To receive any apologies for absence.

None.

To receive any Declarations of Interest.

Cllr Hunt – Declared a personal interest in the Highways and Transport Works Programme item as Cllr Hunt was a Ward Councillor where works were to be carried out.

Cllr Grey – Declared a personal interest in the Petition for Crossing and Safety Measures at Eton End School as he was Ward Councillor.

Cllr Sharma – Declared a personal interest in the presentation from First Group as he was an employee of First Group; however, there was no decision required on the item.

To confirm the Part I Minutes of the previous meeting.

RESOLVED UNANIMOUSLY: That the minutes of the meeting held on 5 February 2018 be approved.

To consider the work Programme of the Highways, Transport and Environment Overview and scrutiny Panel.

The Panel agreed to have the item moved to later in the meeting following the presentation from First Group and the item on the Petition for crossing and safety measures at Eton End School.

Councillor Beer wanted the congestion along Straight Road in Old Windsor to be investigated to find out why it had gotten so heavy. The Head of Highways and Transport confirmed he was happy for that to be added to the work programme.

Members discussed potential items for the Work Programme. The following items were suggested for the Work Programme with reports requested to be brought back to Panel in the future:

Buses: Public engagement (Task & Finish group with bus cos, RBWM & public) to create routes, frequencies and services relevant to residents needs including:

·                     Service 2 – Dedworth, Windsor, Slough

·                     Service 10/11 – Slough, Datchet, Sunnymedes, Wraysbury & Heathrow

·                     Service – 15 Slough and Eton Wick

·                     Service 702

Street lighting: implementation review; location and coverage of lights to enhance CCTV and improve security of residents

Road maintenance: areas failing or soon expected to fail reasonable standards, needing prioritised attention

Council waste: recycling own waste (e.g. coffee cups); policy for purchasing, to set highest environmental legacy

Councillor Quick requested an item be added to the work programme on introducing a cycling safety campaign.

Members noted the work programme and agreed for the above items to be added for future meetings.

To receive the above report.

Mrs Gill, the Lead Petitioner addressed the Panel and Members noted the following key points:

Ø  The Lead Petitioner felt compelled the start the petition following the death of a child due to a road traffic accident. The child’s father witnessed the accident and the family was changed forever.

Ø  Mrs Gill had submitted a 17 point plan to combat speeding outside Eton End School and her report showed that speed outside the school was an issue.

Ø  The nearby church had allowed parents to park in their car park but, some parents were choosing not to use that initiative and were still parking on the pavements outside the school gates which reduced visibility for both pupils and motorists.

Ø  The pathway between the church and the school was very narrow and cars did not stop to let pedestrians cross. The petition called for a zebra crossing to be installed.

Ø  The school and its parents had campaigned for years for a school crossing patrol officer to be hired as the children deserved safety.

Ø  Drivers ignored the 20mph speed limit signs and a maximum speed of 91.5mph had been recorded outside the school.

Ø  The petition requested a crossing and there was strong demand for it. It was hoped that drivers would see the crossing and use common sense to slow down.

Ø  Additional speed limit signs should be installed.

Ø  Bollards installed to stop drivers parking on the pavements would address the issue of parking outside the school gates but, would not address the issues of speeding.

Ø  Raised speed humps would solve problems of speeding motorists.

The Chairman said he had a meeting with Mrs Gill and the school on 10 May 2018 as he wanted the Lead Petitioner and the school to know the Borough took road safety very seriously. He added it was not possible to have both a zebra crossing and a school crossing patrol officer outside the school as it would be too confusing so, the school and Lead Petitioner needed to choose which they would prefer. Tony Carr, Traffic and Road Safety Manager stated the main issue was when the previous school crossing patrol officer retired. They had been hired by the Borough but paid for by the school. The best option was to employ a patroller and the Borough would train and provide the equipment. The Borough would also ensure the patroller was covered by insurance. Two patrollers would need to be hired to cover sickness and holidays. The Traffic and Road Safety Manager added zebra crossings had poor safety records outside of school hours. The Department for Transport advised a patrol officer should be in place outside of schools and there were ongoing discussions with the school on that.

