Minutes of the Environment and Transport Board
Held on 17 March 2005
Richard Olive Peterborough Friends
of the Earth
Richard Paten
Railworld/Peterborough Civic Society
Councillor Kreling
Peterborough City Council
Andy Campbell
Stagecoach Cambridgeshire
Sarah
Fowler Peterborough
Environment City Trust
Richard Astle GPP Director
Candy Reed Environment Agency
Heather Darwin Peterborough City Council
Trevor Fenwick G.N.E.R
Craig Huntbatch Royal Haskoning
David Turnock
Civic Society
Rachel Price The
Wildlife Trust
Shelagh Grant Peterborough City
Council
Introductions
David
Malia, Craig Huntbatch, Andy Campbell and Trevor Fenwick were welcomed to their
first meeting of the partnership.
1. Apologies
Apologies
for absence were received from Trevor Gibson, Jonathan Selwyn, Mr Marsden, and
Councillor Peach.
2. Minutes
The minutes of the meeting held on 20 January 2005 were agreed as a correct record.
3. Matters
Arising
The
Crescent Rail Link
Ken McKay had sent a letter to Halcrow (the consultants currently reviewing the station quarter) and this had been copied to Reverend Paten. No response had been received from Halcrow.
Action
Letter to Halcrow to be circulated to Group members. (David Malia)
Regional
Spatial Strategy
The
Chairman had written to the East of England Regional Assembly regarding the
area’s infrastructure requirements and a copy of the letter would be
circulated with the minutes (David Malia/Ken McKay).
Trevor Fenwick, representing GNER, outlined the current
proposals to improve the services at Peterborough station. Initial improvements
included better signage, improved drop off points, and the public announcement
system. The City Councils
Transport Section had been involved with the redesign and their help was
appreciated.
The announcement of the 10-year East Coast mainline
franchise was due shortly.
This should bring further inward investment and main focus would be on
increasing the number of passengers.
Recent passenger forums had proved successful. The problems associated with car parking were highlighted in particular. Further passenger forums were to be held in Whittlesey, March and Peterborough.
Action
Request from GNER for support from all members of the Environment and Transport Board to support their work to engage transport users through the passenger forums. Trevor Fenwick to provide dates of events to David Malia.
Train companies, One and Central were proposing to reduce
the overall number of stops on the service line at both March and Whittlesey
stations, which formed part of the important commuter route through to London.
Trevor Fenwick also highlighted the pressures upon the station
car parks and requested that parking provision and the possible use of park and
ride was considered as part of the redevelopment of the City Centre.
GNER also supported railway heritage and generally supported
the Crescent Bridge link.
Action
The partnership to encourage the City Council and developers to consider parking provision in the City Centre prior to future developments, particularly supporting park and ride and alternative forms of transport links in and out of the City Centre. (All)
PECT to discuss further links with GNER in relation to
the Sustainable Energy Centre and cycling facilities at the station (Sarah
Fowler/Trevor Fenwick).
Details to be circulated about GNER’s future plans
for Peterborough Station once the franchise announcement had been made (Trevor
Fenwick)
Andy Campbell, Managing Director
Stagecoach Cambridgeshire, outlined that since the launch of the City Centre
network in April 2004 there had been an increase in bus services of 10.3%, or
approximately 11,000 additional journeys per week. Stagecoach were increasing capacity in line with
demand. The initiatives in place
included day tickets for pensioners, out of district tickets and the £5
reduction in the mega rider plus service.
Stagecoach supported the integrated provision of bus and
train services and expressed concerns that parking charges in the City Centre
required consideration to prevent congestion. Current parking charges of £2 per day possibly
encouraged congestion, as this rate was lower compared to other large
cities. An increase of parking
charges and a reduction in length of time cars could park in the City Centre
would help to reduce congestion.
The City Centre Master Plan could be used as a lever for change in this
area in partnership with the transport providers.
