The report of the Strategic Director (Growth and Development) is enclosed.

In October 2019 a report had been considered on proposals for a revised City Centre Transport Strategy (CCTS) that would be aligned to the Greater Manchester Transport Strategy 2040. It was felt that a new strategy was needed to take account of the ongoing and future predicted growth of the city centre and of changes in the policy context since the adoption of the 2010 strategy. The new strategy would incorporate the GM 2040 Strategy and the goal of being a zero-carbon city by 2038. The drafting of the strategy would take into account the outcomes of the City Centre Transport Strategy Conversation that had taken place in the autumn of 2018. It had been agreed than that the Council would 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 (Minute Exe/19/82). In February 2020 the outcomes of that exercise had been reported (Minute Exe/20/25) and the Executive had approved a wider consultation exercise. The report now submitted set out the outcomes of that further consultation.

The consultation had started on 23 September 2020 and run for 6 weeks until 4 November 2020. Overall there had been 2,426 responses to the on-line survey, although not all respondents had answered all the questions. In addition to the responses to the on-line survey, there had been 24 emails received with detailed feedback on the draft strategy. Five of those responses were from individuals and the remainder were submitted by organisations or groups.

The responses showed high levels of support for the various proposals within the draft strategy, as indicated by the breakdown of responses to the on-line survey:

These figures did not always add up to 100% as not all respondents gave a view on all questions.

The report also set out an analysis of the free-text responses that consultees had included in their replies, broken down by the main themes of the consultation.

Appended to the report was a full schedule of responses to each the areas of concerns raised through the consultation. Included on that were the proposed changes and amendments to the draft City Centre Transport Strategy in response to the issues arising from the consultation.

The intention was to now bring forward a final version of the Strategy for approval and adoption in March 2021.

Decisions

1.         To note the outcome of the consultation.

2.         To note the responses to the concerns and challenges raised in the consultation attached at Appendix 2 of the report, and to endorse the proposed changes to the draft Strategy as a result of the consultation.

3.         To agree that a further report is brought to the next meeting to present the final version of the Strategy.