Agenda item

Motion submitted by Councillor Dr Haq Nawaz concerning the County Council and Combined Authority war on motorists.

Councillor Nawaz presented his motion regarding the County Council and Combined Authority (CPCA) war on motorists.

Councillor Mrs French seconded the motion and Councillor Meekins opened the motion for debate. Members made comments as follows:

·        Councillor Gerstner stated that he is not familiar with trip budgets and asked for an explanation to be provided.

·        Councillor Tierney stated that sometimes a narrative takes hold of society and with that it can encompass some truth, some misconceptions and some lies which, in his opinion, has happened  over the years and is taking place currently and that some of the narratives can bring very ill-considered ideas that carry unthinkable consequences. He made the point that the Net Zero idea, which includes the removal of vehicles from the road, is very real and he stated that whilst it is easy to focus on the County Council who are one of the organisations who are pushing the idea forward, it is not just the County Council and Central Government are also looking into the topic, as are other local authorities, however, the County Council are the focus currently who, in his opinion, are considering very ill-thought-out ideas. Councillor Tierney stated that he is proud that this motion has been brought forward by Fenland District Council and he is under no illusion that whatever is decided today will have an impact in order to stop the narrative, but if nobody speaks up and ideas such as these are allowed to press on then they will not stop until reality makes them stop and by that time, they can have caused a lot of harm, expense and damage to people, individuals and society. He stated that he fully supports the motion, and he does not agree that by removing cars off the road to try and change the weather is a very well thought out narrative and is one that needs to be opposed even though he does agree with some of the environmentalism involved. 

·        Councillor Boden stated that he is very happy to support the proposed motion and explained that this issue has been discussed at meetings he has attended with the Combined Authority over the past 18 months and many of the phrases that Councillor Nawaz has used have been taken from the documentation provided by the Combined Authority and some of the phrases used will not make sense unless further research is undertaken. He stated that the documentation refers frequently to fiscal measures and, is his opinion, that phrase is used because they believe that people will not realize that it means congestion or growth charging or some other form of taxation and made the point that the other phrase which is used is ‘car disappearance’ and the concept that is being pushed forward appears to focus on making life very difficult for motorists by placing obstacles in the way such as making them more expensive and then that will mean that the motorists will no longer wish to own a car. Councillor Boden stated that the County Council and CPCA are trying to make car journeys as difficult as possible for people so that they will no longer travel by car and, in his view, the thinking behind the scheme appears to be ill thought out and looks to punish those individuals who are merely looking to travel to work, to shop or to transport their children to school. He made reference to the point raised by Councillor Gerstner with regards to the phrase ‘trip budgets’ and he explained that for all local authorities with planning functions such as Fenland, there would be the requirement to consider all vehicle movements coming in and out of any new developments and treat that as a cost which would need to be met in some way and, in his opinion, it is a penalty upon the car user for all new developments. Councillor Boden stated that he is aware that in Cambridge City there are proposals for areas to be built with no access to cars at all for the residential areas and whilst that maybe appropriate for Cambridge City, it does not mean it is relevant to Fenland, with at the current time, the vast majority of people needing a car in order to conduct their daily lives. He stated that he has spoken against and will continue to do so all of these ideas put forward by the CPCA and he explained that the Local Transport and Connectivity Plan was halted when it was raised last month. He made the point that he can see a time in the future when there will be no need for a private car in future decades, however, at this point in time the Council is being asked to make sacrifices which will significantly damage the economy and the lives of the people in Fenland which is unacceptable until there is an appropriate alternative to the current situation.

