Highways Agency

• Public consultation july 2005
• Public Consultation Response
• Stakeholder Comments
• Conclusions

Public consultation july 2005

Public Consultation July 2005

Introduction

Background

The Highways Agency has appointed Hyder Consulting to prepare a RouteManagement Strategy for the M1/M621 between Chesterfield and Leeds.

Route Management Strategies assist the Highways Agency to:

• plan and optimise investment in the motorway and trunk road network;
• deliver their strategic plans; and
• manage individual motorways and trunk roads as part of the wider transport network.

They take a strategic approach to the maintenance, operation, andimprovement of the network and are customer focused involving regionalstakeholders and the public in the decision-making process. Thecompletion of the Route Management Strategy will lead to the adoption of aten-year management plan for the route.

The recommendations of the South West Yorkshire Multi-Modal Study(SWYMMS), included widening sections of the M1 in Yorkshire with integraldemand management. The Route Management Strategy is intended tobuild on the findings of this study by identifying how the route can be bestmanaged in the short to medium term. It will consider the work of the SouthWest Yorkshire Motorway Best Use Study (SWYMBUS) and the proposedwidening of the M1 from Junction 30 to Junction 42 following anannouncement by the Secretary of State.

Stakeholder Involvement

The data gathered for the Route Management Strategy brings together arange of policies and objectives pertinent to the route, views of thestakeholders and the public, and other relevant information includingcurrent conditions on the route.

During the process, organisations that have existing knowledge of theroute, and information from previous studies, have been consulted throughdiscussions and various workshops.

The key events used to gather views were:

• The Stakeholder Consultation exercise from 3 October to 3 November 2003 (issue of an information leaflet and questionnaire to stakeholders)
• The Sheffield Stakeholder Workshop held on 17 November 2003
• The Leeds Stakeholder workshop held on 9 December 2003
• The M621 Workshop held on 18 March 2004
• The Value Management Workshop held on 5 August 2004
• The Public Consultation from 11 October 2004 to 17 January 2005
• Vulnerable Road User Meeting held on 1 March 2005

This report documents the public consultation, the responses received, andthe findings of the Vulnerable Road User meeting.

The Public Consultation

The public consultation for the Draft Route Management Strategy tookplace in the 12-week period between 11 October 2004 and 17 January2005.

The purpose of the public consultation was to allow time for the public tocomment on the Draft Route Management Strategy and the issues raised inthe Route Management Strategy. The consultation was not a forum forcomments on recommendations made by both the SWYMMS, and theemerging results of SWYMBUS.

The consultation was designed to adequately address the issues of theRoute Management Strategy study yet minimise repeating the issues thathave been previously reviewed by the other two studies.

The consultation strategy took into account the decision of the ProjectBoard that the public consultation should be "low key", and was designed totake place alongside public consultation for the M18 Route ManagementStrategy without confusing the public. A key objective of the publicconsultation phase was to reach the maximum audience, to achieve thisaim the public consultation consisted of the following elements:

• A Draft Strategy Booklet was produced for deposit at local libraries (29 identified) and council offices (14 identified). The document presented the Route Management Strategy issues using short paragraph summaries, with bullet points where possible. Deposit locations are listed in Table 1.
• A letter was bound into the front of the Draft Strategy Booklet, explaining details of the Highways Agency website, all the deposit locations, contact details and addresses for the public to make their responses to and the HAIL telephone response facility.
• A Public Consultation Poster was prepared and displayed, identifying where the Draft Strategy Booklet could be viewed, together with details of the Highways Agency website, a contact name, details of the Highways Agency HAIL telephone number, together with the closing date for comments.
• The poster was exhibited at locations with frequent access by the public e.g. libraries, tourist information centres and council offices that are used for day-to-day business.
• Adverts (containing similar information to the poster) were placed in ten local newspapers at the start of the 12-week consultation period.
• A Press Release was issued at the start of the 12-week consultation period, containing and elaborating on the information in the poster and adverts.
• The Draft Strategy Booklet was available to view and download on the Highways Agency website. The public were able to make their comments though the standard response form on the website.
• An electronic (pdf) copy of the Draft Strategy Booklet was sent to all stakeholders on the database (393 in total). Representatives of organisations were asked to disseminate the information to their members.
• All stakeholders were sent a letter advising them of the public consultation exercise, how to make their comments and that an electronic copy of the Draft Strategy Booklet would be issued to them.
• The small number of stakeholders who replied requesting a paper copy of the Draft Strategy Booklet were supplied with one.
• A fortnight before the end of the public consultation those stakeholders who had not yet responded were reminded, by email, that a response was outstanding.

Vulnerable Road Users Meeting

A meeting to specifically assess the impact of the Draft Route ManagementStrategy on Vulnerable Road Users was held on 1st March 2005. Themeeting was attended by bodies representing Vulnerable Road Users andofficers of Local Authorities whose responsibilities covered rights of way,cycling and green travel.

The meeting was held after the public consultation on the Draft RouteManagement Strategy and in some instances supersedes or addresses thecomments raised in the public consultation. The comments raised in theVulnerable Road Users meeting together with a list of attendees can befound in the meeting minutes contained in Appendix C.

Actions resulting from this meeting are taken into account in anyrecommendations for amendment to the strategy included in this report.