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Leicestershire Provisional Local Transport Plan 2006-2011Give us your views on the Leicestershire Local Transport PlanConsultation September - December 2005The following information is also available as an Adobe PDF file:
The Local Transport Plan (LTP) sets out our plans for traffic and transport in Leicestershire.
We published a provisional LTP this July covering the years from 2006 to 2011. Now we want your views
on it so that we can finalise it next spring.
This web page contains:
We consulted on the LTP strategy
at the end of 2004 and adopted six transport objectives as a consequence. The Provisional LTP sets out
our proposed spending programmes to meet these objectives, and the associated targets. We invite your
views on these, and on the extent to which we should change the proposals in the Provisional LTP in
the light of the Environmental Report.
At the end of the summary is a link to an on-line questionnaire, which we ask you
to complete and submit. If you want more detail on the LTP and the Environmental Report, full versions
of both are available on this website and at libraries and County Council service shops across Leicestershire.
You can also print off and complete the questionnaire by printing it off from the PDF version of the
consultation document (follow the link above), or you can request a printed copy of the document free
of charge by e-mail from tpp@leics.gov.uk, or from our freephone number 0800
056 6765.
The consultation period has been extended to 12th December 2005.Questionnaire
The main purpose of the LTP is to set out our plans for investment in the transport
system in the coming five years. This investment is designed both to tackle the immediate problems we
face and to contribute towards the goals set out in the longer-term transport strategy, which itself
forms part of the Plan. Many wider aims, such as a strong local economy and ready access to facilities
for all, depend on an effective transport system, and the longer-term strategy shows how our sustained
investment can make transport more effective in meeting those aims.
The LTP is designed to deliver on a set of six key transport objectives, and progress
is monitored by setting targets. Much of the LTP is taken up with a description of the investments we
can make, with partners, to bring about change. The more effective our measures, the more ambitious
we can be with our targets within available funding.
After describing the measures, the LTP assesses how much investment we should make
in each of them, and hence what relative weight is to be placed on meeting each of our objectives. Once
that judgement is made, we can set out the overall spending programme and finalise our targets on the
basis of that.
This web page describes the process outlined above. The LTP is provisional at this
stage. Once we have completed this consultation, and heard from government what our final levels of
funding will be, we will adjust the Plan accordingly and submit it as a final LTP to government in March
2006.
We start from a position of substantial progress, driven by the programmes of investment
in our first LTP and by the implementation of two recent Best Value reviews covering most areas of the
highways and transportation service. Against that, there are still significant problems.
Overall:
If
these are the immediate transport issues, our future planning must be driven by the wider requirements
of our Community Strategy, our Medium Term Corporate Strategy and the regional and national government
transport strategies. Key themes from here point us towards helping to create ‘a vibrant county in which
to live, work and play’, to a focus on access to quality services, and looking particularly to the needs
of young people. Linked to this are important commitments to helping to meet the needs of new development,
helping to promote economic development and regeneration both in the county and in Leicester, and helping
people gain access to improving education and health facilities.
We derive our longer-term transport strategy from this context.
There is obvious difficulty in predicting conditions 20 years ahead with any accuracy
but we believe that to meet local needs, and to be consistent with the government’s 2004 White Paper
“The Future of Transport”, we need to progress on five broad themes:
From this longer-term transport strategy we have drawn out six objectives for the
next five years. We consulted Leicestershire people and stakeholder groups on these and there was a
strong consensus behind giving priority to them, with more than 70% support for each being a high or
medium priority. We have therefore adopted these as our objectives, and set initial targets:
We
will work with a variety of partners to meet our targets, using both our own resources and those that
they can contribute. Leicester City Council is the most important of our partners, and we need to have
fully integrated work programmes with them for the key measures in reducing congestion and improving
access in Central Leicestershire, as well as working closely with them on other programmes.
Out of the many possible measures, some will offer good value for money and others
not, while yet others are not realistically available. We have analysed all the measures on this basis,
ascribing each to the objective it most helps to meet, but recognising that many measures will in practice
contribute to success in more than one objective as well as contributing more widely to quality of life
issues such as noise, crime reduction and climate change.
To reduce congestion, we will:
To improve access to facilities, we will:
To reduce road casualties, we will:
To improve air quality, we will:
To reduce the impact of traffic, we will:
To manage transport assets effectively, we will:
Our park and ride scheme will cost well over the £5m threshold for ‘major’ schemes
but we will fund it from LTP block funds, on a 50/50 basis with Leicester City Council, so as to ensure
that we can deliver this vital contribution to reducing congestion in Central Leicestershire as soon
as possible.
Two other improvements will make similarly important contributions but, because
of their cost, can only be afforded if separately funded by government as major schemes. The first is
the Earl Shilton bypass, which will transform the town centre environment and greatly improve road safety.
We have submitted a separate bid for this.
The second is the Loughborough Integrated Transport scheme. This will contribute
greatly to town centre regeneration as well as removing the air quality problem from the town centre,
helping to improve bus facilities and reducing road accident casualties. We are working closely with
Charnwood Borough Council to develop the scheme and intend to submit a major scheme bid for it in 2006.
We will invest in all the delivery measures but we need to decide how much to spend
on each measure to make us most successful overall in meeting our initial targets. We have tested different
approaches and decided on the levels of spending shown in the table. Our funding from government is
currently only ‘indicative’ so we will repeat the process when we know our final funding allocation.
