Issue - meetings

To receive a report of the Head of Environmental Management on the updated Council Corporate Travel Plan.

Approved the contents of the updated Corporate Travel Plan for the period 2012 – 2018 and requested Officers to regularly review the targets contained plan, as part of the annual review of the Council’s Environment Strategy, reflecting the Authority’s focus on continuous monitoring and improvement.

By way of a report by the Head of Environmental Management (a copy of which is appended in the Minute Book) the Cabinet was invited to consider the content of a revised travel plan for the Council.  The plan sets out four main objectives aimed at lowering costs for the Council, reducing traffic congestion in the District and improving the health and well-being of the Council’s employees.

The document had been discussed by the Overview and Scrutiny Panel (Environmental Well-Being) arising from which a suggestion was made that the Council should explore the possibility of providing a bus service from the main settlements to Pathfinder House.  Executive Councillors were of the opinion that such an arrangement would not be viable in terms of its environmental impact and the percentage of employees it would reach.

Executive Councillors supported a suggestion by the Panel that greater emphasis should be placed on home working and the Plan’s objectives, targets and indicators could be more robust with a greater responsibility being placed on individual managers in order for the targets to succeed.

Having referred to the considerable amount of information contained in the plan, the Cabinet suggested that future Travel Plan data be consolidated into a smaller document. Whereupon, it was

RESOLVED

  (a)  that the contents of the updated Corporate Travel Plan for the period 2012 – 2018, appended to the report now submitted, be approved; and

  (b)  that Officers be requested to regularly review the targets contained in the Travel Plan, as part of the annual review of the Council’s Environment Strategy, reflecting the Authority’s focus on continuous monitoring and improvement.

To consider a report by the Head of Environmental Management on the updated Council Corporate Travel Plan.

(Councillor D M Tysoe, Executive Councillor for the Environment, was in attendance for this Item.)

Councillor D M Tysoe introduced a report by the Head of Environmental Management (a copy of which is appended in the Minute Book) on the updated Corporate Travel Plan. The new Plan was designed to build on work already undertaken to reduce single occupant car use by employees travelling to and for work, and to encourage a model shift towards more sustainable forms of transport.  Having questioned how the updated Plan differed from the original, the Panel was advised there had been a number of minor modifications, most notably relating to the incentives offered for owners of low carbon vehicles who were able to purchase car parking permits at a reduced rate. 

Members’ attention was drawn to a mapping exercise undertaken to show where Council employees lived.  A Member suggested that the District Council should use this information to explore the possibility of providing a staff bus service from the main settlements to Pathfinder House.  The Head of Environmental Management undertook to determine whether this suggestion would be cost-effective and subsequently a viable option. 

A Member stressed the effectiveness of car sharing as a means of meeting the Travel Plan’s objectives and questioned whether the Council offered any incentives to employees choosing to car share.  In response, Members were informed that car sharing was actively encouraged but no incentives were provided. 

Having discussed the increase in the percentage of employees cycling to work from 2006 to 2010, Members requested an analysis of the usage of cycling routes.  The Head of Environmental Management agreed to liaise with colleagues at the County Council in order to provide the requested information.  Having commented on the lack of information relating to staff travel in 2011, Members also requested 2011 statistics for staff travel behaviour. 

With reference to the Council’s objectives, targets and indicators and particularly the objective ‘to reduce local traffic and road congestion’, the Panel questioned whether the targets were sufficiently challenging for a five-year period.  Having recognised that an increase in home working could be a means of delivering the Travel Plan’s objectives, it was suggested that the Council should place more emphasis on home working and that there should be a systematic analysis of posts for which home working was appropriate.

RESOLVED

  that, subject to the inclusion of more challenging targets, the Cabinet be recommended to adopt the updated Corporate Travel Plan (2012/2013 to 2017/2018) and support the objectives, targets and action plan contained within it.