Agenda item

Report attached

The report before the committee detailed responses to a consultation for the provision of fully accessible bus stops along Ardleigh Green Road, Butts Green Road, Billet Lane and North Street.

The report detailed that people with mobility problems, the elderly and people travelling with young children found it difficult to board or alight from buses, unless the vehicle was able to pull in close to the kerb (within 200mm). The difficulty of gaining kerbside access was often caused by indiscriminately parked vehicles, or lack of high kerb space adjacent to stops.

That the improvements to the bus stop environment such as raising kerbs, relaying footway surfaces, providing short footway links to stops and (in exceptional circumstances) providing pedestrian crossing facilities could help with making bus stops fully accessible to all people. It was also suggested that in some situations, it may be appropriate to build the footway out into the road to provide an accessible bus stop, although this would only be appropriate where carriageways were very wide.

The introduction of bus stop clearways improved the accessibility of bus stops by providing sufficient space for buses to pull in close to the kerb.

The funding for Bus Stop Accessibility works mainly come from the Transport for London Local Implementation Plan (LIP).

Proposals for accessibility improvements had been developed for various existing bus stops along Ardleigh Green Road, Butts Green Road, Billet Lane and North Street were set out in the report.

At the close of consultation, 10 responses were received which were summarised in Appendix 1 of the report.

With regard to the proposed bus stop clearway at 75 to 83 Ardleigh Green Road, the northbound stop shown on Drawing QM016-OF-205A, a proposal to relocate the bus stop to another location was under consultation. A separate report would be presented early in 2014.

The two options for the relocation of the bus stop at 87 to 89 North Street (Drawing QM016-OF-212A) and outside Menthone Place, North Street (Drawing QM016-OF-212-2A), had both support and opposition for the scheme.

The report stated that the Police preferred for the stop to be moved because of reduced conflict with vehicles accessing the business premises at No.87. This relocation was also supported by the resident at No.89 who was affected by the current location.

The report also outlined that the managing agent of Menthone Place raised opposition to the scheme in terms of its impact on the residents of Menthone Place, plus a resident immediately opposite the alternative location objected and suggested an alternative location in a completely different location.

During general debate, Members of the Committee discussed and sought clarification of the following matters:

·         Whether the footway in North Street was sufficiently wide for the installation of a bus shelter Officers clarified that the footway was wide enough to accommodate a shelter and not impede pedestrian traffic.

·          The extent of Transport for London’s (TfL) powers to install in bus stop flags and shelters. Officers clarified that section 183 of the GLA Act conferred a power to install bus stops.

Members agreed to vote on each set of bus stop improvements as shown on the respective drawings separately.

The Committee RESOVLED:

To recommend to the Cabinet Member for Community Empowerment that the bus stop accessibility improvements set out in the report and shown on the following drawings be implemented;

·        QM016-OF-201A – (9 votes in favour and 0 against)

·        QM016-OF-203A – (9 votes in favour and 0 against )

·        QM016-OF-204A  – (9 votes in favour and 0 against)

·                                   QM016-OF-205A (southbound only) – (9 votes in favour and 0 against)

·        QM016-OF-206A – (9 votes in favour and 0 against)

·        QM016-OF-207A – (9 votes in favour and 0 against)

·        QM016-OF-208A  – (9 votes in favour and 0 against)

·        QM016-OF-209A – (9 votes in favour and 0 against)

·        QM016-OF-210A – (9 votes in favour and 0 against)

·        QM016-OF-211A – (9 votes in favour and 0 against)

·           QM016-OF-212A (current location) - (8 votes in favour with  1 abstention)

·           QM016-OF-213A – (with request to TFL for installation of countdown display for northbound stop) (9 votes in favour and 0 against)

The Committee noted that an alternative to the proposals shown on Drawing QM016-OF-205A (northbound stop only) is being consulted on and would be the subject of an additional committee report in early 2014.

The Committee  noted that the estimated cost of £35,000 for implementation would be met by Transport for London through the 2013/14 Local Implementation Plan allocations for Bus Stop Accessibility.