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Agenda and draft minutes

Venue: This meeting is being held remotely; to view the meeting, please click here.

Contact: Anoushka Clayton-Walshe
02087266000 x62537  Email: anoushka.clayton-walshe@croydon.gov.uk

Items
No. Item

12/20

Appointment of Chair and Vice-Chair

To appoint a Chair and Vice-Chair for the Public Transport Liaison Panel for the 2020/21 municipal year.

Minutes:

Councillor Degrads nominated and Charles King (ESTC) seconded the motion to appoint Councillor Muhammad Ali as Chair for the remainder of the 2020/21 municipal year.

 

Councillor Muhammad Ali nominated and Charles King (ESTC) seconded the motion to appoint Councillor Nina Degrads as Vice-Chair for the remainder of the 2020/21 municipal year.

13/20

Introductions

To invite all attendees to introduce themselves.

Minutes:

The Chair welcomed everyone to the meeting and asked all those present to introduce themselves.

 

The Chair invited everyone to participate in a one-minute silence in honour of Sergeant Matt Retana who lost his life in Croydon Custody Centre last week.

14/20

Disclosures of interests

In accordance with the Council’s Code of Conduct and the statutory provisions of the Localism Act, Members and co-opted Members of the Council are reminded that it is a requirement to register disclosable pecuniary interests (DPIs) and gifts and hospitality to the value of which exceeds £50 or multiple gifts and/or instances of hospitality with a cumulative value of £50 or more when received from a single donor within a rolling twelve month period. In addition, Members and co-opted Members are reminded that unless their disclosable pecuniary interest is registered on the register of interests or is the subject of a pending notification to the Monitoring Officer, they are required to disclose those disclosable pecuniary interests at the meeting. This should be done by completing the Disclosure of Interest form and handing it to the Democratic Services representative at the start of the meeting. The Chair will then invite Members to make their disclosure orally at the commencement of Agenda item 3. Completed disclosure forms will be provided to the Monitoring Officer for inclusion on the Register of Members’ Interests.

 

Minutes:

There were none.

15/20

Minutes of the previous meeting pdf icon PDF 413 KB

To approve the minutes of the meeting held on 11 February 2020 as an accurate record.

Minutes:

The ESTC representative noted that there were some errors recording the street names and bus numbers, however the subject matter did capture the sentiment of what was said.

 

In response to the ESTC representative asking for an update on the bus route to Kenley, the Chair stated that this would be addressed on agenda Item 5.

 

The minutes of the meeting held on 11 February 2020 were agreed as an accurate record.

 

16/20

Buses

a)    TfL response to Covid (TfL – Michelle Wildish)

 

 

b)   X26 Bus to serve Waddon (TfL – Michelle Wildish)

 

 

c)    The replacement of Selsdon Road Rail Bridge and the effect on bus services 403 and 412 (TfL – Michelle Wildish)

Minutes:

a)    TfL response to Covid (TfL – Michelle Wildish)

 

The TfL representative presented slides on the TfL response to Covid, which were shared with the Panel after the meeting.

 

This presentation outlined the severity of the impacts, including loss of life of colleagues, and how service delivery would be effected going forward, particularly from a financial position due to the loss of income. The presentation covered the challenges of the huge drop in passenger numbers, the next steps to encourage people to return to public transport and TfL’s work to banner consistent, up to date and clear safety messaging.

 

The TfL representative told the Panel that for any further information on these subjects they should visit their website.

 

School Services

 

The TfL representative said they were working with schools and the DfE to help match capacity and demand and were working hard to ensure children were getting to school on time. There were designated non-schools services for adults who were unable to retime their journeys, which supported social distancing and safeguarding measures. There were also other initiatives to promote other modes of travel for students to take to school. The feedback had been positive and there was constant monitoring of how the network was operating to try and to move capacity to high demand areas.

 

11-15 and 16+ Zip Oyster travel

 

The TfL representative stated that under 18 free travel remained valid for all school children, but the government has asked TfL to temporarily suspend free travel for 11-17 year olds as part of our funding agreement with them. TfL were discussing the implementation of this with the Government and other boroughs. This change would bring a large administrative task for TfL and the local authority.

 

The London Travel Watch (LTW) representative stated that London Councils had concerns about withdrawing the concessions and were working on counter action against the withdrawal; he asked whether Croydon Council could follow a similar resolution to other London boroughs, like Lambeth, by supporting child poverty action campaigns to stop the move and help low-income family children. The withdrawal would particularly effect Croydon’s demographic.

 

The Chair stated that there would be a significant number of children in the borough effected by the decision to withdraw, at approx. 90,000 passes. Withdrawing the Zipcard would make life hard for many families, particularly in the midst of Covid financial pressures, whilst trying to encourage people to use public transport.

