Report to: Lead Member for Transport and Environment
Date of meeting: 14 March 2022
By: Director of Communities, Economy and Transport
Title: Capital Programme for Local Transport Improvements 2022/23
Purpose: To seek approval for the proposed allocation of funds to a specific programme of local transport improvements for 2022/23
RECOMMENDATIONS: The Lead Member is recommended to:
(1) Agree the programme of local transportimprovements for 2022/23set out in Appendix1 to this report; and
(2) Agree the allocation of County Council capital funding, development contributions and Local Growth Fund moniestowards specificimprovements identified in the 2022/23 Programme
1. Background Information
1.1 The capital programmefor local transportimprovements sets out a proposedprogramme of schemes to be developed and delivered in various locations across the county in 2022/23. The programme is funded from a number of sources including a capital allocation from the County Council, development contributions and funding secured from the Government’s Local Growth Fund (LGF) through theSouth East Local Enterprise Partnership (SELEP). A copy of the draft capital programme for 2022/23 is included in Appendix 1.
2. Supporting Information
2.1 In May 2011,the County Councilapproved the LocalTransport Plan (LTP) 2011 – 2026 which identified the Council’s strategy for transport investment. The strategic approach adopted in the LTP is to invest in infrastructure which delivers sustainable economic growth and improves safety, security and health. This will be achieved by developing schemes which tackle congestion, improve safety for all road users and where practical and appropriate, promote sustainable travel on foot, by bike and by public transport.
2.2 The LTP is complemented by a series of Implementation Plans setting out delivery proposals in line with the priorities set out in the plan of supporting sustainable economic growth and improving safety, health and security for five-year time periods over its lifetime.The second Implementation Plan which initially covered the period 2016/17 to 2020/21 was approved by the Lead Member for Transport and Environment at his decision-making meeting on 14 March 2016. The content of the 2022/23 draft capital programme for local transport improvements is consistent with the current LTP Implementation Plan.
2.3 The draft capital programme for 2022/23 has been reviewed to take account of the priorities set out in the CouncilPlan, LTP and its associated Implementation Plan, as well as ensuring the continuation of schemes that have commenced in the previous financial years and the availability of funding.
2.4 As part of the LTP and its Implementation Plans, and with a single budgetfor Local Transport and Road Safety schemes, a more robust, evidence-based prioritisation process was developed to assess requestsreceived for all types of schemes. One of the key elements of this process involves assessing the extent to which scheme requests would meet the objectives of the LTP. These objectives include improving economic competitiveness and growth, improving safety and tackling climate change and demonstrating how our LTP and capital programme for local transport improvements can support the County Council’s priority of sustainable economic growth as well as contributing towards the target of achieving carbon neutrality by 2050.
2.5 This prioritisation process has been used to assess and identify any new schemes included in this year’s programme. The County Council will be developing its fourth Local Transport Plan during 2022/23 and this will include reviewing the current prioritisation process used to assess requests for schemes for potential inclusion in the capital programme.
Draft 2022/23 capital programme
2.6 On 8 February 2022 Cabinet approved the allocation of £5.402m in the County Council’s capital programme towards Integrated Transport measures. The draft programme allocates £4.315m of the County Council funding available towards delivering local transport projects across the county in 2022/23.
2.7 Additional external funding, such as development contributions (£0.784m) and Local Growth Fund monies (£6.657m), increase the overall programmed spend on implementing local transport improvements in 2022/23 to £11.776m. Thereare constraints on how this external funding may be used in delivering specific types of local transport improvements in specific geographical areas which have been agreed as part of business cases or bids, or, in the case of development contributions, the user provision within the s106 or funding legal agreement. In addition, the terms of some funding streams only enable the construction cost of a scheme to befunded, with the design costs having to be funded from County Council resources.
Local Growth Fund funded packages
2.8 A number of the schemes in the capital programme are to be funded from the Government’s Local Growth Fund. A total of over £64m of funding has been made availablethrough various rounds of the Growth Fund to fund transport schemes in East Sussex.
2.9 Funding has been awarded for the delivery of the following packages of local transport improvements which will support the housing and employment growthin the growth corridors around Eastbourne/South Wealden and Bexhill/Hastings:
· Hastings and Bexhill Movement and Access Package
· Eastbourne and South Wealden walking and cycling package
· Hailsham, Polegate and Eastbourne Sustainable Transport Corridor
2.10 The South East Local Enterprise Partnership (SELEP) has agreed an extension to the delivery of these packages, which form part of the capital programme of local transport improvements, beyond the original end of the growth deal period of 31 March 2021. Therefore, spend on these packages ideally needs to be achieved by March 2023, but there may be some further flexibility from the LEP should some spend go slightly beyond that date.
Road Safety
2.11 Historically, the capital programme has included a separate allocation for road safety measures to fund the implementation of engineering schemes at specific sites identified as having a high crash record. The number of specific sites identified has reduced over the years and the latest approach combines a mix of site specific and route based interventions. As part of the Strategic Casualty Reduction Programme, targeted engineering measures will continue to be introduced in response to problems identified through the ongoing analysis of crash data. Our road safety engineering work will be focussed on low cost traffic management measures (e.g., improvements to signing and lining) and targeted engineering works at identified sites and high risk sections of our A and B roads where crashes have occurred.
2.12 An allocation of £350,000 has been made in 2022/23 for the Road Safety Team to undertake a targeted enhancement approach to identified sites and routes where road safety issues have been identified but no specific site or causation factor may be evident. Precedence will be given to those sites of highest priority that have the potential to positively impact casualty reduction. The funding may be used in conjunction with other funding, if available, to maximise this impact.
Consultation on draft 2022/23 programme
2.13 The draft capital programme was circulated by email to all Councillors on 24 February 2022 for comment. Councillors were offered the opportunity to speak to officers about the schemes within the programme and whether they felt any schemes from previous year’s programmes had been omitted in error. It was requested that any comments to the programme be reported back through their transport spokesperson. Comments received will be reported verbally at the Lead Member’s decision-making meeting
3. Conclusion and Reasons for Recommendation
3.1 The draft capital 2022/23 programme of local transport improvements represents a balanced programme of improvements which will help deliver not only the objectives of the County Council’s Local Transport Plan but also contribute to achieving broader corporate objectives of reducing carbon emissions, support economic recovery and growth, and health and wellbeing.
3.2 It is therefore recommended that the funding approved by County Council, development contributions and Local Growth Fund monies identified to support the programme of local transport improvements for 2022/23 be allocated to the programme of schemes set out in Appendix 1.
RUPERT CLUBB
Director of Communities, Economy and Transport
Contact Officers: Andrew Keer/Chris Tree
Tel. No. 07876 878370
Email: andrew.keer@eastsussex.gov.uk / chris.tree@eastsussex.gov.uk
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