Contact: John Buckett, ext 6599 email: john.buckett@hants.gov.uk

1. Summary

1.1 The report outlines the progress and timetable, vision, structure, programme and targets associated with the Local Transport Plan (LTP) together with a note on the Strategic Environmental Assessment.

2. Progress Report and Timetable

2.1 The draft LTP is required to be submitted by 29 July 2005. The County Council is proposing to use the draft LTP as a consultation document and to work with Area Strategy Panels and other stakeholders through the autumn of 2005 to produce a high quality final LTP in March 2006.

2.2 The draft LTP is currently being put together and sections particularly directly relevant to this area strategy Panel are discussed elsewhere on this agenda.

2.3 There has been widespread consultation on the approach and issues both through formal seminars such as the stakeholders event on 18 March at Winchester Guildhall and through a number of meetings with individual authorities and interest groups.

2.4 Progress on mapping accessibility has been good and draft plans are now being produced covering access by walking and public transport to health, employment, education and shopping centres.

2.5 There has been close working with Southampton and Portsmouth City Councils, particularly in developing a long term strategy for transport for the Solent area including joint working on the development of a transport/land use model which will allow the effects of development options to be assessed. The County Council is also developing a transport model for the Basingstoke area and working with other authorities on South East Plan issues that may affect the north of the county.

2.6 The South East Plan is an important consideration when looking at the long term transport strategy and considering options for transport interventions.

2.7 Work on the South East Plan will continue beyond the full LTP preparation period and so final consideration of major transport investment requirements will not be completed for the full LTP. The LTP will therefore reflect the need to submit further evidence when progress with the South East Plan allows.

2.8 The draft LTP is being considered by the relevant County Council Committees and Cabinet in late June and will be published at the end of July.

3. LTP Vision

3.1 A vision has been developed for the LTP which covers both long term and short term strategies.

3.2 The County Council's transport strategy has the following objectives:

3.3 To achieve this vision, the County Council operates a strategy based on three types of action: reduce, manage and invest. This strategy is designed to be a hierarchy. Strategies to reduce a problem will be considered first. This could include measures to reduce unnecessary journeys or to prevent accidents from happening in the first place. If those strategies are not satisfactory, the council will look to ways for manage the problem by making best use of existing resources and infrastructure. If a problem cannot be solved with either reduce or manage strategies, then the County Council will investigate solutions involving new investment.

3.4 One of the benefits of this approach is that it seeks to provide best value for money, as measures to reduce or manage transport problems are generally more cost-effective than investment in new infrastructure and vehicles.

4. LTP Contents

4.1 The main document of the LTP will be set out in accordance with Department for Transport (DfT) suggestions in their guidance as follows:

(i) Forewords

(ii) Chapter 1 - Executive Summary

(iii) Chapter 2 - Wider Policy Context - corporate strategies, community strategies, national and regional

(iv) Chapter 3 - Problems and Opportunities - international, national, regional, Area Strategy level.

(v) Chapter 4 - Long Term Strategy - International, national, regional, Solent, Central Hampshire, North Hampshire, New Forest, Access, Congestion, Safety, Air Quality

(vi) Chapter 5 - Five Year Strategy - Access, Congestion, Safety, Air Quality

(vii) Chapter 6 - Investment Programme

(viii) Chapter 7 - Indicators, Targets and Monitoring

(ix) Appendices - (some in draft LTP others in final only)

(x) Area Appendices - Solent, North Hampshire, Central Hampshire, New Forest.

(xi) Topic Appendices - Passenger Transport (4), Intelligent transport Systems, Smarter Choices Walking and Cycling, Asset Management/Maintenance, Research/Evidence Base, Indicators & Targets.

(xii) Audit Appendices - Equalities, Environment Report, Self Assessment.

(xiii) Process Appendices - Consultation, Best Practice, LTP1 delivery (summer 06).

5. Provisional LTP Programme

5.1 The County Council has been asked to prepare a programme for the draft LTP based on an allocation of £69.5 million for Integrated Transport and £78.8 million for Maintenance and Bridges.

5.2 The actual allocations will be largely based on a new formula approach which will be released for consultation in July 2005 and confirmed in December 2005. Allocations will also be affected by the quality of the transport planning in the draft LTP and performance through the 2004/05 Annual Progress Report (which is also to be submitted in July 2005).

