Here's the final response we gave to the West Yorkshire Transport Strategy. I was persuaded to take the following sentence out of our response as it wasn't the right tone I quite liked it though
"The
intermediate West Yorkshire stop on the Northern Powerhouse Rail route HS3
should be located in Narnia as a fantasy project should be located in a fantasy
kingdom."
So if you're reading from West Yorkshire Combined Authority that is what you could have had!
The Green Party Response
to the West Yorkshire Transport
Strategy 2016 - 2036
This response to the
West Yorkshire Transport Strategy represents the views of the Green
Parties of West Yorkshire and has been shared and agreed with our elected
representatives on Leeds, Bradford and Kirklees Councils and through
consultation with Party members throughout West Yorkshire.
How strongly you
agree or disagree with our proposed policies described in each of the core
themes and the cross-cutting theme?
We believe a 60
year vision is needed. 20 years is too short a period to realise the sort of
transformation in our transport system that is needed.
An initial
observation on the consultation questions is that there are a lot of obvious
‘Motherhood and Apple Pie’ statements that we are asked to express an opinion
on. This devalues the consultation exercise and
could lead respondees to question its validity.
Delivering the
Strategy is very dependent on road improvements with a strong emphasis on road
schemes which will lead to increased capacity on Major routes. This
accommodation of demand can only be temporary in nature. Delivering road
improvements to local congestion hot spots is eventually and inevitably
self-defeating as demand increases and diminishes the dubious benefit of the
investment.
Road
surfaces however desperately need improvements for all road users
especially cyclists who are at most personal risk from potholed
roads. The austerity budgets being imposed by central Government on local
Councils is leading to a rapidly deteriorating road network
In the Consultation
questionnaire it asks whether we should “Provide new roads to improve
access to development sites” – This seems a very odd
question and leads to a strong suspicion that it is aboutencouraging
development in green belt as it assumes development will be away from existing
hubs.We need to develop housing and employment around existing transport hubs
and communities rather than creating new ones. We must avoid monoculture
communities e.g. commuter belt towns. We also have concerns that improving
orbital roads may well suck the life out of city centres
Demand reduction
needs to be an aim of the Strategy. We must have policies in place that limit
the necessity to have vehicles. Spatial Planning that links existing
transport hubs with new development is one way of addressing demand, as is l.
Travel diaries/Travel Planning are important tools to
help people adopt healthier forms of transport. More food grown and used
locally to avoid food miles is another
approach. You should also be working with local
councils, developers, and bus operators to ensure that developments proposed
over the next 15- 20 years in DLP’s can be serviced by public transport,
cycling and walking. The alternative is more congestion and
pressure to carry out self-defeating road improvements
We strongly believe
that local and community rail improvements should be prioritised
over new road schemes, as should improvements to the bus network
which currently carries 5 – 6 times more passengers than
rail. A process of “Debeechification” should begin with greater
emphasis on improving and expanding the rail network; while more road space
should be dedicated to bus priority lanes.
HS2 is largely
irrelevant to our local transport needs and the money would be much better
spent on improving public transport infrastructure locally ie rail,
light rail, tram and bus networks. We strongly oppose a
masterplan for a new HS2 Yorkshire Hub Station in Leeds on that basis.
The question as to
where the intermediate West Yorkshire stop on the Northern Powerhouse Rail
route HS3 should be located is unfortunately irrelevant as we believe this is a
fantasy project not grounded in reality.
The Consultation
Questionnaire says that we should “Involve Communities in making
improvements to their neighbourhoods to create safer and healthier places” –
How and with what money?
Accessibility for
people with disabilities should be an important part of the
Strategy particularly as we move to more pedestrian friendly town centres.
We should look
to banning diesel cars from all Town and
City Centres – California has set a good example with
a policy that we should follow – starting by announcing a
ban on the worst polluting diesel vehicles/cars from Town Centres to start
by 2020.
“The current duopoly of First and Arriva in
West Yorkshire is uncompetitive and does not act in the interest of the public
transport user. It gives unfair advantage to the dominant operator in any
sub-area and stops the development of other operations that could significantly
improve services. Effectively the market works for First and Arriva, but
nobody else. In our view anything short of the powers that Transport for
London have regarding buses means the main providers of public transport in
West Yorkshire will not work in the interest of its people.”
What you think we
should measure to show our progress in delivering transport improvements in
each of the core themes and the cross-cutting theme?
The Strategy should
be set against the context of the Paris Climate Agreement. It should be an
integral part of the Strategy to show how it is contributing to
the carbon emissions reduction targets set in the Nationally Determined
Contributions agreed in Paris last year. It is a major omission that it is not.
The Strategy says it
wants to have “The best bus system in Europe” as an aspiration. This is a very
strange aspiration. Where is the best bus system in Europe? How is it
determined – what about the rest of public transport? What about
walking and cycling?
The automatic
assumption that all growth is good is a fundamental problem with the strategy.
Growth can negatively impact on quality of life through, for instance, air
pollution and the knock on impact on public health. What we should measure
to show progress in delivering improvements to road network are
decreasing emissions in terms
of Carbon/SOX/NOX/Particulates and noise reduction.
We need a
holistic cost analysis of different transport options for instance
public transport V car would have added a lot of substance to the strategy.
There is no such analysis in the strategy and this is a major weakness.
Another important way
to measure the success of the Strategy would be by measuring modal shift
from car to Public Transport and measuring the use
of the Mcard for regular public transport users.
“Road deaths” are not
just about traffic accidents but the premature deaths caused each year as a
result of emissions and low air quality – Gloucestershire’s Speed Reduction
Partnership give communities their own speed guns – This is a
good example that West Yorkshire could emulate.
We were asked to say
how we should measure progress in delivering improvements to
places to places to live and work? There is a well established methodology
called the Happiness Index that would be well suited to this task. We
should also measure progress through satisfaction
surveys of commuters and general transport users using all modes of transport.
Have we missed
anything you feel should be included in the strategy?
A hierarchy of users
should be followed through in the Strategy starting with the pedestrian
first and the private car last.
The strategy should
not encourage aviation by supporting the expansion of Leeds/Bradford airport.
This would be in harmony with a strategy that took a holistic approach to
transportation and reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
Rail use for freight
should be encouraged and there is an absence of serious comment on this in the
strategy documentation.
We need to invest in
traffic signals so vehicles can move more freely, more efficiently and in a
less polluting fashion. This should be linked with Action in the ground by the
Highways Agency and local Councils.
There are jobs in a
‘green approach’ to transport policies – e.g. cycle logistics firms. Showing
how the transport strategy is going to support employment would be a positive
addition to the strategy
The benefits of new
technology should benefit us all – autonomous and connected vehicles providing
“collective” solutions rather than new gadgets for an elite. We are thinking
particularly of advances towards driverless cars which may become a reality during
the life of this strategy.
Fleet Managers need
the right policy levers to enable them to be the first movers on new vehicle
technology such as electric and hybrid cars. Showing how this could be achieved
in the strategy would have been helpful.
We would be happy to meet relevant officers
of West Yorkshire Transport Authority to discuss our observations
Yours sincerely
Councillor Andrew Cooper on behalf of Green
Parties across West Yorkshire
