Agenda item

Report of the Leader and Cabinet Member for Strategic Growth is attached.

Councillor O’Brien and Councillor Quinn presented a short overview of Bury Local Transport Strategy. Last month, Cabinet approved a final version of the Bury Local Transport Strategy. This followed a 3-month public consultation period over April to June on the draft Strategy on which Overview and Scrutiny had been consulted in March.

The final Strategy remains organised around six main objectives, with six key investment priorities for each type of transport but has been amended to take on board the consultation feedback.

The key messages from the consultation were that public transport is not good enough, bus services are unreliable, there’s a lack of services in some parts of the borough, and people don’t feel safe when using public transport, walking or cycling, with anti-social behaviour and fear of crime being big concerns. In addition there were differing views on whether we were doing enough for motorists, or enough for pedestrians and cyclists.

The Strategy aims to make it easier for everyone to get around and give people a real choice of how they travel. It is not anti-car and includes measures that will reduce congestion and make journey times more reliable for everyone, such as managing roadworks better and improving traffic signals. As public transport gets better and walking and cycling routes become safer and more joined up, we should see a gradual change in how people travel.

A member asked questions regarding the consultation response rate. Members were informed that the Bury Local Transport Strategy is not a statutory document and as such there was no legal requirement for consultation to take place, but rather consultation was something the Council chose to do in order to get feedback on the draft strategy and to hear from a cross section of the population. Numerous different consultation methods were used to engage with as many residents and stakeholders as possible. The survey was open to everyone, including all residents, visitors and commuters, and respondents were therefore self-selecting, rather than being a statistical sample. Responses were received from across all demographics and no real differences in opinion were found. Respondents weren’t asked to sign in on arrival at the drop-in events and as such we don’t have attendance figures.

Discussions took place regarding the importance of encouraging people to walk, and how improvement in the standard of pavements in the Borough would support this initiative.

Discussions took place regarding small bus routes and the vehicles used to support these short trips. Members were informed that a key part of Greater Manchester’s bus reform plans is the introduction of many more high frequency ‘turn up and go’ services on main bus routes, including routes in Bury.

A member questioned if the Council held data that gives an indication of workplace final destination for residents in Bury MBC. Members were informed that acording to census data (2021), around a third of Bury residents in employment commute out of the borough (figures are 31%, or 27,010 residents).  By far the biggest flow is to Manchester (25.7% - 6932), followed by Rochdale, Bolton and Salford, each with outflows of between 13% and 15% (14.6%, 13.4% and 12.8% respectively).

It was agreed:

1.    To thank the Leader and Councillor Quinn for their attendance

2.    To circulate the data requested by Councillor Birchmore to all members

3.    To share the strategy with another forum such as Greater Manchester Autism Consortium to provide some feedback regarding neurodiversity impacts to scrutinised and provide some feedback