What is the LTP?
Local Transport Plans (LTP’s) are public documents that set out the highway authority’s policies, strategies, objectives and targets for improving transport in their communities.
An LTP normally covers a period of 5 years. Annual Progress reports are submitted in each subsequent year.
LTPs and APRs are submitted to the Department for Transport (DfT) so thay can be used to:
- Inform decisions on capital funding for local authorities;
- Inform the development of our policies on local transport; and
- Monitor the delivery of key national objectives and targets.
LTPs do not just focus on individual transport schemes, but take a broader view of how transport measures can help achieve wider and longer-term objectives. In implementing their LTPs, authorities can help to improve the quality of life of people who live and work in our towns, cities and countryside by encouraging social inclusion and helping people to get to jobs and the services they need.
In their Annual Progress Reports (APRs) authorities identify the progress that they are already making in delivering a range of schemes that improve accessibility to jobs and key services for all sectors of the community.
LTP’s contain five key elements:
- Objectives consistent with our overarching objectives for transport. These are: to improve safety, to promote accessibility, to contribute to an efficient economy, to promote integration and to protect the environment. The LTPs objectives should command widespread local support.
- An analysis of problems and opportunities;
- A long-term strategy to tackle the problems and deliver the LTP objectives. Potential solutions will need to be tested to establish the best combination of measures;
- A costed and affordable 5-year implementation programme of schemes and policy measures; and
- A set of targets and performance indicators and other outputs which can be used to assess whether the plan is delivering its objectives.
Further information on LTP’s and APR’s can be found on the Department for Transports web site.