Agenda item

Report by the Corporate Director for Environment and Place – TO FOLLOW WHEN CABINET REPORT IS PUBLISHED

This report provides the Place Overview and Scrutiny Committee with background information about the Local Transport and Connectivity Plan (LTCP) cabinet report.

The Place Overview and Scrutiny Committee are RECOMMENDED to provide any comments on the Local Transport and Connectivity Plan and supporting documents prior to their consideration by cabinet.

The Chair invited John Disley (Head of Transport Policy) to introduce the report.  John Disley took the Committee thought the background information about the Local Transport and Connectivity Plan (LTCP) Cabinet report.

The Chair invited the Committee to provide any comments on LTCP report and supporting documents prior to their consideration by the Cabinet.

The Committee made the following observations to be forwarded to the Cabinet:

·       The LTCP contained insufficient evidence and explanation of the capability of its policies to deliver its commendable vision and headline targets.

·       The LTCP did not address the fact that existing local plans in Oxfordshire were collectively likely to increase demand for travel, contrary to the LTCP’s aim of reducing travel.

·       Local transport plans had previously been only partially implemented. The LTCP contained insufficient analysis of the delivery and impact of previous local transport plans, which were in many ways similar to the LTCP, and lacked a clear methodology by which the LTCP’s implementation and impact were to be evaluated.   

·       There has been a lack of consistency between the content of previous local transport plans and the highways asset management strategy and network management strategy. It was questioned whether those strategies would reflect the LTCP when remade in September 2022, as they should.

·       There was an apparent disconnect between the LTCP and reality. For instance, a Committee Member who was the director of a stakeholder organisation referenced as working with the Council in relation to transport, was unaware of that work. 

·       There was a disconnect between national policy, Oxfordshire County Council policy and between the latter and the policy of lower-tier authorities in Oxfordshire. It was unclear how the LTCP would integrate in wider decision-making in respect of where people live and work.

It was RESOLVED –

1.    to forward above comments to the Cabinet for their consideration before approval of the report;

2.    The Head of Transport Policy to inform the Committee what proportion or number of officers who had worked on LTCP had also worked on LTPs 3 and 4; and

3.    The Cabinet Member for Travel and Development Strategy report to the November 2022 meeting of the Place Overview & Scrutiny Committee on the implementation and outcomes of the LTP 4 and lessons learnt and policy links between LTP 4 and LTCP.