Agenda Document Pack - Petitions Sub-Committee - 12/02/2024
North Lanarkshire Council · 12 February 2024
Back to Petitions Sub-Committee — 12 February 2024 and its agenda
Text extracted from the council's PDF. Layout and reading order may differ from the original.
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1 February 2024 Members of the Petitions Sub-Committee Chief Executive’s Office Archie Aitken Chief Officer (Legal & Democratic) Civic Centre, Windmillhill Street, Motherwell ML1 1AB www.northlanarkshire.gov.uk Notice is given that a Meeting of the Petitions Sub-Committee is to be held in the Committee Room 1, Civic Centre, Windmillhill Street, Motherwell, ML1 1AB on Monday, 12 February 2024 at 10:00 AM which you are requested to attend. The agenda of business is attached. Archie Aitken Chief Officer (Legal & Democratic) Members : Clerk Name: Andrew Rose Clerk Telephone: 07951 409714 Clerk Email: rosean@northlan.gov.uk J Reddin, P Patton, D Ashraf, M Boyd, C Costello, M Hughes, J Leckie, B McCluskey, P McDade, J McLaren, C McManus, A Smith, R Sullivan, N Wilson. Page 1 of 22
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Agenda 1 Declarations of Interest In Terms of the Ethical Standards In Public Life Etc. (Scotland) Act 2000 Procedure 2 Procedure for Consideration of Petitions Submit procedure, as agreed by the Sub-Committee at its meeting held on 22 November 2022, to be followed by the Sub-Committee in determining petitions received by the Council (submitted for information purposes only). 5 - 6 Petition 3 (a) Summary of Petition Received Submit request received from Kildrum Community Council for traffic calming at Afton Road, Cumbernauld (please note that this document is not the original, as that contained personal data, but the text detailing the terms of the petition has been copied exactly). 7 - 8 3 (b) Report - Afton Road Submit report by the Chief Officer (Place) advising of the investigations carried out in response to the petition for a one- way traffic operation on Afton Road, Cumbernauld. 9 - 22 Page 3 of 22
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Petitions Sub-Committee Procedure for Considering a Petition Received by the Council (as agreed by the Sub- Committee at its meeting held on 2 November 2022) STAGE 1 1. Respective officer will submit a report to the Sub-Committee 2. Officer will present the report 3. Sub-committee will consider how it wants to proceed. Options are:- (a) Approve in full and, if required, recommend that the appropriate Committee approve the request (b) Approve in part and, if required, recommend that the appropriate Committee approve the request in part (c) Refuse in full (d) Continue consideration to (i) convene a hearing to include stakeholders and/or (ii) receive further information 4. If a decision made, officers will confirm to the petitioner the outcome STAGE 2 (if required) 5. If to be continued for a hearing:- (a) Date of hearing arranged and stakeholders invited (b) Officer presents report (c) Stakeholders invited to address the sub-committee (d) Sub-committee entitled to ask questions of stakeholders (e) Upon completion of stakeholders’ contribution, sub-committee makes a decision. Options are:- (i) Approve in full and if required, recommend that the appropriate Committee approve the request (ii) Approve in part and if required, recommend that the appropriate Committee approve the request in part (iii) Refuse in full STAGE 3 (if required) 6. If required, matter submitted to next available meeting of the appropriate Committee. Please note – any petitions which are Council-wide or cover more than one Community Board area will be submitted direct to the appropriate Committee and will not be considered by the Petitions Sub- Committee. Item 2 Page 5 of 22
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The original petition document, received by the Council and sent from Kildrum Community Council, contained names and addresses of individual signatories and, in accordance with Data Protection, this information is not provided. The petition stated that:- “We, the undersigned residents and workers in the Afton Road area of Kildrum, Cumbernauld, request that North Lanarkshire Council make Afton Road a one-way street. Doing this urgently on such a congested circular road will improve access and flow of traffic. It will also make this a safer area for residents, pedestrians, children, and drivers.” Item 3 (a) Page 7 of 22
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North Lanarkshire Council Report Petitions Sub Committee Does this report require to be approved? ☒ Yes ☐ No Ref Date 12/02/24 Petition – Request for One-Way Regulation Order – Afton Road, Cumbernauld From Pamela Humphries, Chief Officer (Place) E-mail woodg@northlan.gov.uk Telephone Gary Wood, 07939284954 1. Background 1.1 The Council received a petition from Kildrum Community Council on 7 February 2023, containing 26 signatures requesting that the Council install a one-way system on Afton Road. The reasons behind the request were listed as high-density residential development with limited off-street parking opportunities, and consequently it is difficult to maintain two-way vehicular flow along its length. 