Stoking Employment Local Sustainable Transport Fund Tranche 2 Application Form Local Sustainable Transport Fund - Application Form Applicant Information Local transport authority name(s)*: Stoke-on-Trent City Council Senior Responsible Owner name and position: Pete Price: Assistant Director – Technical Services, City Renewal Directorate Bid Manager name and position: John Nichol: Strategic Manager Transportation and Engineering Contact telephone number: 01782 236178 Email address: [email protected] [email protected] Postal address: Civic Centre, Glebe Street, Stoke-on-Trent, ST4 1HH Website address for published bid: www.stoke.gov.uk/ltp Section A – Project description and funding profile A1. Project Name. Stoking Employment A2. Headline description: This package of sustainable transport interventions will improve access to three major employment sites and will significantly enhance the local economy through: • improved connectivity to jobs from areas of deprivation, resulting in better opportunities for employment of local residents; • helping to unlock 10,000 jobs; • an increased pool of labour available to businesses on the key employment sites. The package also includes measures specifically aimed at reducing levels of CO2 by: • increasing the number of employees travelling to the sites by sustainable modes; • providing better bus measures; increased travel planning, marketing and availability of information and implementation of walking / cycling initiatives. A3. Geographical area: Figure 1: Location plan Figure 1 shows the spatial area covered by this application. Stoke-on- Trent is a large city, with a population of approximately 239,000 people. It lies in an enviable strategic location, at the heart of the country, between the West Midlands and North West conurbations. This means that 90% of the UK population is accessible within 4 hours or less. The main north-south motorway arteries of the UK are the M6 and M1; both of which are readily accessible from Stoke-on-Trent. The M6, via junction 15, provides access from the west of the city and the M1 runs to the east of the city and is accessed by the A50. The M6 Toll provides rapid access around the Birmingham conurbation The West Coast Main Line runs through the City and following an extensive upgrade makes journey times to major cities easily commutable. During peak periods there are 3 trains an hour to London which is a 90 minutes journey. Despite this enviable strategic location the city has significant socio-economic and transport challenges. • Socio-Economic Challenges : Stoke-on-Trent has a rich history of coal mining, heavy manufacturing and producing pottery for worldwide distribution. However the sharp decline in these industries, within the region, has resulted in a number of challenges including pockets of the city where ‘joblessness’ is particularly high. Although there are opportunities for employment, poor transport linkages to these potential jobs, from the areas of deprivation, are seen as a major barrier to long term sustained employment. The health of residents within the city, when compared with national averages, is poor. This is as a result of complex interactions related to the declining economy, previous occupations in mining and steel, low aspirations, poverty leading to poor nutrition and low educational attainment. • Transport Challenges: Many of the travel problems in the area are caused by the unique polycentric structure of distinct settlements, unlike other British or Continental Cities. This results in many instances of poor accessibility from certain pockets of the city and a number of instances where public transport times compare unfavourably with those of the private motor vehicle. This bid, therefore, focuses on improving the accessibility, connectivity and use of sustainable travel modes (public transport, walking and cycling) to three strategic sites, in a broad North to South corridor, chosen for their: potential to offer employment to local residents (through existing jobs and potential to expand); the high rate of employees, on these sites, travelling to work using private motor vehicle (hence reducing carbon emissions); and the strong opportunity to encourage walking and cycling as viable modes of transportation . The three sites selected, from north to south, are: Chatterley Valley: This consists of mainly brownfield land which occupies a very prominent site adjacent to the A500. The development is currently comprised of a flagship enterprise centre, business centre, industrial unit workshops, warehousing, open space and associated highways, footpaths and landscaping. Etruria Valley: A strategic site located immediately off the A500 with close proximity to the City Centre. The majority of the site, known as Festival Park was formerly a 315 acre steelworks it now has over 600,000 sq ft of office and business space and over 400,000 sq ft of retail and leisure development already completed. The site includes a four star hotel, five restaurants, a multi- screen cinema, ten pin bowling and an indoor water complex. Etruria Valley is