We note with interest the announcement of the details of the membership of the Sustainable Transport Taskforce. Whilst we understand that there might be a desire for a body such as this to be ‘independent’, we believe that elected members of the Council, specifically for the areas affected by the implementation of recent decisions by the local authority, could have played a sensible and valuable part in the work of this group. If this taskforce is to be genuinely independent then we would expect all representatives of political parties at the borough council to play no part in its meetings and trust that assurance can be given. We look forward to learning more around the overall remit and governance of the group and to reading about its conclusions in due course.
It is a pity there was little or no dialogue on the composition of the taskforce with the wider membership of the Council. Why? The Labour administration bemoan the fact that they aren’t consulted on every detail about everything they might have an interest in by central government, yet the detail of this group is simply announced via a news release. That’s rather an affront to elected members who shouldn’t find out information of this nature via the media or communications with the media. Given the very active community interest in the focus of the taskforce, and the almost complete lack of communication when the active travel lanes were first introduced in the summer, the least we could have expected was for the Labour leadership of the Council to improve the way it makes announcements around this subject. There clearly remains room for improvement.
An opportunity has been missed to engage with two active community groups that have been set up in response to the introduction of the active travel lane schemes. In both Upton and Boughton, substantial numbers of people are energised by the subject and have important opinions to share based on their direct experiences. This would have been an opportunity to fully involve them in the consultation / review process and offer important assurances. It is a pity they haven’t been invited to join the taskforce. We would urge the Labour Administration to reconsider this situation.
