Ken Evans (Chairman) South Wales Branch Institution of Highways and TransportationTel./ Fax 01597 822078email ken@wayside39.freeserve.co.uk For the attention of Siwan Davies, Committee Clerk : National Assembly for WalesI am pleased that our Institution has been consulted on the Policy Review of Public Transport in Wales .My response on behalf of IHT also represents the views of the Welsh Transport Strategy Group which involves the primary professional institutions associated within Transport in Wales, namely IHT, ICE, ILT, RTPI and RICS. Collectively, the above Institutions represent some 100,000 members in the UK.As such, we are aiming to provide a forum for dispassionate professional advice, which has the backing and resources of the Institutions referred to, to cover all aspects of land based transport, and towards this end we have already had informal meetings with Ms. S. Essex (AM) and Martin Evans NAFW Highway Directorate.The group endorse the proposal for continuation of the Transport Advisory Group to the National Assembly and I believe make a strong case for being represented on this advisory panel. The Professional Engineering Institution's in Wales (PEIW) is also endorsing our possible involvement with the National Assembly.It is evident to the group that there is a the fundamental and intrinsic link between Transport and Land Use and I enclose a copy of some of our "initial views" together with two short summaries, on "National and Regional Planning" and "Local Transport Plans", which identifies this link.(These views and summaries have already been made available to Martin Evans).In addition, I attach comments on the policy review prepared by my vice chairman Stuart Watkins who represents the Institution on the NAFW Land Use Planning Forum.I trust that you will find this contribution of interest, please do not hesitate to contact me in the event of requiring further assistance or advice on Transportation issues.  Ken Evans C Eng, MICE, FIHT.Chairman South Wales Branch Institution of Highways and TransportationEnclosures: WTSG Some Initial ViewsNational and Regional PlanningLocal Transport PlansStuart Watkins Comments THE WALES TRANSPORT STRATEGY GROUPSOME INITIAL VIEWSThe Wales Transport Strategy Group, WTSG, is a group created to provide a forum for those Institutions who have a professional involvement in transport issues as they affect Wales. As such, they have an interest in the problems of land use/transport planning. The aim is to bring together views and resolve differences so that a single professional appreciation can be developed. Specific problems can then be illuminated and advice offered to the National Assembly for Wales and other interested bodies. Solutions may be proposed within that overall context.The Group has an ' all Wales' membership with representatives of the: -The Institution of Highways and TransportationThe Institute of Logistics and TransportThe Institution of Civil Engineers (Transport Engineering Group)The Royal Town Planning InstituteThe Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors Nationally, these Institutions have a total membership of over 100,000.Historically, through their respective national headquarters they have put forward to government departments a professional and dispassionate view on a wide range of transport / land-use topics which have an influence on national policy. The Institution of Highways and Transportation in particular has continued to produce valuable technical guidelines for the use of all professionals involved in transport.Accordingly, we have prepared two 'summaries', which are attached, on "National and Regional Planning" and "Local Transport Plans" and which have been distilled from responses each Institution has made to Central Government consultation, on strategic planning and associated topics.These summaries have been drafted by Welsh professionals to provide a consensus document specific to Wales and give a fuller background to the main points in this document. Welsh professionals have also contributed significantly to central professional responses.The very great interdependence between land-use and transport is emphasised at the outset. Changes in either lead to changes in the other. Furthermore, land use changes at a greater rate than is sometimes perceived, the mean rate of all changes being about 4% per annum but fluctuating considerably from place to place.However, to date, land-use and transport policies and their implementation, each with it's own legislative framework, have followed their own separate lines from central government down through local authorities. Land-use policy frameworks have been set for the Local Authorities to deliver, whilst primary transport elements i.e. trunk roads have been the responsibility of the Welsh Office.   In England Regional Development Agencies have been established with no equivalent arrangements for Wales (so far). It is self evident with 22 local planning authorities for Wales, strategic planning relies on voluntary co-ordination within an overall framework.In Wales, too often, there has been little interaction between various departments within authorities, between authorities and between professional groupings. The collection of information through Local Authorities has not been co-ordinated and inadequate data exists from which sound analysis may be made and numerate conclusions drawn.In Wales, three key issues probably need to be addressed with the likelihood of unique welsh solutions: -

• Development and implementation of regional planning policy which recognises the interdependency of land-use with transport and supports sustainable development.
• Investment in public transport, major strategic routes and transport infrastructure to improve the accessibility and economic growth which would suit the diverse nature of Welsh urban and rural areas.
• The need for a clearly defined hierarchical and professional structure, to enable integrated regional transport policies to be established and implemented.

