Image courtesy of Metro.
There are proposals to create a £2.5 billion tram scheme with two routes. The routes would be between Leeds and Bradford, and between Leeds and St James’s Hospital. You can comment on the scheme and for more information, click here. Consultation ends on the 30th September.
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Local authorities are required by UK law to obtain public consent for certain projects. Many employ a company called Commonplace to assist them in carrying out their consultations. Commonplace provides local authorities with websites on which they give information about their proposals. The websites also record people’s responses. But the company can do much more than this. According to its CEO Mike Saunders, by making the existence of a consultation known to those who will benefit from a proposal, the company is able to overwhelm opposition to whatever’s being proposed. (1)
This is done by targeting social media ads at groups who will support the local authority’s proposal. (2) (3) (4) Sometimes the ads are placed by Commonplace, sometimes they’re placed by the local authority, and sometimes no ads are placed. When ads are placed, who places them depends on the type of contract that was signed (there are three types). (5)
At the end of each consultation, people are asked by Commonplace if they want to know about other “Commonplaces” in their “area.” (6) People who say “Yes” have their email addresses added to a database of at least 200,000 people nationwide, known by Commonplace as its “Community Panel.” (7)
In Leeds, the council’s definition of “area” applies to a large part of the city. So when a Commonplace was launched at the end of January 2023, the council issued 19,000 emails to people across Leeds asking them to “Have Your Say,” even though its proposal affected only a relatively small section of road. (8) The council didn’t even ask for the postcodes of respondents. (9) It didn’t seem to care that the responses were from local people. And people hadn’t signed up to “Have Your Say.” They’d just signed up for information.
Asking people what they think, who will be unaffected by a scheme is, according to Commonplace, more likely to produce a positive response than asking people who will be affected. (10) It was probably by using a combination of the Community Panel and targeted social media ads, that helped Leeds City Council achieve a 63.3% positive response in its January 2023 consultation. (11)
Local authorities get access to the Community Panel when they sign a contract with Commonplace. Because the email addresses “belong” to Commonplace, the only way that local authorities can retain access to them, is by repeatedly renewing their contracts with Commonplace. (12) (13)
Commonplace states that its consultations get a 65% positive response “where previously there was vocal opposition.” (14) The company says much the same thing in numerous of its web pages. (15) (16) (17) (18) (19)
Local authorities which use Commonplace, and Commonplace itself, have committed several breaches of the Data Protection Act 2018. So far, nothing has been done about this.
References
(1) Extract from a speech given by Commonplace CEO Mike Saunders.
(2) A Commonplace webpage on targeted social media ads.
(3) Another Commonplace webpage on targeted social media ads.
(4) A further Commonplace webpage on targeted social media ads.
(5) Commonplace Contract Types
(6) Commonplace Preferences
(7) Commonplace’s Community Panel
(8) A660 Consultation Report Analysis
(9) Leeds City Council A660 Online Consultation January 2023
(10) Low Traffic Neighbourhoods Report
(11) LCC Deputation response 2 May 2023
(12) Commonplace Technical Overview
(13) Gary Bartlett’s email dated 28 April 2023
(14) Commonplace Statement to Parliament
(15) A Commonplace webpage stating it gets a 66% positive response rate
(16) A Commonplace webpage stating it gets a 66% positive response rate.
(17) A Commonplace webpage stating it gets a 65% positive response rate.
(18) A Commonplace webpage stating it gets a 70% positive response rate.
(19) A Commonplace web page stating it gets a 72% positive response rate.
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For the past few years, the council and Metro have been collaborating under the name “Connecting Leeds.” It’s like New Generation Transport, but with cycle lanes instead of trolleybuses. To fund the cycle lanes, they have money that was originally earmarked for the trolleybus scheme, plus money that the government has made available to local authorities to create cycle lanes.
The latest consultation1 is being carried out by a company called “Commonplace.” It proposes cycle lanes along the A660 from the junction of the A660 with Shaw Lane to Leeds University. The consultation runs from the 30th January to the 5th March.
In 2021, Commonplace won two awards in recognition of the huge number of responses it gets to its consultations in Leeds.2 They’ve said that the secret of their success in Leeds is to keep consulting the same database of 30,000 dedicated people.3
The current consultation can be completed by any of the 30,000 people on their database. They don’t have to be living near the A660.