Action
Out of town parking should be encouraged by the partnership with an appropriate integrated transport network for the City Centre utilising alternatives to car transport where possible. (All)
Sarah Fowler to liaise with Andy Campbell to include bus
service information within the existing information packs distributed to new
homeowners by developers. (Sarah Fowler)
Jamie Gray, Sustainable Transport Manager, to attend a
future meeting of the partnership to provide an update about the development of
the Sustainable Transport Strategy.
4. Update
on GPP Progress
Local Area Agreements (LAA)
Shelagh Grant, Director of Community Services PCC, outlined the importance of the LAA to enable joined up funding streams to direct resources to the 3 key priority areas:
Young People
Safer
Communities
Older people.
LAAs were also the mechanism for the delivery of the
Community Strategy.
There might be some flexibility to extend the resources to
other key areas such as the quality of open spaces, a cleaner greener City,
healthy environment, well being and increasing participation with young people.
The proposal enabled the City to request additional freedoms
and flexibilities for the allocation of this funding.
The environment related targets for the LAA were currently
being developed. Draft LAA
documents were to be approved through the City Councils Cabinet and GPP Board
and there would be further opportunity for the partnership to be involved in
this process.
Delivery of the Community Strategy
There was now a requirement for all key partnerships to move forward with the delivery of the Community Strategy, to determine how the targets and objectives would be delivered.
Short term targets needed to be identified to build
appropriate action plans and identify where help from other Partnerships might
be needed and highlight current success.
Ken McKay confirmed that a working group (Environment Leaders) had been
set up to develop the Environmental Capital Breakthrough goal identifying
targets and direction.
Action
The
Partnership to consider the development of the “Environment
Capital” breakthrough goal and the delivery of targets within the
Community Strategy at the next meeting.
This would be the only item for consideration.
David Malia to circulate minutes of the recent meeting on developing the Environment Capital proposition to members of the Board who were invited to submit comments about the proposals being developed. (David Malia)
Resources and Funding
Richard Astle presented a paper relating to the funding of
the GPP. The GPP Board was
considering a number of options. The necessary funding of the GPP was needed to
enable the activities of the GPP and key partnerships to be monitored, managed
and accountable. Individual Key Partnerships were being asked to make a
contribution towards overall costs. The estimated budget required was in the
region of £120,000 for 2005/06.
The Environment and Transport Board had been asked to
contribute £5,000. Ken McKay confirmed that £3,000 had been
identified from central sources and asked members of the Board to consider what
contributions their organisations could contribute to make up the
shortfall.
Action
All group members to consider whether they can make
additional contributions towards E&T’s target.
5. Environment
and Transport Annual Review
In order to share resources and
maximise potential attendance the Board agreed to stage the 2005 E&T Review
alongside the GPP Forum event on the afternoon of 2 June 2005.
Action
The Passenger Forum contact details to be included within
the GPP database of contacts (David Malia/Trevor Fenwick).
6. Local
Transport Plan Review
Deferred
7. Section
106 Review
Deferred
8. Sustainable
Communities Plan/Growth Area Bid
Deferred
9. Partnership
updates
Rachel Price confirmed that the Wildlife Trust was
participating in a number of community engagement events during 2005. Events included:
National Volunteers Week 1 to 7 June 2005
National Wildlife Week 5 to 12 June
Peterborough Environment Week 11 to 19June 2005
Local Nature Reserve Celebrations 18 to 31 July 2005
Relaunch of The Boardwalks Local Nature Reserve 25 July 2005
The Mela 22 to 24 July 2005.
Action
Any submissions or features for Environment Week to be
submitted to Rachel Price or Hugh Cripps by the 29 March 2005. (All)
Friends of the Earth had submitted comments regarding the
Regional Spatial Strategy and they would be taking part in the examination in
public later in the year.
The Fens Waterways Link Document had been published and was distributed to Board members for information.
10. Dates of
Future Meetings
19 May 2005
21 July 2005
15 September 2005
17 November 2005