REPORT NO 271/07 ANGUS COUNCIL INFRASTRUCTURE SERVICES COMMITTEE 8 MARCH 2007 DRAFT REGIONAL TRANSPORT STRATEGY REPORT BY THE DIRECTOR OF INFRASTRUCTURE SERVICES ABSTRACT This report notes that the draft Regional Transport Strategy for Tayside and Central Scotland Transport Partnership (TACTRAN) has been published for consultation and proposes a response on behalf of the Council. 1 RECOMMENDATION 1.1 The Committee are asked to i) note the publication of the draft Regional Transport Strategy; ii) approve the proposed response to the consultation detailed in Appendix 1. 2 DETAILS 2.1 Members will be aware of report 82/06 to Infrastructure Services Committee on 25 January 2007 which detailed the publication of the National Transport Strategy and noted the expected publication of the draft Regional Transport Strategy. 2.2 The draft Regional Transport Strategy was approved for consultation at the TACTRAN board meeting on the 16 January 2007 and was subsequently printed and published on the 22 January 2007. 2.3 A copy of the document has been placed in the Members’ lounge. Copies have also been distributed to libraries, ACCESS offices and Community Planning Partnerships. The document is available on the Intranet. Each member of Infrastructure Services Committee has also been provided with a copy. 2.4 As Members are aware the Council is represented on the TACTRAN Board by the Convener and Vice Convener of Infrastructure Committee. In addition officers of the Council are involved in the Regional Transport Partnership Management Team and Steering Group involved in the preparation of the Draft Regional Transport Strategy. 2.5 The significant issues within the strategy are outlined below: 2.6 Chapter 4 - Details the Trends and Issues within the area 2 2.7 Chapter 5 - Sets out the Preferred Strategy and Alternatives Considered. Members will note that the Preferred Strategy is a balance between three key strategic themes: Delivering economic prosperity Connecting communities and being socially inclusive Environmental sustainability and promoting health and well being 2.8 The alternative strategies involve weighting each of the three key strategic themes. 2.9 Chapter 6 details a variety of interventions which will deliver the proposed strategy, whilst Chapter 7 sets priorities for these interventions. The priorities are set as high, medium or low with timescales set in three bands, short-term (0-3 years); medium- term (3-10 years); and long-term (over 10 years). 2.10 Responses to the draft strategy are to be submitted by 16 March 2007 and consultation is currently ongoing with the various groups previously engaged with the Partnership on this subject and any other interested groups or individuals. 2.11 A proposed response to the consultation on behalf of Angus Council is included in Appendix 1 and Members are asked to approve this response. 2.12 The Partnership will consider the responses to the consultation in producing the finalised strategy and document before submitting to the Minister by the deadline of 31 March 2007. The document will be discussed at the TACTRAN meeting of 27 March 2007 prior to finalisation and submission to the Minister. 3 FINANCIAL IMPLICATIONS 3.1 There are no direct financial implications as the result of this report. 3.2 Future funding of transport schemes will be influenced by the Regional Transport Strategy for both capital and revenue funding. 4 HUMAN RIGHTS IMPLICATIONS 4.1 There are no human rights implications arising from the proposals in this report. 5 CONSULTATION 5.1 The Chief Executive, Director of Corporate Services, Head of Finance and Head of Law and Administration were consulted in the preparation of this report. 6 CONCLUSION 6.1 The draft Regional Transport Strategy has been issued for consultation and this report details a proposed response on behalf of the Council. ERIC S LOWSON DIRECTOR OF INFRASTRUCTURE SERVICES 3 NOTE: The following background papers, as defined by Section 50D of the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973 (other than any containing confidential or exempt information), were relied on to any material extent in preparing this Report:- Report No 82/06 – National Transport Strategy – 25 January 2007 Roads/IAC/PP 23 January 2007 REPORTS/reg.trans.strat 4 APPENDIX 1 DRAFT LETTER OF RESPONSE TO THE REGIONAL TRANSPORT STRATEGY WHICH FORMS THE APPENDIX TO THE REPORT TO THE INFRASTRUCTURE SERVICES COMMITTEE ON 8 MARCH 2007 Eric Guthrie Director of TACTRAN Etc, etc, Dear Mr Guthrie RESPONSE TO THE CONSULTATION ON THE TACTRAN REGIONAL TRANSPORT STRATEGY The TACTRAN Regional Transport Strategy was considered by the members of the Council’s Infrastructure Services Committee at its meeting on 8 March 2007. The report and the meeting considered a range of inputs from officers and members, resulting in a variety of observations and comments on the strategy ranging from some general observations to some very