Minutes of Meeting Held on 24 February 2015 4.30 Pm

Minutes of Meeting held on 24 February 2015 – 4.30 pm

Tyne & Wear Local Access Forum

Present: Liz Bray (Chair, LB) Victor Cadaxa (Vice-Chair, VC), Alisdair Buchan (AB), Kathy Atkinson (KA), Nigel Harrison (NH), Alison Blackburn (ABl)

In Attendance: Heather Evans, CTC (HE), Councillor Sheila Stephenson, South Tyneside Council (SS), Graeme Clark, North Tyneside Council (GC), Neil Frier, Gateshead Council (NF), John Bourn, Regional Transport Team (JB), Terry Welsh (LAF member)

Apologies: Simon Carey, Newcastle City Council (SC), Tim Ducker, Sunderland City Council (TD)

1. Welcome and Apologies

The chair welcomed everyone and asked those present to introduce themselves. Apologies for absence were noted.

2. Declarations of Interest

No declarations of interest were made.

3. Election of Officers 2015-16

Liz Bray was nominated for Chair and Victor Cadaxa was nominated for Vice Chair. There were no other nominations. Alisdair Buchan was thanked for being the Chair for the last year.

4. Minutes from meeting held on 25 November 2014

Regarding accessibility of meeting papers (page 1 of previous minutes), there was a discussion on how an accessible version could be provided for Alison Blackburn. Since ABl can not read braille this was not a suitable resolution. It was proposed that the Newcastle Disability Forum could be paid to provide a reader, to assist ABl. The funding for this would have to be approved by RoW officers, in line with the Terms of Reference for Resourcing the Forum (post-meeting note: this was approved in March 2015).

Regarding the Local Access Forum (page 4 of previous minutes, Any Other Business), John Bourn will update the website and the minutes will be placed on the website.

The remainder of the minutes were agreed as a correct record.

5. Matters Arising (unless listed on agenda below)

There were no further matters arising.

6. Access and Tourism

The chair welcomed Ted Liddle to give a presentation on access and tourism. TL explained that it concerned Sustainable Tourism – Routes and Trails in Northumberland. There are 15 national trails in England, with 12 million users annually.

Cycling has led to the creation of 650,000 jobs in Europe of which 524,000 are related to cycle tourism. 217 billion Euros are generated annually and the field employs more people than mining and quarrying. The Tour de France 2014 held in the UK attracted 4.8 million viewers for the live broadcast and £128 million revenue was generated.

For walking and cycling thinking locally, regionally and nationally is required. Access is required in all of these areas. This must be an access network – not merely rights of way. There are opportunities in ROWIPs, planning gain, reclamation and community initiatives.

66% of all visits to the natural environment are within 2 miles of home.

One example is the Alnwick area where tracks can be made into trails; disused railway lines offer great potential for walking, mountain biking and horse riding to both local inhabitants and visitors. Loops can be created and promoted on coastal sections. There is immense potential, but very little is available for public access at present. Achieving this is a challenge, as funding is needed to pay landowners for access.

There are many routes in Northumberland; 2 national trails are managed and 3 regional trails have a committee. There are many cycling areas in the county and also some long distance walking routes: the Pennine Way, Hadrian’s Wall Trail and St Cuthbert’s Way. There are the following long distance cycle routes: Pennine Cycleway, Hadrian’s Cycleway, Coast and Castles cycle route, Reivers cycle route, C2C cycle route and the Sandstone Way (under development). They are not well promoted.

Mountain biking involves 11.8 million owners in the UK of which 1.3 million ride regularly. The annual number of mountain biking visits to Scotland is 1,327,950. There are a limited number of expert riders and many novices resulting in a pyramid structure of experience levels.

The Dozen Dales is a proposed route which will link with the Sandstone Way. It is planned to consist of mountain bike and road bike routes which run in parallel. The Esk 2 Esk cycle route, Reivers cycle route by mountain bike, Borderlands cycle route and tour of Cheviots and Kielder by road bike are also under development.

The cost of implementing 6 new cycle routes is circa £250,000. Route management involves creating high quality routes, managing the experience, unlocking the potential and minimising the environmental impact. A route is not a product. Doing things differently is needed for a good outcome.

TL was thanked for giving the presentation.

7. A Regional Rights of Way Strategy for the North East

VC stated that the discussion of a strategy plan arose from a meeting with the director of Natural England in the North East. The situation regarding money available to fund this will not get any better. It is becoming increasingly difficult for Natural England to support access strategies without the availability of funding. A joint strategy from access forums would be very helpful – a collaborative effort by the 5 access forums in the North East. This would be directed to a number of agencies such as DEFRA. The primary objective would be to gain resources and develop a coherent strategy in the presentation of the argument to local and national agencies.

The guidelines we have are parameters. Some of the contents the strategy would require are: benefits to users, a vision statement, a set of aims and priorities for action over all of the first 3 years.

TL stated that his understanding was that the northern region had been selected to pilot this and, if successful, it would be rolled out to the rest of England.

VC responded that this is an outline plan. Most responses had been favourable with some others cautious about the scale. The chair of the regional LAFs, Robin Carr from Tees Valley Hartlepool had asked for a decision by the end of the month but this was considered impractical so the intention is to aim for a mid-March deadline.

