Issue - meetings

Report of the Deputy Chief Executive (Place)

The Cabinet considered a report of the Deputy Chief Executive (Place) that would also be considered by Council at its meeting on 13^th March 2018, that provided an update on how the Coventry’s Strategic Transport Investment Strategy ‘Connecting Coventry’ had progressed over the last 14 months, and sought further approvals to take forward to delivery.

Coventry’s Strategic Transport Investment Strategy ‘Connecting Coventry’ aimed to maximise the economic potential of the City through investment in transport infrastructure to support growth and jobs. The Strategy was approved by Council in January 2017 (their minute 100/16 referred). It set out an ambitious £620m Programme over the next ten years to improve the resilience of the road network, ensuring connectivity to HS2 and job opportunities around the new station, expansion of railway capacity and linking key development and employment sites.

This report provides an update on how the Strategy had progressed over the last 14 months, and sought further approvals to take forward to delivery.

The Strategy supported the transport infrastructure and development plans for the wider region, as detailed in Appendix 1 to the report. Coventry’s Programme was summarised in Appendix 2 to the report, which outlined four key programmes:

·  Coventry South – major highway and rail proposals to facilitate growth, especially around Jaguar Land Rover and the University of Warwick and to provide connectivity to HS2 and UK Central;

·  City Centre First – a major increase in capacity at Coventry Railway Station, highway improvements around the railway station to facilitate not only growth at the railway station but also unlock the western extent of the Friargate development; and City Centre infrastructure improvements;

·  Coventry North – road capacity improvements to the North West of the City and on the A444 and M6 junction 3;

·  Very Light Rail – investment in the research and development of Very Light Rail and subsequent implementation.

Investment was sought from a number of sources to fund the Strategic Transport Investment Programme. One of the main sources was through West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA) Devolution Deal. Coventry’s allocation was £284m (including £37m from the HS2 connectivity package), funding from which must be secured through a bidding process via WMCA’s assurance framework. Other key funding sources include Coventry and Warwickshire Local Enterprise Partnership (CWLEP) Local Growth Deal, Department for Transport (DfT), Highways England (HE), developer contributions and prudential borrowing. Excellent progress was being made, with the total funding secured now at £141m and further business cases were awaiting approval or were soon to be submitted.

The award of City of Culture 2021 status to Coventry offered a fantastic opportunity to boost growth for the City and wider sub-region. Having the transport infrastructure in place was critical to facilitate and maximise the benefits of City of Culture. This had prompted a review of the Programme and it was recommended that the Station Masterplan and City Centre infrastructure improvements were brought forward to be delivered by the end of 2020. 

It was important that City  ...  view the full minutes text for item 141