Agenda item

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’.

There were two members of the public registered to speak at the meeting.

1)     Nick Hall – Glastonbury Festival Traffic Management

2)    Eva Bryczkowski- Full Council meeting venue and Bus Services

The committee heard the public questions and the verbal responses from Somerset Council officers, and both members of the public were advised that they would receive a full written response within 5 days of the meeting.

The Chair welcomed two public speakers to the meeting. The speakers presented their questions which had been submitted and printed alongside the agenda in advance of the meeting(in italic below) and the officer responses(in bold below) were read out to the committeeas follows: 

PQT 1 Nick Hall 

Q1 

Good morning – my name is Nick Hall. I am a Pilton Parish Councillor. Today, I am speaking in a personal capacity about Glastonbury Festival Traffic Management  

As you may recall from when I spoke in January, some members of our community, including myself, have raised a number of issues with the management of traffic associated with the Festival.  

Most of those issues have not been addressed by the Festival operating company Glastonbury Festival Events Ltd (GFEL). Hence we are relying on Somerset Council to encourage GFEL to engage.  

In recent years there hasn’t been direct contact between our community and the Somerset Council’s traffic management team. Mr O’Dowd-Jones’ commitment to have that team come and speak to our community is much appreciated. We need to progress this meeting to ensure we can have an impact on this year’s Festival.  

Somerset Council officerresponse: 

As detailed at the scrutiny committee when this was last raised; Somerset Council Traffic Management team are in regular dialogue throughout the year with the Glastonbury festival off-site traffic management team to discuss and agree the festivals traffic management plan. Following every festival, an off-site traffic de-brief meeting is held to ensure that any learning is captured, and improvements incorporated for future years events.   The community are free to contact the Council’s traffic management events team at eventstm@somerset.gov.uk if they have any concerns regarding the festivals traffic management plan.   To date, and following our previous response, Somerset Council have not received any contact from the Parish Council with regards to any concerns regarding the traffic management plan.  Somerset Council are also aware that GFEL continue to engage with the local community by holding regular meetings with local Parish Councils and also have dialogue with individual residents on numerous matters with the village liaison team who are available for one to one meetings.   

There is however a meeting between Pilton Parish Council and the Glastonbury festival off-site team on the 24th April where the Somerset Council traffic management team will also be present.  Any concerns that the Parish Council have can then be discussed with all parties concerned.  At this time, we believe that the plan reflects the best options for the majority of the village and the requirements of the festival and but are happy to take on any further view points so long as the majority of the community as represented by the Parish Council are in agreement.     

Q2 

I still haven’t heard back from the traffic management events team on the issues of:  

·           Temporary Traffic Restrictions Orders and the insufficient consultation on public roads and footpaths.  

GFEL have had two meetings with the Parish Council and understand this issue has not been raised.  For information, the TTRO’s are in the process of being finalised, taking on board any learning from 2023 ,and will be advertised in the next few weeks.   

·         Potholes and large-scale road degradation  

Please report any potholes and/or concerns about the road surface to Report a problem on the road (somerset.gov.uk).  Where you believe the festival may have a detrimental impact on the highway please identifythese area by providing a map and what three word locations and names of the highway/roads in question and we can take the issue up with GFEL.   

·         Impact of offsite events/campsites  

We will review the offsite events/campsites with the Glastonbury festival off-site team but many of these do not require permission.  We will monitor any issues that arise during the festival but have not had any previous notifications from a traffic/highways perspective.     

·         Reducing the traffic through Pilton village.  

We are aware that the traffic through Pilton village has been significantly reduced over recent years and that only essential and residential traffic is now being routed through the village into the Green car park.  Access is facilitated through manned gates and is only available for those with the correct passes. The Glastonbury festival off site team has been working very closely with the Parish Council as the community representatives on this matter.   

Two other questions that I raised in my speech in January were not answered:    

·         Is there an intention to create a publicly available de-brief report on Glastonbury Festival highways and traffic issues?  

Following every festival, a de-brief meeting is held with Parish Council and any learning is fed into the wider off-site traffic de-brief meeting, led by GFEL that includes Somerset Council, Police, other agencies, contractors and Village liaison team to ensure that any improvements are incorporated for future years events.  All learning from the previous Festival is discussed and improvements suggested and undertaken where appropriate or required. This meeting is chaired by GFEL and the minutes are confidential and not open for the public.  On this basis there will not be a public debrief report, as the Traffic Management plan belongs to Glastonbury festival and a de-brief report is not required as part of the licensing agreement.      

·         Regarding the Strategic Traffic Management Plan (STMP)  - condition of Planning Approval 2022/2458/FUL. The applicant has now submitted this STMP for approval. I have some reservations – it doesn’t address air quality along the routes and doesn’t assess the risks to non-car users. However my biggest concern is that a very large area around the Festival site is ‘controlled’ by GFEL (in conjunction with Somerset Council and the Police) by a Traffic Management Plan (TMP) that is not publicly available. Would it be possible to make available a public version of this TMP?  

There is a high-level Traffic Management plan which is publicly available.  The detailed plan, which is owned by GFEL, is not available publicly for a number of reasons ** but it does work well and has been tried and tested over numerous years with GFEL and Somerset Council working together. Again, if there are any specific issues that you believe require addressing please raise them through the Parish Council or the Traffic Management Events team.   

** note.. this is on both security and commercial grounds.  

PQT 2Eva Bryczkowski 

TURN WORDS INTO ACTION NOW  

Holding full council meetings at Canalside Conference Centre is totally non environmentally friendly.?  