5.3 While the County Council's `excellent' status protects it from some of the potential variations the uncertainty over the results from the formula for integrated transport make it unwise to programme in very much detail at this provisional LTP stage. The programme set out below is therefore more in terms of programme shape without identifying individual schemes.

5.4 The capital programme should reflect the four shared priorities of the DfT and LGA of accessibility, congestion, safety and air quality, the authority's long term strategy and wider policies and be relevant to the LTP targets.

5.5 The approach set out in the LTP is one of the four area transport strategies supported by county-wide action where appropriate. The programme reflects the County Council's wider policy objectives and those of the Hampshire Community Strategy. Improving the quality of life for Hampshire's residents is given high priority through accessibility planning, both through the DfT accession model agenda but also through wider application of access needs covering in particular local accessibility through improving town centres, removing barriers to movement, helping to address equality issues and covering access to the countryside. Safety remains a high priority as does the Safer Routes to Schools Programme addressing health and community objectives as well as congestion. Direct measures to tackle congestion are proposed together with the encouragement of alternatives to the car (promoting choice) particularly public transport.

5.6 The programme relates directly to the targets (both mandatory and optional) that are included in the LTP. It is recognised that investment alone is unlikely to allow many outcome targets to be met. The County Council's investment programme is entirely consistent with its overall approach to reduce, manage and invest and much of the proposed investment is to encourage shorter journeys and non-car journeys so as to reduce the transport problems. Complementary revenue (and externally funded programme) promoting travel planning and improved information and publicity seek to reduce the outstanding problem that investment needs to help tackle.

Elements of the Capital Programme

5.7 1. Safety will continue to be promoted with a continuing annual programme of £3 million to reduce road casualties backed up with education and training.

5.8 2. Safer Routes to School complementing school travel plans and promoting healthier lifestyles and reduced car dependence will be expected to continue at current investment levels of about £2 million per year as the County Council progresses towards its target of introducing travel plans in all schools by 2010 and associated behavioural change.

5.9 3. Access is the priority for investment . Hampshire's definition of access, covers a wider definition than the employment, education, health and shopping issues in the `accession ` model.

5.10 There will be specific investment in town centre access plans designed to improve the quality of town centres and access to and within them for all groups of the community. This programme will encourage more local rather than longer distance movements and is consistent with the County Council community objectives and market town initiatives.

5.11 Programmes are also proposed to reduce severance, to improve crossings of railway lines, busy roads etc. and by improving people's perceptions of their local area.

5.12 Access to countryside, public transport facilities, tourist sites, post offices etc. will also feature as well as the four core `accession' criteria which are consistent with the County Council's corporate aims and the key actions of the Hampshire Community Strategy (HCS). The HCS and district Local Strategic Partnerships are seen as having key roles in the County Council's incorporation of Accessibility Planning as a key community related aspect of its work.

Congestion

5.13 The programmes need to accommodate both direct and indirect action in terms of tackling existing and future congestion. There will be direct investment in road and junction improvements at specific bottlenecks associated with access problems particularly access to the Gosport peninsula together with improvement and modernising of key corridors to ensure that the most efficient use is made of the existing networks.

5.14 The key indirect measures to help tackle congestion in the five year period is through investment to encourage the use of alternatives to the car principally public transport but also walking and cycling for shorter journeys. Physical measures for bus priority, improved passenger interchange and waiting facilities though quality partnerships etc. will be complemented with improved information, marketing and promotional activities. The County Council is required to have bus patronage, punctuality and satisfaction targets as well as cycling targets and it will have overall public transport targets as well, reflecting the importance of ferry and local rail in Hampshire. Park and Ride will be progressed for Winchester (and for Southampton).

Air Quality

5.15 The LTP is required to include proposals to deal with declared Air Quality Management Areas (AQMAs). There will be allocations to support actions by New Forest, Eastleigh and Winchester districts to deal with AQMAs in Lyndhurst, Totton, Eastleigh town centre (Southampton Road and Leigh Road) and Winchester town centre. Further Park and Ride in Winchester is seen as a key part of the approach there where elsewhere traffic management schemes are being developed.

