APPENDIX 18
Memorandum submitted by the Institution
of Civil Engineers
INTRODUCTION
The Institution of Civil Engineers
The Institution of Civil Engineers is a UK based
international organisation with over 75,000 members ranging from
professional civil engineers to students. It is an educational
and qualifying body and has charitable status under UK law. Founded
in 1818, ICE has become recognised worldwide for its excellence
as a centre of learning, as a qualifying body and as a public
voice for the profession.
ICE's strategy is to be the leader in shaping
the engineering profession, and our vision is to be recognised
as the leading source of knowledge and skills required to create
a sustainable natural and built environment for the benefit of
future generations. The Institution's core purpose is to set standards
for qualification and registration of all engaged in civil engineering;
to provide a knowledge exchange for best practice and to promote
the contribution that we make to society.
ICE would be happy to assist the Committee's
deliberations further, if it was considered helpful.
1. SUMMARY
ICE believes that there is a strong case for
increased expenditure on all modes of transport. ICE advocates
a consistent and long-term approach to both local transport planning
and funding.
2. LOCAL TRANSPORT
PLANNING AND
FUNDING
2.1 Problems with appraisal processes
The existing Local Transport Plans and scheme
appraisal process encourages projects to be pared down to guarantee
a winning cost/benefit balance. There is little to encourage future
proofing by reserve capacity or allowing for economic expansion
at a future date. In view of the timescales involved, future proofing
could be seen as an effective use of public funds where significant
risk of future user growth beyond the levels currently predicted
exists. The existing system also acts against public transport
schemes, which tend to perform poorly in simple cost/benefit terms.
2.2 Need for consistency of funding
The increase in funding over recent years has
been both welcome and problematic. The specialist skills necessary
to develop transport strategies and deliver successful projects
are in short supply and every effort is being made to match their
development to workloads. What is required is consistency of funding
to support the career paths needed to provide the incentives for
people to develop these specialties, and over the timescales necessary
to build the transport systems which we aspire to as a nation.
These issues have, to some extent, been exacerbated by growth
in the complexity of project appraisal, consultation and other
statutory processes. Added to this are the array of competitive
funding streams now available (TIF/CIF/Major Scheme etc). These
add to the burden, and cost, carried by local authorities, often
with little guarantee of funding success. The move to a formula-funding
approach is welcome, as it helps to build a degree of certainty
into Local Transport Plan funding.
2.3 Delivering funding to meet the needs of
regions and authority areas
What is needed is a mechanism to deliver funding
levels appropriate to the needs and challenges of individual regions
and authority areas. The formulaic approach of establishing requirements
at the highest level seems to offer the simplest solution to the
overall problem. However, at the local level relatively few authorities
seem to be taking a realistic, long term assessment to their planning
and transport needs which by implication impacts on costs and
their capacity to meet them. This is principally because they
are not encouraged to do so by the existing Local Transport Plan
system. Where this has been done to respond to national aspirations
eg for light-rail, then much of this time and effort has been
in vain, with schemes at an advanced stage of development not
proceeding. The needs of the regions and individual areas within
them vary quite markedly and these factors combine to make a simple
solution difficult to apply consistently overall. The principle
of regional, rather than national, prioritisation of major transport
schemes is helpful in aligning strategies.
2.4 Problems created by multiple sources of
funding
Recent increased support for Local Transport
Plans capital scheme development costs is helpful, but with money
coming from so many different sources, (LTP funds, Community Infrastructure
Fund, Transport Innovation Fund etc) there is considerable revenue
resource required to develop projects which may never come to
fruition.
2.5 Imbalance between capital and revenue
funding
There is a major imbalance between capital and
revenue funding with many local authorities unable to undertake
urgent maintenance and apply cost effective revenue funded treatments
like surface dressing. There is an increasing requirement for
staff intensive activities such as consultation, the development
of the neighbourhood agenda, development of travel plans, travel
education etc. All of these are staff intensive and require
revenue funding to meet staffing costs. With pressures on local
authority education and social services putting pressure on staffing
levels in engineering departments, greater revenue funding from
national government is required.
3. A CONSISTENT
APPROACH
3.1 A consistent and realistic approach
The guidance for the Local Transport Plans annual
progress reports appears to be in a constant state of flux where
last minute significant change has become the norm. As a nation
we have tended to see-saw between the two extremes of demand management
and predict and provide. Currently there is a heavy emphasis on
demand management as a panacea to the country's transport needs,
with an assumption that no significant cost is involved. However,
the majority of transport planners accept the need for a much
more consistent, balanced approach with all modes contributing
to stimulating economic development. They also increasingly accept
that there are no quick, cheap and lasting fixes to long-term
transport needs. There are lots of good examples in the UK currently
of comprehensive improvements to public transport (Coventry Primelines,
Cambridge Guided Bus, Kent Fastrack etc) which support the sustainable
regeneration agenda. These meaningful results have been achieved
through the input of significant capital and revenue expenditure
from the public purse. It is essential that these costs need to
be properly addressed if the profession is to deliver a national
transport system appropriate to the UK's international standing.
3.2 Problems created by inconsistency
What the profession needs is a sustained period
of consistency of approach to permit long-term successful planning
and project development. The recent apparent reversal of national
policy on light-rail is a good example of the wastefulness of
inconsistency. The profession needs to work on simplifying the
processes involved without detracting from the rights of the individual,
with the need to demonstrate value for money. Transport projects
(both major and minor) tend to be disproportionately expensive
to develop as far as a start to construction. The Local Transport
Plan at present is a significant contributor to this transport
industry and government could take a lead by scaling down some
of the guidance directly and indirectly surrounding the whole
process.
4. LONG-TERM
VISION
4.1 Dangers of short termism
The current process tends to restrain aspiration
and vision, despite the 10-year horizon adopted in the LTP process.
It is almost inevitable that authorities are working towards a
limited horizon, rather than looking ahead at how to provide the
transport solutions which will support the future regeneration
and economic growth in their communities.
4.2 Local Transport Plan five year programmes
The focus on the Local Transport Plan five year
programme has, in many cases, taken the professional and political
eye off the longer term horizon which is so essential to effective
transport planning. What is often missing is the long-term vision
of the way ahead, with the five year plan demonstrated as a significant
step towards its delivery.
Much has been achieved within the life of the
Local Transport Plan process to tackle the issues of congestion,
pollution and safety. However, much remains to be done against
a moving background of economic growth, rising demands for travel
and demographic changes. There remains much that can be achieved
with investment in the "softer" tools of effective travel
planning and safety as well as by better overall management of
traffic across supporting modes. However, a successful result
across the country must surely involve a renewed investment in
transport infrastructure across all modes as a basic requirement
of continued growth.
CONCLUSION
5.1 There is a continued case for increasing
expenditure on UK transport across all modes, with a renewed emphasis
on softer travel planning initiatives within the long-term investment
regime.
5.2 There is a need for greater consistency
with a simplified process in order to achieve the required improvements;
including a realistic long term view of future local transport
needs and how to meet their costs.
5.3 There is a need for the Local Transport
Plan to focus on a five-year programme as a step towards a longer
term vision, not as an end in itself.
26 April 2006
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