Agenda, decisions and minutes

Apologies for absence were received from Simon Pringle and Councillor D’Agorne.

There were no pecuniary interests declared at the meeting.

There were no items which required the exemption of the press or public.

Councillor Swift wished to offer his apologies for the previous meeting, having been unable to join due to technical difficulties.

Resolved: That the minutes of the meeting of the Transport Committee held on the 15 May be approved.

(i)              That the progress on development of the West Yorkshire Rail Vision be noted and the next steps be endorsed.

(ii)             That the Combined Authority’s response to the Rail Needs Assessment for the Midlands and the north consultation be noted and endorsed.

(iii)           That  the Combined Authority’s submission to the New Stations Fund scheme be noted and endorsed.

(iv)           Welcome the publication of the Leeds Area Continuous Modular Strategic Planning study by Network Rail, and to endorse the need to actively support the case for development and funding of the recommended projects in partnership with Network Rail and Transport for the North.

(v)             That the progress on development of the Leeds Station Existing Programme business case be noted and the need to actively support the funding case for this project in partnership with Network Rail, Leeds City Council and Transport for the North be endorsed.

The Committee considered a report which provided an update on several strategic rail items.

Matt Rice, on behalf of Network Rail, was in attendance and provided a presentation:

·       That there was ongoing work with stakeholders on continuous modular strategic planning to understand the needs of the rail network in the region and how it interlinks with other parts of the country.

·       That there was a growth challenge in north of England and capacity at Leeds Station needed to be addressed.

·       Raised an issue with Transpennine Route upgrade in Kirklees around disabled access at station – some in Kirklees excluded form access for all funding on the assumption that TRU would address but there were concerns that the scope of TRU may have changed

·        Matt Rice noted that some of the station renovations were outside TRU scope at the minute but does not preclude network rail discussing funding for minor renewal and offered to meet with councillors form Kirklees and Calderdale.

·       NPR negative impact on Kirklees – Bradford gateway – development opportunity south of city centre to understand npr transform connectivity in Bradford. Work underway to understand impact – can return to a future meeting once we know more.

·       Length of platforms across the districts need to address to enable wholistic capacity

·       More detailed conversation with Matt in Calderdale

·       NR would work with partners to ensure disruption were managed and communication was clear

·       Platform 17 – option to extend is on list of decisions to be made regarding funding. Speak to Northern to see if any imaginative solutions were available

·       Neville Hill – working with operators to put together ambitious overhaul – work underway

·       Had projections for capacity, rail usage changed in a post covid situation – difficult to project but assuming a return to growth will occur. Transport recovery plan and importance of rail to achieving a zero carbon economy. Network may be used in a different way eg. Rush hour but still central to overall plan.

Resolved:

(i)              That the progress on development of the West Yorkshire Rail Vision be noted and the next steps be endorsed.

(ii)             That the Combined Authority’s response to the Rail Needs Assessment for the Midlands and the north consultation be noted and endorsed.

(iii)           That the Combined Authority’s submission to the New Stations Fund scheme be noted and endorsed.

(iv)           Welcome the publication of the Leeds Area Continuous Modular Strategic Planning study by Network Rail, and to endorse the need to actively support the case for development and funding of the recommended projects in partnership with Network Rail and Transport for the North.

(v)             That the progress on development of the Leeds Station Existing Programme business case be noted and the need to actively support the funding case for this project in partnership with Network Rail, Leeds City Council and Transport for the North be endorsed.

The Committee considered a report which set out the governance arrangements for 2020/21 municipal year.

Members agreed that the Cycling and Walking Working Group would be renamed the Active Travel Working Group to align with Government terminology.

Resolved:

(i)              Notes that the following appointments made by the Combined Authority on 27 June 2019 will continue for the 2020/21 municipal year:

·       Councillor Groves as Chair of Transport Committee,

·       Councillor Kaushik as Deputy Chair of Transport Committee,

·       Councillor Bolt as leader of the opposition on Transport Committee.

