Cabinet 20 June 2013 Warwickshire Major Transport Schemes Ranking 2015-19
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Item 4 Cabinet 20 June 2013 Warwickshire Major Transport Schemes Ranking 2015-19 Recommendation That Cabinet agrees the ranking for Major Transport Scheme investment for the period 2015-19 as set out in Appendix A of this report. 1.0 Background 1.1 At its meeting on 31st January 2013, Cabinet approved the outline principles and structure of the Coventry and Warwickshire Local Transport Body (LTB). Cabinet also agreed representation from the County Council on the LTB. 1.2 LTBs are a voluntary partnership between Local Authorities, Local Enterprise Partnerships and other organisations. They have been formed to oversee the devolved funding from Government for local major transport schemes for the next Comprehensive Spending Review (CSR) period (2015/16-2018/19). 1.3 The primary role of LTBs is to: • Decide which local major schemes should be prioritised; • Review and approve individual business cases for those investments; and • Oversee the effective delivery of the programme. 1.4 The indicative level of devolved local major transport scheme funding for Coventry and Warwickshire over the four year CSR period is £21.5M, with a range of £13-27M based upon the Department for Transport (DfT) suggested one third above and below as a planning assumption. A firm allocation will be provided after the next CSR. 1.5 Although it will no longer have responsibility for selecting and approving individual schemes, DfT is required to ensure that the devolved system provides appropriate safeguards for the use of public funds and that value for money will be delivered. As such, each LTB has been required to prepare an Assurance Framework which sets out the proposed governance and working arrangements of the LTB, and the process by which a prioritised list of Major Scheme priorities will be prepared for submission to DfT. 1.6 This report provides an update on the establishment of the Coventry and Warwickshire LTB, explains the process which has been adopted to identify potential Major Schemes within Coventry and Warwickshire, and outlines the 04 Major Transport Schemes Cab 13.06.20 1 of 11 methodology that will be used to prepare a prioritised programme of schemes for the 2015-19 period within the context of the indicative budget. It had been the intention to also seek approval from Cabinet for the final version of the LTB Assurance Framework; however feedback from DfT in relation to Part 3 of the document is still awaited. This issue will therefore need to come to a future meeting of Cabinet. 1.7 The LTB is due to meet on 12th July 2013 to agree a provisional list of priority schemes within Coventry and Warwickshire for the period 2015-19. A decision by Cabinet on Warwickshire’s preferred priorities will provide a clear steer for the County Council’s representatives on the LTB. 2.0 Membership and Establishment of the LTB 2.1 The membership of the Coventry and Warwickshire LTB is based on a simple structure which combines ‘voting’ and ‘advisory’ roles. The voting element of the Coventry and Warwickshire LTB is as follows: • Coventry City Council, as the Highway Authority for Coventry (Cllr Lynnette Kelly); • Centro, as the West Midlands Integrated Transport Authority for Coventry (Cllr John McNicholas); • Warwickshire County Council, as both the Highway and Transport Authority for Warwickshire (Cllr Peter Butlin and Cllr Alan Cockburn); • Coventry and Warwickshire Local Enterprise Partnership (Paul Kehoe and Bruce Undy). 2.2 The advisory membership of the LTB will be non-voting and flexible, with representation as a minimum invited from DfT, Network Rail, Highways Agency and key passenger and freight operators. 2.3 Following the meeting of Cabinet at the end of January 2013, the first meeting of the ‘shadow’ LTB was held on 8th February 2013. The purpose of the meeting was to elect a Chair and Vice-Chair, review the preparation of the draft LTB Assurance Framework and identify a timescale and process for its final approval. At the meeting, Cllr McNicholas was elected as Chair of the LTB until May 2014. Cllr Cockburn was elected as Vice Chair. 2.4 Following approval by all LTB members, the LTB Assurance Framework was submitted to DfT by the required deadline. The LTB has subsequently received some feedback in relation to Parts 1 and 2 of the document, none of which change it fundamentally. Comments on Part 3 are awaited. Once the Assurance Framework has been approved by DfT, it is proposed that the LTB will move from ‘shadow’ to fully established form. 3.0 Identification of Potential Future Major Schemes 3.1 As noted earlier, the principal responsibility of the Coventry and Warwickshire LTB in the short term is to identify a provisional programme of local major transport schemes for 2015-19 before considering the allocation of funding. 