Heather Caldicott, Transport Strategy Officer, Rutland County Council

15 minutes for presentation and questions

1)            INTEGRATED TRANSPORT CAPITAL PROGRAMME UPDATE – Heather Caldicott, Transport Strategy Officer, Rutland County Council

Ms Caldicott gave a presentation on the changes to the Integrated Transport Capital Programme and the pivotal role of the Parish.

Key areas highlighted included:

i)              In November 2015 Cabinet approved a number of changes relating to the Integrated Transport Capital Programme.  Parishes had already been written to regarding the changes.

ii)             The Department for Transport (DfT) provided capital funding to the Council in two blocks; maintenance and integrated transport.  The Integrated Transport block was provided to the Council to help it fulfil its statutory duties through a highway capital programme.  Duties were to prepare a Local Transport Plan (LTP) and deliver the programme of works and policies set down with it; and to investigate accidents arising out of the use of vehicles on the highway and take appropriate measures to prevent such accidents.

iii)            The types of schemes that would be considered would vary, but examples included traffic calming measures such as speed indicator devices and pedestrian crossings as well as transport infrastructure schemes, such as new or improved cycleways or footways.

iv)           The majority of scheme requests would be generated by the local community.  The Council would also put forward proposals either through the outcome of accident investigations or other strategic identification.

v)            In the past more requests were received than funds available and as such a clear and fair mechanism was required for selecting which schemes received funding – this is why the prioritisation process was produced

vi)           Previously scheme requests came direct from residents and then the Parish Council and Ward Councillors were consulted as to whether they were in support of the initiative.  If the schemes w supported they would then be submitted to Cabinet for approval.

vii)          All schemes that came out of the process would have to be checked to ensure that they were compliant with the Council’s Traffic Calming Policy and Highway regulations.

viii)         There were three main changes approved by Cabinet which help to tighten the process up:

1.    Requests via the Parish – all requests must now come direct from a Parish Council, Town Council or Parish Meeting.  Residents wishing to put forward proposals should in the first instance contact their Parish who should then discuss the matter and decide if they wished to proceed and submit a scheme suggestion.   This would ensure that only those schemes that the Parishes supported were put forward.

2.    Way in which schemes are submitted – all scheme requests must be submitted direct from the Parish on a Scheme Request form that the Parish had completed.  It would be up to Parish Councils to put forward scheme requests on behalf of their residents.Parishes without a Meeting or Council – a resident can still make a scheme suggestion, however they will be required to get support from 8 other residents all on the electoral register for the Parish.  The resident making the submission must submit their request on a ‘Scheme Request Form for locations without a Parish Council or Meeting’.

3. The assessment process:

1.    Request received from a Parish.

2.    Ward Councillors consulted.

3.    Initial screening – if the proposal is supported it will be added to the list for initial screening.

4.    Outline design – schemes that pass the initial screening stage will be submitted in a report to Cabinet suggesting that they undergo an outline design stage.  If approved all schemes on this list would undergo outline design and costing and a benefit to cost ratio would be produced for each scheme.

5.    Benefit to cost ratio - all scheme suggestions will be ranked in order of their benefit to cost ratio and a report taken to Cabinet for approval.

6.    Construction – at this stage all schemes approved will move on to construction.

The following points were noted:

                      i.        That there was no limit on the number of requests that a Parish could submit.  There was an internal cut off point of August for new requests to allow for these to be compiled in time for consideration by Cabinet. The entire approval process would take two years. A notification letter would be sent out to all Parishes after each approval stage - providing notification of Cabinet’s decision.

                    ii.        Any additional funding contributions would be considered at the outline design stage.  Schemes would still need to be ranked.

                   iii.        Schemes already in the system would remain on the list unless there was a technical reason why not.  These schemes would be re assessed the following year and considered against all other schemes on the list.

Each year there was a duty to look into locations identified as accident cluster sites.  If a location was identified as a cluster site the Local Authority would look to see if there were any remedial engineering works that could be carried out. LTP3 detailed the methodology behind the benefit to cost ratio scoring – copies of LTP3 can be found online and at the local library.    The Council was in the process of upgrading to LTP4.

The Chairman thanked Miss Caldicott for her presentation.