Members of the Panel

15 February 2006

ATTENDANCE

Members of the Panel

CountyCouncillors:R S Clements (Chairman), M Cowan, A Dodd, D J Drake, B C Engel, J T Metcalf.

Other CountyMembers in Attendance :

D Hewitt, A M R Searing.

County Council Officers :

R Smith-Assistant Director of Environment (Transport Management)

D Humby-Head of Transportation Planning & Policy

T Mason-Principal Engineer

A Service-Panel Administrator

L Warner- Senior Engineer

Representatives of Hertfordshire District / Borough Councils

Broxbourne Borough:

Councillor P Mason

J Forbes-Senior Engineer

Dacorum Borough:

L Clark-Senior Engineer

B Scott- Principal Engineer

East Herts District:

G Field-Senior Engineer

Hertsmere Borough:

M Silverman-Senior Engineer

North Herts District:

Councillor R Thake

S Young-Transport Officer

Stevenage Borough:

Councillor G Clark

R Jones-Principal Engineer

St AlbansCity & District:

Councillor G Churchard

Three Rivers District:

S Farrell- Senior Planner

Watford:

No attendee

Welwyn Hatfield District:

No attendee

1.APOLOGIES

Apologies for absence have been submitted on behalf of:

District Councillors :

D Clark, H Chapman,B Hill,M Perkins, N C Poulton, I Reay.

CountyCouncillors :

D Ashley,M V Bayes, S M Holmes, S Pile, H M Saunders, R H Smith,

J W A Usher.

District Officers

M Beckham, P Harris, A Sestini.

1. NOTES OF LAST JOINT MEETING

The Notes of the Joint Meeting held on 22 June 2005 were received as a correct

record.

3.LOCAL TRANSPORT PLAN FOR 2006 / 07 – 2010 / 11

Louise Warner gave a presentation outliningprogress with the final stages of the next five year Local Transport Plan [LTP 2] for 2006 / 7 – 2010 /11. She advised that following the comments made by the Department for Transport on the Council’s provisional LTP and changes made to the Guidance for preparing LTPs, revisions were being made to the Council’s LTP 2. The County Council were seeking

comments on LTP2, Accessibility Strategy and Rights of Way Improvement Plan and these were out for consultation from 16 January to 10 February 2006.

The Highways & Transport Panel would consider the consultation responses at its next meeting on 2 March 2006 with LTP 2 being then submitted to the Cabinet on 20 March and the full County Council on 28 March 2006 for approval so that it could be submitted to the Department for Transport by 31 March 2006.

She gave details of the main changes contained in the Guidance for preparing LTPs

which concentrated on : -

• Shared priorities - involving tackling congestion, delivering accessibility,

safer roads, better air quality and quality of life issues.

• Indicators, Trajectories and Targets – which included 17 mandatory indicators

plus 5 local indicators [selected by the

Panel]

• Planning guidelines

Additionally LTP2 was supported by a number of other documents, commonly known as ‘daughter documents’ which were as follows :-

a)Long –term Policy Document

b)Bus Strategy

c)Rail Strategy

d)Road Safety Plan

e)Accessibility Strategy, and

f)Strategic Environmental Assessment

g)Rights of Way Improvement Plan.

District / Borough Councils were invited to advise of their comments tonight or make them by 10 February 2006 plus they were welcome to consider updating or changing theirDistrict statement relating to LTP 2.

Louise Warner advised that the Council’s LTP 2 including the daughter documents were also available to view at the main Hertfordshire libraries and on the Council’s website :

4.AREA TRANSPORT PLANS

Rob Smithadvised that it was proposed to undertake a review of Area Transport Plans as a consequence of the new planning processes and changes to the Local Transport Plan system introduced by Central Government plus lessons learnt from developing past Area Transport Plans. He stated that currently the various Area and Urban Plans covering parts of Hertfordshire were all at different stages with many desiring to be updated. He stated that the absence of / or out of date Area Strategic Plans had led or could lead to some opportunities being missed to gain financial contributions from developers proceeding with developments.

He advised that it was the intention to involve a Borough Council officer with the review of area transport plans and Brian Scott from Dacorum Borough Council was prepared to take part in this review.

The meeting observed that Area Transport Plans benefitted responses on planning applications from the County Council as the Highway Authority and furthermore fuller responses backed up with the policies they are based on, rather than ‘no comment’ to make on applications would be welcomed.

District / Borough Council officers gave examples where Area Transport Plans had assisted them in responding to developments within their Districts and in obtaining Section 106 contributions from private developers.

Special pleas were made for updating the following various strategic transport plans: -

• the Hemel Hempstead Transportation Plan to assist the regeneration work required following the Buncefield Oil Depot, Hemel Hempstead fire incident.

• Hitchin Urban Plan as a consequence of LutonAirport and West of Stevenage

• South West Herts Area Transportation Plan in view of the widening of M25 and M1 works.

• Welwyn Garden City and Hatfield [E mail from Cllr Mandy Perkins dated

26 January 2006] – further major development proposed at former Hatfield

Aerodrome site which will put additional pressure on the local transport

infrastructure.

The Panel Chairman stated that the Highways & Transport Panel would consider the review of Area Transport Plans at its meeting on 30 March 2006 and would take into account views / comments made by the District / Borough Councils.

He invited District / Borough Councils to send in any further comments, in writing, they had on Area Transport Plans.

