ENVIRONMENT, TRANSPORT & SUSTAINABILITY COMMITTEE 24 November 2020

Agenda Item 37(b) Brighton & Hove City Council

WRITTEN QUESTIONS

A period of not more than fifteen minutes shall be allowed at each ordinary meeting for questions submitted by a member of the public.

The question will be answered without discussion. The person who asked the question may ask one relevant supplementary question, which shall be put and answered without discussion. The person to whom a question, or supplementary question, has been put may decline to answer it. 

The following written questions have been received from members of the public:

(1) A259 – Nigel Smith

As it has been previously established and informed by this committee that there has been no communication between B&HCC and ESCC relating to the A259, why when the Bus Review says the Eastbound bottleneck is the Longridge junction on the city boundary, have no discussions taken place with ESCC who manage this junction, re alleviating the bottleneck that causes daily queues back to Roedean?

(2) A259 bus lane- Rob Shepherd

When asked for the traffic data and analysis that informed the recommendation for a temporary A259 bus lane at Greenways, you replied

The proposal was also identified in the council’s 2018 Bus Network Review, & that review was informed by supporting traffic data and analysis and can be found on our website.

Pages 25 and 30 of the review explicitly cautioned that this was not based on traffic data and analysis.

Do you agree that this reply misled you and other councillors, may have concealed bad decision making and fails to respect Public Questions that seek to expose such failings?

(3) Smoke Control Area- Adrian Hill

Wood and coal burning in homes produces high numbers of harmful particulates that can cause many serious health issues including respiratory problems for which I suffer.  Brighton is the largest city in England without a full city-wide smoke control area to protect its residents from the most polluting of home fires.  I was told at the ETS in January that widening the areas would be looked at ‘very soon’; considering health is especially important now, and with the solid fuel burning season starting, will a full SCA be brought in this winter?

(4) Traffic Congestion- Mark Earthey

Given the DfT uses 100% congestion as the level at which traffic delays rise unacceptably and intervention is needed to handle extra traffic, it is puzzling that B&H City Plan sets125% as our limit, a level where severe disruption is the norm.

Can you explain why it is acceptable to subject our citizens to more traffic delays, air pollution and carbon emissions than is acceptable nationally, and why the 125% limit was chosen and adopted by our council?

(5) Seafront Signage

Does BHCC have a policy formally or informally of prioritising aesthetics and the attractiveness of the seafront which prevents it from putting up No Cycling signs in the Pedestrian Zone on the Lower Promenade, even though the absence of signage may be putting pedestrians, staff and cyclists themselves at increased risk of infection from a lack of distancing in the Covid period?