Consideration was given to a report responding to the Notice to Motion raised at Council relating to the opportunities for town or parish councils and local communities to promote initiatives, as part of World Car Free Day, entitled “Car Free Days and Parklets”.
The Committee generally supported the Notice of Motion put forward which encouraged people to change their mode of transport for one day. It was pointed out that the motion did not prevent those people who needed to access a car from doing so.
A point was raised that any communication needed to make it clear to the public how any requests for events put forward to the Council would be dealt with. Officers reassured the Committee that if an event promoter could not demonstrate that they had engaged with the community then a street closure notice would not be granted.
Councillor A Gage expressed a number of reservations about the motion submitted. He advised he had spoken to a number of individuals, none of whom had responded positively to the initiatives. He felt that the Committee were being expected to hand over a level of power to officers with very little control and therefore could not support the recommendation.
In response the Chair confirmed that the powers Councillor A Gage had referred to were already in existence and that the Committee were merely being asked to approve a communication plan making it clear to those individuals who wanted to set up a parklet or road closure the process to be followed in order to achieve this.
Councillor L Crane requested that the Committee support the motion subject to a minor amendment to the last sentence contained at paragraph 6.4.2of the report which replaced the words ‘on the 22nd September 2022’ with the following the words ‘World Car Free Day 2023. To be brought back to this Committee for review’ in order for Members to be given the opportunity to debate the matter further.
RESOLVED
That the Highways and Transport Committee endorse the proposed response to the Notice of Motion (subject to the inclusion of the amendment as outlined above) which would be made available on the Council’s highways webpage.