Strategic Planning, Sustainability and Transport Committee
7th February 2017
Urgent Update
Agenda Item 16
Maidstone Bus Station Options Appraisal
Summary
This urgent update proposes an amendment to the second recommendation set out in the item 16 report. With the amendment, the second recommendation would state (proposed change in italics):
“Instruct officers to undertake a study to investigate preferred options to improve bus interchange facilities within the borough with a view to incorporating future work on the Maidstone Town Centre Parking Strategy and Park and Ride Study, subject to future agreement from this committee”
Background
The Maidstone Bus Station report seeks to commence a scoping study to investigate preferred options to improve bus interchange facilities within the borough. The work aligns with Maidstone’s draft Local Plan, as well as the adopted Integrated Transport Strategy.
Consideration is also being given to the production of a parking strategy for Maidstone Town Centre. The Maidstone Town Centre Parking Strategy also aligns with the Integrated Transport Strategy, with Action P3 seeking to ‘optimise the level of parking space provision in the town centre’. This would allow for consideration of what measures might be introduced to encourage long-stay parking into the larger edge-of-centre car parks and to establish whether there is any scope for rationalisation of existing provision.
At the same time, work is also due to take place around future park and ride provision in Maidstone. This also aligns with the adopted Integrated Transport Strategy, which seeks ‘to undertake a full and independent review of Maidstone’s Park and Ride provision, [and] issue and act on recommendations by 2017’.
All three studies would address similar, cross-cutting themes and require specialist transport input. Accordingly, it is proposed to consider these matters concurrently. Whilst initial work would take place on the bus station options appraisal, it is proposed to bring a report to the 14th March 2017 committee providing further detail around the scope and content of the parking strategy and park and ride study. In the meantime, an amendment is proposed to the second recommendation of the Maidstone Bus station Options Appraisal report that would allow all three studies to be considered simultaneously.