Contact: Jon Foley, ext 7559 email: [email protected]

1. Summary

1.1 This report provides a progress update on the workplace, school and personalised travel planning programmes for the Gosport area. It also includes an update on the Safer Routes to Schools programme for schemes within the Gosport area.

2. Workplace Travel Plan Programme

2.1 The County Council has, through its Business Travel Plan Adviser, been working with organisations since April 2001 to assist them in developing travel plans for their establishments.

2.2 There are two elements to this work. The first is to work with planning officers to ensure that appropriate guidance is given to developers of new sites (or extensions to existing sites). This secures the requirement for a travel plan within the legal planning framework. A guidance note on the production of travel plans is currently being developed in consultation with all districts to help secure good quality travel plans through the planning process.

2.3 The second area of work is to provide support to organisations developing travel plans voluntarily. This is generally done on a `reactive' basis, with the Business Travel Plan Adviser providing advice as organisations make contact with the County Council.

2.4 The Business Travel Plan Adviser is currently aware of two organisations with travel plans in the Gosport area, one of these being the District Council. The current status of each organisation's travel plan in the Gosport area is shown in Table 1 of the Appendix.

3. School Travel Plan Programme

3.1 The County Council has, through its School Travel Plan Adviser, been working with schools to help develop school travel plans since April 2001, using a grant from the Department for Transport (DfT). The DfT has extended and increased this funding until March 2006. As a result the School Travel Planning team (five staff) has now been established within the Transport Policy Group of the Environment Department.

3.2 There are to date over 200 schools throughout Hampshire which have developed, or are working on, travel plans. Schools which have completed a travel plan to the Hampshire standard are eligible to bid for Safer Routes to Schools funding, as well as a one-off grant from the Department for Education and Skills.

3.3 The School Travel Planning team is currently engaged with 6 of the 32 schools in the Gosport area, of which 4 have an endorsed travel plan. As a whole, the County Council is engaged with 202 of the 546 schools in Hampshire, of which 103 have an endorsed travel plan. Table 2 in the Appendix shows the status of the travel plan at each of the schools in the Gosport area.

4. Safer Routes to Schools Programme

4.1 The Safer Routes to Schools programme links very closely with the development of the School Travel Plan programme. One of the objectives of a School Travel Plan is to encourage as many children as possible to be active and independent by walking, cycling or using public transport to get to and from school on a regular basis. This could be through a combination of physical and other measures. If physical works are identified within the approved school travel plan then the school can bid for funding from the Safer Routes to Schools programme.

4.2 On 23 January 2004 the Executive Member for Environment agreed an indicative allocation of £1.25 million for a county-wide programme of Safer Routes to Schools schemes from the 2004/05 Capital Programme, and £1.5 million in 2005/06. This includes an allocation of £250,000 for School Crossing Patrol site improvements. These improvements are based on a risk assessment priority rather than necessarily being tied to a School Travel Plan.

4.3 The 2004/05 Safer Routes to Schools programme for the Gosport area includes pedestrian and minor traffic management improvements at Lee-on-the-Solent Junior School, Brune Park Community School, and Gosport and Bay House School, Gosport. The 2004/05 programme in Gosport Borough also includes school crossing patrol works at Leesland Junior School, Gosport.

4.4 A scheme is also under development for 2005/06 at Gomer Infant School, Gosport.

4.5 As more School Travel Plans are submitted and approved it is anticipated that more Safer Routes to Schools schemes will be forthcoming.

5. Personalised Travel Planning

5.1 One of the County Council's Public Service Agreement targets is to increase bus passenger numbers. A key part of the County's plan to meet this target is a personalised travel planning project called `InfoMotion'. Personalised travel planning is a process whereby individuals are provided with tailored public transport timetable information and free trial travel vouchers for use on local public transport.

5.2 The initiative started in September 2003 and is due to be completed in March 2005. The project is divided into four waves and covers Hampshire's busiest bus routes. The first wave took place in autumn 2003 and included the marketing of local buses to households in the Gosport area.

5.3 Of the 20,000 households contacted in the Gosport area approximately 20% expressed an interest in participating. These households were provided with tailored information on local public transport services and a free trial travel voucher.

5.4 The marketing ended in November 2003 and, significantly, some six months later, bus patronage levels on the targeted routes had stabilised at about 6% above those reported prior to the project. This increase is due entirely to the `InfoMotion' project. The results from the waves of the project elsewhere in the county will be available in the coming months and are awaited with interest.

Recommendation

That Members note the progress made with the delivery of the workplace and school travel plans, personalised travel planning and Safer Routes to Schools programmes in the Gosport area.

9011/JF

APPENDIX

Table 1 Travel plan status of businesses in the Gosport area

* The travel plan levels have recently been devised and are undergoing refinement

Table 2 Travel Plan and Safer Routes to Schools status of schools in the Gosport area

Summary of School Travel Plan status (State Schools in Gosport)

Key:

0 Interest shown

1 Initial work on travel plan started

2 Draft travel plan completed

3 Final travel plan submitted and approved