5.TRAFFIC MANAGEMENT ACT – NETWORK MANAGEMENT DUTY

Rob Smith gave details of the County Council’s approach and arrangements to meet the requirements of the Traffic Management Act and ensure the expeditious movement of traffic on Hertfordshire roads.

He advised that the Road Traffic Management Bill had been enacted as an Act in

July 2004 and the provisions of the Act were being introduced gradually.

He stated that specific parts of this Actwere of particular relevance to the County Council and part 2 which related to the network management duty was one of these and this had been introduced in January 2006.

Parts 3 and 4 of this Act concerning Permit Schemes and Street Works contained other provisions of specific relevance to Hertfordshire and the introduction dates for these provisions were not yet known.

Rob Smith stated that he had been appointed as the Traffic Manager for Hertfordshire

and outlined the following main responsibilities / requirements the Act imposed on the Council, to :-

• co-ordinate and direct with parity - its own road works, the utilities’ street works,planned events, emergencies/incidents and all other activities which may affect the highway (such as sporting events and refuse collection etc.).

• identify causes and locations of congestion that occur now, or may occur in the future. These shall be published and reviewed on a regular basis

• develop policies to tackle congestion

• set highway route hierarchies giving priority to identified road users

• review its existing traffic management tools (such as traffic signal timings)

to ensure traffic flow is optimised

• ensure that the whole authority (i.e. the whole of HCC) is aware of the duty and, as appropriate, contributes to the discharging of that duty.

• raise awareness and co-ordinate with partners who also have network managing functions, such as the District Councils, the Police, Highways Agency and neighbouring authorities.

• ensure information relating to roadworks, events and incidents on the network is readily available to the public and all stakeholders.

He stated that these requirements would mean that works proposed to be undertaken to roads within Hertfordshire identified as sensitive or priority routes for specific types of traffic, by statutory undertakers and others would have to be planned to minimise disruption and probably be at off peak times of the day or night.

He expected in the near future to consider how routine activities such as street cleansing, refuse collections and grass cutting will fit in with these new arrangements and whether they needed to be changed to assist traffic movement and at this stage discussions would be held with District / Borough Councils officers.

In response to a question concerning how the arrangements would affect the Highways Agency’s roads in Hertfordshire, Rob Smith stated that the Act required neighbouring road authorities to liaise with each other in planning road works and this approach would cover the Highways Agency in planning motorway or trunk road works in Hertfordshire.

He stated that this new duty would involve producing an annual report outlining how traffic was being managed in Hertfordshire in line with the requirements of this Act and mention any problems that had been or were being experienced.

In response to questions concerning delays with works undertaken by statutory undertakers, Rob Smith intimated that there were likely to be powers within Part 3

of the Act to penalise delays with road works provided the works were not observed as emergencies.

6.DISTRICT / BOROUGH COUNCIL ISSUES / OTHER BUSINESS

The Chairman of the meeting asked District / Borough Councils representatives in turn, whether they had any issues / matters they wished to raise at the meeting tonight.

The following responses were made : -

a) Broxbourne Borough

Nothing wished to be raised.

b) Dacorum Borough

i)Decriminalised Parking Enforcement

Appreciation was expressed of the considerable assistance given by the County Council in introducing the new arrangements which had led to an effective co-ordinating group being established.

ii)Concessionary Fares Scheme

Attention was drawn to the new powers given to District / Borough Councils as from 1 April 2006 to offer concessionary fares to elderly / physically handicapped persons in their areas wishing to travel anywhere in their home county. A deal had been got together which would be good news for the travelling public.

iii)Management of public events

Comment was made that the Police no longer would assist the management of public events such as fetes, charity fun runs etc which involved temporary control of public movement whilst the events took place.

It was questioned whether there were other management controls that could be used to assist with management of public events.

Rob Smith stated that this was a growing issue and there was a possibility of losing the public benefit resulting from these public events.

c) East Herts District

Nothing wished to be raised.

d) Hertsmere Borough

Nothing wished to be raised.

e) North Herts District

LTP shared priority targets– design of schemes

Would this affect the design stage of cyclist safety schemes ?

Rob Smith stated that the County was judged by its performance in meeting LTP targets but would aspire to promote / encourage cycling schemes.

f) Stevenage Borough

i)Review of Cyclewaynetwork – powered 2 wheelers

Has anything changed as regards powered two wheelers?

Rob Smith stated that nothing had changed regarding powered

two wheelers using the cycleway network.

ii) Transport – level of poverty

It was stated that 24% of households in Stevenage did not have access

to or had a car for their own use and this should be taken account of in planning local transport schemes.

g) St AlbansCity & District

Resources available for the design of new cycleways

Comment was made on the lack of progress with producing cycling schemes

in St Albans, especially as budgetary provision was available and it was wondered if this was purely due to staff shortages?

Rob Smith stated that whilst he was knew of general difficulties to retain staff was unaware of staff shortages in the team dealing with the design of cycling schemes but he would enquire into this.

h) Three Rivers District

Special plea for South West Herts Area Transportation Plan to be reviewed.

Comment was made on the discontent being expressed by motorists and residents concerning the temporary closure of the A412 and it was suggested that they be advised of the name of the Traffic Manager.

i) Watford Borough

No representative in attendance.

j) Welwyn Hatfield District

No representative in attendance.

7. DATE OF NEXT JOINT LTP MEETING

The date of the next Joint Meeting to be held on Thursday 6 April 2006 starting at

6.30 p.m. was noted.

Adrian Service

Panel Administrator

CountySecretary's Department

Hertfordshire County Council

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