Provisional five-year LTP capital programmeOutturn prices (£000), LTP period from 2006/07 to 2009/10
The analysis to determine the proposed funding split between measures leads us to
conclude that against our initial targets:
Tackling congestion: We will not be able to prevent congestion
getting worse without spending far more than we have available. We can check its growth, however, and
have set targets to do so in Central Leicestershire (with Leicester City) and in Loughborough.
Improving access to facilities: We can secure a marginal improvement
in access times by public transport to main centres, but the percentages of people within given access
times are already very high and it would not be value for money to seek significant improvement.
Reducing road casualties: We do not believe we can quite reach
a 50% reduction in killed and seriously injured casualties but, at 46%, we can come close to it and
will bring about an improvement well above the government’s national 40% target.
Improving air quality: We believe we can meet the target everywhere
except in central Loughborough, where we need the major scheme to secure the necessary reduction.
Reducing the impact of traffic: The initial target was highly
aspirational and we do not believe we can justify spending a high proportion of available funds in attempting
to meet it. We will instead target a continued rolling out of individual schemes for local communities.
Managing transport assets: There is a mixed picture here, with
some confidence that we can remove the maintenance backlog for principal roads, the busiest footways,
bridges and traffic signals, but less certainty for other roads and footways, and rights of way. Even
with the addition of extra County Council funding, it seems clear that we will not be able to invest
enough to make up the backlog on street lighting column replacement.
It is not surprising that we cannot fully meet our initial aspirational targets
which were set deliberately high, but the final headline targets above will still represent a very substantial
move forward in meeting our objectives over the five year period. We have backed these up with a series
of subsidiary targets designed to ensure that all the main aspects of our progress can be properly measured.
These subsidiary targets include, for example:
A 1% annual increase in bus passenger journeys
An annual increase in cycling of just over 1%
A 2.5% annual increase in travel by disabled people on our special
transport services
Reversing the trend in motorcycle casualties and reducing the 2002
to 2004 annual average of 64 killed or seriously injured to 61 average in 2008 to 2010
Completing 20 schemes to reduce the impact of traffic
To achieve all this, from a provisional allocation of LTP capital funding of £81m
for the five years, we plan to spend
Most capital spend affecting
air quality comes under the heading of reducing congestion. Of these totals, £11m will be spent on linked
programmes with Leicester City Council for reducing congestion and improving access in Central Leicestershire,
and there will be substantial further expenditure in Central Leicestershire on programmes which do not
need to be linked. We also plan to spend approximately £5m of the Council’s own capital resources over
the five year period, as well as approximately £23m a year of the County Council’s revenue funds.
The Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) assesses the impact on the environment
of the measures set out in the LTP. The SEA was carried out by the Environmental Action Team in the
Community Services Department of the County Council.
MethodologyIn order to focus on the priority issues raised by the implementation of the LTP,
a scoping exercise was carried out to establish the current state of the Leicestershire environment,
to identify environmental objectives of existing plans and programmes and to determine the existing
problems in the area.
Within this context, the team then assessed the effects of the transport alternatives
against the identified environmental objectives. This assessment, coupled with other considerations,
informed the choice of options included in the Provisional LTP.
Further detailed assessment of each of the plan options against environmental objectives
was completed, including consideration of how other plans and policies could affect the outcomes.
Mitigation has been recommended for any negative effects that were identified and
for significant effects a monitoring framework has been proposed.
Alternatives to the plan measuresFor many of the measures in the LTP there are no real alternatives. For tackling
congestion, however, a number of alternatives were considered, although significant road building was
ruled out due to negative environmental implications. Options that were not taken forward include:
None of these options will
be progressed during this LTP period as they do not currently represent value for money in terms of
the improvements they offer. However, in most cases these options have not been abandoned completely
and they are likely to be reconsidered in the future subject to national and local policy development.
The LTP includes three proposals for major schemes:
Planning for and consultation
on the Earl Shilton Bypass has been ongoing since the mid-1980s and alternatives have been considered
during this period. The scheme has been subject to a detailed Environmental Impact Assessment and has
therefore only been given cursory attention in the SEA to avoid duplication.
The Loughborough Integrated Transport Scheme will be subject to a detailed Environmental
Impact Assessment. As the scheme is still under development it presents problems for evaluation at this
stage; however, where possible, a broad assessment has been made to influence the final scheme.
Traffic modelling has shown that park and ride is the most effective way to reduce
car use and therefore congestion on radial routes into Leicester. A review of potential park and ride
sites is under way and will have a major bearing on the environmental effects of this proposal.
Findings and recommendationsDue to the nature of the majority of the proposals contained in the LTP, few significant
effects on the environment have been identified. Environmental Impact Assessments are required for the
major scheme proposals and should identify and mitigate negative effects.
Based on the key findings of the SEA, the recommendations are:
MonitoringIn order to examine the Plan’s performance against priority environmental objectives
and to allow remedial action, the following monitoring framework is suggested:
Tell us what you thinkNow you have read about our proposals, it is very important for us to know what
you think of them. Please spare a few moments to complete a short questionnaire.
The on-line questionnaire
This information is available as a PDF leaflet online, and if
you have questions about anything in it, please contact:
The LTP Team,
Leicestershire County Council, Department of Highways, Transportation and Waste Management, County Hall, Glenfield Leicestershire, LE3 8RJ Telephone: 0116 305 8249 E-mail: tpp@leics.gov.uk
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