Agenda item

To consider motions referred from council assembly on 28 November 2012:

 

• Supporting cycling in Southwark
• Road safety
• Bus Services in the South of the Borough
• Social housing in mixed communities

RESOLVED:

 

Supporting cycling in Southwark

 

That the motion referred from council assembly as a recommendation to cabinet, set out below be noted and agreed.

 

1.  That council assembly believes a lot more should be done to encourage cycling throughout Southwark, including making bicycles more accessible to residents, encouraging the take up of cycling and improving road safety for cyclists.

 

2.  That council assembly therefore welcomes the fact that:

 

·  The current administration has spent or allocated £2.677 million on cycling in the last two years and plans to spend nearly another £4 million on cycling infrastructure. One third of the money allocated from TfL to Southwark gets spent on cycling.

·  Southwark has installed 174 cycle lockers on housing estates and created over 1500 new spaces for on street cycle parking.

·  Southwark is the first London borough to install life-saving Trixi mirrors at dangerous junctions throughout the borough and welcomes the news that a further eight mirrors will be installed by March 2013.

·  Proposals for 25 cut-throughs, shared use footways and contra-flow schemes across the borough are currently under consideration and that this will help to improve cycle permeability by improving access and reducing travel times.

·  The council’s transport plan also proposes: 20mph streets to help make Southwark roads safer for everyone by reducing speeds, developing 'green links' to encourage local cycle trips for less confident cyclists and families, school travel plan initiatives and cycle parking on and off street.

·  Southwark Council’s bike loan scheme allows employees to take out an interest free loan of up to £1,000 to buy a bike to use to cycle to work.

·  Despite the fact that Transport for London has reduced the overall budget for cycle training from £163,000 to £156,000, the council continues to offer free cyclist training to anyone that lives, works or is educated in the borough. Around 900 children and 600 adults receiving training each year.

 

3.  That council assembly therefore calls on cabinet to:

 

·  Continue to work with organisations such as Southwark Cyclists to explore how Southwark can realise its ambition of becoming the most cycle friendly London borough.

·  Continue to lobby Transport for London to extend the London cycle hire scheme throughout the borough.

·  Take a serious and sensible approach to increasing the number of people who cycle in the borough and make good on its commitment to review the target for people cycling in Southwark which is in line with the London target and based on key developments such as the introduction of cycle hire, and the existing and planned cycle superhighways. The current target translates into a 33% increase (from 3-4%) in current cycling levels or 4,700 new trips by bike every day.

 

Road Safety

 

That the motion referred from council assembly as a recommendation to cabinet, set out below be noted and agreed, and the comments of the strategic director of environment and leisure, contained in the report be noted.

 

1.  That council assembly expresses condolences for the tragic deaths of Hichame Bouadimi, Ellie Carey and many other cyclists and pedestrians who have been killed in road accidents in recent years in Southwark.

 

2.  That council assembly notes that the number of people killed on Britain’s roads increased by 3% in 2011 to 1,901 – the first increase since 2003. It also notes that the number of pedestrians killed jumped by 12% to 453.

 

3.  That council assembly regrets the then Conservative Transport Secretary, Phillip Hammond’s pledge to “end the war on the motorist” in 2010 which has led to the removal of speed cameras, the abolition of national casualty-reduction targets, the proposal of 80mph speed limits and the reduction in the number of charges for death by dangerous driving.

 

4.  That council assembly also regrets the decision by Transport for London (TfL) to change the phasing of London’s traffic lights, ostensibly to improve traffic flow, which has made roads less safe for cyclists and pedestrians.

 

5.  That council assembly welcomes measures introduced by the council to promote cycling and to improve road safety including:

 

·  Becoming the first London council to install Trixi mirrors at four junctions in Southwark, with eight more junctions earmarked

 

·  Carrying out spot checks on cyclists and drivers breaching traffic enforcement laws in order to crackdown on dangerous driving

 

·  A comprehensive road safety education, training and publicity programme – including for lorry drivers - and a safer routes to school programme (SRTS), which aims to encourage and enable children to walk or cycle to and from school through the introduction of targeted traffic calming and the creation of safer walking and cycling routes.

 

6.  That council assembly believes that the biggest cause in road deaths is speeding and therefore calls on the cabinet:

 

·  For Southwark to become a 20mph borough

 

·  To call on the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) to ensure police enforce 20mph speed limits

 

·  To call on TfL to give greater flexibility and support for the use of average speed cameras.

