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Report to:
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Lead Member for
Transport and Environment
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Date of
meeting:
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8 September
2025
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By:
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Director of
Communities, Economy and Transport
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Title:
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East Sussex Local
Transport Plan 4 (LTP4) - Funding Request Assessment
Process
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Purpose:
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To seek approval of a
revised process to assess and prioritise requests for transport
schemes included in the annual Capital Programme for Local
Transport Improvements, that is in alignment with the East Sussex
LTP4.
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RECOMMENDATIONS: The
Lead Member is recommended to:
(1)
agree the revisions
to the current scheme request assessment process, to ensure
alignment with the East Sussex Local Transport Plan 4
(LTP4);
(2)
note that the
approach will be subject to ongoing review to establish whether any
further changes are required to inform future
Capital Programmes
for Local Transport Improvements and any further revisions will be
reported to the Lead Member for Transport and Environment for
approval; and
(3)
note that
consideration will be required regarding the
anticipated changes
coming forward as part of the provision of
a longer-term funding settlement for
transport in association with proposed establishment of the Sussex
Mayoral Combined County Authority from May 2026.
1.
Background Information
1.1.
The East Sussex Local Transport Plan 4 (LTP4) was adopted by East
Sussex County Council at the Full Council meeting in October 2024.
This strategy embraces a planning for people and places approach
focusing on enabling and encouraging integrated journeys and
reducing the need to travel through land-use and planning policies
that support sustainable travel. It aims to encourage and enable
inclusive and sustainable travel modes (walking, wheeling, cycling
and public transport), adopting vehicles with cleaner fuels
alongside the utilisation of emerging transport technologies that
will help to achieve net-zero ambitions.
1.2.
With the change in policy direction for the authority as set out in
the East Sussex LTP4, there is a need to review the assessment
process for the prioritisation of small transport schemes received
via requests from either local councillors or the public. This
process enables measures to be prioritised for inclusion in the
County Council’s annual capital programme for local transport
improvements from 2026/27, that align to the priorities set out
within the new East Sussex LTP4, since the current assessment
process reflects the East Sussex Local Transport Plan 3
(LTP3).
1.3.
An extensive review has been undertaken with officers from the
Infrastructure Planning & Place and the Road Safety teams to
develop an approach that will provide a balanced capital programme
for local transport improvements for 2026/27. This work has
included assessing the length of time and knowledge needed to
complete an assessment, the length of time a high-level assessment
requires to be undertaken and whether to assess the LTP4 objectives
or outcomes. It also recognises that this is a tool that needs to
retain an element of professional officer judgement in developing
the final balanced programme of schemes. The new approach and tool
have been subject to testing as outlined in paragraphs 2.8 –
2.9.
1.4.
This report only applies to those schemes prioritised for inclusion
in the annual Capital Programme for Local Transport Improvements
using ring fenced integrated transport government grant funding
received annually and will not have any impact on shortlisting or
funding of other schemes including road safety improvements
delivered through the Speed Management Programme.
2.
Supporting Information
LTP3 Sifting
approach
2.1.
The LTP3 scheme prioritisation approach, previously developed and
approved by the Lead Member for Transport and Environment in 2011,
has been used as the basis for the review. This has been used to
assess and prioritise requests for schemes for inclusion in the
annual Capital Programme for Local Transport Improvements between
2012/13 and 2025/26. The LTP3 approach consists of 2 key assessment
stages:
(1)
A high-level
sifting approach. This stage assesses requests
against LTP3 priority investment areas (coastal towns), the scale
of impact and policies, which include the LTP3
objectives.
(2)
Detailed Appraisal
of schemes that progressed from stage 1. This stage reviews the policy
impact and priority area. It also considered potential risks, a
finance assessment and an indication of value for money.
Overview of
proposed East Sussex LTP4 – High Level Sift
approach
2.2.
The revised LTP4 request assessment process has been developed to
retain the initial high level sift and it is proposed to include
three key topic areas:
·
Request and
location information – this section identifies
the focus of the request and where it is located.
·
Policy Impact
(LTP4) – this section assesses how
the request aligns with the East Sussex LTP4’s objective
outcomes (all 26 objective outcomes are outlined in Appendix 1).
This is alongside an assessment of road safety crash
data.
·
Other –
alignment with other policies – this section enables
consideration of other policies within the department (i.e.
specific road safety policies) and whether the request links with
other existing or pipeline schemes that have allocated funding.
This is alongside provision for any other comments that may be
relevant for consideration at this early stage.
2.3.
Similar to the LTP3, the policy impacts of each scheme request will
be scored to support the decision-making process to inform which
schemes progress to detailed appraisal. Appendix 2 outlines the
topic areas that are considered as part of the assessment for LTP3
and LTP4 approaches.
Key differences
between the LTP3 and LTP4 sifting approach
2.4.
