1. Purpose of the report and policy context

1.1 To receive deputations presented at the public engagement meeting held on the 2 February 2023.

2. Recommendations

2.1 That the committee responds to the petition either by noting it or where it is considered more appropriate, calls for an officer report on the matter.

3. Context and background information

3.1 To receive the following:

Deputation

(1) Westdene School Streets

Concerned residents of Westdene (including members of the Westdene School Streets Residents Group, the Withdean and Westdene Local Action Team, and other members of the community) have requested that an independent review is undertaken by the Local Government Association on the methodology and
resultant actions imposed on local residents by the Westdene school streets initiative taken by the Brighton and Hove City Council.

This is because residents have raised concerns starting from the ‘Westdene school streets taster day’, and the subsequent information, lobbying, biased and limited consultation, design, impact, and actual implementation of this initiative, which went live on 22nd December 2022. Residents feel they have been ignored and at times vilified by local councillors and the council when seeking proper consultation and raising legitimate concerns.

Examples of concerns include (but are not limited to): Westdene school streets not meeting the school streets aims and objectives because it diverts traffic to queue outside the main school entrance; failure to include safe crossing points and traffic management in surrounding streets; the introduction of a permanent one way street under the guise of school streets, that increases the risk of speed and more serious accidents 24/7 alongside the communities main green space and play area, a risk independent auditors raised concerns about, but local traffic officers chose to ignore, resulting in no physical traffic calming, and increased spreed.

As acknowledged by last weeks standards committee Brighton and Hove city council has a credibility and reputation issue, and it rapidly needs to rebuild confidence in its conduct, processes, and how it is prioritising the use of tax payers money.

We are in no doubt with the investment available a solution that met the objectives of reducing congestion, pollution, and increasing safety and active travel was, and is possible. Instead we have a very expensive solution that fails to meet those objectives, has damaged the communities confidence in this council, and become an unnecessarily divisive community concern.

Signed by:

Greg Maddocks

Alan Sparkes

Wendy Standen

John Standen

Janet Tallent

Michael Deacon

Rachel Walenta

Benedict Kraus

Hazel Irvine

Michael Sykes

Louise Irvine

Michael Letton

Rebecca Luff

Katherine Sykes

Westdene School Streets Road Safety Audit (one way system) no action taken

RSA Problem

RSA Problem 1.2-01 Problem – Vehicle speeds.

Location

Bankside/ Barn Rise proposed one-way

RSA Problem

The introduction of a one-way system will likely

increase speeds on Barn Rise as drivers will not

have to give way to oncoming vehicles.

Outside of school arrival / departure times, where

traffic is likely to be congested, collisions between

vehicles and pedestrians would likely result in

greater severity of injury.

Second ‘map’ produced WSS ETRO- diverting traffic to outside the main school entrance and OWS, no traffic calming alongside Westdene Green (‘’Barn Rise playground’’) & increased risk of speed and serious injury.

Diagram, map Description automatically generated

Unofficial traffic counts outside the main school entrance pre and post the implementation of school streets

Traffic on Bankside (the main entrance to Westdene Primary school) 8.30-9.30 am (most cars 8.40-9.10) PRE Westdene School Streets
3/10/22	4/10/22	5/10/22	6/10/22	7/10/22
20	47	44	34	44
Traffic on Bankside (the main entrance to Westdene Primary school) 8.30-9.30 am (most cars 8.40-9.40 POST Westdene school streets
9/1/23	10/1/23	11/1/23	12/1/23	13/1/23
61	95	79	83	73
Average increase in traffic outside the main entrance to Westdene Primary school
3x increase in traffic (+41 cars)	2x increase in traffic (+48 cars)	Almost 2x increase in traffic (+35 cars	2.5x increase in traffic (+49 cars)	Almost 2x increase in traffic (+29 cars

Shows potential pedestrian / cycle bridge across railway (yellow arrow) -illustrative alignment

Deputation

(2) Carbon Neutral Programme

As we enter the 4th Year of the 2030 Carbon Neutral Programme, your monitoring report says Year 1 (2020) underperformed very badly and we know that the following year will perform even worse, as it will benefit less from 2020's big carbon reduction windfall from Covid-19 lockdowns.

You would naturally ask

- How big was the 2020 Covid-19 windfall?

- How bad was the underlying performance?

- Was the problem area Industry, Domestic, Transport or all three?

- What needs to be done to get the Programme on track?

- Why did the monitoring report not answer these questions?

- Why did it take so long to report a 2020 problem?

Though we now have official figures to show the 9.5% reduction was much less than the reduction due to Covid-19, other questions cannot be answered because the Programme lacks targets for individual areas and does not quantify the gains from planned policies. Giving a High rating to a policy that tackles 500 tonnes of the 923,000 tonnes to eliminate, shows the lack of rigour and transparency in prioritising actions.

In order to meet the aims of the council that voted unanimously for 2030 Carbon Neutral, an emergency independent stocktake is essential, to identify the shortfalls in the Programme and prioritise the neccessary remedial actions in a rigorous and transparent manner.

Signed by:

Nigel Smith

Rob Shepherd

Lynne Moss

Paul Goodall

John Bryant