Agenda of Extraordinary Transport and Infrastructure Advisory Committee Meeting

CONFLICT OF INTERESTS

What is a “Conflict of Interests” - A conflict of interests can be of two types:

Pecuniary - an interest that a person has in a matter because of a reasonable likelihood or expectation of appreciable financial gain or loss to the person or another person with whom the person is associated.

Non-pecuniary – a private or personal interest that a Council official has that does not amount to a pecuniary interest as defined in the Local Government Act (eg. A friendship, membership of an association, society or trade union or involvement or interest in an activity and may include an interest of a financial nature).

Remoteness – a person does not have a pecuniary interest in a matter if the interest is so remote or insignificant that it could not reasonably be regarded as likely to influence any decision the person might make in relation to a matter or if the interest is of a kind specified in Section 448 of the Local Government Act.

Who has a Pecuniary Interest? - a person has a pecuniary interest in a matter if the pecuniary interest is the interest of the person, or another person with whom the person is associated (see below).

Relatives, Partners - a person is taken to have a pecuniary interest in a matter if:

§ The person’s spouse or de facto partner or a relative of the person has a pecuniary interest in the matter, or

§ The person, or a nominee, partners or employer of the person, is a member of a company or other body that has a pecuniary interest in the matter.

N.B. “Relative”, in relation to a person means any of the following:

(a) the parent, grandparent, brother, sister, uncle, aunt, nephew, niece, lineal descends or adopted child of the person or of the person’s spouse;

(b) the spouse or de facto partners of the person or of a person referred to in paragraph (a)

No Interest in the Matter - however, a person is not taken to have a pecuniary interest in a matter:

§ If the person is unaware of the relevant pecuniary interest of the spouse, de facto partner, relative or company or other body, or

§ Just because the person is a member of, or is employed by, the Council.

§ Just because the person is a member of, or a delegate of the Council to, a company or other body that has a pecuniary interest in the matter provided that the person has no beneficial interest in any shares of the company or body.

Disclosure and participation in meetings

§ A Councillor or a member of a Council Committee who has a pecuniary interest in any matter with which the Council is concerned and who is present at a meeting of the Council or Committee at which the matter is being considered must disclose the nature of the interest to the meeting as soon as practicable.

§ The Councillor or member must not be present at, or in sight of, the meeting of the Council or Committee:

(a) at any time during which the matter is being considered or discussed by the Council or Committee, or

(b) at any time during which the Council or Committee is voting on any question in relation to the matter.

No Knowledge - a person does not breach this Clause if the person did not know and could not reasonably be expected to have known that the matter under consideration at the meeting was a matter in which he or she had a pecuniary interest.

Participation in Meetings Despite Pecuniary Interest (S 452 Act)

A Councillor is not prevented from taking part in the consideration or discussion of, or from voting on, any of the matters/questions detailed in Section 452 of the Local Government Act.

Non-pecuniary Interests - Must be disclosed in meetings.

There are a broad range of options available for managing conflicts & the option chosen will depend on an assessment of the circumstances of the matter, the nature of the interest and the significance of the issue being dealt with. Non-pecuniary conflicts of interests must be dealt with in at least one of the following ways:

§ It may be appropriate that no action be taken where the potential for conflict is minimal. However, Councillors should consider providing an explanation of why they consider a conflict does not exist.

§ Limit involvement if practical (eg. Participate in discussion but not in decision making or vice-versa). Care needs to be taken when exercising this option.

§ Remove the source of the conflict (eg. Relinquishing or divesting the personal interest that creates the conflict)

§ Have no involvement by absenting yourself from and not taking part in any debate or voting on the issue as if the provisions in S451 of the Local Government Act apply (particularly if you have a significant non-pecuniary interest)

RECORDING OF VOTING ON PLANNING MATTERS

Clause 375A of the Local Government Act 1993 – Recording of voting on planning matters

(1) In this section, planning decision means a decision made in the exercise of a function of a council under the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979:

(a) including a decision relating to a development application, an environmental planning instrument, a development control plan or a development contribution plan under that Act, but

(b) not including the making of an order under Division 2A of Part 6 of that Act.