Councillor Quick stated she was a teacher for 40 years so she was experienced with having children arrive and leave school. She felt it did not matter where the children came from or what type of school they attended, they were  ...  view the full minutes text for item 106.

To receive the above presentation.

The Chairman explained to Members that First Group had eight depots and over 1,000 staff and that Mr Reddy had worked in the industry for many years and had won awards for his work. The work Mr Reddy had carried out had shifted the use from cars to buses by 20% and he had even driven a bus from time to time when the need arose. The Chairman stated the transport industry had gone through some radical changes in recent years; and went on to provide Members with a brief history of public bus services.

Mr Reddy of First Group gave a presentation to Panel on the bus services provided to the Royal Borough. Members noted the following key points of the presentation:

Ø  First Group were based in Slough and ran 59 buses.

Ø  First Group employed 150 local people.

Ø  Customers made 12,850 journeys in a typical day.

Ø  First Group were UK based but also operated in the US, Canada, Panama and Ireland.

Ø  First Group ran school bus contracts in America

Ø  Bus services were deregulated outside London in 1985

Ø  Firs Bus had 1.6m passenger journeys daily

Ø  The bus service had to give 70 days’ notice to make any changes to routes

Ø  The company did not receive subsidies for any routes

Ø  They received rebates on tax paid for fuel but, that rebate was not as large as that received by rail or aviation sectors

Ø  First Group had 90% punctuality since April 2018 due to contending with road works in Windsor and disruption in Staines.

Ø  Challenges included traffic levels and unpredictability, Slough bus station costs and issues with access, costs of fuel, insurance and traffic air quality pressure on buses.

Ø  The positives for buses are the expansion at Heathrow, Crossrail and joint working with rail partners including SWR.

Ø  Changes to networks – networks had not changed in decades, there were complex cross-Slough routes, poor reliability due to knock on effects. First Group have resolved all those issues that with a simpler network.

Ø  First Group withdrew a number of routes due to significant losses. The Green line went to Reading buses.

Ø  First Bus consulted with officers from the Royal Borough, Slough Borough Council and Heathrow and delayed the withdrawal of Route 2.

Ø  First Bus were launching a Fast 9 Service which started on 2 June 2018. It would fill in the Slough to Terminal 5 gap in Route 8 and would be a direct route via the A4. The service would go to Windsor and Heathrow and it would start at 4.29am to help airport workers get to work on time.

Ø  First Group had launched new ticket machines to allow contactless payments

Ø  There was a system that provided real-time information to the Borough for timetable screens

Ø  The new ticket machines were able to read QR codes.

Ø  First Bus were improving ticketing by introducing M-Tickets which were 5% cheaper.

Ø  Simpler fares were introduced  ...  view the full minutes text for item 107.

To receive the above report.

The Head of Transport and Highways introduced the report and stated the budget for 2018/19 had been approved by Full Council on 21 February 2018 which included significant investment of £7.47m to maintain and improve the Borough’s highway network. Within the £7.47m was an allocation of £2.7m for the annual highways work programme which included roads and footways and other highway assets such as bridges. A further investment of £240,000 had been made available to repair potholes and damage caused by the winter weather.

The report sought approval for a large number of schemes which made up the highway works programmes, the details of which were listed in appendices A and B. the reserve list enabled acceleration of specific schemes into 2018/19. The annual highways work programme was derived from the annual machine driven assessment of the structural condition and skid resistance of the primary highways network. Standard practice was for an assessment to be completed in one direction in one year and the opposite direction the next year. The Borough committed to both directions being assessed each year which had been delivered.

