Agenda, decisions and draft minutes

To receive any apologies for absence.

Apologies were received from Councillor Graham Oakes.

To approve the minutes from the previous meeting.

RESOLVED that the minutes of the Planning and Transport Policy Sub-Committee held on 8 October 2025 be confirmed as a correct record.

To receive and note any declarations of interests in respect of any matters included on the agenda for consideration at this meeting.

(The other registrable interests of Councillors of Somerset Council, arising from membership of City, Town or Parish Councils and other Local Authorities will automatically be recorded in the minutes: City, Town & Parish Twin Hatters - Somerset Councillors 2023 )

Councillors present at the meeting declared the following personal interests in their capacity as a Councillor of a Town or Parish Council or any other Local Authority:-

The Chair to advise the Committee of any items on which members of the public have requested to speak and advise those members of the public present of the details of the Council’s public participation scheme.

For those members of the public who have submitted any questions or statements, please note, a three-minute time limit applies to each speaker and you will be asked to speak before Councillors debate the issue.

We are now live webcasting most of our committee meetings and you are welcome to view and listen to the discussion. The link to each webcast will be available on the meeting webpage, please see details under ‘click here to join online meeting’.

Public questions were received from:-

-       David Redgewell – Bus Service Improvement Plan Funding

-       Peter Travis – Local Transport Plan

-       Barry Childs – Bus Service Improvement Plan

-       Rosa Kell – Bus Routes

The questions and responses provided are attached to the minutes in Annex A.

To review the report on the Local Transport Plan  – Draft for consultation.

Having been duly proposed and seconded, the Planning and Transport Policy Sub-Committee RESOLVED:
 
To approve the draft Local Transport Plan (LTP) (as provided in Appendix 1) for the purposes of public consultation in Spring 2025. As part of the decision the Committee was asked to provide comments that it felt would be necessary prior to consultation. Following consultation, the LTP would be redrafted taking into account relevant comments from the public and interested groups; any changes that had been introduced by national government; and the results of the Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) which would occur whilst consultation was underway. The final draft would be brought forward for approval in late Autumn 2025.  
 
NB: The version before councillors was an unformatted and undesigned version. Once agreed, the attached Word version of the LTP would go for design with our Somerset Council designers – the designed version would be the version shared with the public.  
 
There were no budgetary concerns with the decision as all consultation would be resourced internally and the SEA was funded through a specific Department of Transport grant awarded two years ago.

The Service Manager for Transport Policy, Matthew Prince, introduced the report with an aid of a presentation. The report gave an overview of the draft Local Transport Policy.

The following points were raised:

-       Councillors were pleased to note that a good job had been done on the Local Transport Plan.

-       Councillors highlighted that the consultation period would be vital.

-       Councillors welcomed the draft report and how it linked into the Planning and Climate Change aspirations of Somerset Council.

-       Councillors asked for clarification on the season tourism and the criteria for deciding what locations were affected by the metric.

Councillor Bill Revans, proposed the recommendation as set out in the report, which was seconded by Councillor Richard Wilkins

Having been duly proposed and seconded, the Planning and Transport Policy Sub-Committee RESOLVED:
 

To approve the draft Local Transport Plan (LTP) (as provided in Appendix 1) for the purposes of public consultation in the spring of this year. As part of this decision the Committee was asked to provide any comments that it felt would be necessary prior to consultation. Following consultation, the LTP would be redrafted taking into account relevant comments from the public and interested groups; any changes that had been introduced by national government; and the results of the Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) which would occur whilst consultation was underway. The final draft would be brought forward for approval in late autumn.  
 
NB: The version before councillors was an unformatted and undesigned version. Once agreed, the attached word version of the LTP would go for design with our Somerset Council designers – the designed version would be the version shared with the public.  
 
There were no budgetary concerns with this decision as all consultation would be resourced internally and the SEA was funded through a specific Department for Transport grant awarded two years ago.

To review and discuss the report and appendices for the Bus Service Improvement Plan (BSIP) funding 25/26 and to vote on the recommendations.

Having been duly proposed and seconded, the Planning and Transport Policy Sub-Committee RESOLVED that:

1)The general funding themes set out in Appendix A, which broadly set out how the funding would be used to improve public bus service provision in the County.

2) Delegate authority to the Lead Member for Transport and Waste, in consultation with the Chief Finance Officer, to agree the final specific schemes to be funded within each funding theme. 