To ensure that the approach reflects the East Sussex LTP4, there
are 2 key differences between the existing LTP3 approach and the
proposed LTP4 related to sifting and detailed appraisal
approaches.
2.5.
Firstly, there is no weighting applied to road safety, economic
growth or the geographic extent (with a weighting previously
applied to schemes within the coastal towns). The East Sussex LTP4
objectives have an equal weighting.
2.6.
Secondly, the focus is on assessing requests received against the
26 East Sussex LTP4 outcomes rather than the 6 objectives. Due to
the comprehensive nature of the outcomes, it provides officers a
more nuanced and robust approach by considering each outcome
individually, rather than an overarching strategic objective.
Overview of
proposed East Sussex LTP4 detailed appraisal
approach
2.7.
Similar to the LTP3 assessment approach, the detailed appraisal
approach will consider:
·
Scheme details and
location – this includes the location
details and considers factors such as levels of
deprivation.
·
Policy assessment
(LTP4) – this reviews and updates
the policy assessment undertaken as part of the high level sift
assessment.
·
Risk
assessment – this assesses the
likelihood and scale for any early identified potential
risks.
·
Financial
assessment – this provides an early
estimated assessment of scheme costs.
·
Economic
assessment – this helps to identify
which requests are likely to provide value for money if
delivered.
Testing
2.8.
Early testing of the proposed approach has been undertaken with
officers from the Infrastructure Planning and Place and Road Safety
Teams. Testing has indicated that the location of schemes
prioritised changes (because of the removal of the weighting to the
geographic location of a scheme that was previously applied to the
coastal towns as part of the LTP3 scheme prioritisation process).As
outlined in paragraph 2.5 the East Sussex LTP4 objectives have an
equal weighting. However, the testing indicated that the top 10
prioritised schemes retain a distribution across both urban and
rural geographies.
2.9.
Intervention types that are requested more frequently by the public
(e.g. Active travel schemes, road safety related schemes), are
reflected more often in the top 10 schemes prioritised, and schemes
that are route based are more likely to score well.
Ongoing review of
LTP4 detailed appraisal approach
2.10.
The approach will be subject to ongoing review, following the
development of the annual Capital Programme for Local Transport
Improvements for 2026/27, to establish whether any further changes
are required to inform future transport capital programmes to
ensure that it is relevant and robust. The review will include any
feedback from the briefing session with the LTP4 Scrutiny Member
Reference Group held on 3 September 2025 and any subsequent
engagement. Any further revisions will be reported to the Lead
Member ahead of the decision-making meeting.
2.11.
It is also important to note that changes to funding are
anticipated from the UK Government. This is likely to include the
provision of a longer-term funding settlement for transport. This
is in association with devolution and the proposed establishment of
a Sussex Mayoral Combined County Authority across East Sussex,
Brighton and Hove and West Sussex in May 2026 and proposed local
government reorganisation which includes the proposed development
of a unitary authority in East Sussex.
2.12.
Therefore, the transport priorities for the wider Sussex geography
will be set by the new Mayor eventually through the development of
a joint LTP across the Sussex geography. We anticipate more
information becoming available in late 2025 and into 2026, which we
will need to consider in the context of this transport scheme
assessment process.
3.
Conclusion and Reasons
for Recommendations
3.1. 3.1 With the
change in policy direction for the authority as set out in the East
Sussex LTP4, the request assessment process, which includes both
the high level sift and the detailed appraisal assessment, have
been updated to reflect these changes. The proposed assessment
process will ensure that a balanced Capital Programme for Local
Transport Improvements is developed in 2026/27 which includes
schemes that align with the East Sussex LTP4.
3.2. To ensure that the approach
remains relevant and robust, a further review will be undertaken
following the development of the 2026/27 Capital Programme for
Local Transport Improvements. This will be timely as the Council
will also consider the anticipated changes coming forward as part
of the provision of a longer-term funding settlement for transport
in association with the proposed development of the Sussex Mayoral
Combined County Authority, which would come into effect in May
2026. If any further changes are required to the request assessment
process, this will then be reported to the Lead Member for
Transport and Environment to seek approval.
3.3. Therefore, it is recommended
that the Lead Member for Transport and Environment approves the
revised assessment process to enable the development of the Capital
Programme for Local Transport Improvements for 2026/27 which aligns
with the objectives and outcomes of the East Sussex Local Transport
Plan 4.
Director of
Communities, Economy and Transport
Contact Officer: Lisa
Simmonds
Tel. No.
07519 293 184
Email: lisa.simmonds@eastussex.gov.uk
LOCAL
MEMBERS
All Members
BACKGROUND
DOCUMENTS
Local Transport Plan 4
(https://www.eastsussex.gov.uk/roads-transport/transport-planning/local-transport-plan/local-transport-plan-4)