 

And also for:

 

More to be done to make TfL operated roads safer and calls for greater transparency for TfL’s review of dangerous junctions in Southwark.

 

Bus services in the South of the borough

 

That the motion referred from council assembly as a recommendation to cabinet, set out below be noted and agreed.

 

That council assembly believes that improvements are needed by TfL to bus services in the south of the borough, and in particular requests the cabinet to report on:

 

1.  Further work lobbying the Mayor of London and Transport for London (TfL) to secure an extension of bus route 42 to Sainsbury’s Dog Kennel Hill via North Dulwich station.

 

2.  Continuing complaints about the reliability and frequency of the 37 and 3 bus services, as well as the frequency of the 12 during the rush hour.

 

3.  The feasibility of TfL extending the 201 bus service eastwards from Herne Hill to provide better east/west services through Dulwich.

 

4.  Support and working with TfL on extending the 63 bus service onto Honor Oak Park station to provide connection with London Overground services following the excellent campaign by Peckham Rye’s Labour councillors and Val Shawcross, Assembly Member, to extend the number 63 route. Council assembly notes that the extension of the 63 route was a key pledge from Ken Livingstone at the last election but was opposed by Boris Johnson and is concerned whether there is the political will from the current Mayor of London to deliver this extension.

 

5.  Options for new buses on the 12 route that represent an effective use of public money.

 

6.  TfL improving bus links to the Kingswood estate, one of the most geographically isolated parts of Southwark, where many residents can not afford to use the nearby Sydenham Hill train station.

 

7.  TfL providing a direct bus service from the south of the borough to Kings College Hospital.

 

Social housing in mixed communities

 

That the motion referred from council assembly as a recommendation to cabinet, set out below be noted and agreed.

 

1.  That council notes that not only is the current administration investing £326 million to ensure every council home in Southwark is warm, dry and safe by 2016, it is also building 1000 new council homes in Southwark over the next eight years - more than have been built in all of London in the last 10 years. It regrets that the previous administration failed to build enough council housing, had an unworkable and unfunded decent homes programme which left many Southwark residents without decent homes and by the end of their time in office left Southwark with 7,800 fewer council homes.

 

2.  That council notes the publication of the ‘Ending Expensive Tenancies’ report by Policy Exchange in August 2012, which called on councils to sell off higher valued social homes and replace them with others in cheaper areas.

 

3.  That council also notes the reaction of the leader to the report on his blog: “the blanket policy proposed by the paper of selling-off all council properties above a certain value is flawed and would undoubtedly lead to the removal of genuinely affordable social housing from certain areas.”

 

4.  That council recognises that there is a need for affordable housing in all parts of the borough, and that many key workers and other residents in lower pay brackets live in social homes in those parts of the borough where land values are highest. That is why this council opposes the government’s housing benefit cap, opposes the introduction of affordable rent at 80% of market rent, opposes the ending of secure tenancies, opposes the slashing of the social housing budget by £3.9 billion and is building 1000 new council homes in Southwark over the next 8 years.

 

5.  That council is concerned that the government’s housing benefit cap will further social segregation in the borough and agrees with the comments of Simon Hughes MP when he told the BBC in January “As it currently stands, the benefits cap will break up families…there are bottom lines in politics and that one is making sure that those with least finances and the most mouths to feed, and the most needy are protected.”  However it regrets that only five months later Simon Hughes ignored his own warning and voted to cap housing benefit for families in Southwark.

 

6.  That council welcomes Southwark Council’s plans to build more council homes, which has been made possible by the council’s decision to accept "in lieu" payments from developers rather than requiring them to deliver on-site "affordable housing" where that "affordable housing" is anything but affordable. It is perplexed that the Liberal Democrats claim to support Labour’s plan to deliver 1000 new council homes but do not support the proposed means of delivering them and would encourage Southwark Liberal Democrats to explain how they would pay for new council homes.

 

7.  That council notes and regrets that Simon Hughes MP recently voted to allow developers to deliver 0% affordable housing on new developments. Council therefore calls on cabinet to write to the government and call on them to drop the proposal in the Growth and Infrastructure Bill that lets developers wriggle out of their affordable housing requirements.