Memorandum by the South West Public Transport
Users Forum (SWPTUF) (RG 15)
1. The South West Public Transport Users'
Forum CIC (SWPTUF) exists to carry on activities which benefit
the community and in particular to make representations in the
interests of public transport users in the South West of England
(comprising the counties of Cornwall, Devon, Dorset, Gloucestershire,
Somerset and Wiltshire and the unitary authorities of Bath and
North East Somerset, Bournemouth, Bristol, North Somerset, Plymouth,
Poole, South Gloucestershire, Swindon and Torbay). It was registered
as a community interest company in August 2005. SWPTUF's origins
are in an organisation of the same name, established in 2001,
using powers granted to the Rail Passengers' Committee for Western
England by the Railways Act 1993.
2. The original forum grew out of discussions
between the Social & Economic Partners' Group of the South
West Regional Assembly and the statutory Rail Passengers' Committee
for Western England. The forum linked almost 100 not-for-profit
organisations with an interest in promoting the interests of public
transport users in the South West region. One of the purposes
of this forum was to provide policy guidance to the member of
the Regional Assembly's Social & Economic Partners' Group
who was appointed to represent the views of public transport users.
The RPC provided funding and administrative support for the original
organisation. The forum was overseen by a steering group that
included representatives from the RPC, the National Federation
of Bus Users (now Bus Users UK), Transport 2000, the SW Transport
Activists' Roundtable and Railfuture. Following enactment of the
Railways Act 2005 and the consequent abolition of the Rail Passengers'
Committee for Western England the Forum was re-established as
a social enterprise. It now receives financial support from the
South West Regional Assembly and local authorities in the region,
as well as from public transport operators and equipment providers.
SWPTUF is the sole representative body for public transport users
throughout the South West region and its representative continues
to sit as a Social, Economic & Environmental Partner in the
South West Regional Assembly and as a member of the Advisory Group
that advises the Board of the South West of England Regional Development
Agency on infrastructure issues.
3. Sister organisations have developed in
three other English regions. Each has its own characteristics
and corporate form. Their commonality is a cross-modal approach
to public transport issues and engagement in the work of their
relevant regional institutions. These regionally-based organisations
meet at a national level on a quarterly basis with a view to their
further development, identifying common research activities (eg,
trends in bus fare increases), exchanging information on issues
of common interest that span regional boundaries (eg, rail franchise
specification and tendering), delegating collective representation
on national policy matters (eg, contributing to the work of the
Transport Select Committee on train fares and ticketing) and in
exchanging experiences of best practice (eg, research on multimodal
ticketing).
4. From SWPTUF's perspective, the existence
of the South West Regional Assembly and its willingness to receive
representations from a wide range of stakeholders—some of
them, like SWPTUF, giving access to otherwise hard-to-reach groups—has
had some useful effects. First, it a regional partnership that
has enabled representation of the views of public transport users
to those charged with developing strategies and with providing
public transport service. Secondly, it has brought about an improved
consideration of the needs of public transport users and of the
contribution that high quality public transport can make towards
alleviating the problems, for both car users and those dependent
on public transport, of access, economic regeneration and congestion
in the context of spatial planning. Thirdly, the mechanism of
the Regional Assembly enables local authority members to bring
their experience to bear on matters from a more disinterested
perspective than might be the case were they operating on a purely
local canvass. When prioritising local schemes for inclusion in
regional bids there appears to be growing recognition—possibly
stimulated by the presence of social, economic and environmental
partner stakeholders with a regional perspective—that the
challenge is to identify what such schemes can do for the overall
welfare of the region as well as their benefit to the authority
member's locality. Fourthly—and this, to some extent, is
another aspect of the previous point—the existence of a
body at regional level that comprises both nominees from every
local authority in the region, as well as properly accountable
representatives of the region's social, economic and environmental
stakeholder groups, has enabled the region to develop thinking
on some realistic but challenging policy options. Evidence of
the South West Regional Assembly's preparedness to take "tough"
policy decisions is reflected in the transport policies it has
developed as part of its emerging statutory Regional Spatial Strategy.