1.2 All requests the Council receives for road safety improvements are carefully considered and evaluated on a priority basis. The evaluation is based on a review of Police Scotland’s road injury accident database along with review of traffic survey data for the location. As part of the evaluation a site assessment is undertaken. Whilst this assessment framework is typically applied to requests for traffic calming and signalised crossings, it can be applied to requests for other road safety interventions such as Traffic Regulation Orders, which are required to implement one-way systems. Executive Summary The purpose of the report is to advise the Committee of the investigations carried out in response to the petition for a one-way traffic operation on Afton Road, Cumbernauld. Recommendations It is recommended that Committee: 1. Acknowledges the investigations undertaken and response to the petition received on 7 February 2023. 2. Agrees there is no evidence base for any road safety interventions at this location. The Plan for North Lanarkshire Priority Improve North Lanarkshire's resource base Ambition statement (17) Ensure we keep our environment clean, safe, and attractive Item 3 (b) Page 9 of 22
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1.3 This well-established practice ensures that the Council’s finite resources are targeted to the areas of greatest need in our community. This approach has significantly reduced the number of road injury accidents in North Lanarkshire over a number of years. 2. Report 2.1 The petition was submitted to the Council by Kildrum Community Council, as they were concerned over the volume of cars parked in Afton Road, making it difficult to maintain two-way traffic flow. 2.2 In order to assess the extent of parking taking place at this location, several site visits have been undertaken, which confirmed that there is a high volume of parked cars along the full length of Afton Road, throughout the day. These parking issues are commonplace throughout Cumbernauld, and other areas in North Lanarkshire, which weren’t designed with current car ownership levels in mind. 2.3 It can also be expected that in areas with limited on and off-street parking opportunities, it may not be possible to drive unobstructed along these lengths of road. Again, this is not a problem unique to Afton Road. 2.4 The introduction of a one-way system would most likely result in an increase in vehicle speeds and intensify traffic volumes in a highly constrained area. In addition, the length of one-way operation would make it highly likely that some drivers would choose to ignore the restrictions. Consequently, the introduction of a one-way system is likely to lead to additional road safety concerns and cannot be supported. 2.5 As a one-way system was not viable, an assessment was undertaken to determine whether traffic calming measures would be appropriate for Afton Road. A traffic survey was undertaken on Afton Road for a seven-day period, commencing on 24 November 2022. It is Council policy to not repeat surveys within an 18-month period unless there is a demonstrative change to the operation of this road. In this instance, it wasn’t considered necessary to repeat these surveys. 2.6 The survey measured the 85th percentile speeds at the locations shown in Appendix A. The 85th percentile speed is defined as the speed at or below which 85 percent of all vehicles are observed to travel under free-flowing conditions past a monitored point and is the standard metric used to establish speed limits on roads. 2.7 The speed survey results confirmed that the recorded 85th percentile speeds were 20mph eastbound and 19mph westbound, which are representative of vehicle speeds that can be expected on a road of this type. Afton Road is subject to a mandatory 30mph speed limit, and ‘Twenty’s Plenty’ signs are in place over the entire length of the road. Although ‘Twenty’s Plenty’ signs are advisory and cannot be enforced, the speed surveys have shown that the measured speeds are consistent with the signage. Page 10 of 22
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2.8 A review of Police Scotland’s road injury accident statistics on Afton Road was undertaken for the most recent five year period where data was available, which was from 22 July 2018 to 21 July 2023. The review confirmed there have been no injury accidents recorded during this time period. 2.9 All requests the Council receives for traffic calming measures are carefully considered and evaluated on a priority basis. The evaluation is based on a staged assessment methodology which not also considers traffic surveys and accident history referred to above, but also other road safety indicators and environmental factors. 2.10 The Council is typically able to construct about five schemes per year depending on budget availability yet receives in excess of 200 requests for traffic calming per year. This staged methodology ensures that all enquiries are assessed in a consistent, fair and transparent manner, to ensure the Council’s finite resources are targeted to the areas in communities with the highest risk setting. This approach is important in helping continue the trend of reducing the number of road injury accidents in North Lanarkshire. Full details of the assessment methodology can be found in the policy ‘Prioritisation of Road Safety Improvements’, which is included in Appendix 2 to this report. 