(2) The general manager is required to keep a register containing, for each planning decision made at a meeting of the council or a council committee, the names of the councillors who supported the decision and the names of any councillors who opposed (or are taken to have opposed) the decision.

(3) For the purpose of maintaining the register, a division is required to be called whenever a motion for a planning decision is put at a meeting of the council or a council committee.

(4) Each decision recorded in the register is to be described in the register or identified in a manner that enables the description to be obtained from another publicly available document, and is to include the information required by the regulations.

(5) This section extends to a meeting that is closed to the public.

BYRON SHIRE COUNCIL

Staff Reports - Infrastructure Services 4.1

Staff Reports - Infrastructure Services

Report No. 4.1 Development of a Shire-wide Transport Strategy

Directorate: Infrastructure Services

Report Author: Daniel Strzina, Project Engineer

File No: I2018/1107

Theme: Community Infrastructure

Local Roads and Drainage

Summary:

The purpose of this report is to:

· Provide background information on the development of a Shire-wide Transport Strategy;

· Summarise the outcomes of the first TIAC workshop on the development of the Shire-wide Transport Strategy, held on 20 April 2018; and

· Identify any useful existing strategies developed by other Councils, regional bodies and other sources of information for TIAC to continue to workshop the development of the Shire-wide Transport Strategy.

RECOMMENDATION:

1. That the Committee review recommendations to Council for the following sections of a Shire-wide Transport Strategy:-

· Scope and context

· Vision

· Principles

· Issues and challenges

2. That the Committee develop recommendations to Council for the following sections of a Shire-wide Transport Strategy:-

· Targets and desired outcomes

· Key actions to achieve objectives

· Community and stakeholder engagement

Attachments:

1 Development of a Shire-wide Transport Strategy - TIAC Workshop 2 - Working Document - 22 June 2018, E2018/50848 , page 10⇩

Background

The previously considered reports referred to in the following pages contain information significant to the progression and development of a Shire-wide Transport Strategy. As such, they have been summarised in this section for reference and guidance moving forward.

Council, at its meeting of 10 October 2016, resolved in support of the 16 August 2016 Transport Advisory Committee (TrAC) recommendation as follows:-

Resolution 16-516

Report No. 5.1 Development of a Shire-wide Transport Strategy

File No: I2016/884

Committee Recommendation 5.1.1

1. That the Committee develop a Shire-wide Transport Strategy which includes:

a) CONTEXT to include consideration of:

· congestion

· high tourist numbers

· lack of local public transport connectivity and regional integration

· high carbon emissions

· safety

· high costs of running private vehicles

· road condition and the cost of maintenance

· demographics – (difficult for people who can’t drive or don’t have a licence)

· access - mobility

· lack of cycleway connectivity

· lack of connectivity in general

· poor location of services – making them more distant than they could otherwise be

· high growth area – need to plan for future

· transport costs to community from planning and commercial decisions

· impact of future technological and social developments

b) OBJECTIVES to include consideration of:

· reduce the need for and/or dependency on private motor vehicle trips

· improve public transport

· support community transport

· increase the bike network and/or use

· improve pedestrian and residential amenity

· support advocacy, partnerships and/or community involvement

· improve road user safety

· improve integration and regional connectivity

· support climate change adaptation and mitigation

· further defining and obtaining of these objectives will be the role of the proposed transport strategy

· support of each objective can be sought via relevant Council instruction through available mechanisms regarding any proposed and/or existing activity, all of which will be explored via development of the proposed transport strategy that will be guided by Council’s vision.

c) ACTIONS to include the consideration of:

· understanding user experience – feedback, surveys

· develop priorities from user feedback, eg improve user experience by means of improved bus shelters, safer road crossings, shorter travel times, for example

· develop measurement methods for baseline and future actions

· integrated land use planning

2. That a draft strategy commence with a review of relevant local, state and federal programs, plans and strategies in efforts to identify funding and partnership opportunities.