The Chair suggested that this should be a collaborative effort by 5 local agencies, Natural England and access officers with a steering group to be set up including these.

VC stated that this was far too big a project for any one person to undertake on a voluntary basis, but one person would be needed to put the strategy together in the form of a coherent document. This could possibly be done by a student, if so they would need to be of postgraduate level.

Nigel Harrison stated that the idea of a consultant was not an appealing one. VC responded that the term consultant was not a particularly good one, but it would be ensured that the money spent was not wasted.

The chair stated that there was only 1 truly regional objective in the strategy – the North Pennine Bridleway, so maybe a national strategy was required.

TL stated that it was up to the 5 LAFs to implement the regional aspects.

ABl enquired whether local authorities could bid for heritage lottery funding for this scheme. VC responded that the first stage would be to get a document put together and once this had been achieved the possibility for funding could be explored.

AB asked whether receiving funding from the Health Service would be a possibility. VC responded that this would probably not be possible at a study level, but was potentially available once some potential health benefits had been identified.

The chair stated that VC and herself go along to the regional group and would like help to formulate a response from those present.

TL stated that we need to take this opportunity to move forward; there is some money available but a really good case has to be made for this.

8. Chair’s report – A Buchan

No report was given.

9. Officer Reports (previously circulated) including discussion and questions

Newcastle - Progress with ROWIP is as stated in the previous meeting.

Gateshead – The underground fire on Keelman’s Way was discussed on news media. The Environment Agency, Fire Brigade and Ryton Golf Club were all interested. The fire started with the burning of bracken. Traffic was diverted from Keelman’s Way due to the danger. Currently looking at containing the spread. The problem is getting the machinery in due to the location. Reports have been received from the Newburn side indicating that people had suffered irritation due to the smoke. The fire has burnt out in some areas. The Environment Agency were concerned about the water course but this is fine at present. The fire is contained in a fairly small area. The Golf Course had been burning some bushes but this resulted in material underneath catching alight which they had been unaware of.

South Tyneside – Concerning the obstruction on the B14 there has not been any digging over the last 5 weeks here but digging is continuing on the adjacent farmers fields. There is an old tip here with many bricks and bottles. People are selling bottles to order. A sign has been installed to warn the public of any holes or potholes. The area is being checked every week.

North Tyneside – Concerning the Broadway cycle track, an objection was received to the raised tables but the scheme has been passed and will go ahead. The Killingworth Village scheme has been completed. The Public Rights sub-committee final report will be given to the cabinet to sign off. Regarding legal orders the Holywell route has been dedicated as a Bridleway by the landowner to go ahead.

Sunderland – Apologies were received from Tim.

The chair thanked the officers for their reports which were available early.

10. Planning sub-Group Chair’s report – V Cadaxa

VC stated that it is not possible for Ann Porthouse to remain a member of the planning group. Terry has joined us and has done quite a bit of work in South Tyneside. A disability awareness session was held just prior to this meeting and we hope to make some progress in this area.

The JLAF had written to Newcastle City Council expressing the view that there were errors and omissions in site development guidance on access matters, making the guidance factually inaccurate. A response had been received from Tom Warburton at Newcastle City Council but this did not thoroughly answer our queries.

For Sunderland a reply was received from Brigit Phillipson, the local MP on the west side of the city. The Sustrans initiative on safer routes is being adopted.

In South Tyneside Terry had walked in some areas and found no major issues. There was a bad accident in Lizard Lane during the summer when a young rider was knocked off a horse. A meeting will be arranged with Chief Inspector John Heckells to discuss the incident. There is traffic calming in the area but the 20 mph restriction on part of the road seems to be ignored by some motorists. VC stated that the real concern was a contractor who had worked on the road and dumped some material there. Now we could look into whether the 20 mph restriction could be extended.

TL noted that the police and rescue services refer to incidents not accidents, as the latter term suggests culpability. There is no implication made as to the cause by the services when they use this terminology.

Kathy Atkinson stated that the verge on Lizard Lane is not very wide and could be made more level to give walkers access. She wrote a letter to the council about this matter 2 or 3 years ago but did not receive a response. The Chair stated that this will be picked up and reviewed at the next meeting.

11. A19 Corridor Rights of Way issues

VC commented on this corridor and stated that the Highways Agency were only interested in the 50 metres on each side of the road.

12. JLAF Visits programme for 2015

Please contact the Chair / Vice-Chair if you have any ideas on visits for 2015.

13. Any Other Business

KA stated that she had a newspaper clipping from 17th February claiming that the presenters of the TV programme Dragon’s Den had rejected the invention of a horn for cyclists with a volume of 140 decibels. However the product has been launched and is selling well. The volume level of the horn is a concern, especially since 1.2 million sales have been made this year. VC stated that the volume level seems to be way past any legal limits.

The planning application for the Marley Hill opencast scheme had been dismissed by Durham County Council.

14. Dates of Future Meetings

The date of the next meeting has not been decided at this stage. All attendees were thanked for coming to the meeting and contributing.

(Post-meeting note: the next meeting will be held on 23rd June)