AGENDA ITEM: 5/4

CABINET: 24 March 2009

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Report of: Interim Policy Services Manager

Relevant Portfolio Holder: Councillor Forshaw

Contact: Peter Bradford (Extn. 5166) (E-mail: [email protected]) ______

SUBJECT: WEST INTEGRATED TRANSPORT ACTION PLAN ______

District wide interest

1.0 PURPOSE OF THE REPORT

1.1 To obtain support for the Integrated Transport Action Plan prepared by the Local Strategic Partnership Thematic Group for integrated transport.

2.0 RECOMMENDATIONS

2.1 That Actions 1, 2 and 3 of the Integrated Transport Action Plan for West Lancashire be endorsed and officers be authorised to assist in implementing the proposed actions, subject to the availability of resources.

2.2 That a decision on Action 4 concerning a demand responsive bus service for be deferred pending consideration of a Business Plan and resource availability at a future Cabinet meeting.

2.3 That Lancashire County Council is requested to take forward the implementation of the action plan and to ensure that the future work includes improvements that will benefit the rural areas of West Lancashire and specifically the least accessible areas of , Crawford, Great Altcar, , and Newburgh. 3.0 BACKGROUND

3.1 A key objective of the Sustainable Community Strategy (SCS) for West Lancashire 2007-2017 is to provide good quality services that are accessible to all. To assist in achieving this objective a priority project of the Local Strategic Partnership (LSP) is the Integrated Transport project. This project was set up to look for imaginative ways to provide sustainable public transport to improve access to key services.

3.2 A Thematic Group of the LSP was set up to look at the issue and to prepare an action plan. The first task of the group was to commission a strategic review of passenger transport in West Lancashire. This study was funded through the LSP second Homes fund and match funding from Lancashire County Council. The aim of the study was to analyse key issues, relevant information and explore opportunities for improvements to passenger transport in the District. The report by consultants WSP was published in May 2008. The report concluded with a number of recommendations including improved marketing and information to increase the usage of existing public transport; consideration of a demand responsive employment bus service; improved joint working between demand responsive providers such as a one-stop booking service and improved rail infrastructure; integrated ticketing.

4.0 CURRENT POSITION

4.1 The Thematic Group has produced the Action Plan in Appendix 1. This sets out four main actions and then provides more detail on how these actions will be achieved. These four actions are:

x Develop and introduce a travel information and marketing strategy to increase awareness of existing passenger transport services and the circulation of more effective travel information. x Develop a responsive relationship between passenger transport and LCC to improve integration, service quality, information sources and infrastructure provision. x Introduce a One Stop Shop for the booking of community transport and DRT building on principles developed by the proposed Burnley and Pendle project. This would potentially involve the Dial-a Ride operation in a shared solution. x Changes to demand responsive transport provision, in particular a new operation to effectively serve the Skelmersdale area.

4.2 The action plan contains a timetable and identifies lead officers from Lancashire County Council to oversee Implementation. 5.0 ISSUES

5.1 The Assistant Chief Executive has chaired the thematic group and has been assisted by officers from Lancashire County Council and the voluntary sector. Following changes to the LSP constitution the Portfolio Holder for Planning and Transportation will now lead the thematic group.

5.2 Following approval by the LSP and Cabinet there is clearly a lot of work involved in taking forward the action plan. One challenge will be to deliver a sustainable solution to the transport needs of the sparsely populated rural areas of the District.

5.3 The WSP report highlights the fact that four areas are highlighted as having the lowest level of accessibility in West Lancashire. Bickerstaffe, Crawford, Great Altcar and Holmeswood all score only 1 on the accessibility index.

5.4 The report goes on to state that Bickerstaffe, Crawford, Great Altcar and Holmeswood are not served by any regular bus services at any time of the week. Some are served by low frequency services (e.g. the 319 which serves Bickerstaffe and runs once every 2½ hours). Others (such as Great Altcar) are not served by any scheduled services, and rely solely on demand responsive services for connectivity. In addition to these settlements, Roby Mill (2) and Newburgh (3) were identified as also having particularly low accessibility scores. In the case of Newburgh, this is perhaps surprising given its location on a major A-road. However, the lack of evening or Sunday services, and the low frequency of services at other times, mean that it scores relatively poorly.

5.5 The issue of transport provision in Bickerstaffe has been discussed by the Executive Overview and Scrutiny Committee. It was agreed by Cabinet that the issue of public transport in all rural areas, including Bickerstaffe, should be addressed in this report. The Action Plan does not make specific mention of rural areas and therefore does not pick out Bickerstaffe as a particular priority. However many of the proposals could lead to improvements in rural areas.

6.0 PROPOSALS

6.1 It is proposed that the District Council endorse the Action Plan and that the thematic group continues to drive forward its implementation. It is also proposed that the Thematic Working Group ensures that the future work includes improvements that will benefit the rural areas and specifically the least accessible areas of Bickerstaffe, Crawford, Great Altcar, Holmeswood, Roby Mill and Newburgh.

7.0 SUSTAINABILITY IMPLICATIONS/COMMUNITY STRATEGY

7.1 Improved public transport meets a key objective of the Sustainable Community Strategy. It assists in reducing carbon emissions and in allowing better access to work and other facilities that benefit the well being of the local community. 8.0 FINANCIAL AND RESOURCE IMPLICATIONS

8.1 Although much of the work falls upon the County Council it will involve some District Council officer time. The District Council part fund Dial-a-Ride and the County Council provides the majority of their grant funding. There is nothing in the capital or revenue budgets to contribute to integrated transport, which is a County Council function, but there is some money in the form of Section 106 developer contributions which could be used to improve means of transport (other than by car) to certain employment sites.

9.0 RISK ASSESSMENT

9.1 There is a risk that funding is not sufficient to create a transport system that is sustainable in the long term.

10.0 CONCLUSIONS

10.1 The thematic group are to be congratulated in bringing forth a concise plan of action to improve accessibility in the District. The Council should its support implementation in partnership with Lancashire County Council, the transport operators and other stakeholders. The Council should also ensure that the work on the Action Plans considers the needs of rural areas and specifically the least accessible areas of Bickerstaffe, Crawford, Great Altcar, Holmeswood, Roby Mill and Newburgh.

Background Documents

The following background documents (as defined in Section 100D (5) of the Local Government Act 1972) have been relied on to a material extent in preparing this Report.

Date Document File Ref May 2008 West Lancashire Integrated Transport Review TR.13

Equality Impact Assessment

There is no evidence from an initial assessment of an adverse impact on equality in relation to the equality target groups.

Appendices

West Lancashire LSP Integrated Transport Thematic Group Action Plan 2008-2009.