Consultation Digest (Local) Issue 153, 22 February 2024

Bearing East?

East Renfrewshire take their cycle tracks into town. East Dunbartonshire turn their back on the Bearsway to go rural. Moves to preserve Glasgow’s air quality and conserve areas of North Lanarkshire. City streetspace allocation – favouring buses over bikes?

Section 1: Current Consultations
(in date order for responses)

1.1: A77/Ayr Road Active Corridor – Phase 3

Council: East Renfrewshire.
Subject: Following Phase 1 on a rural section of Ayr Road and Phase 2 in the Malletsheugh/Maidenhill area – Phase 3 will extend the route further into Newton Mearns, between Hunter Drive and Barrhead Road in the town centre. It will continue the new 1-way cycleways on each side from the previous phase (replacing painted lanes). Also, it’s due to add continuous footways at side roads – a rarity in Scotland (and controversial with some disability groups). Proposals include reducing the speed limit from 40mph to 30mph. Some parking bays are included – most houses on Ayr Road have driveways but also multiple cars. Consultation comments have quite a lot of negative responses so the plans will need as much support as possible. (Apologies for overlooking it for the previous issue.)
Website links: A77 Phase 3 Commonplace site and concept design plans.
Deadline: 25 February 2024.

1.2: A807 Active Travel Corridor

Council: East Dunbartonshire.
Subject: An active travel route between the town of Milngavie and village of Torrance. Proposals seem to be a mix of on-road and shared path with options to choose from at one of the junctions. However, narrower parts of the route may not get any infrastructure. The three public drop in events have already passed. Hopefully, these proposals go down better than previous plans for the Bearsway but there are bound to be plenty of NIMBYs!
Website links: A807 Active Travel Corridor consultation page, A807 StoryMap and A807 survey.
Deadline: 3 March 2024.

1.3: Glasgow Air Quality Action Plan (Draft) 2024

Council: Glasgow City Council.
Subject: An update to the existing Glasgow Air Quality Action Plan (AQAP). Air pollution in the city centre has been gradually reducing and the Low Emission Zone (LEZ) has made a difference since 2018 (originally for buses). If trends continue, some of the city’s Air Quality Management Areas (AQMAs) may be revoked later this decade. These include the city centre and Dumbarton Rd/Byres Rd where active travel routes like Avenues and City Ways are part of the solution. However, emissions still haven’t reached guideline levels for nitrogen dioxide (NO₂, especially around Hope St). Also, there’s a lot more to do on reducing single occupant car journeys, including expanding car clubs.
Website links: Draft Glasgow AQAP 2024, air quality information and AQAP survey.
Deadline: 20 March 2024.

1.4: Conservation Area Consultations (Coatbridge/Cumbernauld)

Council: North Lanarkshire.
Subject: Two consultations about lesser known Conservation Areas. The Coatbridge one is either side of Blairhill train station and the other is in Cumbernauld Village (the original settlement north of the town centre). While not directly related to cycling, the last few survey questions mention traffic and development.
Website links: Coatbridge: Blairhill and Dunbeth Conservation Area Consultation and Cumbernauld Village Conservation Area Consultation.
Deadline: 12 April 2024.

Section 2: Consultation Feedback

2.1: Glasgow Streetspace Allocation Framework

Subject: Decision-making framework recently approved by Glasgow City Council. It tackles some thorny issues around streetspace, including bus vs cycle lanes. The further you go through the document the more cycling seems to lose out on main arterial routes. A key point on page 30 explains: “This work has been commissioned as part of the Bus Partnership Fund corridor work.” So, it was always likely to favour buses. It ends by identifying Pollokshaws Rd as a potential active travel corridor but then showing it as an example with “cycle facilities on parallel route”. A lot of question marks about where some sections of cycle route are going to go.
Website links: Glasgow Streetspace Allocation Framework.

Section 3: Proposed Traffic Regulation Orders

3.1: East Dunbartonshire TROs

Website links: East Dunbartonshire TROs.

3.2: Glasgow City TROs

Subject: Cowcaddens Rd restrictions prepare for its Avenues Plus transformation (deadline: 23 February 2024). More ‘made’ orders – Clarendon Place’s switch around and permanent bus lanes on Bothwell St and Paisley Road West. Also, a temporary order for the works building the last section of the South City Way to Trongate.
Website links: GCC Proposed Traffic Regulation Orders and GCC Proposed Traffic Calming Schemes.