Consultation Digest (Local) Issue 162, 11 July 2024

Getting away… It’s holiday time with summer sports to tide us over until… more summer sports. As the rosettes (and some of their owners) are put back in their box, the pre-election restrictions end. SPT take the chance to launch a major active travel consultation (like RATS up a drainpipe?). There’s a survey about Places in …

Continue reading "Consultation Digest (Local) Issue 162, 11 July 2024"

Getting away…

It’s holiday time with summer sports to tide us over until… more summer sports. As the rosettes (and some of their owners) are put back in their box, the pre-election restrictions end. SPT take the chance to launch a major active travel consultation (like RATS up a drainpipe?). There’s a survey about Places in West Dunbartonshire and South Lanarkshire’s Development Plan. Also, city road safety campaigns and Glasgow Uni’s campus update.

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

1.1: Sustainable Transport Behaviour Change Campaigns 23/24

Council: Glasgow City.
Subject: Survey to help the evaluate two campaigns: ‘Let’s Look Out for Each Other’ and ‘Don’t be a Bus Blocker’. The former is similar to previous ‘share with care’ campaigns in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic (although it comes after Highway Code changes in 2022). The video shows idealised, polite reactions on road/lane/pavement (including what appears to be the South West City Way extension on St Andrews Drive). The latter is a poster/bus ad campaign specifically about cars/vans parking at bus stops. While these might not win any awards they do address issues with road use and car parking that don’t get much attention. So, it may be worth supporting the principle behind the campaigns even if we have criticisms of the actual ads themselves.
Website links: Sustainable Transport Behaviour Change Campaigns survey.
Deadline: 28 July 2024.

1.2: SPT Draft Regional Active Travel Strategy

Organisation: Strathclyde Partnership for Transport (SPT).
Subject: A chance to have your say about a proposed network of walking/cycling routes for towns and villages across the Strathclyde region. The gist is main ‘spoke’/corridor routes towards Glasgow, a few radial routes and a triangle of links in Ayrshire (as shown in the loosely labelled Connecting Places map, above). However, the numbered AT network maps can be hard to follow (with some errors about Glasgow’s network). SPT seem to prioritise cross-boundary routes, with varying results. For example, the existing route from Uddingston to Viewpark (SPT number it as 50_10) – a 1km upgrade where NCN 74 & 75 meet on North/South Lanarkshire boundary – is a ‘top’ priority. Meanwhile, a niche cross-region route from Lanark to Livingstone (CRR_12 – South Lanarkshire/West Lothian) is ‘high’ priority at 32km! However, a 5km route from East Kilbride to Hamilton, South Lanarkshire (37_10) – currently 60mph roads with no safe cycle route between Scotland’s 6th and 8th largest settlements – is only ‘medium’ priority!? The quality of cycle track described is better than some of the painted lanes/shared pavement routes SPT have funded in the past. However, the strategy has no timescales or budgets and SPT lost all their capital funding for this year. Despite that they are influential in the regional Glasgow Bus Partnership and on ‘bus vs cycle’ routes (via Glasgow’s Spatial Delivery Framework).
Featured: Consultation Extra (20-10-23).
Website links: Regional Active Travel Strategy webpage, Regional AT Strategy storymap (including interactive Priority map), draft RATS document (PDF) and RATS online survey.
Deadline: 1 September 2024.

1.3: Tell Us About Your Place (West Dunbartonshire)

Council: West Dunbartonshire.
Subject: A survey based on the Place Standard tool to ‘score’ areas of the county. WDC say: “results of the survey will inform a number of the councils services and strategies, including: the Local Development Plan, Locality Plans, Open Space Strategy, and Play Sufficiency Assessment.”
Events – In Person drop-in
(with presentation at 4.30pm):
– Concord Centre (Dumbarton), 25 July 2024, 3pm – 7pm
– Alexandria Community Centre, 28 August 2024, 3pm – 7pm
– Dalmuir Community Centre, 11 September 2024, 3pm – 7pm.
Virtual Drop-in events: 11 July 2024, 6:30pm – 8pm; 17 July 2024, 10am – 11:30pm; 28 August 2024, 10am – 11:30am and 3 September 2024, 6:30pm – 8pm.
Website links: Tell Us About Your Place webpage (including survey link).
Deadline: 30 September 2024.

1.4: South Lanarkshire – Local Development Plan 3 (LDP3)

Council: South Lanarkshire.
Subject: Plan to “set out how our places will look in the future including where new homes and workplaces could be built and the areas that will be protected. There will be a strong emphasis on improving the quality of places as well as addressing the challenges of climate change and the protection and enhancement of biodiversity.”
Website links: South Lanarkshire View article and LDP3 webpage (including survey link).
Deadline: 30 September 2024.

Section 2: Consultation Feedback

2.1: Glasgow University Campus Development

Organisation: Multiplex.
Subject: Further work around the edges of the new campus development. Most of the main buildings and public areas are already finished (as seen in a photo in SPT’s strategy document, above). Apparently, Multiplex are preparing for Stage 3 but there’s not a lot of detail. The Uni’s last Travel Plan aimed to get cycling modal share to 15% by 2025. Progress on Byres Road’s segregated lanes and the additional cycle parking (and other ‘Cycling features’) around the campus should help. However, the lack of protected cycle lanes on University Avenue is still an issue (even more glaring since part of Kelvin Way has been pedestrianised).
Website links: Glasgow Uni Campus newsletter June 2024.

Section 3: Proposed Traffic Regulation Orders

None we’re aware of this time (search Tell Me Scotland for any traffic orders in your area).