Councillor Bicknell stated all roads in the current report had been scored to see how priority they were. He added the street lighting changeover scheme was completed with all street lights converted to LED. Each individual light could be dimmed or made brighter for a central control point. Councillor Da Costa requested a report be brought to Panel regarding how successful the lighting scheme had been and also on the position of lighting being effective in the fight against crime. Councillor Bicknell stated when the Borough replaced a light column, workmen used a machine which measured if the column was likely to fail. If it was likely to fail, the column was replaced. The Council then notified the street where the column was to be replaced to consult as to where the new column should be placed. It was a very flexible system. Councillor Bicknell went on to explain to the Panel that in terms of crime, the Council were driven by the police on lighting and where rapes had occurred, the police had confirmed that the CCTV had been perfect and clear.

RESOLVED UNANIMOUSLY: The Panel endorsed the recommendations that Cabinet:

      i.        Endorses the works programme set out in Appendix A.

    ii.        Delegate authority to the Managing Director, in consultation with the  Deputy Leader of the Council, the Lead Member for Highways, Transport and Windsor, to agree minor amendments to the approved schemes (within approved budgets) and implement reserve or substitute schemes should this become necessary.

   iii.        Endorses the indicative programmes for 2019-20 and 2020-21 set out in Appendix B.

To receive the above report.

The Panel agreed to discuss the Public Bike Share Scheme and the Cycling Action Plan together as one item.

The Principal Transport Officer stated the Bike Share Scheme allowed members f the public to hire bikes for short term or longer journeys similar to the Santander Bike Scheme in London. The Principal Transport Officer had looked at various schemes and invited providers to give a presentation. He had reviewed guidance from Bike Plus and looked at other schemes across the UK.

The Principal Transport Officer suggested the Borough defer the scheme until cycle routes had been improved and he requested further work to see how cross-boundary trips could be done and integrated with local Borough schemes. If a scheme was introduced, it would need to be designed with sensitivity due to the historic, security and space limit issues.

With regards to the Cycling Action Plan, the Principal Transport Officer stated a draft of the plan had been presented to Panel in 2017 but, it needed work. A Task and Finish Group was set up and that looked at the plan in great detail, changes were made and now there was a final document with its track changes showing the changes made due to the consultation and Task and Finish Group process, shown as the appendix to the report.

The changes included an updated evidence base, a reference to the Borough Local Plan, the Bike Share Scheme, the Close Pass Initiative and highlighted all recommendations from the all-party Parliamentary Cycling Group to increase spend to £10 per head. The Plan contained proposals for new routes and high priority schemes. The Task and Finish Group were hoping to get funding of £5m for the initiatives. The Cycle Forum was keen to have the plan adopted and the Principal Transport Officer commended the Task and Finish Group on their vigour when producing the Plan.

The Chairman expressed his sincerest thanks to the Task and Finish Group for all their hard work, particularly attending meetings earlier in the year due to the terrible weather. He added when he looked at the document, the Panel agreed to set up a Task and Finish Group and the vision and aim of the Group was to establish a cycling culture. It was to make cycling be seen as a safe, attractive and normal way of transport. Cycling should be an integral activity when designing new builds. The Chairman thanked Councillor Derek Wilson for Chairing the Task and Finish Group.

Councillor D Wilson thanked the Cycle Forum and officers for their dedication and hard work in bringing the Cycling Action plan together and working hard on the amendments. He sated he would like the Panel to endorse the contents and push it to Cabinet to be officially adopted. He added that the Plan was just one aspect if the Borough wanted to encourage people to cycle. All departments within the Council needed to look at the Cycling Action Plan and use it to help when making plans or  ...  view the full minutes text for item 109.

To receive the above report.

As agreed by the Panel, this item was discussed along with the Public Bike Share Scheme report.

1         DETAILS OF RECOMMENDATION(S)

RECOMMENDATION: That Highways, Transport and Environment Overview and Scrutiny Panel notes the report and:

i)             Reviews and comments on the Cycling Action Plan.

ii)            Requested the Cycling Action Plan be added to the Cabinet Forward Plan.