Home > Local Transport Plans > Provisional LTP July 2005 (version for comments) > Setting Transport in its Wider Context

Government Guidance

Government sets the national framework with Acts of Parliament, Orders (Statutory Instruments) and Guidance. These provide the context within which other agencies, including LTP authorities, carry out their functions. The principal influences on our LTP2 are:

(a) The Transport Act, 2000
(b) The Future of Transport White Paper
(c) The Railways Act 2005
(d) The Future of Air Transport White Paper(e) Planning Policy Guidance / Statements
(f) Full Guidance on Local Transport Plans, Second Edition
(g) The Traffic Management Act 2004

These are described below:
(a) The Transport Act, 2000

This Act requires the preparation of LTPs by local transport authorities, individually or for combined areas. It requires authorities to take account of Government Guidance relating to LTPs and travel and transport issues. The Act governs many service delivery areas, such as local bus operations. It has a significant impact on LTPs and the delivery of travel and transport solutions.

(b) The Future of Transport White Paper

The Future of Transport sets out the Government’s transport strategy and basis for long term planning for the next 20 to 30 years. It recognises that demand for travel will increase, and contains a strategy built around three central themes: sustained investment, improvements in traffic management, and planning ahead.

This LTP2 provides the basis for the sustained investment identified principally in the West Midlands Area Multi-Modal Study, and recognised by Government in its £1 billion allocation response. It also fully accords with the Future of Transport themes of improving traffic management and planning ahead. Key elements of this LTP2 include options for making more efficient use of local roads, such as Red Routes, better Urban Traffic Control (UTC) systems, High Occupancy Vehicle lanes and allowing freight vehicles to use bus lanes. We have also been involved in Active Traffic Management on the M42 motorway, and have the country’s first tolled motorway in our region.

The Objectives of our LTP2 align with the White Paper’s underlying objective, which is to ensure that the transport system underpins the economic revitalisation of the West Midlands Metropolitan Area, contributes towards social inclusion, and moves towards a more sustainable pattern of development and growth. We must balance the needs to travel and to improve quality of life.

(c) The Railways Act 2005

The West Midlands lies at a vitally important crossroads in the national rail network. We also rely heavily on local rail services. Rail travel is both an opportunity and a cause for concern, as we seek to balance the needs of long-distance and local passengers.

The Railways Act follows on from the publication of the 2004 Future of Rail White Paper. The White paper recognised that a high proportion of track is shared by long-distance and local passenger traffic and by freight users. This is particularly significant in our Area. The White Paper also recognises that decisions which more directly affect local transport are best taken at a local or regional level, and should be linked with wider considerations, such as housing and regeneration.

Our LTP2 takes into account the Strategic Rail Authority’s development of its West Midlands Route Utilisation Strategy and work on the Regional Planning Assessment for the West Midlands.

The Act allows for Passenger Transport Authorities (PTAs) to vary service specification or fares, provided they bear the cost. This provides a possible opportunity to underpin the objectives of the LTP and delivery of schemes which meet the Transport Shared Priority. However, the prospect of the PTA / Centro ceasing to be a co-signatory to local rail franchises may severely undermine integrated public transport planning and provision.

Centro has been working with the DfT on the implications of the Railways Act. The new processes for specifying and funding local rail services have yet to be fully determined. It is expected that a baseline service specification will be defined, which Centro will be able to vary through agreements either with DfT or with train operating companies.

We are unable to take a view as to how we might wish to vary this baseline until it is defined and we are also unable, at this stage, to take a view on whether we might re-deploy resources between modes. So far, we fail to see any obvious opportunities for reducing rail services, given the high levels of use on most routes. The more likely scenario is that Centro will look to provide additional rail services above DfT’s baseline and will seek funding support.

(d) The Future of Air Transport White Paper

The Future of Air Transport sets out the Government’s long term aviation strategy. It acknowledges that Birmingham International Airport (BIA) is the principal airport in the West Midlands. Coventry Airport serves a niche role catering for air freight and flown mail and, like Wolverhampton Business Airport, has a presence in the business aviation market.

The Government’s preferred location for a new runway to meet future passenger demand in the Midlands is at BIA, provided measures are put in place to mitigate local impacts. Our LTP2 includes proposals to improve surface access to BIA in the short term.

The owner of Coventry Airport is also proposing further development. The scale and nature of this is currently under discussion.

(e) Planning Policy Guidance / Statements

These are statements of Government policy which guide land use, transport planning and associated decisions. Three are particularly relevant:

PPG3 promotes the provision of a decent home for all and re-use of brownfield sites. The three objectives which relate to transport are to:

PPG3 specifically commends local authorities to revise parking standards in order to provide significantly lower levels of off-street parking. It notes that an average of more than 1.5 off-street parking spaces per dwelling is unlikely to reflect the Government’s emphasis on securing sustainable residential environments.

PPS6 seeks to direct retail, office, leisure and other facilities, which generate large numbers of trips, to town centres. This will increase accessibility to all by a range of travel modes. It also encourages housing in town centres, to promote more sustainable development and less reliance on the car.

The three objectives of PPG13 are to:

PPG13 gives advice on the transport implications of development and land use decisions, on managing travel demand and traffic, and on encouraging sustainable travel modes. It also gives guidance on parking standards, and commends a consistent approach in order to avoid competition between locations over the supply or cost of parking, to the detriment of sustainable development.

(f) Full Guidance on Local Transport Plans: Second Edition

This Guidance sets out what LTP2s should include and explains the assessment criteria against which Government will score LTP2s. The score will affect the amount of capital resources allocated by Government to planned Integrated Transport expenditure. The score will also feed into each local transport authority’s Comprehensive Performance Assessment, carried out by the Audit Commission.

The Guidance places emphasis on ensuring that LTP2s are truly corporate documents, influenced by and influencing the whole of local government within their areas, and that they are set in the context of regional economic and spatial strategies. Our LTP2 follows the Guidance as closely as possible, much of which mirrors practices already in place in our Area. The aim is to produce a good LTP that provides a firm foundation for future investment in, and management of, transport to support the long term regeneration of the Metropolitan Area.

(g) The Traffic Management Act 2004

Part 2 of the Traffic Management Act, 2004, places new network management duties on local highway authorities. It is the duty of each authority to manage their road network with a view to achieving, so far as may be reasonably practicable having regard to their other obligations, policies and objectives to secure the expeditious movement of traffic on the authority’s road network and on road networks for which another authority is responsible. The Act requires each highway authority to appoint a Traffic Manager who is responsible for meeting this duty.

  1. Planning Policy Statement 6 (PPS6) is an updated version of Planning Guidance Note 6 (PPG6). It understood that PPSs will progressively replace other PPGs.