an extension of Festival Park with development which extends to 5 acres. Trentham Lakes: In a prime location, Trentham Lakes is a 400 acre mixed use business park with 65 acres of development land remaining. The site benefits from excellent connectivity with east/west link between M6 via A500 and M1 via the A50. Two million sq ft of business space has already been developed and has the potential to accommodate bespoke units up to approximately 300,000 sq ft. A4. Type of bid: Small project bid Tranche 2 bid A5. Total package cost (£m): 5.103* A6. Total DfT funding contribution sought (£m): 4.138 A7. Spend profile: £K 2011 -12 2012 -13 2013 -14 2014 -15 Total Revenue funding sought 465 933 805 2,203 Capital funding sought 785 720 430 1,935 Local contribution 291 424 250 965* Total 1,541 2,077 1,485 5,103 • If this bid is successful it will unlock a further £1,237k funding A8. Local contribution The Stoking Employment package will make much better use of our existing transport assets, in particular our new developer and City Council funded City Centre Bus Station. It seeks to enable operators to further improve the existing commercial bus services by growing patronage and enabling the network to expand into growing employment sites. The package will add value to our extensive cycle infrastructure recently enhanced through our Cycle Stoke cycle town programme. Significant local contributions to the scheme elements will be funded from our Integrated Transport Block (ITB) allocations together with over £0.965m from our own resources. A successful bid will also unlock a further £1,237m funding, predominantly from European funds, that will secure further benefits to the package. Our ITB allocations for 2012-13 have been confirmed allowing us to identify schemes to be part of the package. We will also provide contributions to the package from our indicative ITB allocations for 2013-14 and 2014-15. The total local contribution set out in A7 includes only quantifiable elements. The actual local contribution will be greater than this amount as the LSTF elements will lever in and help unlock further contributions, both financial and in kind delivering greater transport and wider economic benefits. Scheme Element 1: Better Bus Local contributions to this scheme element include £150k from Chatterley Valley developer contribution. A Section 106 contribution has been secured from this development towards travel planning and bus services, £50k per year from 2012/13 will help deliver the enhanced bus services of the better bus scheme element. £310k of ITB will also be used to help deliver congestion busting improvements to core bus network along the A50. This element will enable our bus operator partners to implement improved timetables and invest in fleet improvements, smart ticket machines, and vehicle tracking technology to further support the package. Furthermore it will support proposals by Staffordshire Police to make more use of local buses. Scheme Element 2: Smart Choices This element will help to grow our new Home to Work project that has started to provide transport initiatives to help unemployed Stoke-on-Trent residents to access employment. The new ERDF funded Home to Work project is an urban version of wheels to work. The project is specifically designed to overcome transport barriers such as cost and shift patterns that make access by public transport difficult. The project seeks to provide bespoke personal travel plans with support ranging from help planning walking and cycling through to bus passes, taxi fares and bicycle hire. The project is being delivered by the City Council’s Home to Work team working with partners including Job Centre Plus, Jobs Enterprise and Training (JET) and local employers. Over £700k has been approved from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and LSTF funding will be used to unlock this funding stream in full. The LSTF funding will help to unlock funds to help start public transport services and flexi taxi services that provide access to work not possible with current public transport services. Furthermore we will prioritise our Workplace Travel Plan Grants and the work of our Home to Work Employer Engagement Officer to support this element. Sustainable transport promotion by our partners as part of their Travel Plans at the employment sites, and also by local cycling and community groups, will also support this element. Scheme Element 3: Cycling and Walking This scheme element will enable better use of our existing network by tackling missing connections from deprived residential areas to the 3 employment sites. In Burslem Town Centre the LSTF works will enable Burslem Regeneration Company to access Heritage Lottery Funding for wider improvements to the historic public realm, further improving the environment of the town centre for cycling and walking. These improvements to the streets of Burslem will also unlock approved ERDF funding to continue the Townscape Heritage Initiative, further improving the vitality of Burslem and enabling jobs growth and affordable housing to be delivered.