Questions from the Public for Written Response:
1) RVR members have been very concerned for many years at the excess traffic exiting Station Road at Shortlands traffic lights making the junction very dangerous for pedestrians. What is the situation regarding the proposal for a modal filter in Glass Mill Lane?
TfL have indicated that funding for a temporary/trial modal filter in Glassmill Lane may be available in the second part of this year, as it was not awarded initially. However, the installation of a modal filter in Glassmill Lane would need to run hand-in-hand with temporary/trial one proposed for Hillside Road, so plans to implement both are being discussed with TfL.
2) If funding is the issue, would LBB proceed with installation of the modal filter if there was a contribution from RVR?
There needs to be funding available, with sufficient time available to complete the measures, to install both the temporary/trial filter in Glassmill Lane plus the filter and cycle route in Valley Road / Hillside Road.
3) Ashfield speeding. Could you kindly update our resident’s group on the installation date of a new 30mph Vehicle Activation Sign which was offered last June, the moving of the current one, the result of the assessment of the first set of Dragon’s Teeth and the date of installation of the second set.
It was planned to relocate an existing VAS from Court Road (junction with Warren Road) where the crossroads ahead VAS sign will soon no longer be required. However, the scheme in Court Road has been delayed so the VAS is not yet available.
Dragons’ teeth markings were proposed in one direction based on the result of the speed survey in the direction of higher speeds and these were installed. Observations by an engineer were carried out this year in March and July and no speeding was observed approaching this junction, nor is there a record of new collisions at this location. There are therefore no plans to install additional dragon’s teeth markings.
4) Could you kindly confirm the amount of funds allocated for social distancing emergency measures in Chislehurst alone, from the three sources of emergency income which I believe the Council received – £100k from Department of Transport, £295k from Re-opening High Streets Safely Fund and £369k allocated by TfL’s Streetspace initiative.
Spend for social distancing measures has not been broken down by location. Social distancing signs have been installed in both Chislehurst High Street and Royal Parade, and measures are soon to be introduced outside Chislehurst CE Primary School. Not all schemes proposed for Chislehurst received grant funding.
5) With regard to ‘Gear Change: a bold vision for cycling and walking’, what plans has the Council to respond to this document? If there are no plans, will the Policy Holder commit to a date by when draft plans will be produced?
The Council already had ambitions to make improvements for cyclists, as set out in our transport strategy (LIP3). In response to the Governments’ recent initiative, Bromley has successfully bid for funding to introduce temporary cycle lanes in a number of locations in the Borough, such as Shortlands and Crystal Palace. These will hopefully be in place in the next month or so. We are also pleased to be able to offer cycle training once more, for adults and for children, following strict hygiene guidelines. There have been a number of very well attended Dr Bike events in Bromley over the summer and we are stepping up the pace to deliver escorted rides to the many new cycling commuters on our waiting list.
6) When will the Environment Policy Development Scrutiny Committee consider Bromley Council’s Air Quality Action Plan 2020-2025?
This plan will be considered on the 9th of September 2020.
7) Bromley Council website states that in September 2020, 6 school streets will start in Bromley Borough. What was the process by which these 6 schools were selected?
Bromley contacted schools across the Borough in early June to offer them support in respect to their pupils returning to school, where the schools had concerns about social distancing on the highway near to their buildings. There was then a dialogue with schools who felt that a temporary school street might help them, and schools were asked to sign a MOU in regard to what they would offer to operate the school street if the Council was to install the facilities. Eleven schools were interested in a temporary school street, but after ongoing discussions with these schools, five schools are soon to have the benefit of a temporary school street; these are:
– Harris Primary Academy Crystal Palace, Malcolm Road
– Harris Primary Academy Orpington
– St Mary Cray Primary School, Park road
– Poverest Primary, Tillingbourne Green
– Pratts Bottom School, Hookwood Road
A sixth school, Hawes Down School (The Mead) has sadly had to withdraw from the scheme, as they were in the end unable to staff the barriers. These temporary School Streets will provide a valuable insight into the selection, design, consultation and management of school streets for consideration going forward.
8) What is the expected timetable for a final draft of the Air Quality Action Plan to be produced? Officers obviously need to have a sensible time frame to properly review and consolidate the responses to the Public Consultation within their draft Plan. An effective Plan is certainly worth waiting for, though a rough ETA would be appreciated.
The consultation concluded on the 10th August 2020 and a team of Officers worked hard to review and consolidate the responses. These were submitted to the GLA on the 27th August 2020 which approved the final plan, as such, there will be no further public consultation. The final draft will be scrutinised by the Environment PDS Committee on the 9th
September 2020, in accordance with the timeline agreed by this committee on the 17th March 2020.
