Issue - meetings

Report of the Director of Transportation and Highways

The Cabinet considered a report of the Director of Transportation and Highways on the Coventry Local Air Quality Action Plan to comply with the Environment Act 1995 (Coventry City Council) Air Quality Direction 2020 issued by the Parliamentary Secretary of State for the Environment.

On 12th February 2020, the Parliamentary Secretary of State for the Environment issued the Environment Act 1995 (Coventry City Council) Air Quality Direction 2020. This Direction applied to Coventry City Council and directed the Council to:

•  Implement the local plan for NO2 (Nitrogen Dioxide) compliance for the city;

•  Prepare and submit a full business case for the local plan scheme, summarising responses made to the public consultation, outlining any subsequent changes made to the local plan scheme, and confirming that the local plan scheme facilitates the achievement of local transport policies within the city.

The report outlined the steps being taken by the Council to comply with the Direction, including a summary of the local plan scheme, an update on the responses received to the consultation undertaken during March, April and May 2020, and also sought the Cabinet’s approval to proceed with the making of the statutory Traffic Regulation Orders and compulsory purchase powers required to implement the local plan scheme in compliance with the Direction. Appendices to the report provided: the Local Air Quality Action Plan Consultation Report (June 2020); and plans showing the area to be subject to the Compulsory Purchase Order.

The local plan scheme comprised a package of measures that, in combination, achieved compliance with the legal limits for roadside NO2 levels across the city (it was noted that for the purposes of the consultation the term Local Air Quality Action Plan had been adopted rather than local plan scheme, to avoid any local confusion with the Local Plan which was the Council’s core land use planning document). 

The three main elements of the package were measures aimed at:

•  Reducing the level of car traffic by encouraging modal shift to sustainable and active modes of travel such as walking, cycling and public transport through infrastructure improvements (a new, fully segregated, cycle route linking the city centre with Coundon), and through engagement with schools, businesses and local communities to promote sustainable and active travel, especially for shorter, local, journeys.

•  Reducing the number of older, more polluting, vehicles on the transport network by encouraging people and businesses to invest in low emission vehicles through a range of incentive schemes and initiatives. This included the promotion of electric cars, buses, taxis and commercial vehicles.

•  Enabling dynamic traffic management on the key routes into the city, notably Holyhead Road and Foleshill Road, by implementing highway improvements on these and parallel corridors to reduce traffic congestion (and therefore vehicle emissions). The specific improvements were focussed on the B4106 at Spon End and Junction 7 on the ring road, the Holyhead Road / Barras Lane / Upper Hill Street area, and on Foleshill Road.

Government had awarded the Council £24.5 million in grant  ...  view the full minutes text for item 16