specific comments on detailed aspects of the strategy. Looking initially at general comments, whilst welcoming the development of a Regional Transport Strategy which tries to identify the issues facing the Region and individual parts of the Region, and also recognising the substantial amount of work which has been put into the development of the document by yourself, Council officers and consultants there were some concerns that the document is not easily understood by people reading it for the first time and coming new into the process. It is not clear who the document is aimed at. It is very technical in places and although section 1 does give a brief introduction to each section it does not explain the flow through the document and therefore it is difficult to follow through the document from the vision to the delivery of the objectives. It is therefore suggested that an expanded introduction is included in the document. It is also believed that it would benefit from a summary section to allow people to pick the elements which they feel they need to consider. I have set out below a variety of comments on each section of the strategy. They range from some questions of principle to some details on specific observations. Section 2 - The TACTRAN Region Page 2.4 – 2.6 Whilst the cross-boundary and inter-authority movements are interesting they are of little value in determining strategy because they relate to arbitrary local authority boundaries. They highlight the high level of commuting into the City of Dundee but they do not reflect for example the commuting from rural Perthshire into Perth. Page 2.4, Para 2.3.2 Reference is made to cross-boundary movements. It should be made clear that this is the boundary between TACTRAN and neighbouring transport authorities. 5 There is also some question over the quality of figures 2.4 and 2.5, particularly as the scale and size of the arrows are misleading as they do not reflect the scale of the movement. Page 2.8, para 2.3.6 The last sentence refers to the housing in the southern belt of the region which will exacerbate problems. It is not clear from this section what the southern belt refers to. This could be interpreted in a number of different ways. It would be beneficial if terms such as southern belt are to be used in the strategy that they are specifically identified either by defining the parts of the authorities that are included or by showing them in diagram. Page 2.10 Reference is made to the Tay Estuary Rail Study. This Council strongly supports the proposals within that study, the increased frequency of trains and increased stopping. However within this section there is a suggestion of the creation of new stations at Dundee West, Blackford and Greenloaning. Clearly, new stations are only viable if the train operators are prepared to stop at those stations and if stopping at those stations does not further restrict the use of existing stations to maintain speed and travel times. Page 2.15, para 2.3.27 This section is looking at a range of issues around community transport, rural transport and demand responsive transport. It is essential that the needs of all people with access difficulties are properly assessed and addressed. There have been exchanges of correspondence in recent months from the Executive concerning the use of rural bus grant and demand responsive transport and the transfer of these to transport partnerships. It is essential that this strategy sets out a balanced approach which identifies the specific needs and alternatives for provision to improve accessibility to all groups relating to their specific needs and the nature of the location. This should ensure that people with access needs in rural and urban areas have their needs assessed and that funding is distributed to tackle their needs. The strategy should also recognise the benefits of local input into these processes and local concerns at the proposals to re-allocate this funding to a regional control rather than to local authority control. Page 2.16, para 2.3.28 This section deals with Park & Ride and Park & Choose, which is an important element in providing an integrated transport service and for tackling congestion on strategic and local networks, particularly in relation to the three main cities within the TACTRAN area. It is important also not to see Park and Ride in isolation. Park & Ride needs to be looked at as part of an assessment for major route improvements, particularly if the congestion problems are restricted primarily to the peak periods. Removal of the congestions through the provision of Park & Ride facilities could remove the necessity for significant capital investment in the short, medium and long term. 6 Page 2.17, para 2.3.30 – 2.3.32 The variety of port and harbour facilities within the Region should be seen and heralded as a success and opportunity to provide improved accessibility and improved economic growth.