Agenda item

The Committee considered a report of the Director of the Built Environment concerning the City Freight Strategy and the production of internal guidance on managing delivery and servicing in developments.

Detailed discussion ensued and a number of comments were made. Amongst other things, these included:- 

·         Whether any thought had been given to widening the scope of the guidance to include a means of engaging existing businesses and not just new ones;

·         The mitigation measures and strategies associated with improved traffic management needing to be more joined up, for example, ensuring that the hours of operation within the guidance accords with that of the Noise Strategy;

·         The guidance being perceived as a source of good practice and not just a tool for the use of planning officers;

·         Whilst the guidance represented a good start, the aspirations for improving traffic congestion needed to be more radical; and

·         Noting that a Freight Forum had been created and that its first meeting was due to take place on 3 March 2017. The Forum’s composition included representatives from businesses and its purpose would be to bring additional focus to the City Corporation’s aspirations for managing freight in the City and developing targets in order to drive initiatives forward. The Forum’s activities would be reported to the Committee in due course.

RESOLVED – that subject to the above-mentioned comments, the draft Delivery and Servicing Guidance and the proposed approach to negotiations, conditions and agreements as set out in the report be approved.