A similar scheme was put forward in 2018, and it was rejected. It was rejected despite the fact that prior to it, Connecting Leeds held numerous meetings with interested groups from across Leeds, including two meetings with Leeds Civic Trust.
Commonplace consulting the same people over and over again, and Connecting Leeds having meetings with selected groups before Commonplace put their consultations together, risks creating consultations with “selection bias.”
Commonplace state that Connecting Leeds want to make “better use” of the space in front of the Arndale Centre. Who would object to something being made better use of? And when someone uses their initiative to drive down a side road, they describe it as “rat running.” But when Connecting Leeds direct drivers down side roads, Commonplace describe it as “re-routing.” But they’re effectively the same thing. As part of the consultation, Commonplace tell us about proposed infrastructure changes to reduce the number of accidents at points along the route. They tell us the number of accidents, but not their cause. So, it’s impossible to know if their solutions are the best ones. No mention is made of all the establishments located along the A660 which sell alcohol and how this contributes to the number of accidents.4 5 And Commonplace don’t mention that Connecting Leeds want to remove almost a metre of grass verge inbound adjacent to Woodhouse Moor in order to create a two metre wide segregated cycle lane. Instead they expect people to be eagle-eyed enough to spot this on the small scale drawings that are included with the consultation.6 In addition, Connecting Leeds want cycle lanes to run behind bus stops. This would effectively turn bus stops into traffic islands. Whilst the advantage of this is that bikes wouldn’t have to wait behind buses at bus stops, it would also make bus stops dangerous places for pedestrians. But Commonplace don’t mention this. And Connecting Leeds want to turn the outbound tarmac pavement across Woodhouse Moor into a cycle lane shared with pedestrians. Even though shared cycle tracks are considered by some to be dangerous, this is not mentioned by Commonplace. These are just a few examples from many of the use by Commonplace of biased language and the selective presentation of facts. This is known as “response bias.”
Commonplace state that it’s good practice when consulting to include a mixture of open and closed questions.7 But responses to their current consultation can be submitted by responding just to closed questions. In addition, they state that consultation forms should not include biased language. But their consultation questionnaire contains several examples of it.
The proposed changes affect two wards, one of which was former councillor Neil Walshaw’s ward of Headingley and Hyde Park. Neil Walshaw resigned from the council on the 13th January to enable him to join the Commonplace board.8 His resignation occurred just two weeks before the current consultation went live.
There are drop-ins about the proposals as follows:
References
Headingley Hill (image courtesy of LCC).
Leeds City Council wants to establish a cycle track from the suburbs to the university. They intend consulting on their proposals for the section from Shaw Lane to the university from the 30th January to the 5th March. You can see their proposals and comment on them here.
Where the A660 crosses Woodhouse Moor, the council proposes:
The proposed cycle tracks would be 2 metres wide, which is the minimum width required for a cycle lane. It’s hard to understand why the space required for the proposed cycle tracks across Woodhouse Moor would be at the expense of the existing park, when there would also be a 2 metres wide segregated cycle lane across Headingley Hill, with no loss of pavement or moving of wall to achieve this.
There will be four drop-in sessions as follows:
I’ve summarised the council’s proposals below. Any language describing the proposals as “better” is the council’s.
Section 1: A660 Otley Road from Alma Road to Shire Oak Road
Grid A
Grid B
Section 2: A660 Otley Road/Headingley Lane, St Michael’s Road junction
Grid C
Section 3: A660 Headingley Lane from Spring Road to Grosvenor Road
Section 4: A660 Headingley Lane/Woodhouse Lane, Victoria Road junction
Grid D
Section 5: A660 Woodhouse Lane, Hyde Park Road junction (Hyde Park Corner) to Cliff Road
Grid E
*A qualified arborist has carried out a complete arboricultural tree survey of the 73 trees along this section of the A660. The council state that where possible they have sought to avoid impacting any trees however, these plans would impact 11 semi-mature trees. Varieties impacted include Oak, Lime and Sycamore – two are rated good quality with the remaining nine rated low quality.
All these trees were found to have a mixture of issues, including squirrel damage, soil compaction, root disturbance, close proximity to a bus shelter, girdling roots, or in a general poor condition.
