MAJOR strategies into the future of transport in Glasgow — prioritising active travel and public transit — are to be drawn up over the next 12 months at a cost of £3.5million.

Glasgow City Council has been awarded £3million from active travel organisation Sustrans towards the work and will contribute £500,000 itself.

A condition of the grant funding is that the plans are delivered by June 2021.

Although several strategies will be produced, officials are aiming to seek public opinion under the general heading Connecting Communities covering all the elements being taken forward.

A report updating councillors states: “This will set out some baseline information and ask for views on key questions related to the vision and aspirations for Glasgow. One combined initial engagement exercise will ensure that the public are not subject to consultation overload.”

This “high-level public engagement exercise” will gather views and outline possible options on how the city’s transport can:

— Enable everyone to travel cleanly and sustainably, helping Glasgow to become a carbon-neutral city by 2030.

— Give everyone access to opportunities, helping to reduce poverty and deprivation and improve health and wellbeing.

— Drive and support inclusive growth across the city-region.

— Help make every neighbourhood more liveable, including the city centre.

The report adds: “This will develop a ‘mandate’ for change and following this work, we will begin developing each of the plans.”

The Connectivity Plan for Glasgow (Local Transport Strategy) will set out the approach to how people and goods move into and around the city every day.

The report states: “The positive impacts of this plan (in the medium to long term) will be measured against a number of key criteria set out in a monitoring plan including shifts in modal share with a particular focus on increasing our levels of walking and cycling and use of public transport.”

The City Centre Transformation Plan (CCTP) will tie in with the Connectivity Plan through actions which will “radically transform Glasgow’s city centre and reinforce its role as one of the leading destinations in Europe for people to visit at the same time as creating a pleasant environment for people to live.”

Informed by the recent findings of the Connectivity Commission, the plan “will identify the challenges and opportunities we have to reduce pollution and congestion and to create high quality cycling infrastructure and pedestrian spaces.”

The Liveable Neighbourhoods Plan (LNP) aims to reduce the city’s dependency on cars and make walking, cycling and public transport the first choice.

Officials state: “It is essential that our residents benefit from safer, quieter streets that facilitate play, walking and cycling.

“Through a place-based approach, the LNP will help to limit the city’s contribution to climate change and develop an inclusive network of accessible and revitalised neighbourhoods designed for the benefit of all, with integrated green infrastructure and enhanced public spaces.”

“This will be achieved through a variety of physical interventions and behavioural change measures including filtered permeability, traffic reduction around schools, improvements for walking and cycling, secure bike storage and management of residential parking.

“Through collaborative and purposeful engagement, the LNP will transform streets and neighbourhoods into more pleasant, safe and attractive environments with noise and air pollution being tackled through measures that encourage active travel, helping to reduce inactivity and ultimately improve public health.”

The LNP will be developed and delivered in two parts. Part one will focus on making the case for change, identifying the strategic, economic, commercial, financial and management rationale, with a “toolkit-based methodology” being developed.

Part two will develop the first phase of the to bring about real change to identified neighbourhoods in Glasgow.

The council will also replace its Strategic Plan for Cycling 2016 to 2025 with a wider Active Travel Strategy

Further will also involve a Bus Services Improvement Partnership. The report explains: “To achieve our goals on sustainable travel and to see the necessary modal shift away from the car, bus travel will need to play a more active role.

“The bus network needs to be better connected to the other transport systems and the wider active travel network.”

Councillors are bieng asked to agree that the Sustrans funding is accepted.