Agenda Item 6

Report to the

Transport for South Hampshire Joint Committee

Date: 30 June 2009

Report by: Peter Murnaghan

tel: 01962 846920 email: [email protected]

Subject: Transport for South Hampshire Business Plan - Review of Plan 2007-2009 and Adoption of Plan 2009-2011

Purpose of the Report

This report provides a commentary on the performance of the first Business Plan 2007-2009 and proposes a Business Plan for the next two years.

Recommendations

It is recommended that the Joint Committee:

1. Notes the performance against the Business Plan for 2007-2009.

2. Approves the Transport for South Hampshire Business Plan for 2009-2011 for adoption by the constituent authorities, subject to funding being assembled to meet additional resource costs in line with the Partnership for Urban South Hampshire growth agenda.

Introduction

1. The last meeting of the Joint Committee on 29 April 2009 agreed to roll forward the Transport for South Hampshire (TfSH) Business Plan for 2007-2009, pending consideration of a new Plan for the period 2009-2011 at this meeting.

2. The performance of the Plan to May 2009 is tabulated in Appendix 1 of this report for the committee to note. The new Business Plan is attached as Appendix 2 for approval.

Background

3. When TfSH was first established, a Business Plan covering the period June 2007 to May 2009 was formulated and approved by the Joint Committee on 16 October 2007. In turn, each of the constituent highway and transport authorities approved it, as required by the terms of the governance Agreement. To provide for business continuity, the Joint Committee at its last meeting, agreed to continue this plan until such time as its replacement could be considered and approved.

4. The committee is invited to note the performance of the partnership in delivering the activities anticipated in the first Plan, recognising in some areas that circumstances and priorities have changed. Taking the experience of the first two years and the changing landscape ahead, the new Plan provides for a number of actions that focus on planning for the next two years and beyond. This includes developing majors schemes for funding and implementation, undertaking studies into access to the strategic development sites, building the evidence base and refining the transport strategies. This represents a change of direction for the partnership and was anticipated in the report to the last meeting of the committee.

5. The activities proposed in the new Plan will require an enhancement in officer resources, which will need to be addressed in adopting the Plan.

The past Plan 2007-2009

6. The first Business Plan proposed a number of activities in establishing the partnership and equipping it to act, as then foreseen, as a delivery agency. A review of its performance is summarised in Appendix 1.

7. Notable areas of success have been the securing of funds to progress with Phase 1 of Bus Rapid Transit and the bringing forward of a number of major projects, such as Tipner, with Regional Funding and M27, junction 5 improvements with New Growth Point funding. Consultants have been engaged to work on a range of technical studies to assess the requirements for access to strategic development sites. These fed into the TfSH statement `Towards Delivery' which was published in April 2008 and set out the interventions and schemes needed up to the year 2026. A transport chapter was included in the South Hampshire Multi Area Agreement (MAA) and a Memorandum of Understanding signed in October 2008 with the Highways Agency, GOSE and Department for Transport. The Joint Committee has, during this period, become well established with strong participation from stakeholders.

8. A number of developments were not foreseen when the first Plan was approved. Examples include the establishment of the South Hampshire Bus Operators Association, which now communicates with TfSH with a single voice. Also, the complexity of delivering major schemes became apparent during the bidding for Bus Rapid Transit, where the exposure to risk was felt to be beyond the means of the partnership and should more properly be shouldered by the respective local authorities.

9. Progress has been slower on a number of topics, for a variety of reasons. Examples include the expansion of the popular Solent Travelcard to other modes, where it did not prove possible to engage the railway industry in a workable, economical scheme within the envisaged timescale. Also, it has taken longer than anticipated to reach a position where commitment could be given to building a sub-regional evidence base, although the first steps in this process were agreed at the last meeting.

10. Overall, the Transport for South Hampshire brand is recognised on the regional and national stage as a good, working example of collaboration between authorities and with the transport industry, making tangible progress and acting as a beacon for other areas.

The new Plan 2009-2011

11. The plan for the coming two years will need to move to the development of the MAA, the evidence base and major schemes, to equip the partnership for interventions that can be implemented within the South East Plan growth timescale. This will involve the planning of schemes in outline, followed by assessments of alternatives and an element of design necessary to obtain planning permission. In parallel with this activity, will be the need to secure sources of funding.

12. Schemes and interventions will need to be rooted in strategy, so the refinement of the TfSH strategy of Reduce, Manage and Invest will be needed. This will need to link closely with the emerging Local Transport Plan3 and the local development documents of the planning authorities.

13. As the planning, development and design of schemes get under way, the modelling of scenarios becomes more critical. With the recent approval to develop a sub-regional Evidence Base, a new tranche of work becomes necessary for the core team. This will involve the specification of the model, management of its construction; assembly of data; close liaison with other data owners, for example, developers of strategic sites; testing of the model before assessing the business case for future schemes and testing Reduce and Manage measures.

14. This enhanced level of activity inevitably calls for a greater level of resource to be committed to the core team. Currently, 5.5 Full Time Equivalents (FTEs) administer the work of Transport for South Hampshire, calling upon resources within the three constituent authorities, as necessary, for specialist assistance. The Action Plan at paragraph 6.4 in the Business Plan estimates that 10 FTEs will be required if the partnership is to carry out this level of work. The financial implication of the additional 4.5 FTEs is of the order of £220,000 per year, including on-costs.

15. If the committee accepts the Plan, which is dependent upon securing the necessary resources, there are a number of alternative approaches proposed to address this pressure. These are:

(i) to seek additional revenue funding directly from the three highway authorities, Hampshire, Southampton and Portsmouth, in accordance with the established formula of 60%:20%:20% contributions;

(ii) to seek additional funding support from PUSH, in order to progress with delivering the growth agenda; and

(iii) to draw funds from the revenue funds currently available, which for 2009/10, total some £884,000. At the last meeting, the committee earmarked this budget to a number of activities, which are included within the Action Plan. Any diversion of these funds to the personnel establishment would diminish the discretionary funding available to carry out the activities.

The next steps

16. The delivery of the objectives and activities outlined in the Plan are contingent upon the assembly of sufficient resources. If the committee approves the Plan, it is necessary for it to be adopted by the three constituent authorities. In turn the authorities have agreed to include provision to fund the work of TfSH in their base budgets. The increases outlined above need to be investigated by each of the authorities, with a report back to the next meeting. In the event that this funding route is not possible, the alternative approaches will need to be progressed.

Conclusion

17. Transport for South Hampshire has performed well against the objectives and activities set in the first Business Plan, although certain elements have not progressed to conclusion as originally forecast. Looking forward to 2011, there is a need to ramp up the resources committed to the partnership to meet the challenges in developing major schemes for funding and implementation, undertaking studies into access to the strategic development sites, building the evidence base and refining work on the transport strategies. The new Business Plan 2009-2011 is submitted to the Joint Committee, contingent upon funding for the additional resources being assembled, in order to meet the Plan's objectives.

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