Agenda item

Coventry Very Light Rail

Report of the Director of Transportation and Highways

Minutes:

The Cabinet considered a report of the Director of Transportation and Highways, which provided a progress update on Coventry Very Light Rail, a flagship project for the Council.

 

The Coventry Strategic Transport Investment Strategy ‘Connecting Coventry’, approved by Council in January 2017, aims to maximise the economic potential of the city through investment in transport infrastructure to support growth and jobs.  It set out an ambitious £620m programme over the next ten years to improve the resilience of the road network, ensuring connectivity to job opportunities, expansion of railway capacity, including Coventry Very Light Rail (CVLR) and linking key development opportunities and employment sites.

 

A progress report in March 2018 provided an update on how the strategy had progressed and sought further approvals to take forward the schemes in the Strategy to delivery. 

 

The report now submitted provides a further update on Coventry’s Transport Strategy and outlined the City Region Sustainable Transport Settlement submission recently approved by the West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA) for submission to Government.  This made provision for securing funding for the CVLR project for the 2022-27 period, subject to Government approval.

 

The CVLR project is supported by Transport for West Midlands and has gained national and global interest.  Appendix 1 of the report outlined the VLR vision, progress to date, next steps and evidence of progress.  It was proposed that delivery of a City Centre CVLR Demonstrator be brought forward to showcase the City’s position as a world class centre for innovation.  The CVLR team will explore the viability of delivering the infrastructure required to operate a city demonstrator  between the Railway Station and Pool Meadow.  The report also outlined capital investment by the Council of up to £3.2m required to deliver the first route, the funding opportunities currently identified, together with the project’s funding requirements for the 2021/22 financial year.  This investment is essential in 2021/22 to deliver the following activities:

 

·  Enable progression of the business and commercial case for the first route.

·  Enable the procurement of the Outline Design Concept and Operations and Maintenance input for the first route.

·  Progression of the track workstream to enable Test Track facilities of the new track design to be procured and constructed. 

 

RESOLVED that the Cabinet recommend that Council:

 

1.  Approve the allocation of up to £3.2m corporate reserves to the CVLR programme activities to maintain programme which is working towards a delivery of a first route for Coventry at the earliest opportunity.

 

2.  Subject to approval of recommendation 1 above, delegate authority to the Director of Finance, following consultation with the Cabinet Member for Jobs, Regeneration and Climate Change, to determine the final allocation from corporate resources once the outcome of funding bids are known.

 

3.  Delegate authority to the Director of Transportation and Highways, following consultation with the Leader of the Council and the Cabinet Member for Jobs, Regeneration and Climate Change, to finalise and negotiate the terms of, and enter into, the relevant legal agreements as well as any associated documents deemed necessary pursuant to the procurements in relation to the CVLR activities.

Supporting documents: