Agenda item

Cabinet Member: Travel & Development Strategy

Forward Plan Ref: 2020/174

Contact: Chanika Farmer, Transport Development Control Lead Tel: 07557 082590

Report by Corporate Director Environment & Place (CA11).

Oxfordshire County Council aims to enable Oxfordshire as a whole to become zero-carbon by 2050. This ambition extends into our role as the Local Highway Authority when advising and assessing new developments. The Design Guide presents how we can prioritise active and healthy travel through street design in new developments meeting our carbon ambitions and that of established transport policy.

The Cabinet is RECOMMENDED to endorse the Oxfordshire Street Design Guide for adoption and thereafter publication of the guidance document.

Cabinet had before it for endorsement a Design Guide presenting how to prioritise active and healthy travel through street design in new developments, meeting carbon ambitions and established transport policy.  Before considering the report, Cabinet heard from four speakers.

Graham Smith, Cyclox, Cycling UK, noted that the proposed guide replaced ‘Oxfordshire Residential Roads Guidance’ which dated from before 2003 and so he guardedly welcomed its replacement.  However, the new Guide should change car dependency and it did not.

The Guide needed teeth to instruct developers and must reflect the Duty of Care to all road users, in particular children and other vulnerable road users.  The draft Guide was weak in these areas

If the journey leaving the housing area involved exiting along a road which had been widened for ‘free-flowing’ refuse vehicles, along an anti-social Distributor Road, travelling on fast and/or narrow ‘higher ‘level’ roads and then negotiating high-speed roundabouts then that Duty will not be fulfilled.

Robin Tucker, Co-Chair, CoHSAT (Coalition for Healthy Streets and Active Travel) and Chair, Oxfordshire Cycling Network outlined three main concerns with the proposed guide.  The Guide was worded so it will have no force with developers, it did not address connectivity of developments and it still did not deliver places for people.

He stated that there was nothing about a street’s role in encouraging social activity or 20-minute neighbourhoods.  Comparing this to other street design guides, there were very few people in the pictures.  The only play spaces were a second function of SUDS and a manhole cover.

Despite these problems, he still urged Cabinet to approve the guide because it was an improvement on the previous guide based on 2003 practices.  He also appealed to them to update the guide next year to promote people-friendly, not car-dependent homes.

Councillor Brad Baines stated that it was regrettable that the guide was not more progressive.  Nonetheless he recommended adopting the guide as a massive improvement on its predecessor. 

Given the climate crisis, Oxfordshire needed to lead the way on active travel.  The guide should be more prescriptive and commit more firmly to LTN1/20 standards and 20-minute neighbourhood principles.

He regretted that there had not been a wider consultation on the guide which was almost entirely the work of the previous administration. He requested that the guide be put before the Place Overview and Scrutiny Committee in order to have a ‘deep dive’ before updating the guide for next year.

Councillor Andrew Gant, Cycling Champion for the County Council, described the proposed guide as one step in the journey.  He endorsed everything that other speakers had already said.  He acknowledged the very valuable work that voluntary organisations had contributed on this issue.

The guide needed to be more robust, saying ‘must’ not ‘may’.  It should be more explicit in providing more joined up active travel.  Even some new developments were deficient in this and would need expensive retrofitting.

Councillor Gant asked for provision for the County’s historic market towns.  He also believed that the guide should refer to the quality of surface which can be an important element in whether somebody chooses to cycle or not.

Councillor Duncan Enright, Cabinet Member for Travel and Development Strategy, thanked officers for their work on the guide.  Given the amount of new information coming forward all the time this was essentially a living document to be updated and published in iterations.

He would see scrutiny as the main channel for Member input but would also like to consult with the city and district councils who had their own guidance.  He agreed with the comments that the guide needed to be more robust and provide better connectivity.

Councillor Enright also envisaged that the guide should address existing street and refitting where necessary, especially in the context of historic market towns.  He proposed adopting this guide for now and committed to continuing the work to improve it.

Other Cabinet Members commented:

·         Thinking was advancing all the time and the guide should have more emphasis on shared streets.

·         Objectives needed to be clearer on weather events.

·         Trees were also a vital part of climate infrastructure as well as being important for mental wellbeing.

·         The guide needs to support the idea of children playing out more.

·         With so many new homes planned over the next 10-15 years it was important to get the guidance right.

·         Colleges had a large part to play in the city.

·         The guide should make clear the minimum standards expected in order to give a clearer signal to developers.

·         The consultation with disability groups was welcome and there was a need to get feedback from user groups as designs were implemented.

Councillors Miller and Fawcett asked if amendments could be made to make the wording stronger before the guide was adopted.  Councillor Enright responded that he would be concerned about making changes that might require further consultation but he was happy to work with officers to see what could be done.

The Chair asked if Cabinet Members were content to adopt the recommendations on that understanding and with a commitment that the Place Overview and Scrutiny Committee will be involved in the next stage of development of the guide.  Members agreed.

RESOLVED: to endorse the Oxfordshire Street Design Guide for adoption and thereafter publication of the guidance document.