Agenda item

To consider the attached report. Appendix A of the report will follow.

The Chairman welcomed consultants from Systra who presented the findings of the telephone travel survey which had been undertaken as part of the Greater Cambridge Partnership’s public awareness and engagement exercise called, ‘Our Big Conversation’. Following this the Greater Cambridge Partnership’s Head of Communications presented the interim findings of ‘Our Big Conversation’ (OBC).  The aim of this had been to strengthen the evidence base needed to inform the GCP’s Future Investment Strategy by generating public dialogue on Greater Cambridge growth, testing emerging GCP proposals with the public and undertaking a comprehensive travel survey to refresh 2011 census data.

The Joint Assembly noted the interim findings of ‘Our Big Conversation’ and commended all the officers involved in this. Members felt that the findings of this should be circulated more widely, that cycling should be kept high on the agenda and that the Combined Authority should use this for when looking at the county’s commercial bus operations.

The Chairman welcomed consultants from Systra who presented the findings of the telephone travel survey which had been carried out as part of the Greater Cambridge Partnership’s public awareness and engagement exercise called ‘Our Big Conversation’. Following this the Greater Cambridge Partnership’s Head of Communications presented the interim findings of ‘Our Big Conversation’ (OBC).  The aim of this had been to strengthen the evidence base needed to inform the GCP’s Future Investment Strategy by generating public dialogue on Greater Cambridge growth, testing emerging GCP proposals with the public and undertaking a comprehensive travel survey to refresh 2011 census data.

The Joint Assembly members discussed the findings and made the following comments:

·         It was observed that the top things identified by the survey that would encourage modal shift; speed, fares and reliability of public transport, were things that the Greater Cambridge Partnership did not have the power to control. This was due to buses in Cambridge and South Cambridgeshire being operated on a commercial basis by Whippet and Stagecoach. Joint Assembly members pointed out that the Mayor had the power to do something about bus services and hoped that he took this evidence into account when reviewing them. Some members hoped that he would introduce bus franchising as it was felt that modal shift could not be achieved without this.

·         The County Councillor for Fulbourn informed the Joint Assembly that his village’s bus service was being halved; it had a 15 minute service but this would be reduced to a 30 minute service in February 2018. He commented that commercial bus operators were not encouraging people to use public transport while the GCP was trying to encourage modal shift.

·         In response to this, the GCP Interim Chief Executive informed the Joint Assembly that the Combined Authority was commissioning a review of bus services. She advised that new public transport routes were a strong way of encouraging modal shift and the Greater Cambridge Partnership did have control of this. The Joint Assembly was advised that public transport needed to be made attractive through reliability, which was within the GCP’s gift.

·         The statistical significance of the sample size of the telephone survey was queried. In response to this, the consultants assured the Joint Assembly that the sample was statistically relevant and that the target sample provided robust results.

·         Scepticism was expressed regarding the answers given in relation to disincentives that would encourage modal shift. There was concern from some members that survey respondents may not have answered these questions honestly. In response to this the consultants acknowledged that some questions were subject to policy bias, however the consultants explained that evidence suggested that participants had answered these questions honestly. The Joint Assembly was informed that qualitative survey responses would be published online.

·         A member highlighted that the survey evidence showed that there was a high level of support for improvements to public transport and that there was a willingness for people to consider road charging amongst other options, to encourage modal shift.

·         It was pointed out that the vast majority of consultation respondents had identified the supply of affordable housing as the critical issue for the sub-region. The evidence also identified an appetite for technologically advanced solutions; it was suggested that the Greater Cambridge Partnership should see how it could help to realise these solutions.

·         The Executive Board’s Transport Portfolio Holder commented that the evidence gathered was not only useful to the Greater Cambridge Partnership but also to other local authorities, parish councils, the Combined Authority, large employers, planners, MPs and bus operators. He proposed that once the data was complete, this should be distributed to a much wider audience.

·         In response to a query regarding whether improvements to the safety of walking or cycling would encourage more people to change to these forms of transport, the consultants advised that the majority of safety issues identified during the survey regarding walking and cycling, were from parents referring to the school run. The GCP Interim Chief Executive informed the Joint Assembly that there was some qualitative evidence from the ‘Big Conversation’ recently which suggested that the quality of cycleways did put people off cycling.

The Joint Assembly noted the interim findings of ‘Our Big Conversation’ and commended the officers involved in this.