Agenda item

Briefing Note of the Director of Law and Governance

The Business, Economy and Enterprise Scrutiny Board (3) received a report and presentation from Alex Greatholder and David Harris of Transport for the West Midlands on the West Midlands Local Transport Plan Core Strategy Engagement.

Under the Transport Act 2000, Local Transport Authorities have a duty to produce and review a Local Transport Plan.  As a consequence of the Local Transport Act 2008 and the WMCA Order 2016, the WMCA is the Local Transport Authority for the seven constituent metropolitan districts / boroughs.  The Local Transport Plan will align the core priorities of the WMCA, ensuring that all future funding bids and transport activity is optimised to meet the corporate aims and objectives agreed by the WMCA Board in November 2021. 

Local Transport Plans must set out policies for the promotion and encouragement of safe, integrated, efficient and economic transport to, from and within the Local Transport Authority area along with proposals for the implementation of those policies.  The Local Transport Plan carries statutory weight in a range of decisions made by many public authorities as they execute their functions under their relevant statutory provisions.  It is a critical document for ensuring the West Midlands public’s interests with regards to transport and its impacts are considered in such decisions. The Local Transport Plan must be developed collaboratively between the WMCA, as the Local Transport Authority, and the seven constituent authorities and implemented in partnership with other agencies and organisations such as National Highways, Network Rail and public transport operators.

There have been significant changes to policy context including changes to the political, social and economic landscapes which have implications for transport policy and plans.  Most significant of these were the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and the challenge of climate change, with the WMCA declaring a climate emergency in 2019 and committing to ambitious plans of becoming a net zero region by 2041.

The first West Midlands 2041 five year carbon plan (WM2041) was approved and adopted by the WMCA Board in March 2021. This set out a priority for WMCA to support changes in travel behaviours through reduction in car usage and a much higher modal share of public transport and cycling.  A key deliverable for WMCA was producing a new Local Transport Plan which is aligned to WM2041.  In July 2021, Transport for West Midlands published the ‘Reimagining Transport in the West Midlands’ Green Paper.  The purpose of the Green Paper was to start a conversation with politicians, public and stakeholders on how transport policy and strategy in the West Midlands could change.  The focus was to engage on how the region could better respond to the big challenges it faces, including responding to the economic downturn and the climate emergency, as described in the Green Paper through five ‘Motives for Change’.  Engagement on the Green Paper over the summer of 2021 resulted in over 600 full responses to the public survey and 20 detailed responses from a range of stakeholders.  A summary of the results of the engagement were set out at Appendix 1 of the report.

In addition, over the last 18 months there have been a number of policy statements from Government which have placed an emphasis on transports role in responding to the need rapidly decarbonise, deliver the levelling up agenda, and supporting the post pandemic recovery of the UK.  The Government have made it clear that local authorities will be expected to take the lead on bold decisions to influence how people travel and to take local action to make the best use of space.  Further Local Transport Plan guidance is expected to be published by the Department for Transport in early 2022 and future funding decisions are likely to be directly informed by the level of reductions which are evidenced.

Investment in transport would remain critical to support the region’s growth outcomes, enable modal shift and improve accessibility, especially in traditionally under-served and deprived areas of the region.  The Local Transport Plan will help continue to make a strong case for transport investment, such as the City Regional Sustainable Transport Settlement, which would play a critical role in opening up opportunities for communities across the region.

The Board noted that, despite the positive progress being made, there was a need for more fundamental change. The current approach was largely focussed on improving alternatives and informing travellers so they understand the benefits of using those alternatives. Whilst continuing to invest in the alternatives to the car was going to continue to be important, this alone would not be sufficient to generate the kinds of behaviour change needed to meet curent aims.

Having reviewed the impact of the current approach and modelling different scenarios along with the policies and programmes in place now, the scale and pace of change needed would not be met.  Based on current actions the WM2041 target for carbon reduction, and even the UK 2050 climate change emissions targets would also not be met.  Ultimately, without a change in direction, transport risks becoming a handbrake on the greener, fairer inclusive growth the region wants to deliver.  The importance of demand management to achieving behaviour change was understood and it was acknowledged that Government policy was channelling local government towards such measures.

A challenge for the new LTP would be honesty about the need to manage demand to help deliver the scale of behaviour change required and about the consequences of not taking appropriate action.  The plan was being developed to account for this challenging position.  It is being honest about the need for a demand management approach to help the transport system deliver against the region’s wider objectives and vision.  Engagement with the public and stakeholders would need to be on-going and more extensive than ever before. 

The West Midlands would also need to be realistic and clear over what is and is not within the gift of local leadership.  There needs to be an understanding that appropriate local action on local streets can help give a quieter and healthier urban environment, but that more transformational behaviour change would require broader consensus across the country and national leadership. Ultimately one regional area will struggle to be radically transformational without risking unintended and disadvantageous consequences for its economy.  Conversely, change adopted at a similar pace and more uniformly across the country means concerns over economic displacement effects could be managed and companies can plan and deliver national operating protocols with more confidence.  This latter point is particularly relevant to the freight, logistics and automotive industries which the West Midlands is a national leader in.  Given the above context, the approach to developing and implementing change would need to be different.  To respond to this, the new LTP would have a dynamic and flexible approach to transport policy and delivery.  A dynamic plan, which is regularly reviewed, would enable an on-going discussion with members and the public on how and where progress can be made on more or less difficult pathways. The draft Core Strategy sets out a policy tool kit framed within 6 Big Moves, from which WMCA, TfWM and local authorities will need to develop their delivery plans.

The Big Moves policies would be detailed further in a series of additional LTP documents to be developed and consulted on during 2022.  The Board were advised that, in addition, TfWM would be working with local authorities to develop a suite of Area Strategies within the framework of LTP policies. These would sit beneath the Core Strategy and alongside the Big Moves and would translate the policy tool kit into local areas.

The Board noted that the West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA) Board had approved the draft Core Strategy for consultation on 14^th January 2022.  The consultation engagement started on 7^th February 2022 and would run until 4^th April 2022.

Having received the presentation and considered the report submitted, the Board highlighted a number of issues that would need to be considered in the relation to Coventry, including:

·  The need for an affordable transport system;

·  Existing and future demands for bus use, including bus subsidy;

·  The impact of home working on travel requirements;

·  Changing mindsets to ‘is this a necessary journey’;

·  Recognising the Coventry is distinctly different to other cities if a modal shift is to be achieved;

·  Consideration of water routes, such as the local canals;

·  Understanding that electric vehicles are not the only answer.

RESOLVED that, the Business, Economy and Enterprise Scrutiny Board (3):

1)  Note the proposed approach and progress on development of the West Midlands Local Transport Plan (LTP) and the publication of the West Midlands Transport LTP Core Strategy for consultation.

2)  Provide comments and views on proposed vision and approach for the new West Midlands Local Transport Plan and what it means for Coventry.

3)  Note the approach for developing the LTP Big Moves and Area Strategies through to Summer 2022.

4)  Advise how TfWM and Coventry officers can support and work with elected members in communicating and building awareness of the issues the LTP seeks to tackle and developing improved engagement with communities on how we can start to change travel behaviours.