Archived decisions

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

1. Summary

1.1 This report provides a progress update on the workplace and school travel planning programmes in the New Forest area, together with information on a recently completed county-wide personalised travel planning project. It also includes an update on the Safer Routes to Schools programme for schemes within the New Forest area.

2. Workplace Travel Plan Programme

2.1 There are currently 14 organisations developing a travel plan, compared to 12 reported to the last Panel meeting in March 2005.

2.2 The current status of travel plans in the New Forest area is shown in the table below. An indication of the number of employees covered by the plans has also been given. Individual organisations are not identified for reasons of confidentiality; for example some travel plans are related to planning applications or a change in location that is not yet public knowledge.

* This is an approximation. Not all employee data is complete yet.

2.3 The Travel Plan Adviser is currently working to update records by liaising more closely with District Council officers to provide a more complete picture of travel plan activity.

Travel Plan Partnership Fund 2004/05

2.4 In June 2004 the Executive Member for Environment approved a £50,000 county-wide allocation from the transport capital programme to the Travel Plan Partnership Fund. Businesses with travel plans were invited to submit bids for matched funding for the provision of on-site facilities to encourage use of a range of modes of transport for journeys to work at their establishments.

2.5 In the case of the New Forest area, Gifford Consulting was awarded £5,000 Partnership funding for a secure cycle scheme. Delays with other on-site work unfortunately meant that the scheme could not be completed.

Travel Plan Partnership Fund 2005/06

2.6 In June 2005 the Executive Member for Environment: South Hampshire and Resource Management approved a £36,900 capital and £9,280 revenue county-wide allocation to allow the Fund to be run again for a second year. Two schemes in the New Forest area have been allocated funding and the Travel Plan Adviser will monitor their progress over the coming months.

2.7 Gifford Consulting resubmitted a bid for £5,000 for secure cycle parking. Other on-site works have now progressed which will allow the cycle parking to be constructed within this financial year.

2.8 Brockenhurst College submitted a bid for £5,000 to construct secure cycle parking and provide car share information.

3. School Travel Plan Programme

3.1 The School Travel Planning Team continue to work with schools to develop School Travel Plans. To date over 405 schools throughout Hampshire have developed or are in the process of developing, plans. This compared to just over 330 as at March 2005.

3.2 Schools with travel plans approved by the School Travel Planning Team are eligible for funding through the Safer Routes to School programme, as well as a one-off capital grant from the Department for Education and Skills (DfES). The latter is only available to state schools. In 2004, 83 schools received a total of £532,309.50 from the DfES; in 2005, 71 schools were put forward and received grants totalling £402,597 from the DfES.

3.3 The team is now engaged with 50 of the 77 schools in the New Forest area (70 maintained and seven independent), compared with 37 schools as at March 2005. A summary of the current status of all School Travel Plans in the New Forest area is shown as a table below. More detail is shown in the appendix.

4. Safer Routes to School 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 21 January 2005 the Executive Member for Environment agreed an indicative allocation of £1.5 million for a county-wide programme of Safer Routes to Schools schemes from the 2005/06 Capital Programme.

4.3 When a proposal for highway improvements is received from a school with a completed School Travel Plan the feasibility is assessed to determine the scale, implications, costs and benefits. As more proposals come forward, this allows the priorities to be determined for inclusion in the programme. The current status of potential and actual schemes is shown in the appendix.

5. Personalised Travel Planning Programme

5.1 In March 2005, the County Council completed a large scale personalised travel planning project called `InfoMotion'. This direct marketing project (the largest of its kind in the UK), which included close partnership working with local bus operators, targeted some 115,000 households within walking distance of high quality bus services across Hampshire.

5.2 Personalised travel planning is a process whereby individuals (either householders, employees or visitors) are provided with tailored travel advice and information based on an understanding of their personal trip requirements. It can, as in the case of the InfoMotion project, also be complemented by the provision of incentives (eg trial season tickets) to introduce people to a new mode of travel that they may not otherwise have considered.

5.3 Of the 115,000 households contacted 38,000 responded. Of these 19% (7,720 households) were already regular uses of public transport (and so did not participate further), 48% (18,240 households) were infrequent users of public transport who were interested in participating and 33% (12,540 households) were not interested in participating. Through a process of one-to-one dialogue the `interested' group were subsequently provided with tailored information and incentives to encourage greater bus use.

5.4 Monitoring of local bus patronage and participants travel behaviour was undertaken. Bus patronage in one area of the county increased by 6% (peaking at 11% during the marketing period) while in another area of the county the monitoring found that there had been a 21% increase in person trips by bus and a 9% reduction in person trips by car by those participating. The results from the travel behaviour element of the monitoring also showed that there had been a reduction, from 31% to 17%, in the proportion of people dissatisfied with local bus services.

5.5 The project therefore highlighted the effectiveness of personalised travel planning not only in changing travel behaviour but also in influencing individuals' perceptions of public transport. The County Council will now consider the future role of personalised travel planning within the delivery of its Local Transport Plan.

6. Impact Assessments

6.1 This report provides a position statement only, therefore an impact assessment, in terms of the Race Relations (Amendment) Act, has not been undertaken.

Recommendation

That Members note the progress made with the delivery of the Workplace and School Travel Plans and Safer Routes to School programmes in the New Forest area, together with the outcomes of the recent InfoMotion personalised travel planning project.

495/JF

APPENDIX

New Forest Highway and Transport Advisory Panel

School Travel Plan levels as at 2005

Key:

0 Interest shown

1 Initial work on travel plan started

2 Draft travel plan completed

3 Final travel plan submitted and approved

C Contacted, awaiting response

() School Travel Plan Level at time of last HTAP. No change to level if not shown.

NB Langdown Infant and Junior Schools in Hythe closed on 31 December 2004 and Waterside Primary School, Hythe opened on 1 January 2005.

Holbury Infant and Junior Schools closed on 31 August 2005 and Cadland Primary opened on 1 September 2005.