FAQ

The Cottingley estate is a dense residential area in south west Leeds served by regular bus services. 

There is an opportunity to enhance the customer experience at this location, making it easier for people to access local bus services by providing better waiting facilities such as new and upgraded bus shelters and real-time travel information.

The proposals for this location are:

·  Improved bus stop locations with new lay-bys and footway provision to assist accessibility

·  Provision of new bus shelters with travel information at all bus stops

·  Improved informal pedestrian crossing facilities at bus stop locations to assist pedestrian accessibility; and

·  Improved loading provision around the local businesses in the centre of the estate

West Yorkshire Combined Authority, working in partnership with Leeds City Council, is responsible for delivering the scheme. The Combined Authority works with Local Authorities and businesses across West Yorkshire and York to create economic growth through large- and small-scale infrastructure projects such as this.

The total cost of the scheme is £664,000.

The Cottingley estate is a dense residential area served by regular bus services but there is an opportunity to enhance passengers’ customer experience at this location, making it easier for people to access local bus services by providing better waiting facilities such as new and upgraded bus shelters and real-time travel information. The scheme will also help create better loading opportunities for the local and small businesses in the centre of the estate.

The aims of the scheme are to:

·  Encourage more people to use public transport by improving the waiting environment  with new and upgraded bus shelters and enabling people to see real-time travel        information at all bus shelters

·  Provide enhanced and safer pedestrian routes to the transport interchange

·  Enable more effective bus movements through new lay-bys

·  Contribute to an overall improvement in air quality and environmental impacts in the district by encouraging more people to use the bus

Subject to approval, works will start on site in Summer 2020.

Detailed design will commence following this public engagement and is aimed to be completed in Spring 2020.

Following approval of the full business case plus costs for this project we expect to begin work on this scheme in Summer 2020.

In 2016 we started a conversation with people who live and work in Leeds about the future of transport in the city. We had more than 8,000 responses, with a clear message that improvements need to be made to public transport.

Several schemes were identified from this transport conversation and some small-scale engagement took place through the Leeds Community Committees. Since then, local ward members have reviewed the refined list of schemes located in their areas.

We are now at the next stage in developing this scheme and residents, businesses and the general public are now being given an opportunity to comment on these proposals.

From 24 February 2020 to 23 March 2020 we are running a public engagement and inviting comments and questions from the public. Your comments will help inform the current proposals and provide an opportunity to identify any issues that we are not aware of.

We welcome the opinions and feedback of anyone. Whether you travel by public transport, walk, drive, or cycle, are a business owner, or just travel through the area, your views, opinion and insight is valuable to us to shape our project. Please share the link [wwww.yourvoice.westyorks-ca.gov.uk/cottingleybus] with anyone you think would be interested in taking part. If you intend to submit a joint response on behalf of a group/organisation, please share the link with your colleagues/members so they can provide an individual response, should they wish to do so.

The consultation is open from Monday 24 February until Monday 23 March and a public drop-in session has been arranged on Tuesday 10 March at Cottingley Primary Academy, LS11 0HU from 3.30pm to 6.30pm

You can take part by visiting our website here to review all the latest information and find a link to a survey/feedback form to submit your views and/or you can visit us at a public drop-in session. You can also take part in the question and answer (Q&A) section of the page, if you have any questions not suitably answered by these FAQs. If you would like to submit your feedback by email, please do so to: yourvoice@westyorks-ca.gov.uk or in writing to: FREEPOST Consultation Team (WYCA).

Yes, we would welcome any group/organisational views on this scheme. Please make sure that you have permission to comment on behalf of your group/organisation.

Yes, please share the link to the project page with anyone you think would be interested in taking part. If you intend to submit a joint response on behalf of a group/organisation, please share the link so people can provide an individual response, should they wish to do so.

The scheme is being delivered by West Yorkshire Combined Authority with funding from the Connecting Leeds programme.

