Issue - meetings

At a previous meeting the Cabinet agreed to commission a citizens’ jury or other suitable process of public engagement to determine the most appropriate safe, strategic cycle route to improve travel between the city centre, the University of Bath and the large employment and education sites in the Claverton Down area.  Britain Thinks was commissioned to undertake the citizens’ panel.

Lucy Bush, Research Director, from Britain Thinks will attend the Cabinet meeting to present the key findings.

Lucy Bush, Research Director from Britain Thinks presented the key findings of the citizens’ panel and responded to questions from the Cabinet.  (A copy of the presentation slides is attached as Appendix 9 to these minutes).

Cllr Sarah Warren introduced the report and made the following statement:

“Cabinet, transport currently accounts for around 29% of carbon emissions in Bath and North East Somerset.  Ensuring the transport network can enable residents to move to more sustainable modes of travel is an essential part of our Journey to Net Zero strategy.A move to more active modes of travel will reduce congestion and pollution in our district, as well as improving public health through increasing physical activity, as we build it into our daily routines.

As our first venture into deliberative democracy in Bath & North East Somerset, this ground-breaking piece of work provides the most detailed assessment yet of the considered views on active travel, and active travel infrastructure, of a representative group of our residents. It gives us an understanding of what our communities think right now about how best to balance the interests of different users of our roads. And it gives us important information about where we need to focus our communication and public engagement efforts to best support the changes in travel culture that we aim to facilitate.

I think the findings can give us a lot of confidence as a Cabinet that, when we ask ordinary people, they agree that we should improve cycle and walking infrastructure, both for environmental, but more importantly for health reasons. But also, that we need to do more to engage them in the fact that active travel is part of the solution to congestion, as well as to introduce more of them to the transformative nature of e-bikes and e-scooters in tackling our hills.

The report is well worth a read in full, as it provides valuable, detailed insights into the aspirations and concerns about travel of residents from all walks of life and delivers in a new way on another of our administration’s priorities around giving our communities a bigger say. The use of this technique, in addition to the other consultation methods that we often use, has meant that we have heard in depth from people who aren’t transport campaigners, and who don’t have the strong views about travel that we often hear expressed, here at the council.

The panel has given us principles for decision-making when it comes to fitting active travel infrastructure onto our narrow roads. I want to thank them for that advice, which we will explicitly incorporate into our decision-making frameworks in future. It will assist us in designing infrastructure that provides practical and attractive alternatives to the car for more people, more of the time.

Cabinet, you will remember that this particular piece of work came about as a result of controversy around a proposal we considered in 2021 to install a bus gate on North Road. We decided at that time that, rather  ...  view the full minutes text for item 42