Agenda and minutes

To confirm the minutes of the meeting held on 22 May 2025

The minutes of the meeting 22 May 2025 were agreed as a correct record and signed by the Chair.

To disclose any pecuniary, other registrable or non-registrable interests as set out in the adopted Code of Conduct. In making their disclosure councillors are asked to state the agenda item, the nature of the interest and any action they propose to take as part of their declaration.

If required, further advice should be sought from the Monitoring Officer in advance of the meeting.

There were no declarations of interest.

Representatives of town or parish councils and members of the public who live, work, or represent an organisation within the Dorset Council area are welcome to submit either 1 question or 1 statement for each meeting.  You are welcome to attend the meeting in person or via MS Teams to read out your question and to receive the response.   If you submit a statement for the committee this will be circulated to all members of the committee in advance of the meeting as a supplement to the agenda and appended to the minutes for the formal record but will not be read out at the meeting. The first 8 questions and the first 8 statements received from members of the public or organisations for each meeting will be accepted on a first come first served basis in accordance with the deadline set out below.  Further information read Public Participation - Dorset Council

All submissions must be emailed in full to [email protected]

by 8.30am on 22 September 2025

When submitting your question or statement please note that:

•         You can submit 1 question or 1 statement.

•         a question may include a short pre-amble to set the context.

•         It must be a single question and any sub-divided questions will not be permitted.

•         Each question will consist of no more than 450 words, and you will be given up to 3 minutes to present your question.

•         when submitting a question please indicate who the question is for (e.g., the name of the committee or Portfolio Holder)

•         Include your name, address, and contact details.  Only your name will be published but we may need your other details to contact you about your question or statement in advance of the meeting.

•         questions and statements received in line with the council’s rules for public participation will be published as a supplement to the agenda.

•         all questions, statements and responses will be published in full within the minutes of the meeting.

There was no public participation.

To receive questions submitted by councillors.  

Councillors can submit up to two valid questions at each meeting and sub divided questions count towards this total.   Questions and statements received will be published as a supplement to the agenda and all questions, statements and responses will be published in full within the minutes of the meeting. 

The submissions must be emailed in full to [email protected] by 8.30am on 22 September 2025 

Dorset Council Constitution – Procedure Rule 13

There were no questions from councillors.

To consider the report from the Strategic and Policy Team Manager

The portfolio holder for Place services introduced this item and set out the connections between all 3 papers that were discussed.

The Strategic and Policy Team Manager set out the Dorset and BCP joint Local Transport Plan 4 (LTP). The plans vision, priorities, phases of delivery and connected plans and strategies were described.

Following the presentation there was a discussion that covered several areas such as;

·       Cycle routes and the development of active travel ways with new housing developments.

·       Emissions of public transport especially buses

·       Funding and accessing grants and government funding

·       The integration of rural bus provision to contracting providers

·       The opportunities to collaborate with ward members.

·       The role of Community led initiatives

·       The potential of free bus travel for 16–18-year-olds and the impacts on education.

·       The parity of funding across Dorset and Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole (BCP) areas

·       The joint consultation with the Local Plan and its impacts on engagement levels

·       Access to tourism points and areas of interest

·       Age of population

·       Road safety and its role as a fundamental principle of the LTP

·       Rights of way and its role as supporting document and recognition of the difficulties and barriers of creating new ones.

·       The plans priorities and consideration to other transport issues such as journey times.

Recommendation

The Place and Resources Overview committee suggested to officers that objectives D and E be moved to the top of the priority list within the local transport plan, and the vision statement be amended to include references to increased road safety and reduced journey times for all users of the local transport network.

To consider the report from the Principal Transport Planner.

The Active Travel Infrastructure Plan was introduced by the Principal Transport Planner who shared the actions that had taken since the plan was last seen by the Place and Resources Committee. There was emphasis on how the routes and plan was developed drawing from an evidence-based approach.

The committee commended the officer on the effort and detail provided in the report and had a discussion that covered off the following areas;

·       The options of funding sources and the requirements to access higher levels of central government funding.

·       The importance of having a plan agreed and in place to ensure effective bidding for central government.

·       The limitations of the data around road safety and unreported incidents.

·       The fear of injury can be a deterrent to undertaking active travel.

·       The potential of accessing CIL and section 106 funding

·       Discussed specific route options including the barriers and impacts of changes made

·       Electric scooter use and their use in Dorset.

The Place and Resource Overview Committee unanimously supported the adopting of the Active Travel Infrastructure Plan.

To consider the report from the Transport Planner.

The report was introduced by the Transport Planner who set out the future direction of Electric vehicle infrastructure and how this strategy integrates with other transport policy.

The committee discussion covered off areas such as;

·       Electric Vehicle (EV) charge point usage currently and future need

·       The income generated from charging provision

·       The provision of home charging especially where people don’t have off street parking and the difference of cost between home and public charging

·       Funding opportunities from the public sector and matched funding from the private sector.

·       Off street charging solutions to fit the needs of different urban areas

·       Grid capacity as a limiting factor to the provision of charging.

The committee were unanimous in there support for the Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Strategy 2025-2028

To review the Place and Resources Overview Committee Work Programme.

To review the Cabinet Forward Plan.

The committee reviewed the work programme

To consider any items of business which the Chair has had prior notification and considers to be urgent pursuant to section 100B (4) b) of the Local Government Act 1972. The reason for the urgency shall be recorded in the minutes.

There were no urgent items.

To move the exclusion of the press and the public for the following item in view of the likely disclosure of exempt information within the meaning of paragraph x of schedule 12 A to the Local Government Act 1972 (as amended). The public and the press will be asked to leave the meeting whilst the item of business is considered.  

There are no exempt items scheduled for this meeting.

There was no exempt business.