In the Government's White Paper and other documents, including the public debate, the interdependence between land-use planning and transport investments and the complexity of behaviour involved has not been given explicit, or even implicit, recognition. For this reason, we believe that initially, the National Assembly might concentrate on the issues of planning, financing and the provision of adequate skills as emphasised above.Transport and planning policies should be developed together, in order to improve the quality of life for all people, by reducing congestion and pollution while enabling the regeneration of the 'poorer' areas.In particular, the use of income from road charging and parking is essential, if Local Authorities are to have funding available to make the steep changes in the quality of public transport infrastructure and services that will be required, to provide an attractive alternative to the private car. Without these funding streams,, the changes between the choice of public and private transport will not occur.However, the main danger lies in a lack of uniformity in application. There is a need for clear and unequivocal regional guidance to ensure that policies and spending are not applied unevenly and inconsistently but combine together to achieve an optimum whole. Especially, the overall system should ensure that all new developments are made accessible to public transport.A major cultural change has to be engineered. The need to travel must be reduced, certainly in areas of high density, and similar mechanisms to those which have been used to bring about a reduction in smoking could be adapted to change behaviour. Many skills need to be involved to achieve this goal.Any hierarchical structure should have as its basis an adequate and clearly defused administrative and technical/professional framework, which can cross local authority boundaries.Necessary data should be collected on a national basis, for proper forecasting, analysis and comparison of strategic options to be made, so that the optimum economic whole may be identified.In Wales, no academic 'centre of excellence' in this particular field exists to complement the professional structure, but there are several in England. In addition, while many problems are general, each region of the UK features unique aspects which require particular treatment. In addition it is important, for Welsh reasons, that its particular needs should be studied in-situ.At the initiative of the WTSG, Glamorgan University, with the co-operation of the School of Engineering, Cardiff University, has undertaken the task of providing a chair and creating a Wales Transport Research Centre in the discipline of land-use/transport interaction, with particular regard to Welsh problems. The Centre will devise and run courses for the training of future professionals and carry out research in the discipline. It is to be hoped that this initiative will be given a fair wind and will be supported by the National Assembly and other relevant bodies. NATIONAL AND REGIONAL PLANNINGAll the Institutions have responded to recent deliberations of government as set out, for example, in

• The Integrated Transport White Paper September 1998
• All Aboard: Support for Local Transport and Travel

(Submission to the Audit Commission) January 1999

• Draft Guidance on Local Transport Plans January 1999
• Breaking the Log Jam March 1999
• Regional Planning Guidance Notes PPG I and PPG 1 2 April 1999
• The National Assembly for Wales and Planning Functions

All Institution responses and the Introduction to this paper underpin the need for Joint land-use/transport planning.Consequently, the word transport has been added to the earlier recommendations to the National Assembly on Planning Functions. Two specific recommendations were highlighted.1. The land-use/(transport) planning system needs to be linked effectively to overall social and economic policies and programmes.2. The need for an appropriate level of strategic land-use/(transport) planning.Indeed the word transport is covered in the text of the latter response, but the issue is given greater importance here. While it was envisaged that planning activity would continue to be handled by each Local Authority individually a "Strategy" was deemed necessary, particularly at the large scale in which the Assembly should play a greater part than, traditionally, the Welsh Office had done.It is evident that issues of housing, transport, employment, countryside protection and so on, all of which may be listed under the land-use/Transport interaction, are of a greater geographical impact than the individual areas of the 22 planning authorities in Wales.One Institution has proposed, nationally, a radical top down approach featuring Regional Planning Authorities of an appropriate scale. It is considered that this is necessary if the aims of the White Paper are to be achieved and the distribution of effort and resources is to be deployed equitably and efficiently.The danger of too many agencies with responsibility for transport needs to be avoided and the responsibilities of Regional Planning Authorities should be well defused in relation to