·       Councillor Count stated that he will support the motion which, in his opinion, has been excellently articulated, worded and presented and he thanked Councillor Nawaz for bringing the motion forward. He expressed the view that the motion exposes the desire to increase congestion in order to somehow facilitate and improve the public transport network and that there are ways and means that councillors are being told will stop people being able to use a private motor car which will force people to use public transport and as Councillor Boden has already stated that may well work in congested areas such as Cambridge City but, in his opinion, to adopt a one size fits all approach for areas like Fenland is totally inappropriate. Councillor Count stated that he has attended meetings with a developer who was looking to bring a large retail park forward and that is progressing with the current policies, however, officers based at County Council have advised the developer that a new model of trip budgets is being introduced which will measure the capacity of the entrance road and there will be no increase permitted and the developer was also advised that they would not be allowed to include a larger roundabout which would mean the increase in the flow of the traffic and if the development exceeded the permitted number of vehicles then they would have to pay for trip budgets to pay for things such as buses, which whilst may work in some areas of the county, it does not make sense or work in the Fens. He stated that he challenged this policy with officers and a motion is also coming forward at County Council’s Full Council in order to try and review this and go back to the National Planning Policy Framework to ensure that all officers understand where and when they can apply that kind of measure. Councillor Count stated that Councillor Boden has seen that the CPCA has a policy driven change to get rid of cars and this is not about Net Zero and not about climate change, in his view, it is the difference between the aspiration and the levelling up agenda. He stated that everybody wants to see better public transport but, in his opinion, this is not the way to address that issue, especially as there is now a cost implication of £12 for an average Band B property in order to subsidise buses and the vast majority of that money is going to the well served areas to the south of the county, whilst some villages in Fenland have no transport whatsoever. Councillor Count stated that he approached the County Council’s Chief Executive and asked for information concerning bus services and once provided the information was drilled down to parish level, with the parish level in the south of the county being 114 and, therefore, every parish over 114 was measured and as a result of the exercise it showed that in Fenland because of the amalgamation of parishes the figure went down to 780. He stated that if there are 3 or 4 villages which make up a parish, they appear to base their policy on a tick box exercise which denotes how you can get to work or school which, in his view, is very unfair to the residents of Fenland. Councillor Count stated that another part of the country has progressed with clean air zones which, in his view, is another measure of removing private motorists off of the road and in Cambridge City the decision was made not to adopt clean air zones as the evidence showed that the impact of removing cars from the streets will only be temporary because of the move to electric vehicles, which when looking to electric vehicles the particulate matter from brakes deriving from the buses will outweigh the N O contribution from the vehicles. He stated that he wholeheartedly supports the motion and it gives Councillor Boden the increased credibility to say that the proposal does not work for Fenland, and it has got to stop.

·       Councillor Seaton stated that he fully supports many of the comments that have already been made and he will support the motion. He added that he sits on the transport committee for the Combined Authority, and he finds it very frustrating due to the political makeup of the committee, which means that some members have no real say on what the outcome will be. Councillor Seaton expressed the view that it is very clear that the aim is to remove the car, however, there is no adequate transport service throughout Fenland, and it is 2015 since the last consultation took place with the parishes to ascertain their transport requirements, whilst the results of the consultation do not mean that the parishes will receive what they want but it will give a clear indication to the Combined Authority and the County Council, what is and what is not possible.

·       Councillor Mrs French stated that she agrees with the motion and supports it. She added that the County Council have implemented a new policy which states that any new development needs to include a 20mph speed limit and failure to do so will result in the highway not being adopted. She explained that this has already commenced and is in place at the top of Gaul Road where the developer was forced to implement the new rule as well as the requirement to pay for the 50mph speed limit from Peas Hill roundabout to Gaul Road and she stressed to members to be wary of the ‘Twenty Plenty’ initiative.

·       Councillor Nawaz stated that it is evident that the concerns expressed in the motion are shared quite widely and he thanked members for supporting the motion. He added that he would like to endorse what Councillor Boden had referred to with regards to the CPCA Board meeting, as he also attended the same meeting and after reading the agenda and reports he felt concerned with regards to the impact on the rural geography, diverse and scattered communities who have nowhere near enough adequate public transport. Councillor Nawaz made the point that the phrases and language that was used in the meeting were very well hidden and what was said did not fool Councillor Boden and it is pleasing to see that members all appear to be united in purpose and he stated that he looks forward to the progression of the motion in the future.

Council AGREED that its members whom the Council has appointed as its representatives on the CPCA Board and its committees, and Officers who interact with the CPCA and CCC, should reflect the sentiment within this motion when interacting with CCC, or when representing this Council at meetings of the CPCA or its committees.