Report of the Strategic Director (Growth and Development).

This report provides an update on the public engagement activity carried out to inform the production of the Manchester Active Travel Strategy and Investment Plan, which aims to create a city-wide, Manchester-specific strategy and network plan for active travel investment and a prioritised pipeline of measures to deliver across the city.

The committee considered a report of the Strategic Director (Growth and Development) which provided an update on the public engagement activity carried out to inform the production of the Manchester Active Travel Strategy and Investment Plan (MATSIP).

Key points and themes within the report included:

·   The MATSIP aims to create a city-wide, Manchester-specific strategy and network plan for active travel investment and a prioritised pipeline of measures to deliver across the city;

·   Public and stakeholder engagement was carried out between July and December 2022, including online consultation, public engagement workshops and email responses;

·   Key themes arising from the public consultation, including safety; maintenance of existing infrastructure; new infrastructure; and non-infrastructure measures;

·   A draft network map; and

·   Next steps for the development of the MATSIP.

Key points and queries that arose from the committee’s discussions included:

·   Welcoming progress on the Strategy and noting its importance;

·   Whether the Strategy could be more specific about what inequalities it aimed to reduce, and how this would be achieved;

·   The need for an active travel network to be well-linked with schools and other infrastructure;

·   The impact of speeding and pavement parking as barriers to active travel;

·   The need for an active travel network to be integrated with public transport;

·   Bus regulation was needed to encourage walking and reduce car usage;

·   The impact of building works on reducing capacity for active travel by obstructing pavements;

·   How the Council worked with developers to incorporate active travel provisions into major schemes;

·   The need to repair gullies to improve road safety and encourage walking;

·   Whether previous consultations on active travel were incorporated into the development of the MATSIP;

·   A need for places to permanently store bicycles, particularly for residents in apartments; and

·   Noting a distinct focus on cycling in the MATSIP and expressing hopes for there to be a balance between different active travel modes in the final Strategy.

The Executive Member for Environment and Transport introduced the item and explained that the Council had taken a different approach to consulting on the draft MATSIP by holding face-to-face engagement sessions as opposed to relying on online forms of consultation. She expressed her thanks to the members, residents and community groups who responded to the consultation and stated that this helped to inform a coherent and robust Strategy that would help to take advantage of all funding opportunities.

The Principal Policy Officer explained that the consultation was undertaken in partnership with Sweco over a 6-week period in autumn 2022. He stated that the consultation responses had provided useful key themes to highlight in the final Strategy, which would be considered in February by the Environment and Climate Change Scrutiny Committee and, if endorsed, the Executive.

In response to a member’s question around inequalities, the Executive Member for Environment and Transport highlighted that the Strategy aimed to make all active travel modes accessible to everyone, which would help to alleviate financial and health inequalities. The Principal Policy Officer advised that the Strategy would be based around five objectives, including reducing citywide inequalities, and further detail on this would be included in the final report considered by the Environment and Climate Change Scrutiny Committee in February. He also highlighted the prioritisation tool for the Strategy which would utilise qualitative and quantitative data on multiple deprivation, health data, population and employment densities to assess where investment would be best targeted to reduce these inequalities.

A need for the active travel network to be well-linked with schools was acknowledged and members were advised that Manchester was taking part in the Greater Manchester School Streets Pilot, which placed restrictions on motor traffic at drop off and pick up times at 7 schools in the city.This would encourage people to make the school run and other everyday journeys by bike or on foot and would enable children to breathe cleaner air on the school run. The Strategy would also reference the Council’s aspirations to expand the School Streets programme and it was hoped that national legislation may be enacted to enable the Council to enforce further restrictions on motor traffic around schools. The Principal Policy Officer suggested other ways of addressing parking issues around schools, such as traffic restraint measures and filtered neighbourhoods.

In response to issues raised by the committee regarding pavement parking and accessibility and speeding, the Executive Member for Environment and Transport advised that the Council’s Highways Access Group which works with officers at the design stage on any new development to ensure that these issues are considered earlier in the development process.

The Strategic Director (Growth and Development) noted a need to look at active travel in an integrated way and explained that the Strategy sat alongside a number of other strategies related to mobility but was being developed with consideration given to the city’s growth ambitions and key growth locations.

It was noted that movement strategies, public transport amenities and active travel provisions were key in the planning of major developments, such as the Co-op Live Arena. The Strategic Director (Growth and Development) confirmed that this would be undertaken through the planning process but negotiations and discussions with developers would also be held.

It was also confirmed that the Council worked with developers to minimise disruption from building works through sequencing and aligning programmes where possible.

In response to the Chair’s query as to whether previous consultations on active travel were incorporated into the development of the MATSIP, the Principal Policy Officer advised that the technical work undertaken by Sweco included responses from previous consultations and that this would be clarified in the final report.

In summarising the item, the Chair proposed recommending that the Committee’s comments be included in the full MATSIP report going to Environment and Climate Change Scrutiny Committee and the Executive in February, which was supported by the Committee. He also informed members that the Committee was invited to attend the Environment and Climate Change Scrutiny Committee meeting when the final report would be considered.

Decision:

That the committee

1.  notes the report;

2.  notes that the full MATSIP document and a summary report will be brought to the February 2023 Environment and Climate Change Scrutiny Committee and, if agreed, Executive for adoption; and

3.  recommends that the full MATSIP document reflects the Committee’s comments and includes definitions as to what is meant by “inequalities of access” as stated at section 3.4(d) of the report.