04 Major Transport Schemes Cab 13.06.20 2 of 11 Once this has been submitted to Government at the end of July 2013, the LTB will then become responsible for receiving detailed scheme business cases, before deciding whether or not to allocate funding. 3.2 Under the previous process, DfT set a minimum threshold of £5M for individual Major Schemes. In line with Government guidance, the Coventry and Warwickshire LTB has set a revised minimum threshold of £1M for each scheme. 3.3 In order to begin identifying potential future Major Schemes within Coventry and Warwickshire for the period 2015-19, a Transport Conference was held at the Coventry Transport Museum on 28th September 2012. An initial call for schemes was announced at the Conference, whereby individual scheme promoters were encouraged to submit a scheme proforma detailing the outline of the scheme, along with its likely costs and benefits. This process was repeated in May 2013 to identify any further proposals and allow existing scheme promoters to submit further information. Consultation has also been carried out with all five District/Borough Councils within Warwickshire, along with adjoining Local Enterprise Partnerships and LTBs. 3.4 As a potential scheme promoter, the County Council has submitted the following schemes to the LTB for consideration in the prioritisation process: • NUCKLE Phase 2 (Kenilworth Station) • Kingsbury Rail Station • Galley Common Rail Station • A426 Avon Mill/Hunters Lane Improvement • A428 Lawford Road/Addison Road Improvement Four further schemes have been promoted by other parties which are relevant to Warwickshire: • Water Orton Rail Capacity Enhancements – promoted by Centro • Snow Hill Line Rail Enhancements – promoted by Centro) • Avon Rail Link (Stratford-upon-Avon to Honeybourne rail line reopening) – promoted by the Shakespeare Line Promotion Group • Stratford Eastern Relief Road, including a third river crossing – promoted by Stratford District Council Brief details and the recommended ranking for each of these schemes are provided in Appendix A. 3.5 Cabinet is asked to agree its scheme ranking. Recommended rankings are set out in Appendix A. Warwickshire’s ranking will feed into the identification of a provisional list of priority schemes to be agreed by the LTB before being submitted to Government at the end of July 2013. 3.6 Other funding sources become available from time to time which this Council can compete for. For example in recent weeks £5M funding has been secured for Kenilworth Station from the New Stations Fund. This has reduced the 04 Major Transport Schemes Cab 13.06.20 3 of 11 amount required from devolved major scheme funding. To ensure that there are sufficient schemes to fully utilise the available devolved funding by 2019 further schemes in Warwickshire will be identified over the next few months. It is expected that there will be opportunities to add to the list of priorities approved by the LTB in the next few months. The list in Appendix A should therefore be regarded as an interim list. 4.0 Major Scheme Prioritisation Process 4.1 The detailed methodology for the Major Scheme prioritisation process being undertaken by the LTB is set out within the LTB Assurance Framework. Essentially the assessment will be carried out over a two stage process: (i) An initial sift of the long list of schemes received by the LTB, based on deliverability and strategic/local fit with objectives and policy; and (ii) A more detailed assessment of each scheme on the short list identified by the initial sifting process. 4.2 The prioritisation work is being undertaken by a Technical Officer Group on behalf of the LTB. The County Council is represented on this Group. An independent audit of this work will be carried out by a Transport Consultant before it is presented to the LTB on 12th July 2013. Three scenarios will be presented to the LTB in line with DfT requirements for a programme of Major Transport Schemes for the period 2015-19 based on: • The advised planning assumption of £21.5M; • The advised planning assumption of £21.5M plus 30%; and • The advised planning assumption of £21.5M less 30%. In each scenario a balanced programme of schemes will be proposed to demonstrate that investment will come forward throughout the four year plan. This reflects the fact that whilst some of the more advanced schemes could be deliverable early in the 2015-19 period, others will require substantially more work to be undertaken and are unlikely to come forward until later in the plan. 4.3 It is worth noting that the LTB is only required at this stage to prepare a provisional list of Major Transport Scheme priorities for DfT. This list will be subject to review in the future, which will allow the County Council to reconsider its priorities if circumstances have changed, or if other priorities have emerged. Officers are in the process of identifying what further schemes the Authority may wish to promote in the future, particularly in light of the emerging District/Borough Core Strategy/Local Plan growth proposals.