delivery of the overall local plan mitigation package, which remains essential to ensure that the deterioration is addressed/minimised over the longer-term.

 

2.      The transport evidence and forecasts produced to inform the development of Local Plans, scheme business cases and other comparable work are typically very complex and multi-faceted (for instance, the North and East Melton Mowbray Distributor Road business cases, including modelling work, ran to several thousand pages). In most cases, it would therefore be impractical and potentially misleading to try and ‘cherry-pick’ selected technical outputs and figures from such work to utilise for the purposes suggested in the question. The terminology used in reporting to members (such as those cited in the question) seeks to articulate the broad objectives and principles underpinning transport schemes or strategies in a form that is as widely understandable as possible whilst being sufficient to the circumstances. In cases where members need more detailed data (e.g., to support decision making over specific proposals) this will be provided.

 

3.      The most recent work to model the transport impacts of the draft Charnwood Local Plan was completed in June 2022, and is published on the Charnwood Local Plan Examination website as document ‘Exam 31’. This work assesses the impacts of the Plan against a comparator ‘do nothing’ scenario (essentially assessing how the transport network would perform without the additional growth proposed through the Plan), and subsequently goes on to identify and model the effects of proposed mitigation packages to address these impacts. Summary statistics produced as part of this work show that at a district/network-wide scale, the Local Plan growth causes a drop in network performance during peak-hours without mitigation, but that this drop is largely addressed by the proposed mitigation package: for instance, during the PM-peak, district-wide average speeds fall by 0.2mph without mitigation from 49.7mph to 49.5mph, but return to 49.7mph with the mitigation package (whilst this change may appear modest, it is actually very significant considering the area, level of growth proposed and number of trips covered by such statistics). As with the examples cited in response to the previous question, these outputs should not be taken in isolation: they are just one part of a much wider, more complex and multi-faceted suite of evidence produced as part of the modelling work, which need be read as a whole alongside the accompanying commentary provided within the report.”

Mr Hunt asked the following supplementary question:

 

“I would ask the Lead Member what he means by ‘congestion busting’ in terms of the metric that’s been given, in terms of average delay or average speed, in his press releases?”

 

Mr O’Shea replied as follows:

 

“I’ll answer you simply that congestion is congestion and to be honest with you I don’t know what more I can say, other than that we have congestion, and we try our very best as a Council and as a Highways Authority to reduce that.  If you’re not happy with the reply, I’ll give you a written reply again from officers.”

 

[Subsequent to the meeting the following additional reply was received:

 

The phrase ‘congestion busting’ is colloquially used in press releases to give a general sense of purpose of a particular scheme. It is not intended to be a precise definition and indeed in a similar vein to the previous response to the original question 1, it is not possible to provide a single, universal definition based on a simple metric/range of metrics. For example, and with reference to the figures provided in response to the original question 3, a transport mitigation package that achieves a forecast 0.2mph increase in average speeds at a district wide level is actually very significant considering the area, level of growth proposed, and number of trips covered by that statistic, but taken out of context may not on the face of it appear to be ‘congestion busting’. Conversely, it would be readily more understandable for a scheme to be ‘congestion busting’ where it results in a ‘substantial’ reduction in queues and delays at a particular junction, albeit even then what might be considered ‘substantial’ is subject to the consideration of a range of factors, in the same way as ‘proportionate’ as per the original question 1.]

 

(B) Mr Hunt asked the following question of the Leader or his nominee:

 

“1.  Why are we so short of secondary school places in the County?

 

2.      How many more places in secondary schools will be needed in the future for children with special educational needs for whom mainstream secondary school is predicted to be the right setting?

 

3.      How can we ensure there are enough places for children with special educational needs for whom mainstream secondary school is the right setting?”

 

Mrs Taylor replied as follows:

 

“1.  Nationally the number of pupils in secondary schools have hit a peak (as shown in the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA) graph below). This is also reflected in Leicestershire, where the 2022, 2023 and 2024 Year 7 cohorts will be the largest and then a drop is expected.

 

Overall, there are enough secondary school places in Leicestershire. In the 2022/23 census there were 44080 pupils on roll and a capacity of 49237. There are enough places in each cohort. In 2023 97.6% of pupils gained one of their three preferences for starting secondary school and all on time applicants were allocated a place.

 

 

2.   There are currently 1759 children with Education, Health and Care Plans (EHCPs) in mainstream education and this is projected to grow by 370 children in the next five years.

 

3.   An EHCP names a provision and is not subject to basic needs admissions criteria, so, if a school place is named, the school is required to take the pupil. The Transforming SEND and Inclusion in Leicestershire (TSIL) programme has developed an inclusivity toolkit to ensure schools are able to meet the needs identified in children’s EHCP as well as those children with SEN who do not have an EHCP. In addition to this, the School Organisation Service is working with a number of schools to improve their physical capacity to support SEN pupils to remain in mainstream schools. The mainstream school growth programme is responsible for ensuring there are sufficient school places across mainstream schools to support the projected population growth alongside ensuring sufficient mainstream provision is in place for children with SEN.”

 

Mr Hunt asked the following supplementary question:

 

“I wasn’t previously aware that the EHCP names a school place and can nominate a school to send a child to if the EHCP complies with what that school can offer.  If that school has not completed an inclusivity assessment, or if it claims that its full or lacks capacity, what happens to the child when they are allocated a place that hasn’t been assessed?”

 

Mrs Taylor replied as follows:

 

“An EHCP would recommend a school based on need. We would not recommend a school that could not meet need.  If a mainstream school has said they can’t cope with the child, we would do an EHCP and see what support we could provide with wraparound services for that child in mainstream school.

 

If the assessment was that they would need a specialist placement we would then recommend a specialist placement that can meet their need

 

I hope that clarifies your question but if not, please email me with a clearer question and I will send you a further written answer.”

 

(C) Mr Mullaney asked the following question of the Leader or his nominee:

 

“There was recently a collision at the junction of Olympic Way and Leicester Road in Hinckley. Cars often speed along the stretch of Leicester Road past Olympic Way making it difficult for cars to pull out safely. Parking around the junction reduces visibility and makes it dangerous for cars pulling out of Olympic Way onto Leicester Road. I have requested double yellow lines at this junction on behalf of residents who have asked for them. I am aware that officers are looking into this request. Can I just urge the County Council Highways today to look favourably on putting yellow lines at this junction to make it safer”

 

Mr O’Shea replied as follows:

 

“Whilst officers are aware of a recent incident at this location, no specific details have been received from Leicestershire Police of an incident being reported to them, or the police having been in attendance.

 

Without those details, unfortunately the causation factors for that collision are unknown at this stage, however, officers have contacted the force directly to seek clarity.

 

With regards to double yellow lines at the junction, all requests received by the County Council need to be considered based on an evidence-led appraisal, to ensure that the County Council’s limited resources to address traffic safety and parking problems are employed where most needed.

 

Officers will consider any information supplied by the Leicestershire Police alongside existing collision data to assess whether there is a safety issue at this location and if so, whether parking restrictions would help address. Mr Mullaney will be updated as soon as that work has been completed.”