The council state that in order to improve the design of our streets and make them wider and safer, they need to put people first. To achieve this along the A660, and particularly at this section of road where there is a high footfall of school students, they state that they need to remove these trees. Relocating the trees would not be possible due to the issues listed above. However, the council’s policy is to replace every tree removed with a 3:1 semi-mature ratio.
Section 6: A660 Woodhouse Lane, Rampart Road to Clarendon Road
Grid F
Grid G
Section 7: A660 Woodhouse Lane from St Mark’s Street to St Mark’s Road
Grid H
Grid I
Section 8: Continuous crossings at side roads
Section 9: Proposed segregated cycle path
Proposed mass transit system (image courtesy of WYCA)
A Yorkshire Evening Post article was published today revealing more details of the proposed mass transit system. The article is based on a new report by West Yorkshire Combined Authority which states that the East Leeds, Bradford to Leeds and South Leeds to Dewsbury routes will be among the first to be built. Page 16 of the report states that the system will comprise a mixture of bendybuses and trams. It states that the bendybuses will carry 120 people and have seats for between 30 to 50 of these people. Page 16 also states that these technologies are “new” to West Yorkshire. The Yorkshire Evening Post article and (so far as I can see), no other media article mentions that bendybuses form part of the plan. Has WYCA forgotten one of the reasons the trolleybus inspector gave for rejecting the trolleybus? On page 634 of his report, he stated, “. . . it is likely that a significant number of passengers would have to stand on the trolley vehicles, particularly during the peak times, and this would act as a deterrent to their use and a potential safety risk on the articulated vehicles.” The proposed new system is supported by West Yorkshire’s mayor, Tracy Brabin, as well as the leaders of the five councils which make up West Yorkshire, including our own Councillor James Lewis.
Image courtesy of kecko.
The draft Leeds Safer Roads Vision Zero 2040 strategy is the council’s plan to improve road safety and eliminate road deaths and serious injuries in Leeds by 2040. They want to know what you think about Vision Zero and its objectives. To this end, they’re holding an online consultation exercise, a drop-in event and on online webinar. The drop-in event and webinar will take place as follows:
Drop-in event: Tuesday 22 March, 12pm – 5:30pm at Leeds Kirkgate Market, Vicar Lane LS2 7HY
Online webinar: Friday 25 March, 12pm – 1pm
The consultation exercise ends on Sunday 24th April.
A vehicle parked on the pavement.
From the 31st May onwards, local authorities will be able to issue £70 fixed penalty notices to anyone (a) parking on the pavement, (b) opening their car door in the path of an oncoming cyclist, (c) stopping in yellow box junctions, and (d) driving in a cycle lane.
You can read more about the forthcoming changes in this article by the online magazine Heart.
A tram in Manchester.
The government announced today that it is to scrap the leg of HS2 between Birmingham and Leeds. The government stated that what is to replace HS2 will be faster and deliverable ten years sooner than HS2. If replacing HS2 has such huge benefits, one can only guess as to why the leg of HS2 between Birmingham and Manchester hasn’t been scrapped too.
As a consolation to Leeds, the prime minister announced that the city will be given £200 million to start planning its own tram system – money which is presumably intended for consultants. You can read more on this here.
An artist’s impression of how Supertram might have looked.
According to an article published in today’s Mail on Sunday, ministers are expected to scrap the eastern leg of HS2, with the high-speed track no longer being laid from Birmingham to Leeds. As a consolation, Leeds is to get its own tram network.
The plans which are expected to appear in the government’s soon to be published integrated rail plan, have drawn criticism that the Prime Minister is abandoning a key part of his ‘levelling up’ agenda.
As well as the eastern leg change, there has been speculation that the Government may downgrade plans for a high-speed east-west line across the Pennines amid concerns over mounting costs.
Image courtesy of Metro.
In his October 2021 budget, Chancellor Rishi Sunak announced that West Yorkshire is to receive £830m to improve transport infrastructure.
West Yorkshire’s mayor, Tracy Brabin welcomed the announcement and said there was now the possibility that preparatory work could begin on a mass transit system for Leeds.
You can read more of what the mayor said in this Yorkshire Evening Post article.
And you can read the mayor’s reaction to the budget here.