9) Government made funds available for councils to provide temporary infrastructure changes enabling “active travel” through reduced speed limits, low traffic neighbourhoods and temporary cycle lanes; where did Bromley Council include these in their Covid grant proposals and did Bromley residents lose out on funding and active travel infrastructure
due to their omission?
Further to the report supported by Members of the Environment PDS committee on 8th June this year and subsequently signed off by the Portfolio Holder for Environment and Community Services, bids for measures considered suitable for streets in this Borough were submitted for grant funding. Not all bids were supported by the funding bodies, but grants approved included those for temporary footway widening, cycle routes, pedestrian crossings, school streets and advisory 20mph speed limits.
10) Bromley schools are reopening in September amidst numerous Covid-related transportation issues, including decreased capacity on buses, student travel costs rising and social distancing at school gates; what actions has the council taken to work with schools to prepare for schools to reopen and prevent gridlock on our roads?
Bromley contacted schools across the Borough in early June to offer them support in respect to their pupils returning to school, where the schools had concerns about social distancing on the highway near to their buildings. The Education Department of the Council, along with officers from the Council’s Traffic and Road Safety Teams, have liaised with TfL about bus services and have also introduced social distancing signage around 114 schools across the Borough. Where schools have requested specific help, officers have liaised with the school regarding
the introduction of measures such as temporary school streets and footway widenings, to help parents and pupils as they travel to and from the schools. These measures will help give parents choices as to how their children travel to school, so that whilst it will be appropriate for some parents to drive their children to school, others can choose to walk, scoot or cycle.
11) TfL Streetspace, DfT EATF, MHCLG RHSSF funding – Would Portfolio Holder please confirm amounts (£s) allocated/received from each funding source; details of schemes/funding associated with each source; details of other schemes bid for from each source and reasons why unsuccessful; and details of schemes bid for in second round/tranche?
The report to Environment PDS on 8th June this year set out the range of measures that would be bid for to these funding bodies. The proposals were then worked up by officers and included bids for:
– Homesdale Road Zebra Crossing
– Cycle Parking at Stations
– Station Road Pedestrian Crossing
– Glassmill Lane traffic filter
– Farnaby Road Footway Improvement
– Recreation Road Valley Primary school footpath * (£12k)
– Old Hill Traffic Island
– Beckenham Road Clock House Station Temporary Cycle Route (to connect GKH Route)
– Kent House Station via Ravenscroft Road & Marlow Road Temporary cycle route
– Southend Road / Foxgrove Road / Park Road Parallel Zebra Crossing
– Albemarle Road Temporary cycle route * (£52k)
– Bromley Road Temporary cycle route * (£59k)
– Southend Road Pedestrian Refuge * (£20k)
– Beckenham to Greenwich Experimental Cycle Route via Copers Cope Road
– Lennard Road Cycleway scheme * (£30k)
– Manor Rd / Wickham Rd / Bromley Rd junction Temporary pedestrian crossing
– Court Rd / Priory Gardens Floating Bus Stop
– Shortlands Station to Harris Primary School cycle route * (£42k)
– Manor Park Road / A232 Refuge Widening
– Red Lodge Rd / The Avenue pedestrian improvement scheme
– Belmont Lane/Edgebury and Kemnal Road footpath
– Crystal Palace Park Road cycle route and Thicket Road pedestrian facility (£50k)
– Cintra Park and Chipstead Close Cycle Contraflow
– Ledrington Road Cycle Permeability
– SCHOOLS MEASURES – a bundle of school streets, crossings, widenings and signage * (£204k)
– TOWN CENTRES – a bundle of footway widenings and social distancing signs * (up to £295k)
– Old Cople Lane cycle path
– Anerley Hill temporary crossing
– Penge East Station cycle permeability scheme
Those schemes that were supported by the funding bodies in Tranche 1 are shown with an asterisk, with the amount awarded shown in brackets. All bids not successful in Tranche 1 were submitted to TfL for consideration by them and DfT in tranche 2 (the results of the Tranche 2 bids are not yet known).
The schemes awarded funding in Tranche 1 are still subject to design approval by TfL and must also meet Bromley’s own standards before they can be completed on site. Schemes are subject to change, by negotiation with TfL, where a barrier to delivery of the originally envisaged scheme is identified during detailed design.
12) Primary/Secondary/SEN School Covid-19 Travel Surveys – Would Portfolio Holder please provide update on numbers of completed surveys received per school, including numbers of households and children represented; and confirm actions being taken in response to surveys, and wide disparity in response rate (0% to 15.7% at 20 July)?
13) It is fantastic that Bromley Council is initiating 6 school streets next month. What are the next steps in terms of the Council considering proposals to increase or decrease the number of school streets in the borough?
The 5 or 6 school streets will be monitored over the coming months to see how effective they are at helping achieve social distancing and how they help children walk or cycle to school more safely. Although these are only temporary school streets, what is learnt by officers and members will help determine the future use of more permanent school streets in the Borough going forward.
