Residents are being asked for their views on the integration of the transport system in St Albans City and District and ideas on how to improve green methods of travel, such as walking and cycling.
The Overview and Scrutiny (Public Services) Committee1 for St Albans City and District Council is to discuss how the Council can develop an integrated, sustainable transport and movement strategy for the District at a meeting on 22 September.
The Committee would like to hear from residents with ideas or questions on transport issues, for example, on reducing traffic congestion, improving the ability to get around the District on public transport and promoting sustainable methods of travel such, as walking and cycling.
Cllr Robert Donald, Chair of the Overview and Scrutiny (Public Services) Committee at St Albans City and District Council, commented: “This special meeting will be a first for the Committee as far as I am aware. We will spend the whole evening reviewing and discussing public and sustainable transport needs in our City and District and how this transport could be better integrated locally to reduce traffic congestion and our carbon footprint.
“To help us do this we are inviting representatives of all the major public transport providers and means of travel, excluding private vehicles, to put their views to us and to review and discuss with us the sustainable transport needs of our City and District and the implementation of a Green Travel Plan.
“As Chair, I have set some clear aims for the evening which should help to focus our discussion and achieve some real future outcomes. These are simply to identify what our Council can do with partners to increase integrated use of public transport (buses, trains, taxis and trams) and sustainable transport (walking and cycling) to reduce traffic congestion and our carbon footprint locally and to implement an integrated District-wide Green Travel Plan.
“Now we need your views to add to this event, so please give them to the Council before the meeting and come on 22 September, if you can. In my view, it promises to be a very stimulating and important evening for the future of transport in our District.”
Anyone who wishes to raise any issues about transport in the District can email scrutiny@stalbans.gov.uk or write to Catherine Comfort, Scrutiny Support Officer, St Albans City and District Council, Council Offices, Civic Centre. Any comments received by 1 September will be included in the committee papers for the meeting which will be made available on the Council’s website at:
http://stalbans.moderngov.co.uk/ieListDocuments.aspx?CId=134&MId=6835&Ver=4 from 15 September.
Views collected as part of a proposed scrutiny of cycling in the District last year3 will be taken into account and need not be resubmitted.
Representatives from cycling and walking groups will be given the opportunity at the meeting to suggest ways to promote an integrated, sustainable transport system. The St Albans Quality Network Partnership2, Hertfordshire County Council, Heartwood Forest and the St Albans and Harpenden Taxi Association have also been invited to speak at the meeting about their future plans.
The meeting on Thursday, 22 September will be open to the public. If you are unable to attend a meeting in person, you can view a webcast of the meeting live or at a later date on the Council’s website. People with access to an appropriate computer with broadband internet access and Microsoft Windows media player will be able to view the meeting.