The assembly argued that congestion and urban renewal should be
tackled through a framework for new transport investment that
combines a "step change" in public transport linked
with stronger demand management measures in the region's strategically
significant cities and towns. The relative insulation of local
authority Assembly members from immediate electoral pressures,
combined with the willingness of the Social, Economic and Environmental
Partner members to draw on their own regional standing, enabled
the Assembly to show leadership on "tough" policy issues;
in more exposed electoral conditions, the temptation might have
been to kick such decisions into touch. In other words, the Regional
Assembly may act as a catalyst for action on necessary but difficult
issues: measures for which local authorities might not wish to
take responsibility, however sympathetic to the need for intervention,
can be attributed to the Regional Assembly.
5. It was against this background that SWPTUF
developed its own contribution to the preparation of the Regional
Spatial Strategy for the period to 2026. This took the form of
a draft Regional Public Transport Strategy which was developed
over the two years from 2003-05. The process involved public consultations
and workshops with stakeholders throughout the region. SWPTUF
was able to put forward a draft Regional Public Transport Strategy
which won the unanimous, enthusiastic support of the Regional
Assembly's Social, Economic & Environmental Partners. It addressed
the problems of urban congestion, social exclusion and economic
regeneration by carefully developing solutions around the linked
concepts of high quality public transport provision and the introduction
of appropriate demand management measures. This approach has been
echoed subsequently in the South West's draft Regional Spatial
Strategy and in the region's advice to the Government on the Regional
Funding Allocation over the period to 2016 of the next three Comprehensive
Spending Reviews. This would have been difficult to achieve in
the absence of a regional assembly: the temptation would have
been to seek alliances and trade-offs between local authorities
in pursuit of long-cherished local aspirations rather than to
address the need for regional prioritisation on the basis of the
consistency with national and regional policies, a proper evidence
base, stakeholder buy-in and deliverability required by the Government.
6. THE POTENTIAL
FOR INCREASING
THE ACCOUNTABILITY
OF DECISION-MAKING
AT THE
REGIONAL AND
SUB-REGIONAL
LEVEL, AND
THE NEED
TO SIMPLIFY
EXISTING ARRANGEMENTS
(a) As indicated above, SWPTUF welcomes
the increased accountability reflected in the development of the
South West Regional Assembly and the mutually agreed arrangements
for the Assembly's scrutiny and strategic reviews of the South
West Regional Development Agency's key policies (thus enabling
the Assembly to discharge its duties as the designated regional
chamber under the Regional Development Agencies Act, 1998). We
believe that these have contributed to regional coherence and
the preparation of strategies will help the region address future
challenges in ways that are likely to gain wider endorsement than
would otherwise have been the case. That is not to say that all
is perfect.
(b) The fact that members of the Regional
Assembly are sheltered from public election clearly limits its
potential and credibility. It provides potent fuel for those who
regard regional assemblies as an unnecessary and undemocratic
bureaucratic imposition. There is even a sense that terms like
"Assembly" or "Regional Chamber" are a reflection
of deceit, for the body is clearly not a regional legislature.
At its best, and in the absence of direct elections, the current
institution is a vehicle for the promotion of Regional Partnership
working—bringing together each of the local authorities
whilst maintaining a political balance that reflects the share
of vote taken by each of the significant political groups in the
region and the key regional stakeholders, representing social,
economic and environmental interests. The participation of these
stakeholders (who are required to be able to demonstrate a mechanism
for effective representation and feedback to the bodies and networks
to whom they are accountable, all of which must be able to represent
the region as a whole) does something to provide a nexus with
the people of the region in the absence of direct election of
the local authority representatives.
(c) As a social enterprise that seeks to
benefit the wider community, particularly the interests of public
transport users, SWPTUF is well aware that important elements
of regionally-relevant decision-making presently lie outside the
direct influence of the Regional Assembly. The Government Office
for the South West, which represents central government in the
region, has executive and strategic responsibilities that impact
on the lives of those living in the region. Some of these responsibilities,
such as those for public health, education and community safety,
may have a determining impact on the delivery of such as the Regional
Spatial Strategy (for which the Regional Assembly is responsible)
yet these responsibilities are discharged without any accountability
to the Regional Assembly. This is a barrier to "joined-up"
thinking and a potentially weak link in the chain of accountability.
