Agenda item

Resolved: that the report be noted.

6.1    Alex Crush (Transport Policy and Development Manager) and Nick Harvey (Transport Planner) introduced the report, the following key points were noted:

·           The Local Implementation Plan (LIP) had been in development by officers (with the support of consultants) over the past 8 months.

·           Councillors had been involved during the development of the plan.

·           Public consultation was currently ongoing – this would lead to a finalised report for Mayor and Cabinet in February 2019 – to be followed by submission to Transport for London (later in February 2019).

6.2    Alex Crush and Nick Harvey responded to questions from the Committee (including a written submission from Cllr Ingleby), the following key points were noted:

·           The new programme for the LIP included a healthy neighbourhood project – which partially corresponded to the major schemes approach taken in the previous LIP.

·           The Council had a vision for rail but this did not include detailed planning and access requirements for all of the stations in the borough. Aspirations for key transport hubs were included in the LIP and in the developing Local Plan – but not in the level of the detail requested by the Committee. Further work (and funding) would need to be identified to undertake this level of assessment for all of Lewisham’s stations.

·           The A205 and A21 were TfL roads. The Council supported improvements for cyclists on both routes. However, due to the volume of traffic on the roads, space constraints and the costs involved, it would be difficult to create consistent provision for cycling on both routes. Although this was not to say that this issue should not be highlighted, and there were a number of opportunities to improve provision, such as the future redevelopment of Catford town centre.

·           Some work was taking place with TfL regarding the development of the A21 cycling corridor. It was likely that this would be split into sections/projects to be delivered in phases as funding became available. Officers were pushing for as much feasibility work as possible to be completed as soon as possible to help tie in with the Catford work.

·           Officers were developing a prioritisation process for determining work on healthy neighbourhood schemes. A large amount of information and feedback had been gathered from the Commonplace consultation, which officers were currently working through. 22/23 different factors had been identified for prioritisation process. The finalised process would be completed in time for the production of the final LIP.

6.3    In Committee discussions the following key points were also noted:

·           The current Mayor of London’s focus on cycling and walking was welcomed.

·           It was felt that the issue of air quality was not significantly nor consistently highlighted in the draft LIP.

·           The LIP should be more ambitious in terms of its plans for emissions reductions from traffic.

·           Further work should take place to support cycling on the A205 – especially through Forest Hill. Additional consideration should be given to options for an orbital route for cyclists going west through the borough.

6.4    Resolved: that the report be noted.