In December 2016, Transport Committee considered the submission of the Leeds Strategic Outline Case, which was a £270m package of measures to improve public transport in Leeds District. It included the £173.5m which had previously been identified for the NGT trolleybus project. The documentation was submitted to the Department for Transport (DfT) in December and is available at: https://www.westyorks-ca.gov.uk/all-news-and-blogs/news-archive/leeds-transport-strategy-submitted-to-department-for-transport/

Monies from Leeds City Council and the West Yorkshire Combined Authority of £8.800m and £0.966m respectively will increase the funding to £183.266m. The programme also includes private sector finance including expenditure on more environmentally friendly buses by bus operators bringing the total programme investment to over £270m.

Following consideration of the submission, the Department approved the programme on 21 April 2017. The main conditions of the grant from the DfT are that the funding is to be used for public transport improvements in Leeds which must be substantially complete by March 2021. More information about those transport improvements can be found at: https://www.leeds.gov.uk/parking-roads-and-travel/connecting-leeds-and-transforming-travel

This scheme has funding allocated to it as part of the Connecting Leeds programme and therefore the funding will not be able to be spent on any other proposals or scheme. If the Combined Authority does not accept the business case, then the scheme cannot go ahead, and the money put aside for this project will be reallocated elsewhere in the Connecting Leeds programme.

The West Yorkshire Combined Authority was formed in April 2014 to be the driving force for economic growth across the Kirklees, Bradford, Leeds, Calderdale and Wakefield districts and the City of York Council area.  The West Yorkshire Combined Authority brings together key decision-making powers into a single body.  To find out more visit: (External link)www.westyorks-ca.gov.uk (opens in a new page).

An Expression of Interest for funding to investigate locations to improve local waiting facilities and information provision was approved in 2017. This provided around £80,000 of funding to develop the project to the Outline Business Case stage (OBC).  The OBC develops preliminary designs, undertakes traffic modelling work to determine a preferred option and estimates scheme costs, risk etc.

The OBC was submitted to the Combined Authority’s assurance process in March 2019 and approved in May 2019.  The project is being developed to Full Business Case (FBC+) including costs which includes detailed design, public engagement.  The FBC+ is expected to be submitted to the assurance process in April 2020, where approval to tender for the works will be made.

As the works are within the existing public highway it will not be necessary to acquire land.

There is no on-street parking at this location currently. Part of the proposals include better loading opportunities for the businesses in the centre of the estate.

There will no changes to the bus routes currently serving this location.

Work on-site will not impact any bus routes.

The phasing of roadworks still needs to be planned. Nearer the time of construction local businesses and residents will be provided with more detail about what will happen and where, but overall disruption will be kept to a minimum.

It will not be necessary to carry out any roadworks at night.

In certain circumstances, compensation can be paid for loss of amenity and value of property through Part 1 of the Land Compensation Act 1973. Claims through Part 1 of this Act are valid after 12 months of the opening of the scheme.

Compensation is payable if it can be demonstrated that the highway improvements have negatively affected the value of land and buildings. Land and property owners would need to submit a ‘blight claim’ to the Council if they consider that the improvements have negatively impacted on the value of the land and buildings.

There will be no increase in noise levels as a result of the improvements.

No, as all the work is within the public highway, it is classed as permitted development granted to the Highway Authority under the Town and Country Planning Act. We can also use our powers under the Highways Act to do this work.

Bus users will benefit from these improvements through access to better real time information provision and enhanced waiting facilities, making it easier to access the local bus services. The general environment of the location will also be improved.

Non-bus users will benefit from these improvements in terms of enhanced and safer pedestrian routes within the estate, better loading opportunities for small business and increased quality of the general environment of the area.

Yes, the existing bus stops at this location will be upgraded.

There will be no additional bus stops provided within this project, but the existing stops will be upgraded.

No bus stops will be removed.

All bus routes in the area will continue to operate.

Your comments will help inform the current proposals and provide an opportunity to identify any issues that we are not aware of.

Updates will be provided to those who have registered to follow the project via www.yourvoice.westyorks-ca.gov.uk/cottingleybus and via press articles.