5.16 The fifth AQMA in the County is in Rushmoor associated with the M3 and we will be working with the Highways Agency and the district on appropriate measures.

Others

5.17 Small programmes are also being considered to provide other environmental benefits, in particular the removal of sign clutter from both urban and rural areas.

5.18 Completion of the National Cycle Network in Hampshire will be progressed through town centre access and countryside access programmes where appropriate.

5.19 Innovation and the development of intelligent transport systems including monitoring will also require funding.

Shape of Programme

5.20 The principal components of the programme could be:

Potential Split Between Areas

5.21 If Casualty Reduction, central (Countywide) Intelligent Transport Systems, innovative measures and monitoring, and Passenger Transport Information remain in the county-wide programme (totalling £18million) then £51million would remain for the area strategy programmes.

Possible allocations - Solent £20m to £30m say £25m

North £10m to £15m £13m

Central £ 6m to £12m £ 9m

...New Forest £2m to £6m £4m

Total £51m

5.22 These allocations are subject to variations relating to larger schemes which may or may not be included or partly included within the five year period.

6. Targets, Indicators and Monitoring

6.1 Each LTP is required to include mandatory targets (some are required by all LTP authorities and others are determined by size of authority or whether certain conditions are met).

6.2 The authority is also invited to include optional targets which are relevant to its strategies. Targets should generally be outcomes e.g. numbers of people catching buses.

6.3 The provisional LTP will be assessed on the quality of the transport planning including the approach to target setting while the final LTP will be assessed on the `impact of targets' (whether they are `unsatisfactory', `satisfactory' or `stretching'). The Department for Transport has indicated minimum levels for `satisfactory' targets and some of these will be very difficult for Hampshire to achieve because of geographic and socio-economic factors.

6.4 Indicators where targets are mandatory for Hampshire cover:

(i) road casualties (total number killed and seriously injured; total number of children killed and seriously injured; and total number slightly injured)

(ii) road condition (principal, non-principal and unclassified roads)

(iii) footway condition

(iv) bus patronage, bus punctuality and bus satisfaction.

(v) change in annual road traffic mileage

(vi) cycle trips

(vii) mode share of journeys to school (2 age groups 5 to 10 and 11 to 16)

(viii) air quality in air quality management areas (Totton, Lyndhurst, Winchester, Eastleigh & Farnborough (by M3))

(ix) at least one target related to accessibility.

6.5 Solent wide congestion targets may be required for the full LTP in March 2006 - a decision from Central Government is awaited.

6.6 Optional Targets are being considered for Hampshire for:

(i) bridges, condition

(ii) public transport patronage (i.e. adding rail and ferry to the bus totals)

(iii) bus patronage on Quality Bus Partnership routes

(iv) mode share and satisfaction with walking & cycling in town centres.

(v) measures of severance/barriers to pedestrian access.

(vi) satisfaction with public transport information

(vii) workforce travel plan coverage

(viii) school travel plan coverage

(ix) facilities to assist people with disabilities at crossings

(x) Solent-wide targets are also being considered for inclusion in the final LTP

6.7 Assessment on the provisional LTP (July 2005) will be on the methodology employed in developing the targets and the assessment of this aspect together with the quality of the transport planning in the provisional LTP and performance in the 2004/05 Annual Progress Report will feed into the County Council's Comprehensive Performance Assessment (CPA) and into funding levels for 2006/07.

6.8 The assessment of the impact of the targets in the final LTP (March 2006) and the County Council's overall delivery performance 2001 to 2006 (submitted July 2006) will feed into funding levels for 2007/08 to 2010/11.

6.9 Assessment of future Annual Progress Reports outlining progress towards these targets will affect future funding levels and future CPA assessments.

7. Note on Strategic Environmental Assessment

7.1 The LTP needs to be covered by a strategic environmental assessment and the resulting environment report must feed into the decision making process for the LTP.

7.2 The County Council has produced an Environment Scoping Report which has been consulted on. A summary of that consultation response will be submitted to the Environment Policy Review Committee on 23rd June 2005.

7.3 It is proposed to produce a draft environment report for consultation in the Autumn together with the provisional LTP and the results of this consultation will be reported to Area Strategy Panels and County Council meetings as part of the preparation process for the final LTP in March.

Recommendation

That the Panel notes this report.

332/JWB