For example, from Glastonbury, where there are no trains, the 75 bus to Bridgwater is every hour.  

I can catch the bus to Bridgwater for free with my bus pass. But Canalside Conference Centre is not held in the centre of town, and is awkward to get to.  

So I drive, spend money on petrol, (councillors/officers get petrol expenses), this adds to extra cars on the road, carbon emissions, and polluting the environment.?  

Surely a more environmentally friendly place can be found by the council?  

I generally prefer to turn up in person because it's nice to get to know councillors, and I learn a lot from this. I don't mind paying for petrol for that reason alone.  

But what about people who are poorer than me?  

Also, as is my democratic right, I believe in turning up to support lobbies when appropriate:?  

Q1 

Councillors and officers, can you immediately, as soon as possible, research more suitable and environmentally friendly places, where people can catch buses to them, avoiding carbon emissions?  

Thank you for your question and constructive challenge on the Council’s use of the Canalside Conference Centre, Bridgwater, for its Full Council meetings.  

In line with legislative requirements the Full Council meetings need to be held in a venue that can accommodate the Council’s 110 elected members, senior officers and members of the public. This means a venue that can accommodate about 140 people, has sufficient car parking, can be accessed using public transport and has sufficient broadband and audio visual capabilities to support live streaming of the meetings for anyone wanting to observe or participate remotely. These requirements cannot currently be met by any of the Council’s office accommodation across Somerset and therefore the Council has to use external venues. Analysis of available venues with the Council’s requirements has meant the following potential venues for Full Council meetings:  

Canalside Conference Centre, Bridgwater  

Westland Centre, Yeovil  

Haynes Motor Museum, Sparkford  

All of these can have different challenges for members of the public depending on where they live in Somerset when using public transport to get to the meeting venue.  

The Council continues to explore other potential venues including some in the Taunton area due to its central location within Somerset.  

Q2 

Somerset is a predominantly rural area. The council is, I understand, subsidising some bus services. For me to get to Musgrove Park for an early appointment, the 29 bus leaves every two hours from my bus stop on the outskirts of Glastonbury.?  

Then I need to change at Glastonbury town hall.?In the centre of Taunton I need to change again, and get on the number 22 bus to Musgrove Park hospital.?For an early appointment at 9am it is impossible to go by bus. Bus drivers told me that since the other bus repair sites have gone, if a light bulb goes or gearbox needs repairing, the bus needs to go to Wells anyway to get it sorted. Thus passengers miss whatever appointments they have in Taunton.?The 29 bus used to go all the way from Wells to Musgrove Park, and the college.??  

Councillors,?if you are still going to subsidise certain bus routes, and be less Taunton centric, please consider influencing First Bus, or other companies, get them to use common sense and have the 29 bus go back to starting from Wells and going all the way to Taunton, particularly Musgrove Park hospital.  

Please will you subsidise this as soon as you are able to?  

The current 29 bus service operates between Glastonbury, Windmill Hill and Taunton. However, from 15 April 2024 this service is being re-numbered 374 and most journeys will operate between Bristol via Wells, Glastonbury and Street to Taunton providing a through service for passengers living north of Glastonbury. The times of journeys will remain similar to those currently operating with the first arrival in Taunton town centre at 0850 and the last departure from Taunton at 1722 Mondays to Fridays. The section of route between Glastonbury and Taunton is fully subsidised by Somerset Council and has been for many years.   

For connections onto Musgrove Park Hospital it is necessary to change buses and use the Taunton Park & Ride service which sets down and picks up passengers directly outside the main entrance to the  Hospital. There are no other daytime bus services to/from Taunton which serve the Hospital site and from the 29 it is possible to alight outside the Market House in Taunton Parade and catch the Taunton Park & Ride service from the same bus stop.  

Q3 

Regarding the cost-of-living crisis, I presume councillors wish to avoid incurring extra expenses being loaded onto less well-off Somerset residents?  

When I, or anybody else in a similar position, needed to get to Musgrove for an early appointment, which could not be changed, I had to use Community Transport.?  

This cost me £28 cash before petrol prices went up, when I had downbeat nystagmus, so couldn't drive. If outpatients are kept in longer than two hours, the price doubles, thus costing £56.  

a) If you really care about especially poorer Somerset residents, will you please consider subsidising the 29 bus to arrive in time for early appointments?  

This is not a divide and rule situation, other small places and towns matter too. But catching?three! buses from Wells to Musgrove Park is ridiculous and needs to be rectified if you really care about the environment.?  

b) Some local authorities are taking private bus companies back into public ownership.?  

Will you start researching how to do this, bring your findings back to the Climate and Place Scrutiny Committee, and propose this option to full council as soon as possible please? Otherwise, all the sentiments expressed towards poorer people, and about environmental issues are only just words.  

And your promises will be merely aspirations, unless they are fulfilled, in order to avoid the environmental catastrophe that is already happening.?   

There are currently no plans to provide earlier journeys on service 29 (soon be re-numbered 374). The service is timed to allow passengers including students attending the two Further Education Colleges in Taunton to arrive in Taunton before 0900 and to return after 1700 in the evening with a daytime frequency of roughly every two hours during the day. This service is vital in providing links to Taunton, Street, Glastonbury and Wells and will now provide a new link to Bristol, but patronage on the section of route between Street and Taunton is low hence the need for a significant subsidy in order to maintain this element of the service.    

Somerset Council has an Enhanced Partnership in place involving all bus operators in the County and we have no plans to bring private bus companies into public ownership. 

The Chair thanked both members of the public for their questions and the officer responses that had been provided, and there were no further comments from any members of the committee.