3. That Council note staff will apply by 9 September 2016 to meet the RMS Active Transport Funding deadline and it will include seeking 2017/18 funding for the revision of Council’s bike plan and PAMP. (Richardson/Hunter)

TIAC at its meeting on 15 March 2018 considered a report on Development of a Shire-wide Transport Strategy (File No: I2018/411) that sought to establish a process to move forward with to develop a Shire-wide Transport Strategy with reference to resolution 16-516 as the basis of the framework for the strategy. Committee recommendations were adopted by Council, who resolved as follows:

Resolution 18-251

Resolved that Council adopt the following Committee Recommendation(s):

Report No. 4.5 Development of a Shire-wide Transport Strategy

File No: I2018/411

Committee Recommendation 4.5.1

1. That the Committee have an extraordinary meeting in April 2018 to workshop the development of Shire-wide Transport Strategy.

2. That a report be prepared for TIAC that identify any useful existing strategies developed by other councils, regional bodies and other sources of information.

3. That the Committee members be encourage to research and share ideas (Richardson/Cameron)

At its extraordinary meeting on 20 April 2018, TIAC considered a report in accordance with point 2 of the above resolution (File No: I2018/685) and conducted a workshop on the development of a Shire-wide Transport Strategy. Committee recommendations were adopted by Council, who resolved as follows:

Resolution 18-305

Resolved that Council adopt the following Committee Recommendation(s):

Report No. 4.1 Development of a Shire-wide Transport Strategy

File No: I2018/685

Committee Recommendation 4.1.1

That Council note that the Committee develop recommendations to Council for the following sections of a Shire-wide Transport Strategy:

· Scope and context

· Vision

· Principles

· Issues and challenges

· Targets and desired outcomes

· Key actions to achieve objectives

· Community and stakeholder engagement (Richardson/Cameron)

Report

During the first Transport Strategy workshop on 20 April 2018, the following points were initially raised:

· The Shire-wide Transport Strategy will be an overarching, policy-level strategic document that will act at high level to guide how Council proceeds with funding.

· It will be a mechanism by which to support projects and initiatives.

· It will inform other Council plans and strategies.

· It will contain a hierarchy of principles, prioritised by the community.

· Community involvement will be critical to making this an integral document.

· A desired outcome is that it will become a consensus document; high quality data and research to ensure that it is effective in influencing Council.

A discussion was had regarding the potential to engage a consultant to undertake the preparation of the Shire-wide Transport Strategy. It was concluded that a more efficient and cost effective approach would be to workshop the subject matter so as to define the content prior to engaging a consultant.

As such, examples of existing local council Transport Strategies were tabled for analysis The Committee proceeded to workshop the deliverables outlined in Resolution 18-305. The outcomes of this process are detailed in the following section of this report.

Two strategies that were of interest due to the relevance of their content were Noosa’s Transport Strategy (2017) and Hobsons Bay’s Integrated Transport Strategy (2017).

Outcomes of the First Transport Strategy Workshop (For Review)

The following agreed outcomes are listed below and in the attached working document for review during the second Transport Strategy workshop. Italics indicate where sections or ideas have been directly referenced from the original documents with little or no amendment.

Scope and Context

1. Shire-wide.

2. Regional links.

3. Inform future transport use.

4. Write flexibility into strategy.

5. Consider technological change (drones, autonomous vehicles, electric vehicles, etc.).

6. Consider demographical change.

7. 40 year strategy.

8. Review frequency: 3-5 years?

Vision

An integrated, innovative and equitable transport system, providing a range of sustainable, efficient, accessible and safe ways for people and goods to reach their destination. (Hobsons Bay, 2017)

Principles

1. Encourage transport options that meet the needs of both locals and visitors. (Noosa, 2017)

2. Prioritise our focus on moving people and goods rather than moving cars. (Noosa, 2017)

3. Provide infrastructure and services that are designed to give priority to pedestrians, cyclists, scooters and public transport over private cars. (Noosa, 2017)

4. Improve the safety and amenity of pedestrians, cyclists and vulnerable road users in our transport infrastructure. (Noosa, 2017)