2.11 After assessing the traffic speeds and accident history information, together with surveyed traffic volumes and the proportion of HGVs, the Road Safety Indicators scores for this location is 0 which are below the Stage 1 threshold of 80 points which is required to progress to the next stage of assessment. Therefore, there are no proposals to undertake any road safety improvements, including the introduction of a one-way system on Afton Road at this time. 3. Summary 3.1 The Council received a petition on 7 February 2023, containing 26 signatures requesting that the Council install a One-Way operation on Afton Road. 3.2 A robust assessment of conditions on Afton Road was undertaken, which included site visits, traffic surveys and parking surveys. A review of Police Scotland’s recorded injury accident database was also undertaken. 3.3 After careful consideration of conditions on Afton Road, there is no evidence base for the introduction of a one-way system nor traffic calming. 4. Supporting documentation 4.1 Appendix A – Location plan of traffic survey on Afton Road 4.2 Appendix B – Policy – Prioritisation of Road Safety Improvements Pamela Humphries Chief Officer (Place) Page 11 of 22
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5. Impacts ( http://connect/report-template-guidance ) 5.1 Public Sector Equality Duty and Fairer Scotland Duty Does the report contain information that has an impact as a result of the Public Sector Equality Duty and/or Fairer Scotland Duty? Yes ☐ No ☒ If Yes, please provide a brief summary of the impact? If Yes, has an assessment been carried out and published on the council’s website? https://www.northlanarkshire.gov.uk/your-community/equalities/equality-and-fairer- scotland-duty-impact-assessments Yes ☐ No ☐ 5.2 Financial impact Does the report contain any financial impacts? Yes ☐ No ☒ If Yes, have all relevant financial impacts have been discussed and agreed with Financial Solutions? Yes ☐ No ☐ If Yes, please provide a brief summary of the impact? 5.3 HR policy impact Does the report contain any HR policy or procedure impacts? Yes ☐ No ☒ If Yes, have all relevant HR impacts have been discussed and agreed with People and Organisational Development? Yes ☐ No ☐ If Yes, please provide a brief summary of the impact? 5.4 Legal impact Does the report contain any legal impacts (such as general legal matters, statutory considerations (including employment law considerations), or new legislation)? Yes ☐ No ☒ If Yes, have all relevant legal impacts have been discussed and agreed with Legal and Democratic Solutions? Yes ☐ No ☐ If Yes, please provide a brief summary of the impact? 5.5 Data protection impact Does the report / project / practice contain or involve the processing of personal data? Yes ☐ No ☒ If Yes, is the processing of this personal data likely to result in a high risk to the data subject? Yes ☐ No ☐ If Yes, has a Data Protection Impact Assessment (DPIA) been carried out and e- mailed to dataprotection@northlan.gov.uk Yes ☐ No ☐ 5.6 Technology / Digital impact Does the report contain information that has an impact on either technology, digital transformation, service redesign / business change processes, data management, or connectivity / broadband / Wi-Fi? Yes ☐ No ☒ If Yes, please provide a brief summary of the impact? Page 12 of 22
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Where the impact identifies a requirement for technology, has an assessment been carried out (or scheduled) by the Enterprise Architecture Governance Group (EAGG)? Yes ☐ No ☐ 5.7 Environmental / Carbon impact Does the report / project / practice contain information that has an impact on any environmental or carbon matters? Yes ☐ No ☒ If Yes, please provide a brief summary of the impact? 5.8 Communications impact Does the report contain any information that has an impact on the council’s communications activities? Yes ☐ No ☒ If Yes, please provide a brief summary of the impact? 5.9 Risk impact Is there a risk impact? Yes ☐ No ☒ If Yes, please provide a brief summary of the key risks and potential impacts, highlighting where the risk(s) are assessed and recorded (e.g. Corporate or Service or Project Risk Registers), and how they are managed? 5.10 Armed Forces Covenant Duty Does the report require to take due regard of the Armed Forces Covenant Duty (i.e. does it relate to healthcare, housing, or education services for in-Service or ex- Service personnel, or their families, or widow(er)s)? Yes ☐ No ☒ If Yes, please provide a brief summary of the provision which has been made to ensure there has been appropriate consideration of the particular needs of the Armed Forces community to make sure that they do not face disadvantage compared to other citizens in the provision of public services. 5.11 Children’s rights and wellbeing impact Does the report contain any information regarding any council activity, service delivery, policy, or plan that has an impact on children and young people up to the age of 18, or on a specific group of these? Yes ☐ No ☒ If Yes, please provide a brief summary of the impact and the provision that has been made to ensure there has been appropriate consideration of the relevant Articles from the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC). Page 13 of 22
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Appendix A – Location Plan of Speed / Volume Traffic Survey Page 14 of 22
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Appendix B – Policy – Prioritisation of Road Safety Improvements Page 15 of 22
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