Results 7,201-7,220 of 9,814 for speaker:Steven Matthews

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (14 Feb 2024)

Steven Matthews: As amendment No. 14 is in my name, I will vacate the Chair and I ask Deputy Higgins to take over.

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (14 Feb 2024)

Steven Matthews: I move amendment No. 14: In page 30, between lines 30 and 31, to insert the following: “ “hierarchy of road users model” means design of roads and public spaces that prioritises in the following order, people walking and wheeling, people cycling, people using public transport, people using taxi and shared transport, people using private cars;”. This group of...

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (14 Feb 2024)

Steven Matthews: I thank the Minister of State. He is correct that we have seen the hierarchy of road users model included in many Government publications for many years. It is a recognised hierarchy. I have sought to introduce a definition of it and to apply it right the way down through the hierarchy of our planning system. My amendments, including amendment No. 144 and others, relate to the NPF,...

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (14 Feb 2024)

Steven Matthews: It is happening through the Department of Transport.

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (14 Feb 2024)

Steven Matthews: The DMURS is a good document and our plans generally adhere to it. However, if we look at some of the consents given for housing estates, there is talk about permeability but those estates do not necessarily provide optimum permeability. I have an amendment on this issue. Permeability to allow people to get to a sports field or shops might be included but not necessarily to get to...

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (14 Feb 2024)

Steven Matthews: Certain transport providers in the country claim their model is sustainable and will become more so with the production of certain types of fuels, etc. Sustainable transport has to reduce emissions. That is the only way transport can be sustainable.

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (14 Feb 2024)

Steven Matthews: I do not understand, if the hierarchy of road users model is contained in DMURS, a document local engineers and roads designers must comply with, why we cannot reference it in another statutory document, which would be the planning Act. I take the point some people would consider TOD to be big development around high capacity - Adamstown and that type of thing - but we need to recognise how...

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (14 Feb 2024)

Steven Matthews: We differentiate between urban and rural areas when we talk about sustainable settlements and sustainable transport strategies. Although transportation needs in rural areas are often different from those in high-density areas, we should not differentiate between them when we talk about sustainable settlement patterns. They should apply countrywide. A rural dweller has as much desire and...

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (14 Feb 2024)

Steven Matthews: Are local transport plans defined? What is to stop anybody from saying, "There is the roads network. We are going to have nicely lined roads great for drivers and there is your local transport plan"? The purpose of my amendment is to include, after-----

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (14 Feb 2024)

Steven Matthews: The subsection states refers to the promotion of the development of local transport plans. I do not know what a local transport plan is. It comes back to this language. Twenty years ago, a local transport plan would have been about how we were going to get cars around a town. Is it understood that a local transport plan adheres to the hierarchy-of-road-users model?

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (14 Feb 2024)

Steven Matthews: The purpose of my amendment is to-----

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (14 Feb 2024)

Steven Matthews: My amendment seeks to include the phrase "walking and cycling network plans".

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (14 Feb 2024)

Steven Matthews: That is earlier in the section, where reference is made to "the provision, or facilitation of the provision, of sustainable integrated transport" plans. However, in the context of the promotion of the development of a local transport plan, I want to know that a local transport plan also includes active travel. As matters stand, it is too vague.

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (14 Feb 2024)

Steven Matthews: I will leave it to the Minister of State to come up with a wording that fits with what I am trying to achieve, rather than his accepting my amendment and dealing with the knock-on effects of that.

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (14 Feb 2024)

Steven Matthews: I will move on to amendment No. 350. I might have been a little cheeky with this one. I am not entirely sure this is where it should go. Section 43 relates to the obligation to prepare a strategy on economic development. In the context of the strategies to be contained in the development plan, I do not see a strategy that would meet what I am seeking in the amendment, which refers to...

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (14 Feb 2024)

Steven Matthews: I am not entirely sure how this ended up in the section relating to transport. I think I had included something about there being access to the hierarchy-of-road-users model, but I do not see it. The reference may be missing.

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (14 Feb 2024)

Steven Matthews: Under zoning, schools would come in under community and education. These are new ten-year development plans, and this is a good part of the Bill to in which to include these strategies. However, we should outline matters a little more clearly. The necessity for an educational capacity assessment should be part of one of these strategies. As stated earlier, we have had a lot of housing...

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (14 Feb 2024)

Steven Matthews: I thank the Minister of State.