Issue - meetings

Cabinet Member: Growth & Infrastructure

Forward Plan Ref: 2009/234

Contact: Joanne Fellows, Project Manager (Local Transport Plan) Tel: (01865) 815546

Report by Head of Transport (CA12).

Oxfordshire County Council has a statutory requirement to produce a new Local Transport Plan (LTP3) by April 2011.  LTP3 will cover the period from 2011 to 2030 and will be a blueprint for all transport development across the county and not just the publicly funded elements. 

The background against which the Plan is being developed is changing fast.  It is becoming increasingly important for the Plan to reflect the current economic climate whilst not losing sight of the longer term aspirations for Oxfordshire.  It is important that the County Council has an agreed LTP in order to respond to development and other pressures and allows the delivery of priority transport schemes when funding becomes available.

The purpose of this report is to outline the progress that is being made in developing the LTP3 and set out the results of the consultation on scenarios for LTP3.  The scenarios do not include specific schemes but the choice of scenario will influence which schemes are progressed in the future.

This report also outlines changes recommended to the policies approved by Cabinet in March 2010.  The revised set of policies will form the basis on which a draft Plan will be prepared for public consultation later this year, and a timetable for Plan finalisation is also set out as an annex to this report.

The Cabinet is RECOMMENDED to

(a)               approve the preferred scenarios for the LTP, noting the information contained in the Strategic Environmental Assessment of the scenarios; and

(b)              approve the recommended changes to the policies, as the basis for further development of the LTP.

Cabinet considered a report (CA12) that outlined progress in developing the LTP3 and that set out the results of the consultation on scenarios for LTP3. The report also outlined changes recommended to the policies approved by Cabinet in March 2010.

Councillor Anne Purse, Shadow Cabinet Member for Growth & Infrastructure raised a number of concerns. She referred to the fast changing scene and hoped that the process, which was lengthy, would be able to pick the changes up. She hoped that there would be flexibility when looking at the scenarios for the different types of community defined in the plan as some town issues were common to some rural areas and she was concerned at the reduced emphasis on speed control mechanisms and changes to planning regulations. She also welcomed the commitment to produce a complete list of schemes.

The Cabinet Member for Growth & Infrastructure responded to the comments made.

RESOLVED:                        to:

(a)               approve the preferred scenarios for the LTP, noting the information contained in the Strategic Environmental Assessment of the scenarios; and

(b)               approve the recommended changes to the policies, as the basis for further development of the LTP.