6
The Committee considered the Director of Development and Executive Director of Community and Environmental Services report which provided Members with an update on the Great Yarmouth Transport Strategy which had previously been reported to the Committee at it's meeting on the 8 October 2018.
The Interim Team Leader for Transport, Norfolk County Council reported that to date an analysis of the issues had been carried out together with stakeholder engagement, the vision and objectives had been set out and a long list of schemes had been developed and appraised to derive a short list. He advised that the next steps for the project were to finalise the appraisal material into a Stage 2 Options and Appraisal report and to prepare a draft Stage 3 Strategy report which would require Members approval, following this approval a stakeholder event together with a four week public consultation would be undertaken.
Councillor Wainwright expressed some concern in that there was no cross party representation on the Transport and infrastructure Steering Group meetings and therefore not all Members were fully aware of the options that had been discussed. Councillor Wainwright made reference to option 1.8 within the options appraisal and pointed out that no explanation had been given as to why this scheme ha been discounted.
Reference was made to the discounting of option 8.1 within the options appraisal as it was pointed out that the Government were encouraging the installation electric charge points.
Councillor A Wright asked in relation to options 2.2 and 2.3 and raised concern as to why these had been discounted from being taken forward as he felt in his opinion that if the road was not to be duelled immediately then the speed should be reduced on this stretch of road, he made reference to the comments which had been made with regard to low political support for this matter. The Chairman advised that he had raised concern with regard to this matter, however it was felt by the Steering Group that in order to progress with the dualling of this road it was felt that a temporary measure could be seen as the Council's not wanting to push for the dualling of this road. Councillor Wright reiterated his concerns and stated that there was a safety element that needed to be looked at for this road, he therefore proposed that the Committee ask for options 2.2 and 2.3 to be reinstated within the options appraisal and be taken forward to steps 2 and 3.
Councillor G Carpenter asked whether highways had been consulted with regard to the Acle Straight and whether there were in sights as to the causes of the accidents on this stretch of road, the Interim Team Leader for Transport stated that this information could be provided to Members.
Councillor Walker made reference to the speed in which the Hall Quay improvement options had been approved and committed to and he felt that these options did not seem to have been closely investigated before being approved. It was advised that these schemes had been developed at a quicker pace in light of growth deal funding.
RESOLVED :
That subject to the addition of options 2.2 and 2.3 being reinstated within the report the Committee :-
(1) Note the contents of the report, and endorse the attached:
(2) Endorse the Executive Summary of Option Appraisal Process and the Proposed short, medium & long term package of measure.
(3) Endorse the next steps for the Transport Strategy work.