Contact: Jonathan Crabb, ext 6047

1. Summary

1.1 The first Annual Progress Report (APR) for Hampshire's Local Transport Plan (LTP) was submitted to the Government in August 2001. It set out progress towards delivering the County Council's programme and meeting its targets, as well as supplementary bids for new funding.

1.2 The Government announced the Local Transport Settlement in December 2001, assessing each authority on its progress with transport and confirming funding levels for transport for 2002/03. There was a separate announcement regarding new discretionary funding under the single capital pot which comes into operation in 2002/03.

1.3 The 2002/03 Government funding levels for Hampshire were confirmed, with additional sums for European Union project CIVITAS (£240,000) and general transport (£300,000). The County Council also received £2,168,000 under the new single capital pot arrangement. Letters made clear that transport performance was largely responsible for this level of award.

1.4 The capital programmes for 2001/02 and 2002/03 to 2005/06 have been reviewed and revised on the basis of the Local Transport Settlement, progress with scheme development and cost changes. The revised programmes were approved by the Executive Member for Environment on 25 January 2002.

2. Local Transport Plan Annual Progress Report

2.1 The Government requires each transport authority to produce an APR as its LTP proceeds through the five year period (2001/02 to 2005/06). The first APR was required in August 2001. Hampshire's submission covered progress to date with the capital programme and its approach to achieving the objectives and targets set out in the LTP.

2.2 The County Council put in supplementary bids for funding, including the CIVITAS project in Winchester and other provisional major scheme submissions elsewhere in Hampshire, for the five year period. More detailed submissions will be required for major schemes (over £5 million) in future years.

3. Local Transport Settlement 2002/03

3.1 In December 2001 the Government announced the Local Transport Settlement for 2002/03 for highway authorities in England and Wales. The letter included an analysis of the national and regional situation with regard to transport funding, including the introduction of the new single capital pot arrangements. It went on to discuss the Government's assessment of Hampshire's APR and the funding arrangements for the County Council in 2002/03.

3.2 The County Council was congratulated on the quality of the APR for Hampshire and its performance in transport has been assessed as `well above average', the highest category. The funding allocated from the original LTP allocation for 2002/03 (£23,188,000) was confirmed, together with £240,000 for the CIVITAS project and an additional £300,000 for general transport purposes.

3.3 The County Council also received £2,168,000 under the new discretionary single capital pot arrangements. The settlement letter and a subsequent one about the single capital pot indicated that the scale of this award is, to a large extent, due to the County Council's good performance in transport.

4. Capital Programme

4.1 The transport capital programme for 2002/03 to 2005/6 has been drawn up on the basis of the transport award made in the settlement letter and the funding and commitments being brought forward from 2001/02. The first step in this process was a review of the 2001/02 programme based on progress to the end of December 2001. The new programme for 2001/02 for the New Forest Transportation (NFTS) area is set out in Appendix 1.

4.2 The new LTP funded programme for 2002/03 to 2005/06 county-wide is summarised as follows:

Note: The 2002/03 total for Area Strategies includes £5.2 million for the A3 bus priority corridor in Havant district.

4.3 The programmes are based on the LTP funding available over the five years from 2001/02. The maintenance programme was enhanced in 2001/02 and is shown at a lower level from 2002/03 to produce overall spending in the five years of £44 million. There is £68 million to be spent on Integrated Transport in the five years of the LTP programme. It is not possible to fund the whole of the A3 bus priority scheme within this programme without seriously affecting the area strategy and county-wide programmes. For this reason the A3 scheme will be progressed as a major scheme beyond 2002/03 and will form part of the County Council's major schemes bid in July 2002.

4.4 The transport programme for 2002/03 to 2005/06 for the NFTS area is set out in Appendix 2. The programme should be regarded as flexible and likely to change within overall programme limits. It will be reviewed during the year and amendments may be made if warranted by progress and cost and spending profile changes. There will be a thorough review at the end of 2002 after the funding availability for 2003/04 has been announced. The above programme is planned to produce annual spending in accordance with LTP funding available each year. It is expected that single capital pot funding for 2002/03 will be added to the Capital Programme later in the year.

4.5 The strategy area table (Appendix 2) includes schemes to be funded from external sources, principally developers' contributions. These schemes are generally included only for 2002/03 to 2003/04, as beyond this date there is less certainty about the likely availability of funding, which is usually related to the progress of the development.

4.6 Details of county-wide and maintenance programmes affecting the New Forest will be included in future programme reviews. These programmes have yet to be determined for 2002/03.

Recommendation

That this report be noted.

7047/JC

APPENDIX 1

APPENDIX 2

Capital Programme 2