Council and councillors

(KEY DECISION)

Report No.99/2019

Report No.99/2019 was received from the Strategic Director for Places. Mrs L Stephenson, Portfolio Holder for Culture and Leisure, and Highways and Transportation introduced the report the purpose of which was to provide Cabinet with a summary of the consultation process for Moving Rutland Forward (MRF) and associated documents and request that they were recommended to Council for approval.

During discussion the following points were noted:

·         This was the fourth local transport plan for Rutland and it had undergone a very lengthy and comprehensive consultation process.

·         The strategic aims of the Plan were to 1) facilitate the delivery of sustainable population and economic growth, 2) meet the needs of the most vulnerable residents and 3) to support a high level of health and wellbeing (including combating rural isolation).

·         The scrutiny process was crucial to making sure that the Council got it right.

·         Adoption of Moving Rutland Forward was just the starting point for delivering the Council’s transport vision and a number of policies would be developed and revised during its implementation.

·         The Portfolio Holder for Transport, Mrs L Stephenson, made an amendment to the second recommendation of the report requesting that the MRF be approved by Council as an indicator of travel, understanding that financial implications would be considered with each individual policy as it was developed.

·         There had been three amendments to the document since original publication of the report in the Cabinet agenda pack (detailed below). The revised documents would be available at https://www.rutland.gov.uk/my-community/transport/local-transport-plan/

1.      Page 138 – the last paragraph referring to the Caldecott relief road – 5.3.2 was to be removed and replaced with:

There is a long and well documented history of a demand for a bypass for Caldecott, and RCC has previously successfully submitted its case and had funding allocated for such a project. Whilst the previous scheme was shelved as a consequence of the 2007/8 financial crisis, the situation needs to be reviewed in the face of exacerbating factors such as further increases in average annual daily volumes as measured by the Department for Transport, the considerable planned expansion of Corby, and the growth of Rutland’s tourism industry. We will commit to re-establishing the case for a relief road against set national standards and to seek the funds to undertake a feasibility study.

2.    The A1 referenced in appendix B under 2.4, 5.2, 5.3.2, 5.3.3 and 8.5.2 would be included in the table on page 185 so that it read: ‘We will work with our partnership highway authorities to deliver an upgrade to motorway standard for the A1 between Peterborough and the M62 for both safety and economic reasons at the earliest opportunity.’  This would also be added to the implementation plan on page 221.

3.    The Road Safety Strategy work had been brought forward to this year which meant that the parking strategy had been moved to later on in the first tranche of work.

·         Members still had some concerns about the readability and length of the document for Cabinet and the public but recognised that it had been a long process to get to this stage and there was a need to move on and support the Plan.

·         Mrs Stephenson’s amendments to the documents, which emphasised that this was an indication of the direction of travel and the Plan would evolve further, was welcomed by Members.

DECISIONS

Cabinet:

1.    NOTED the content of the consultation report

2.    RECOMMENDED Moving Rutland Forward, and associated documents and assessments (Appendices B-M) to Council for approval as an indicator of the direction of travel, understanding that financial implications would be considered with each individual policy as it was developed.

Reasons for the decisions:

1.    MRF and associated documents have been developed to address the transport challenges faced in Rutland that have been identified via in-depth interrogation of a wide ranging evidence base and engagement with various stakeholders.

2.    The vision and aspirations of MRF and associated documents will help to deliver solutions to these challenges, whilst also delivering against the council’s corporate aims and objectives. As such, adoption of MRF and its subsequent delivery has a vital role to play in the future evolution of Rutland and will – we hope – achieve its title and help move Rutland forward.