(d) A number of public sector bodies—such
as the Highways Agency and, until its abolition, the Strategic
Rail Authority in the transport field—suffer from a inadequate
connection with the Regional Assembly. This can give rise to conflicting
strategies. This became increasingly evident in the work of the
Strategic Rail Authority with, for example, its Route Utilisation
Strategy for the Great Western Main Line and with its subsequent
Invitation to Tender document that it issued in connection with
the new Greater Western Franchise during the course of 2005. In
both cases, the Authority proved itself unwilling to take account
of the emerging evidence-based conclusions around the "refresh"
of the Regional Economic Strategy and the Regional Spatial Strategy.
This work showed that the South West Region is likely to experience
a continuing high level of population growth over the next twenty
years, particularly amongst the older demographic groups. This
latter point has particular implications for public transport
provision as did the emerging Regional Spatial Strategy with its
emphasis on the role that public transport would in future play
in helping the region to address urban congestion and regeneration
and inter-regional connectivity issues. The SRA, and its successors
at the DfT, appeared unwilling to acknowledge the relevance and
authority of the region's planning work and persisted in its assumptions
of low growth. Interestingly, FirstGroup is reported to have based
its successful franchise bid on the basis of projections that
are more closely aligned with those of the region. The point remains,
however, that the opportunity to draw on or, indeed, influence
the views of some key public sector organisations is weakened
by the apparently arbitrary way in which they contribute to and
draw on the benefits of Regional Partnership working. This does
not facilitate coordinated and informed planning.
(e) This situation may arise because of
a perception that, due to financial constraints, the staffing
of the Regional Assembly is under resourced. The Assembly certainly
and properly makes extensive use of the expertise of third parties,
whether local authorities, Government Office South West, the Regional
Development Agency or consultants. But in the absence of sufficient
in-house expertise and with the existence of a number of public
bodies whose strategies help determine life in the region, but
who remain determinedly unaccountable to it, it is inevitable
that attention is diverted away from the Assembly to those third
parties.
(f) We are mindful that a number of key
areas for public sector decision making and intervention in the
region are vested nationally. We welcomed the government's initial
moves to engage regional stakeholders in determining the financial
priorities for their region in relation to Devolving Decision-Making.
We note the outstanding aspiration of the ODPM, Treasury and DfT
that funding for rail services in the regions might receive similar
treatment and look with admiration and some envy at the achievements
in the public transport sector of the devolved administrations.
The power to shape strategies should be matched by the power to
advise on the disposition of funds—particularly in those
areas that are crucial to realising those strategies for which
the region has already been given responsibility.
7. THE POTENTIAL
FOR DEVOLUTION
OF POWERS
FROM REGIONAL
TO LOCAL
LEVEL
(a) The South West region has the largest
land area of any of the nine English regions yet it has the lowest
population density. The population is predominantly rural while
its principal settlements have established clear identities, which
they tend to guard with fierce independence of one another. To
some extent their distinctiveness from other parts of England
is a unifying factor, as is the sense that the South West is outside
the mainstream of national concern, other than in the August holiday
season or as people contemplate retirement.
(b) It is notable that the working of the
Regional Assembly is characterised increasingly by a constructive
collegiality and the three main political parties within the Assembly
all now seem committed to consensual working in the region's interest.
That is not to deny any tensions within the wider region. The
UK Independence Party is inclined to portray the South West Regional
Assembly as a vassal institution of the European Commission while
the geographic peripherality and economic and social disparities
of Cornwall (reflected in its EU Objective One status) reinforce
Cornish sensibilities of Cornwall's "difference".
(c) From a public transport perspective
the region is remarkably self-contained, with the exception of
that part around Bournemouth, Christchurch, Poole and south Dorset.
In large part it is the English spatial legacy of the Great Western
Railway and the old sub-regional bus companies like Bristol Omnibus,
Western National and Devon General. There can be no doubt that
the activities of the Regional assembly have realised the opportunity
to bring greater coherence to transport planning without under-estimating
the continuing need for strong sub-regional management if the
needs of the urban conurbations and their rural hinterland are
to be accommodated successfully. The activities of the Joint Strategic
Planning & Transportation Unit, which serves the four unitary
authorities that formerly comprised the County of Avon (Bristol,
Bath & North East Somerset, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire),
is an example of sub-regional collaboration in the region. Its
shortcomings are also a reminder of the difficulties that a major
urban conurbation and its travel-to-work area encounter when they
are denied the benefits of a Passenger Transport Executive, especially
where there may be underlying tensions between constituent parts.
Sub-regionalism has its limitations too.