The Lead Member for Transport and Waste Services, Councillor Richard Wilkins, gave a verbal overview. He highlighted the learnings that had been made from the Taunton pilot which potentially looked at being rolled out county wide in the future. Councillor Richard Wilkins, then invited Natasha Bates, Service Manager for Transport, who went into further detail about the report with the aid of a presentation.

The following points were raised:

-       Councillors raised the need to monitor the impact of the raise in fares from £2 to £3 on usage of busses in Somerset. Natasha Bates confirmed that this was being monitored but it was too early to note the usage effects now.

-       Councillors welcomed the report and thanked officers for their work.

-       Councillors raised that officers speak to local members in Bridgwater and Yeovil to discuss important bus routes that could utilise the funding.  Nathasha Bates confirmed that this would happen and the detail of which would be ironed out.

-       Councillors raised that increased number of busses into Bridgwater preferably could be done quickly due to upcoming events in the area. Sam Mills confirmed that the changes were technology changes, that could be implemented quickly.

-       Councillors were pleased to note the unified timetable suggestion.

-       Councillors raised the importance of integrating the public transport network in Somerset to make public transport in the area easier to use.

The Chair used his discretion to allow a member of public to speak at this point giving clarity on the route prices for Taunton and raise the importance of reintroducing transfer tickets. The Chair asked Natasha Bates to raise the points to the operator.

Councillor Bill Revans proposed the recommendations as set out in the report which were seconded by Councillor Richard Wilkins.

Having been duly proposed and seconded, the Planning and Transport Policy Sub-Committee RESOLVED that:

1)The general funding themes set out in Appendix A which broadly sets out how the funding would be used to improve public bus service provision in the County.

2) Delegated authority be given to the Lead Member for Transport and Waste, in consultation with the Chief Finance Officer, to agree the final specific schemes to be funded within each funding theme.

To review and discuss the report and business case for Puriton Primary Single Class Expansion CIL Request and vote on the recommendations.

Having been duly proposed and seconded, the Planning and Transport Policy Sub-Committee RESOLVED to:

Approve the release of £558,000 CIL funding from Area North to Education for the purposes of expanding Puriton Primary School.

The Strategic Manager, Head of Education Places, Phil Curd, introduced the report. The report highlighted the cost of the expansion.

The following points were raised:

-       Councillors welcomed the report, the expansion and the work that had been done to bring this report forward.

Councillor Bill Revans proposed the recommendations which were seconded by Councillor Richard Wilkins

Having been duly proposed and seconded, the Planning and Transport Policy Sub-Committee RESOLVED to:

Approve the release of £558,000 CIL funding from Area North to Education for the purposes of expanding Puriton Primary School.

To review and discuss the report on the Local Development Scheme and to vote on the recommendations.

Having been duly proposed and seconded, the Planning and Transport Policy Sub-Committee RESOLVED to:

A) Approve the Local Development Scheme (Appendix 1) as the Council’s work programme for delivering the Development Plan; and 
 
B) In consultation with the Lead Member for Economic Development, Planning and Assets, delegated authority be given to the Head of Planning to agree any necessary final amendments prior to its publication.

The Principal Planning Officer, Laura Higgins, introduced the report and gave a verbal update which included an update on the Local Transport Plan and the scope of the plan.

The following points were raised:

-       Councillors asked for clarity on the Local Development Scheme and if it influenced the 5-year housing supply.

-       Councillors asked for clarity on the Somerset Council Development Plan and if Somerset Council were going to be tied under the government national development plan. Alison Blom-Cooper confirmed that Somerset would have a local development plan, but there may be national government policies to adhere to. Mike O’Dowd Jones added that the transport policy was taken into consideration with the development plan.

Councillor Richard Wilkins proposed the recommendations which were seconded by Councillor Bill Revans.

Having been duly proposed and seconded, the Planning and Transport Policy Sub-Committee RESOLVED to:

A) Approve the Local Development Scheme (Appendix 1) as the Council’s work programme for delivering the Development Plan; and 
 
B) In consultation with the Lead Member for Economic Development, Planning and Assets delegated authority was given to the Head of Planning to agree any necessary final amendments prior to its publication.

To note the Forward Plan.

Alison Blom- Cooper, Head of Planning, introduced the forward plan, it was noted that the Taunton Waterways Strategy and Guidance plan is to be added 8 April Committee.

Resolved – The Committee noted the forward plan.