• The National Strategic Road Network
• The Strategic Rail Authority
• Local Authorities for local road networks, local Transport Plans and Land Use Planning
• In particular they should be responsible for
• Regional Planning for Land Use/Transport, setting a framework for Land use planning
• Integrated development of strategic transport networks in liaison with the Assembly and the Strategic Rail Authority
• Co-ordination of Local Authority policies
• Securing comprehensive traveller information

The consistency of the integrated plans for regional transport and local transport plans should be the responsibility of the Regional Development Agencies. The Regional Transport Strategy should focus on interurban networks especially linking to other regions and overseas. Within this overall administrative structure, specialist task groups are needed to deal with improved standards of data keeping, analytical techniques and for the evaluation and ready take up of innovative ideas.It was also proposed that there should be an inversion of the usual procedure for fitting transport into new development. It was felt that the transport network, including walking and cycling provision should be determined first and new housing clustered so as to provide the optimum economic arrangement.The group would like to see the National Assembly take a much more active part in managing the whole process and feel the above proposal merits consideration. LOCAL TRANSPORT PLANSCrucial to the planning process are the proposals for the creation of Local Transport Plans (LTP's). The successful integration of national policies with transport policies will go a long way to meet the Government's goals of creating

• A safe and efficient transport system which will maintain and enhance UK competitiveness
• A better more integrated transport system, together with better arrangements for walkers and cyclists
• A more environmentally sustainable transport system
• A better more strategic integration of transport and land-use planning

However, this will all depend on action undertaken at the national and regional level, but implemented locally via LTP'S. This in turn will depend upon the level of resources available to, local authorities, including skilled personnel.The need for a hierarchical approach to land-use planning starting top down with LTPs being the outcome of strategic planning arises from the very interdependence between transport and land-use, and, indeed, with other national policies. The issue of redistribution, as a consequence of restraint is of crucial importance, as a trip restrained is not necessarily a trip saved since the effect may be to divert it elsewhere. The process of redistribution needs to be taken into account at the national and regional level and the outcome taken onboard in the compilation of LTP'S.It was redistribution, engendered by improved mobility, that lead to the increase in average journey length of inter-urban trips experienced on the motorway network. The National Road Traffic Forecasts (Great Britain) 1997 shows the possibility that road traffic will increase by 32% to 73% over the next 30 years despite the possibility of saturation in vehicle ownership in that time. Even the lower of these increases would lead to great problems of congestion and damage to the environment and the economy. The importance of LTPs taking account of the Road Traffic Reduction Acts cannot be underestimated. However, it is again stressed that the regional consequences of restraint in one area for the prospects in another have to be accounted for.The intention set out in Government papers is to introduce primary legislation to make the production of LTPs a statutory requirement. It may be better to introduce it on an administrative basis. This would provide an opportunity to test the system, make improvements and provide a practical and interactive relationship with Unitary Development Plans (UDP's) for all the reasons given above.It is also thought that the Transport Grant System should not be separated from the Local Transport Plans procedure. Everything that can be done to ensure that land-use and transport planning are integrated from the top down should be done.The relationship between Welsh planning guidance and development plans should be studied to see how the plans can be integrated with a strategic scheme of spatial development and transport network, which the National Assembly may develop. Conclusions must take account of the emerging regional planning strategies and the administrative structure developed to plot the strategies.The charge that "The ultimate aim is to ensure that the land-use and transport strategy of the development plan and the transport implementation programme strategy of the LTP are consistent and integrated with each other" is thoroughly endorsed and the overall structure should be devised to this end. Transport needs flow from land-use decisions and land-use opportunities also arise from existing and proposed transport developments. This cannot be overemphasised and should not be forgotten when plans and programmes are being preparedIt also leads to a questioning of the plan period and review arrangements. The LTDP is expected to provide for land-use over a 15-year period whereas the LPT system covers a 5-year time span with annual progress reports. This does not address how schemes which may require a five to ten year period of implementation fit with the longer term transport strategy. The ultimate aim may be better achieved by modifying the system, but, meanwhile, the LTPs should be flexible enough to accommodate outline proposals for the integrated land-use/transport system for the 5 to 15 year period.In any case the top down approach to planning is advocated and draft guidance should reflect this view by dealing initially with the process for the production of LPTs followed by their coverage. The draft guidance should also state, with greater clarity, the objectives of the LTPs in addition to being a mechanism for allocating capital expenditure. Since integrated planning will require revenue expenditure for transport, and possibly for some aspects of demand management, the limitation of LTPs to capital funding must be questioned.The guidance given in the Government papers suggests that Local Highway Authorities will take the lead in producing LTPs as they did for TTPS. If LTPs are to include the planning and co-ordination of integrated transport, including the management of funding from local road users and Private-Non-Residential (PNR) parking, then it is desirable to designate a Local Authority Officer who would be responsible for integrated transport. The Officer would take charge of producing the LTP and supervise specialist skilled staff needed for its preparation. The Officer would ensure the co-ordination of inputs relating to highways, public transport, cycling, walking and land use developments, including necessary major maintenance and reconstruction where these have an impact on implementation. POLICY REVIEW OF PUBLIC TRANSPORT IN WALES( Comments by Stuart Watkins )

