Report of the Strategic Director (Growth and Development)

This report informs Members of proposals for a revised City Centre Transport Strategy (CCTS), aligned to the Greater Manchester Transport Strategy 2040. It is considered that a new strategy is now needed in order to take account of: the ongoing and future predicted growth of the city centre; changes in the policy context since the previous strategy was published in 2010, including the adoption of the 2040 Strategy; the ambition to be a zero carbon city by 2038 at the latest; and the outcomes of the City Centre Transport Strategy Conversation that took place in the autumn of 2018.  The report outlines the key principles and proposals suggested for inclusion within the revised strategy and recommends that an engagement and co-design exercise is undertaken with stakeholders to further develop the strategy. 

The Committee considered a report of the Strategic Director (Development and Growth), which informed Members of proposals for a revised City Centre Transport Strategy (CCTS), aligned to the Greater Manchester Transport Strategy 2040.  The report outlined the key principles and proposals suggested for inclusion within the revised strategy and recommended that an engagement and co-design exercise was undertaken with stakeholders to further develop the strategy.

Officers referred to the main points and themes within the report, which included:-

·                The revised CCTS would build on the response to last year’s City Centre Transport Strategy Conversation, and would look to address the key issues raised;

·                Officers had taken the main messages from the conversation to develop a future vision and set of objectives for the future city centre transport system, which could contribute to making the city more liveable as it grew and evolved with cleaner air, improved public transport, and an attractive and safe environment to walk around and cycle;

·                The central aim was to set an ambitious goal for 90% of all trips to the city centre to be made on foot, by cycle or using public transport by 2040 in the morning peak;

·                The revised CCTS would look to deliver the vision by delivering an integrated, inclusive and sustainable transport network with increased connectivity and capacity, which met growth in travel demand for getting into the city centre and improve the quality, environment and legibility of the city centre streets to ensure it was a great place to spend time in and move around;

·                Outline of the proposals and types of interventions that would form part of the baseline for developing the updated strategy; and

·                Subject to Members’ agreement, it was proposed that an engagement and co-design exercise with key stakeholders was held on the ambitions and ideas to start in November 2019, with the responses being used as a basis for refining the proposals in line with those issues important to people using the city centre, and to support future growth.

The report was also scheduled to be consider by the Executive at its meeting

on 16 October 2019.

The Committee invited Councillor Davies, Ward Member for Deansgate, to contribute to the discussion on the proposals.

Some of the key points that arose from the Committees discussions were:-

·                It would be of upmost importance that city centre residents’ voices were heard as part of the proposed engagement exercise;

·                It would also be important to ensure that connected strategies/schemes were developed and progressed in tandem;

·                As part of the ambition of the revised strategy, consideration should be given to the use of new technologies for moving around the city;

·                Clarification was sought as to what the geographical definition was of the city centre;

·                A Member felt it was unclear as to what the actual ambition was for improving cycling and walking across the city centre as these modes of transport often conflicted with one another;

·                With an aim of the Strategy being to reduce the volume of cars within the city centre, there was concern about the future impact of parking on the periphery of the city centre and it was suggested that any future car parking facilities on the periphery of the city centre could be underground;

·                Whilst the proposed timetable for engagement was welcomed, there was concern that this may delay some important decisions in regards to the City Centre that were needed to be taken now;

·                Clarification was sought as to what the new strategic plan for the city centre was, as city centre Members had not been informed;

·                Whilst the roll out of the Metrolink had been welcomed in wards outside of the city centre, there was an issue of there being enough capacity for users and there was concern that if this was not addressed, users would revert back to using private transport; and

·                Had there been any progress around the future of platforms 15 and 16 at Piccadilly Station and the Castlefield corridor.

The Leader acknowledged the point in relation to issue of compatibility and Conflicts of interests between certain modes of transport in the city centre and this would be one of the challenges that the Strategy would need to resolve.  He added that any further car park provision on the periphery of the city centre would not be underground due to the financial cost of providing this type of parking and instead would more likely be multi-storey, which could be provided in an effective way through good design and multi-use.

He advised that for the purposes of the CCTS, the geographical definition of the city centre was considered to be all of the area within the inner relief road, encompassing those parts of Salford too. There was also a definition of a regional centre, which stretched out to parts of Salford Quays and parts of Trafford, which had concentration of economic activity, however this was not within the scope of the CCTS. The relationship between the city centre and immediately surrounding areas was acknowledged.

The Executive Member for Highways, Planning and Transport agreed that city centre residents’ opinions would be critical to the consultation as they would have an intimate knowledge of what it was like to travel in and around the city on a 24-hour day, 7 days a week basis. She also agreed that it would be important to embrace and integrate new technologies when considering various ways and modes of transportation into and across the city as well as parking.

Head of Local Planning and Infrastructure/City Policy commented that one of the largest challenges the strategy would try and address was how the capacity on public transport could be increased over the next few years.  The Deputy Head of the City Centre Regeneration advised that the current strategic plan for the city centre ran from 2015 to 2018 and the Council was at a point where this need to be revised and refreshed. Work was ongoing with this and once a draft of the new plan was ready, city centre Ward Members would be consulted.

The Leader advised that the future of Platforms 15 and 16 at Piccadilly Station was still with Government Ministers. The Council and its transport partners continued to have dialogue with Network Rail and the Government through the Piccadilly Partnership Board. What was clear was that the franchises that had been let to Northern Rail and Trans Pennine could not be delivered without increasing capacity. In terms of the Metrolink, he advised that new trams were on order and on the Bury to Altrincham line there would be a move to all double trams at peak time. Discussions had taken place with TfGM around running more frequent services, however, when the new Trafford Park line opened, the tram network within the city centre would be operating at maximum capacity and the only way to increase this would be the creation of a new line which would need to be underground as and there was no capacity for a further surface line within the city centre.

Decision

The Committee endorses the recommendations to the Executive as detailed

below with the proposed additional wording (highlighted in bold)

The Executive is recommended to:-

(i)        Note the intention to produce a revised City Centre Transport Strategy;

(ii)       Consider the key principles and proposals that should be covered in the revised strategy, specifically those relating to clean air and zero carbon aspirations for the city and the need to find an appropriate balance of the needs between pedestrians, cyclists and public transport;

(iii)      Agree that the Council undertake an engagement and co-design exercise with key stakeholders in the city centre and surrounding wards in order to further develop the strategy with support from Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM) and Salford City Council;

(iv)      Delegate authority to the Head of Local Planning and Infrastructure to finalise the terms of the engagement exercise with the Leader of the Council and Executive Member for Environment, Planning and Transport, following consultation with City Centre Ward Members on city centre resident engagement; and

(v)       Agree that a report is brought back to a future meeting of the Executive on the outcomes of the engagement exercise and the content of the revised draft City Centre Transport Strategy.