(ii)             Re-establishes a District Consultation Sub-Committee for the municipal year 2019/20 for each constituent council area with the same terms of reference previously approved.

(iii)           Appoints to the relevant District Consultation Sub-Committee each Transport Committee member co-opted from a constituent council as a voting member.

(iv)                Confirms the following as Chair for each District Consultation Sub-Committee for the 2020/21 municipal year:

·       Bradford DCSC – Taj Salam

·       Calderdale DCSC – Daniel Sutherland

·       Kirklees DCSC – James Homewood

·       Leeds DCSC – Peter Carlill

·       Wakefield DCSC – Kevin Swift

(v)             Approves the re-appointment of the public representatives for a further one year term of office until the next annual meeting of the Combined Authority.

(vi)           Agrees that each District Consultation Sub-Committee meets on the dates set out in Appendix 1 to this report.

(vii)          Re-establishes the Local Bus Services Working Group for the municipal year 2020/21, with the same terms of reference and arrangements previously approved.

(viii)        Re-establishes the Cycling and Walking Working Group for the municipal year 2020/21, with the same terms of reference and arrangements previously approved.

(iv)      Re-establishes the Zero Emission Transport Working Group for the municipal year 2020/21, with the same terms of reference and arrangements previously approved.

(i)              That the Committee notes the updates provided in this report.

(ii)             That the Local Bus Working Group oversees the reinstatement of the bus network and any commissioning of services by the Combined Authority in support of this.

(iii)           That the Committee endorses the framework set out for the Transport Recovery Plan set out in paragraph 2.26

(iv)           That the Committee approves alterations to the scope of the Bus Strategy and Smartcard and Information Programmes to facilitate elements of the Transport Recovery Plan set out in 4.1

(v)             That the delegated decision-making arrangement approved by the Committee on 13 March be maintained for use on urgent matters relating to the COVID-19 emergency and reviewed at the next meeting.

The Committee considered a report which provided an update on Covid19 impacts and recovery.

Members discussed the report and the following comments were made:

·       That there was uncertainty of funding around buses and difficult decisions around bus provision. Members were informed that use local bus working group would be used as a mechanism for discussion.

·       Members requested greater clarity and structure from the local bus working group going forward.

·       Officers would provide a working note to accompany the terms of reference for the local bus working group to provide clarity and structure for how the group would function practically going forward.

·       Members would be notified of the outcome of a tender for bus services between Keighley and Halifax in due course.

·       The need to make sure that less commercial routes, harder to reach communities are not left isolated.

·       It may be necessary to review guidance used to assess bus services which the CA funds.

·       That the Chair would write to government for clarity around bus funding

Resolved:

(i)              That the Committee notes the updates provided in this report.

(ii)             That the Local Bus Working Group oversees the reinstatement of the bus network and any commissioning of services by the Combined Authority in support of this.

(iii)           That the Committee endorses the framework set out for the Transport Recovery Plan set out in paragraph 2.26

(iv)           That the Committee approves alterations to the scope of the Bus Strategy and Smartcard and Information Programmes to facilitate elements of the Transport Recovery Plan set out in 4.1

(v)             That the delegated decision-making arrangement approved by the Committee on 13 March be maintained for use on urgent matters relating to the COVID-19 emergency and reviewed at the next meeting.

The committee considered a report which provided an update on transport matters across the region.

Zero Emission group – public consultation is the next steps – vital to find a way for a meaningful conversation in current situation to approach is co-designed by public. Circulate after meeting the details for the consultation. Two stages – zero session pathways published later in July and work with stakeholders across region and full public circulation in autumn. Let us know if they have missed any groups.

Holmfirth shopkeepers’ issue on Holmfirth scheme – a lot of objections.

Scheme – a lot of consultation and broad measure of consensus – significant caveats made, and modification made as a result of consultation and compromise found