14) Please could you provide an explanation of Bromley Council policy on 20mph speed limits in the borough, e.g. if and why all 20mph zones in the borough are ‘advisory’ rather than ‘enforceable’?
There are a mixture of permanent, part time and advisory 20mph limits across the Borough. The advisory 20mph limit signs are seen as being more effective at alerting drivers to the presence of children in the vicinity of schools at the appropriate times of day, so are often the preferred choice of the Council to improve safety around schools.
15) Re AQAP Theme 2 Action 7, could this be amended to clarify that the Council seeks to reduce, through awareness campaigns, the use of wood stoves rather than simply promote the use of appropriate fuel. (Wood stoves are generally wholly unnecessary and contribute to
particulate matter pollution).
The action as written has been accepted as appropriate by the GLA. The Mayor’s guidance for wood burning stoves in London will be promoted.
16) Throughout the AQAP, mention is made of using Planning Conditions to control pollution. Would the Council include in the AQAP the requirement that all developments must have a Planning Condition that the Code of Practice must be followed in order to prevent particulate pollution from construction sites.
The actions concerning the application of planning conditions have been accepted as appropriate by the GLA.
17) The questions relate to the summary of responses to the consultation
(Air quality Action Plan 2020-2025) Theme 3 – Parks verges and
Highways. It was stated that the Council has organised the planting of wildflowers on some grass verges. Precisely which grass verges have been
planted with wildflowers so far and when, and are these verges being cut
on a twice yearly basis with the arisings being removed and composted?
The council recently established a wildflower earth mound to the perimeter of Leaves Green Common sowing a 1300 linear meters of wildflower seed mix comprising of Linseed, Barley, Triticale, Phacelia and White Millet. The bunding will be cut and collected once per annum in October. The Heathfield Road and Westerham Road roundabout was recently transformed into a wildflower roundabout consisting of Garlic Mustard, Betony, Foxglove, Wood Avens, Red Campion and Self Heal to name a few. This area will be cut and collected once per annum in October. The council is at final stages of preparing a wildflower creation plan for sites at Coney Hall Recreation Ground, Green Street Green Common, Leaves Green Common and Biggin Hill Recreation Ground, subject to Member consideration. As is the case with all the other projects, the aim is to create wildflower interest with improved wildlife habitat creation. These areas will also receive an annual cut and collect maintenance programme. These initiatives are all early phase trials and the council will be investigating further projects in line with the soon to be published Open Space Strategy.
18) The questions relate to the summary of responses to the consultation (Air quality Action Plan 2020-2025) Theme 3 – Parks verges and Highways. The report states that Council’s ability to extend the planting of wildflowers is budget dependent. Can community groups get involved with planting wildflower plugs or sowing seeds on verges to help the council reduce costs, or cover the costs of doing so and if so, how can they do this?
Wildflower restoration is an intensive process of scraping off existing vegetation and nutrient topsoil and removing it from land. This is the most costly task in a wildflower restoration programme. Wherever possible the council encourages community involvement and will do so with further initiatives.
19) What measure of air quality improvement does LBB hope to achieve from implementation of its new AQAP 2020 over the term of the plan?
The matrix shows the specific actions that are being implemented to improve or maintain air quality. Each of these actions have targets and success of the plan will be measured against these.
20) Are there hopes to bring NO2 & PM2.5 levels down to reach specific lower levels at the end of that 5 years or to reduce such pollutant levels by a specific percentage?
The plan shows the specific actions that will be taken to either maintain or improve air quality. Whilst there is an ambition to meet the WHO levels for PM2.5, there is no percentage target set for reduction for either NO2 or PM2.5.
21) Given that under the AQAP 2020, TFL appears to be identified as the cause of most road related air pollution in the Borough of Bromley, what will LBB do (and advise TFL to do) in order to reduce all boroughwide road traffic, which accounts for 61% of NOx emissions across the borough?”
Whilst active travel as an option is promoted with technology improvements it would not appear necessary to reduce car usage to reduce NOx from vehicles. Our LIP strategy does have the ambition that providing new active travel options will increase active travel thus reducing unnecessary use of other modes. The ULEZ may encourage earlier replacement of vehicles, but the natural cycle of vehicle replacement is seeing more electric and hybrid cars on our roads. Typically, vehicles with the highest annual mileage are replaced most frequently. Nationally, reports suggest 4% of new cars are electric, with the ULEZ it might be expected that the proportion in London would be higher. All other things being equal, it would appear reasonable to expect NOx emissions from transport to reduce. It is not clear that other sources of NOx are seeing the same impact of technology and will reduce at the same rate. Consultation with staff possibly affected has started. It is far too soon to say whether this will lead to redundancies, but any proposals to make changes to the structure of the Council’s Traffic and Road safety Team would come to this committee for comment, before any impact on staff could be identified.