5. Address peak time traffic congestion by reducing traffic rather than increasing road capacity. (Noosa, 2017)

6. Take advantage of changes in transportation technology. (Noosa, 2017)

7. Align transport options and usage with Council’s Emission Reduction Strategy. (Noosa, 2017)

8. Design for, encourage and facilitate transport options that reduce the emissions produced by our community. (Noosa, 2017)

9. Recognise the need for transport options in rural areas and evoke a sense of equity within transport planning. (Noosa, 2017)

10. Integration – Strengthen connections between different forms of transport, land use and transport planning, and to regional and metropolitan networks. (Hobsons Bay, 2017)

11. Equity – Support a range of accessible and affordable transport options for all people, neighbourhoods and future generations. (Hobsons Bay, 2017)

12. Efficiency – Build a more reliable and effective transport system that supports skills development, business and employment growth and provides competitive alternatives to private car travel. (Hobsons Bay, 2017)

13. Encourage the use of ride sharing and car sharing services, as well as active transport and healthy transport options.

Challenges and Opportunities

1. Number of visitors. (Noosa, 2017)

2. Congestion at peak times. (Noosa, 2017)

3. Car dependence. (Noosa, 2017)

o Sedentary issue.

o Love affair with cars.

o Peak oil and associated financial, environmental and sociological costs.

o On demand transport.

4. Topography and climate. (Noosa, 2017)

5. Funding. (Noosa, 2017)

6. Shortfalls in services and infrastructure. (Noosa, 2017)

7. Public transport. (Hobsons Bay, 2017)

8. Regional, state and federal transport planning.

9. Demographics (large proportions of younger and older residents in Byron Shire).

10. Lack of population density due to the rural nature of Byron Shire.

Population Dispersal Discussion

It was highlighted during the workshop that the primary distributors in Byron Shire (Pacific Hwy running North-South and Bangalow/Lismore Rd running East-West) present opportunities to be taken advantage of in preparing the Shire-wide Transport Strategy.

Proposed Path Forward

1. Form a Transport Strategy Working Group to continue to workshop the subject matter with the goal of finalising recommendations to Council in accordance with Resolution 18-305.

2. Invite other skillsets and disciplines to focussed sessions (walking, cycling, public transport, etc.) to assist the Working Group in developing recommendations.

3. Continue to review and consider existing local council Transport Strategies for content and layout.

4. Prepare a document that shows connection into IP&R documents and other internal and external strategies.

Target Outcomes of the Second Transport Strategy Workshop (For Development)

The attached working document contains information from existing relevant local council Transport Strategies, collated for the purposes of workshopping the development of the following three sections of the Shire-wide Transport Strategy.

1. Targets and desired outcomes

a) Noosa Transport Strategy (2017, page 7).

b) Hobsons Bay Integrated Transport Plan (2017, page 24-35).

c) Newcastle Transport Strategy (2016, page 27).

d) Northern Rivers Regional Transport Plan (2013, page 44).

2. Key actions to achieve objectives

a) Noosa Transport Strategy (2017, page 12).

b) Hobsons Bay Integrated Transport Plan (2017, page 30, 36).

c) Newcastle Transport Strategy (2016, page 34-51).

3. Community and stakeholder engagement

a) Noosa Transport Strategy (2017, page 9).

b) Hobsons Bay Integrated Transport Plan (2017, page 16-17).

Financial Implications

There is no budget allocated to this project in 2017/18 but funding of $75,000 has been proposed for this project as part of the DRAFT 2018/19 budget. It should be noted that these funds will only be available from 1 July 2018.

Statutory and Policy Compliance Implications

There are no negative statutory and policy compliance implications associated with this report.

BYRON SHIRE COUNCIL

Staff Reports - Infrastructure Services 4.1 - Attachment 1

Development of a Shire Wide Transport Strategy

Working Document for TIAC Workshop 2

Outcomes of the First Transport Strategy Workshop (For Review)

The following agreed outcomes are listed for review during the second Transport Strategy workshop. Italics indicate where sections or ideas have been directly referenced from the original documents with little or no amendment.