1. Introduction

The Welsh Policy Statement : ' transporting Wales into the future ' recognised that improved public transport is essential to the introduction of fully integrated transport systems. To this end, the policy put forward included :

• Putting bus Quality Partnerships on a statutory basis;
• Introducing powers to allow bus Quality Contracts where Quality Partnerships prove to be inadequate;
• Devoting an increased proportion of Transport Grant funding to local authorities for public transport projects;
• Encouraging improved interchange, timetabling, information and ticketing; and
• Encouraging rail operators to carry out improvements.

The first strategic plan of the National Assembly betterwales.com has pledged to develop a better coordinated and sustainable transport system to support local communities and the creation of a prosperous economy. This is to be achieved through initiatives which include :

• Local Transport Plans;
• Bus Strategies prepared by local authorities by 2003;
• Better public and community transport to increase social inclusion by increasing subsidies on socially necessary bus services, extending the bus network, free concessionary fares for pensioners and encouraging community transport schemes;
• An All-Wales rail franchise; and
• A national information service for all public transport.

Local authorities have recently produced Local Transport Plans and submitted applications for funding of public transport and community transport schemes under Transport Grant and Welsh Transport Grant. The recent announcement by the Strategic Rail Authority that a single franchise is to be let to cover Wales and the Marches represents significant progress towards improving rail services within Wales and it is noted that a short-list of eight bidders has been announced. However, it is somewhat disconcerting that this process would appear to be entirely at the discretion of the SRA without the National Assembly having any significant influence over the situation. The UK Government should be lobbied to give the Assembly a stronger voice with regard to future rail services to and in Wales.It is noted that a national information service for public transport in Wales has recently commenced operation.The foregoing indicates that, not only has a significant change in transport policy occurred in Wales, but that some progress has also been made towards realisation of the objectives that have been set. However, welcome as the initiatives taken to date are, there are further steps needed, if the specific transport needs of Wales are to be met in a distinctive way. 

1. THE NEED FOR A NATIONAL/REGIONAL STATEGIC FRAMEWORK

The strategic plan betterwales recognises the need to create a new vision for the future by developing a new national spatial framework for planning, setting a clear context for sustainable development and environmental quality. It also agrees to set out a new transport policy which puts the emphasis on achieving accessibility and strengthens the Assembly’s ability to support local and regional solutions. This implies that a National Transport Plan will be required, which might provide an overview of the strategic transport needs of Wales identifying the most pressing problems to be addressed. This would need to include a public transport development strategy to be prepared in consultation with users and operators.There is general recognition of the need for an All-Wales Spatial Framework and Transport Strategy. It is also important that the Assembly continues to provide encouragement and guidance to ensure that the regional dimension in Wales is placed on a more positive and formal basis than hitherto. This will require joint working of local authorities and others within the four regional divisions now being used in Wales. For public transport planning to be effectively achieved, there is need for guidance to be provided by the Assembly at the All-Wales and Regional levels. When determining public transport needs, travel corridors and journey to work catchment areas are important, particularly when considering peak travel periods. Public transport services will cross local authority boundaries, as will community transport and concessionary fare needs. This will, therefore, also often rely on joint working between local authorities and co-ordination between Unitary Development Plans, Local Transport Plans and Local Air Quality Plans. In preparing such plans, guidance is needed on public transport accessibility criteria, especially bearing in mind the differing situations in major urban areas, market towns, Valley communities, 'pressurised’ rural areas and 'remoter’ rural areas.