 

The TfL representative stated that they could recommend and provide a contact for anyone who wanted to write a letter to the government to support retaining the current zip card arrangements, adding that the decision was ultimately theirs.

 

The ESTC representative stated that the system needed to be further checked because if withdrawn, the cost of a pupil travelling to school over 3 miles transfers to that borough. The TfL representative stated that free journeys to school or college were over 2 miles for those aged between 10-17 years. This was less distance if the young person had  ...  view the full minutes text for item 16/20

17/20

Trains

a)    Report on the GTR Passenger Benefit proposals for Croydon Stations (GTR – Yvonne Leslie)

 

 

b)   GTR plans for encouraging people back to Rail (GTR – Yvonne Leslie)

Minutes:

a)    Report on the GTR Passenger Benefit proposals for Croydon Stations (GTR – Yvonne Leslie)

 

The GTR representative presented slides on the Passenger Benefit Fund (PBF), which were shared with the Panel after the meeting.  This presentation outlined the programme and how it was developed through resident feedback and suggestions. There was a fund allocation per station and it had been broadly decided what was planned at most of those sites. Projects were underway pre-Covid, however they had to stop for much of the summer but now had resumed.

 

The lists of planned work could be found on the following link:

www.southernrailway.com/about-us/our-commitments/improving-your-stations

 

The following was discussed:

 

In response to the Chair asking if West Croydon Station would see any improvements form this scheme, The GTR representative stated that West Croydon Station was not included in the programme. The Fund was for GTR managed stations or stations with Thameslink services. The other operator stations had a longer approval rating process.

 

Councillor Ben-Hassel stated that it was agreed in Scrutiny Streets, Environment & Homes  Sub-Committee that there would be a discussion between GTR and the council for ideas on pooling funding to insure benefits were driven towards outcomes with impact, opposed to smaller changes which did not improve the lives of passengers. She raised that the Transport department had difficulty contacting GTR and now the decisions had already been made and an opportunity was missed, where council and ward councillor knowledge of the users and areas could have been utilised. A mosaic would be a nice addition to a station, however things could have been identified with more impact, such as a second entrance at Norbury onto London Road. In response to the GTR representative stating that she would check with the project manager but a second entrance was not feasible in all areas, Councillor Ben-Hassel said that some of these ideas would have been feasible had the funds been pooled. The Chair stated that the PBF could have been spread to be spent on more substantive changes on a number of sites, particularly to improvements to mobility infrastructure, which would make a huge difference to people’s lives.

 

The ESTC representative stated the DfT refused to introduce the Oyster service at Reigate, which wold have benefitted far more people than some of the planned improvements listed in the presentation.

The Head of Transport expressed frustration over the missed opportunity of some improvements, specifically the Norbury second entrance. The GTR representative explained that The PBF had been directed at projects which did not require any ongoing funding. The Planning and Strategic Transport Officer spent years trying to give GTR capital funding to open the entrance onto London Road, but the push back was the revenue cost associated, but that cost would shrink as they moved closer towards the end of the franchise period. The council later reiterated the request to pool money where they thought GTR were able to and make a noticeable difference to passenger experience, which was what the PBF  ...  view the full minutes text for item 17/20

18/20

Trams

a)    Update from London Trams on proposed improvements to the trams to increase capacity including extra platform at Elmers End (TfL – Michelle Wildish)

Minutes:

a)    Update from London Trams on proposed improvements to the trams to increase capacity including extra platform at Elmers End (TfL – Michelle Wildish)

 

The London Trams representative stated that many projects were on hold during this time across TfL because of the financial situation, and paused until there was an outcome settlement from the DfT. For Elmers End, there had been no progress with the project since the last meeting but the scheme was still live in case funds became available to proceed.

 

The London Trams representative informed the Panel about an incident of young people vandalising the tramline by laying concrete on the track. The perpetrators had been identified as students not from an LBC school. London Trams were in discussion with the BTP and wanted action taken against them, and as a minimum London Trams hoped they could pick up this incident with the school. This incident occurred close to the Phipps Bridge area, where a similar circumstances caused a tram derailment in 2019. This sort of vandalism activity was difficult to tackle.

19/20

Any other business

To consider any other business at the Chair’s discretion.

Minutes:

There was none.

20/20

Items for next meeting

To suggest items to be discussed at the next meeting of the panel.

Minutes:

The Chair asked the Panel to inform the Clerk of any topics they would like to be discussed at the next meeting before 19 January 2021.

21/20

Dates of future meetings

The date of the next meeting would be 9 February 2021.

Minutes:

The next meeting of the Panel was scheduled for Tuesday 9 February 2021.