Agenda and minutes

Edmund Hopkins

Helen Hemstock

Nick Hynes

John Rhodes

Giselle Sterry

Hilary Yates

Councillor Rosemary Healy

Minutes of the meeting held on 14 July 2021

The minutes of the meeting held on the 14 July 2021 were agreed by the Forum as a true record with the amendment that Margaret Knowles be included in the list of absentees.

This item was deferred to the next meeting

Iain Turner, Transport Planner, Nottingham City Council updated the Forum and gave a presentation. The following information was highlighted:

a)  The e -scooter trial had been launched in October 2020 and was a Department for Transport DfT response to Covid which seen as opportunity to launch this and seeing how mode of transport would work.

b)  There are 40 local areas trailing the scooters and over the past 11 months they have proved to be very popular. Originally the pilot scheme started with 50 scooters which has now increased to 750. The current usage was approximately 5000 per day.

c)  Approximately 35,000 members have signed up to the app, with regular use of scooter equating to 3,500 every day. Fuel crisis saw leap in use and the rides per day reached 1600 people signed up in 3 days and rides per day reached over 6000.

d)  There have been a number of issues associated with e-scooters as follows:

E scooter parking has been an issue (with scooters being left incorrectly and parking radii being too wide) Marked parking bays were reverted to and parking radii were shrunk. Still a work in progress and reviews are underway as scooters are being parked in the vicinity of parking spot but not in proper bay.

Pavement Riding has been problematic and fundamentally mean e-scooters are not being ridden correctly. Partly due to the increase in usage and there have been concerns for the safety of pavement users. 

Private e-scooter usage currently working with Police and Trading Standards so that those purchasing private e-scooters are informed that they can only legally use their scooters on private land.

Maintenance of e-scooters and maintenance checks have increased. Also a lot of scooters undergo checks by e-scooter patrollers and these were showing as not active as they were waiting to be picked up and looked at.

Rider Conduct

Enforcement – stricter measures for rider conduct. 3 strike disciplinary process in place whereby any incorrect conduct would see an initial warning, followed by a 1 week ban and then the 3^rd strike would be a permanent ban from the scheme.

e)  A £7.50 flat fee was introduced for any scooters found abandoned outside of a parking spot and there had been an increase in communications within the app giving topical warnings and messages with regards to safety. E-scooter patrols launched in March 2021– to target hotspots and routes of high usage of scooters on pavement. There had also been an expansion of areas of Geo-fence – e.g the canal, the area around Nottingham College and the parks and city centre are slow-go (limited to 8 kph) or no go zones

Next steps:

f)  The Council needs to imminently decide if extension to scheme it required. DfT would be exploring the legalisation process around October 2022 at the earliest. However, this could potentially would create a legal black hole for the Council.

g)  Other improvements to the scheme had been considered and they included mandatory training and  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4.

With the evaluation of the Nottingham scheme soon to conducted, it was considered that the establishment of an E-scooter sub group would be beneficial in preparation of the LAF.

ACTION: That an e-scooter sub group be formed comprising of Nigel Sarsfield and Chris Thompson with additional people co-opted to the group following discussions with the Chair of the Forum. This should include at least one person who was a user of the Nottingham e-scooter scheme.

No further discussion was needed as the Chair had resolved an issue that had been highlighted outside of the forum.

Liz Cordle gave a brief update on the activities of the Walking sub group. The following information was shared:

a)  Most recent walk, the Sneinton and St Ann’s Parks and Hills Walk has been published on the LAF webpage and the Walking in Nottingham webpage.

b)  The Inclosure Walk event took place on 20 September 2021 – very popular walk and was well attended. It is an annual event, normally held in the summer, but had to be postponed in 2020 due to Covid.

c)  Slow ways – there had not been capacity to do anything at the moment as resources had been focused on walk development

d)  Whilst there was not a full programme of walks there had been a number of new walkers but also some returning walkers and important that we ensure that they aware that the programme has resumed. The Age UK Health Walks have started again.

e)  Green social prescribing includes activities instead of medical prescribing that focused on mental health although this was not exclusive. Contact with the Chair of the Forum would be made to liaise with project manager of the green social prescribing scheme.

f)  With regards to having professionally designed and printed walk leaflets, it was noted that due to no dedicated budget, for the last couple of years, alternative ways of designing and promoting the walks have been used.

g)  Regarding the actions from the last meeting, Chris Thompson asked for an update on the promotion of the walks and any advice given by the Councils Comms and Marketing team. John Lee had not actioned this and will contact the team.

Margaret Knowles updated the forum and the following information was noted:

a)  Commented on 2 strategic docs the Greater Nottingham Blue-Green Infrastructure Strategy and on the Eastside SPD and the Greater Nottingham Strategy

b)  There have been a range of planning applications on which we have commented- ranging from safety of access to the loss of green belt and tress affecting the use of the bridleway

c)  Padstowe field – pre-application consulation is still ongoing but we will be submitting comments during the process.

a)  Chris Thompson commented Laura Dominguez had left the sub group and thanked her for all her work.

b)  Small amounts of work were being undertaken but since the closure of the archives due to Covid, research had been hindered.

The North-South Active Travelway (proposals) was an ambitious new project to create a flagship safe route across the city for all forms of active transport This would see an improvements and an extension from Sherwood through to the city centre and beyond to West Bridgford.

Should anyone want to get further information or would give any feedback on the plan they were encouraged to get involved and should email northsouthactivetravelway@gmail.com 

This would include walking, scooter and cycle routes into the city centre from Sherwood and cross city access was not as it should be. To move progressively towards becoming carbon neutral, it would be essential for work to be carried out to improve active travel

ACTION: Councillor Linda Wooding to provide an update to the LAF and share the travel plans of the island site of active transport to ensure that access is acceptable to users.

·  Update or the new Cycle Bridge to be presented at a future meeting

·  Update on the Planning White Paper – Councillor Wooding to provide written briefing

·  Living Streets - a representative be invited to engage and input into a future meeting

The date of the next meeting of the Local Access Forum: 12 January 2022

The date of the next meeting of the Local Access Forum: 12 January 2022