Final LTP March 2006

Travel and transport affects everyone, but its effects are sometimes different on different sectors of society.  People living close to a motorway suffer noise and gaseous pollution more than those living is a wholly residential area.  Inner urban area residents experience the impacts of greater traffic volumes more than those living on the edge of our Area.  Inequalities are commonplace in many aspects of society and the LTP2 seeks to help redress those associated with travel and transport.

An independent Equalities Assessment of the Provisional LTP2 (PLTP2) has been undertaken to highlight relevant issues.  It concluded that the PLTP2 “is acceptable from the equality perspective but could benefit from a more robust and creative approach to the very real challenges, especially given the diversity of the area and recent problems in relation to race”.

The Assessment contains a range of comments and recommendations relating the wider issues of travel and transport, some of which are societal (examples include anti-social behaviour and racism) and not directly related to LTP2 policies and programmes.  However, the corporate nature of the LTP2 and its preparation and delivery means that the wider issues will be addressed by the relevant agencies.  An example of this is the multi-agency approach, led by Centro, to tackling all forms of anti-social behaviour, including fare evasion, on local bus services.

The following paragraphs address the issues raised in the Equalities Assessment and this section brings together issues that were already identified in the PLTP2, together with new material, that more clearly demonstrates the commitment of the Metropolitan Authorities to equality issues and how these are being addressed through transport investment.

Equality is a constant thread through the work of the Metropolitan Authorities but, with regard to development of the LTP2 and implementation of transport strategies and schemes, it is demonstrably important at four stages:

1. Discovering the Issues

2. Developing the Plan

3. Communicating the Strategy

4. Individual Scheme Development

These are discussed below:

(a)  Discovering the Issues

Transport issues arise through many aspects of the Metropolitan Authorities’ everyday work.  The Authorities have Visions for their areas and a range of plans and strategies, including Corporate Plans and Unitary Development Plans, and they work with Local Strategic Partnerships.  All this helps guide and co-ordinate work towards achieving the Vision.  The LTP2 builds on, rather than duplicates, such work which often reveals concerns about travel and transport generally, as well as specific issues - for example, providing better bus services.

The development of the Vision, and its achievement, is overseen by each Authorities’ elected Members who contribute knowledge and experience of issues specific to their Wards.  Thus, in addition to specific consultation and research inputs, the views of a wide range of people and stakeholders are directly or indirectly taken into account.

Stakeholder and public consultation has been dealt with briefly in the preceding section “Involving Local Partners, Stakeholders and the Public”, with further details in the Consultation Appendix. 

(b)  Developing the Plan

Whilst the LTP2 is clearly focused on the four themes of the Transport Shared Priority, together with regeneration and quality of life objectives, the strategy aims to be as inclusive as possible.  It is recognised that, in order to be successfully implemented, the LTP2’s proposals and related expenditure programmes and actions need to be acceptable to as many people as possible across all parts of our Area.  With this at the forefront, the LTP2 steers a path through conflicting demands and aspirations aiming to balance choice with persuasion, thereby making our Area an easier place within which to travel, whilst seeking to minimise the impacts of travel and transport on residents and business.

Accessibility is a key issue in the LTP2 and is a vital component of social inclusion.  Our Accessibility Strategy recognises that different people have different needs and aims to meet and balance those needs as best possible.  One assertion is that if everyone had access to a car, everyone would have total accessibility.  However, this is flawed because if everyone were to drive everywhere, the result is likely to be much worse congestion, effectively reducing accessibility whilst leading to more accidents and pollution and a poorer environment, poorer health and other adverse effects on the quality of life for many people.  Furthermore, not everyone can ever drive, including those who are too young, too old or have a condition that precludes driving.

For those able to drive, but who do not own a car for whatever reason, we recognise the role of car sharing, car hire and car clubs.  These can overcome accessibility problems whilst avoiding the need to own a car which appears to be directly linked to increased car use, often for journeys that are better made by other means.

Road safety is a matter that affects different sectors of society unequally, with a greater accident rate amongst children and those living in inner urban areas.  Due to the greater proportions of ethnic minority populations living in inner urban areas, road safety issues and education has an added dimension.

(c)  Communicating the Strategy

This takes place at two levels, one creating a better understanding of transport issues across the whole Area, the other focusing on specific elements of the Strategy.

In carrying out our 2004 public consultation we used free newspapers that are distributed to households across our Area.  This approach reaches those who do not normally buy newspapers, irrespective of where they live.  We invited respondents to give specific personal information which allowed us to identify groups who were not represented in a way proportionate to their presence in our Area.  This allowed us to organise focus groups in different parts of our Area to capture the views of minority groups and to test those views against the overall outcomes.

In both the 2004 and 2005 public consultations, we offered translations into the most common ethnic languages.   Additionally, during the 2005 consultation, we offered an ethnic languages freephone service to answer questions or to provide a translated version of the consultation leaflet.  The 2005 consultation was also available on our website (http://westmidlandsltp.gov.uk/)

Centro has appointed a Ethnic Communities Liaison Officer whose key objective is to promote and increase the use of public transport by members of ethnic minority communities.  This Officer also assists with the ongoing development and implementation of the relevant customer-facing aspects of the WMPTA/Centro's Corporate Equality Policy and Race Equality Scheme

In these ways, we have endeavoured to ensure that people, irrespective of background, are aware of the issues and that their views can be taken into account alongside those of the general population.

(d)  Individual Scheme Development

There is no single model for inclusion with regard to individual scheme development.  Schemes themselves vary from high profile projects such as developing new Metro lines to minor road safety or traffic management schemes that has equally important but locally limited benefits.  The expected impacts of individual schemes and their specific location strongly influence how local people and different sectors of society are drawn into the development process.

Improving people’s travel conditions and opportunities relies just as much on on-going revenue-based schemes.  Such schemes as Ring & Ride aims to offer travel opportunities to those unable to use main-stream public transport.  There are a myriad of Community Transport schemes across our Area, many of which cater for the needs of specific groups.  We recognise the importance of these and the Authorities support their activities within the ever-present revenue budgetary constraints.