Agenda item

            The Committee considered the undernoted report:

“Relevant Background Information

      Consultants were commissioned in August 2008 to update the current Belfast City Council Transport Policy. The purpose of the commission is to:

-     Carry out a review of the existing Transport Policy and ‘Environmental Policy Package’ in order to provide the Council with an up to date transport vision for the city and to support the Council’s civic leadership role of facilitating the development of sustainable transport options for the City.

-     modify the existing ‘Environmental Policy Package’ in order to take account of the Council’s workplace and fleet transport requirements and to identify linkages with other corporate objectives. The review will include a detailed overview of Belfast City Council’s transport activities with the objective of establishing the potential for a range of more sustainable transport options for operational activity, staff and fleet vehicles.

      Continued engagement in the processes that shape the growth and development of the city requires the Council to be fully informed of current best practice in transport policy in order to participate in the proposed consultations and influence transport initiatives planned for the city. The ability to effectively participate in the proposed review of the Regional Transport Strategy will be an essential element of the approach to ensuring the sustainable development of the city and region. In addition the proposals for the Review of Public Administration with the proposed transfer of responsibility for local planning functions reinforces the need for the Council to have a consistent and coherent transport policy to ensure integration of land use and transportation issues within Belfast.

Key Issues

      The initial work on the review of the transport policy has completed 3 Stages covering the following activities:

Stage 1

A technical review of the current transport policy.

Stage 2

-     Identification of effective approaches to sustainable transport in comparable cities;

-     A review of current and proposed transport initiatives for Belfast; and

-     Consultation workshops with elected members, internal officers and external representatives.

Stage 3

-     A review of Belfast City Council staff and fleet transport activities;

-     Internal Staff travel survey; and

-     Identification of initiatives from workplace travel planning in comparable local authorities.

      The main findings from Stage 1 to 3 were that:

-     The technical review showed that the current policy provided the Council with a coherent approach to lobby on sustainable transport issues, input into the formulation of the BMTP, BMAP and the development of the Belfast City Council Air Quality Action plan.

-     The revised transport policy should set out a clear transport vision for Belfast feeding into the current review of the RDS and the proposed review of the RTS and BMTP.

-     A review of best practice highlighted the potential for consideration of new initiatives such as ‘Shared spaces’ and ‘low emission zones’ which are being implemented in a number of European cities.

-     The Review of Public Administration and the transfer of functions will have significant implications as the transfer of road functions is relatively limited as the main statutory responsibility will remain largely with central government although through local planning the Council will have the opportunity to influence the development of more sustainable transport system in Belfast 

-     Consultation with elected members and other bodies indicated the following: 

-     The need for a strong and aspirational transportation vision for the city

-     The need for the integration of transport planning and land use planning to support sustainable development and to provide clearer guidelines on the issue of developer contributions

-     Continued support for a rapid transit scheme with some stakeholders strongly supporting the light rail option

-     Integrated ticketing for the city and night time services to assist the evening economy

-     The need to include transportation policies that address issues with the elderly, school children, areas of high unemployment and low income, community severance and connectivity

-     The initial internal staff and fleet review indicated that:

-     a significant portion of employees currently have a high level of accessibility to public transport;

-     the private car remained the dominant mode for travel to work for staff;

-     the necessity for access to transport for business purposes during their working day and the fact it was currently more efficient to use the car than public transport;

-     the potential exists for discount travel cards/ season tickets as well as the availability of more frequent and direct bus services to increase public transport use;

-     concerted effort has been made to reduce the environmental impact associated with fleet activities and in this regard the Council is seen as an leader and proponent of best practice;

-     initiatives such as the replacement and upgrade of vehicles to meet Euro emissions standards, the promotion of the use of cleaner vehicle technology, the cycle to work initiative and membership of Travelwise NI Car sharing scheme have made positive contributions; and

-     the development of a formal Council Travel plan would enable the initial activity to be embedded in the work of the Council.

      A full summary of the Stage 1, 2 and 3 reports is available on Modern.gov.  The consultants will now consider as part of Stage 4 the potential for the “Environmental Policy Package” to be refined and developed as to provide the Council with an up to date transport vision for the city.

Resource Implications

      There are no direct resource implications arising from this report although the review will consider the issue of potential future resource requirements in respect of the internal transport policy implementation, review and monitoring.

Recommendations

      Members are asked to note:

1.   the findings of Stage 1, 2 & 3 of the BelfastCity Council Transport Policy review; and

2.   the opportunity for further consultation with the different parties in respect of the draft proposals prior to a further report to the Committee on the final approach and  recommendations.”

            The Committee adopted the foregoing recommendations.