8. THE EFFECTIVENESS
OF CURRENT
ARRANGEMENTS FOR
MANAGING SERVICES
AT THEIR
VARIOUS LEVELS
AND THEIR
INTER-RELATIONSHIPS
(a) A useful distinction can be made in
the transport field between the strategic work that is done at
the regional level and the execution that is carried out through
Local Transport Plans (LTPs). At the strategic level a coherent
regional Transport Strategy has only begun to emerge in the context
of the current work on the draft Regional Spatial Strategy. In
future it is important that Local Transport Plans should reflect
this over-arching strategic work. We are still in an era where
traditional local authority boundaries have an undue impact on
the provision of services or concessions, particularly in matters
related to public service provision of bus services or in relation
to concessionary fares' schemes. The Regional Assembly needs to
develop mechanisms to ensure the strategic compliance of LTPs
with its Regional Transport Strategy and, by examining carefully
those areas where there may be conflict, identifying the short-comings
in its own thinking.
(b) The effectiveness of the region is constrained
by its geographic extent—Tewkesbury in the north of the
region is nearer to Scotland than it is to Penzance—and
by the arbitrary nature of some of its boundaries. The population
of the Christchurch-Bournemouth-Poole conurbation almost certainly
feels greater affinity with Southampton than it does with Bristol
or Swindon or Plymouth. This is scarcely surprising: not only
do the principal transport corridors favour these links but Christchurch
and Bournemouth were part of Hampshire until 1974. Likewise, towns
such as Ashchurch and Tewkesbury in the northern fringe of the
region are almost certainly influenced by their closer proximity
to Birmingham than to Bristol. It is possible that people's perceptions
of what forms a region that is recognisable and appropriate to
them are more influenced by the vagaries of the broadcast transmission
network and the territory of regional television news than by
any other single thing. Geographically, the South West region
is still little more than a planner's expression although it is
true to say that opinion surveys show that principal themes of
concern in the region—poor public transport, lack of affordable
housing, low wages and the need to protect a unique environment—are
common throughout.
(c) We have referred above, and will refer
again immediately below, to the lack of co-ordination with regional
strategies that has characterised the activities of some public
sector agencies. It is worth noting the success that has been
achieved in the way that the Regional Assembly has successfully
pioneered an over-arching Integrated Regional Strategy, providing
a clear framework for integration of the many regional strategies
that have since been developed by a range of organisations. The
Integrated Regional Strategy has not only secured endorsement
from these organisations; the very processes of engaging people
from across the region in developing and consulting on it was
formative. A repeated theme in regional debate is the desire for
strong regional leadership. The Integrated Regional Strategy showed
that the Regional Assembly has the potential to respond to this
need.
9. THE DESIRABILITY
OF INTER-REGIONAL
COOPERATION (AS
IN THE
NORTHERN WAY)
TO TACKLE
ECONOMIC DISPARITIES
(a) Inter-regional cooperation is vital
to effective public transport. The ability to discuss issues authoritatively
and collaboratively, region to region, is one of the great benefits
deriving from the structure of Regional Assemblies. In the South
West this has been evidenced by the joint work carried out with,
for example, the South East of England Regional Assembly on matters
around the future capacity shortfall of the Great Western Main
Line, particularly in delivering access through Reading and on
to London.
(b) It is a fact of the geography of the
South West that some of the most pressing transport bottle-necks
and development issues restraining the region's performance and
inhibiting its potential lie beyond its bounds. The complex and
congested layout of lines and junctions around Reading, for example,
does much to determine the extent and quality of services throughout
the South West. Access to London Heathrow—the major airport
for the majority of air travellers to and from the region, despite
the recent success of Bristol—is another example. The south
east of the region has a degree of dependence on links with Southampton
and onward through that conurbation while there is significant
traffic across the Severn to and from the Bristol conurbation
each day. All these issues require inter-regional cooperation
and access to high quality staff resource guided by informed and
well-developed regional strategies.
10. CONCLUSION
The experience of SWPTUF is that the South West
Regional Assembly has created the circumstances in which it has
been possible to develop an effective voice for the interests
of public transport users and to lay the foundations of a forward-looking,
progressive and inclusive regional transport strategy. This role
would be further enhanced and accountability improved by the devolution
to the region of responsibility to advise on the strategies for,
and monitor the delivery of, the activities of other regionally
significant authorities.
|
