A report providing the Sub-Committee with an update on the Council’s Active Travel Programme.

Further to Minute 4 of the previous meeting, the Executive Director for Economic Growth and Neighbourhood Services submitted a report providing the Sub-Committee with an update on the Council’s Active Travel Programme.

The report explained that on 2 July 2020 the Department for Transport (DfT) had announced the outcome of the Council’s Tranche 1 application.  The award had been 75% (£221,240) of the indicative allocation and the DfT stated that the reduced amount was due to not all of the proposals relocating road space for walking and cycling.  Officers challenged the reduction in funding on the basis that Reading Bridge, Gosbrook Road and Sidmouth Street had met the requirement.  The DfT had indicated that councils should seek to recover any reduced funding through the Tranche 2 bed with a strong focus on further ambitious active travel proposals.

The report advised that the delivery of the Tranche 1 proposal was almost complete and set out in the report was a list of the temporary schemes that had been or were in the process of being delivered in September 2020.

The report explained that at the end of August 2020, the scheme in Gosbrook Road and Westfield Road had been introduced.  However, in response to concerns that had been raised by the local community and the dangerous behaviour of a minority of motorists ignoring the one-way system, the scheme had been removed.  Whilst there would be some costs associated with the delivery of the scheme, the majority of materials could be reused on other scheme. 

Officers would commence the review process of each temporary Tranche 1 scheme in early 2021 which would be based on traffic data, user feedback and safety records. Reports would be submitted to future meetings of the Sub-Committee and other Committees. 

The report stated that the Council’s Tranche 2 Active Travel bid to the DfT had been submitted on 7 August 2020.  Due to the indicative funding allocated at £1.179m, the programme of improvements for pedestrians and cyclists had been made up of two ‘core’ schemes and three further supplementary schemes (subject to additional funding), in addition to a package of promotional activities.  A list of the Council’s full bid to Government was included in the report.  More details on all the Tranche 2 schemes, as well as those delivered in Tranche 1, could be found on the dedicated Active Travel webpage:- www.reading.gov.uk/activetravel. Currently, the DfT had not confirmed when the second Tranche funding would be released, but officers would continue to press the DfT for this information.

Cris Butler, Strategic Transportation Programme Manager, informed the Sub-Committee that the Council was likely to be informed about the second Tranche in October 2020 and that officers would continue to lobby the DfT for information.

The Sub-Committee discussed the report and Councillor Barnett-Ward addressed the Sub-Committee on the Gosbrook Road and Westfield Road scheme.

Resolved –    That the report be noted.

(Councillor Page declared an interest in relation to the segregated cycle lane on Bath Road/Castle Hill as he lived on Castle Hill)