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ITEM CMDT5
ENVIRONMENT
& ECONOMY SCRUTINY COMMITTEE – 20 SEPTEMBER 2006
Cabinet
Member for Transport – 6 October 2006
Transport
Capital Programme 2006 - 2011
Report by
Head of Transport
Introduction
- This report focuses
primarily on the Transport Capital Programme for 2006/07 and provides
an update on any significant changes plus an assessment of performance
on delivery of the programme by the end of the financial year.
- The Local Transport
Plan 2006 – 2011 (LTP2) published in July this year contains the programme
of schemes for the whole of the Plan period in as much detail as is
known at present. Programmes beyond the current year remain as published
in LTP2, the first opportunity for a review will be in December this
year when the government’s assessment of LTP2 and of the Delivery Report
2001 – 2006 is known. The assessment will have a bearing on the future
level of capital funding available.
- The report includes
the response to Councillor Joslin’s motion on Cow Lane, Didcot as adopted
by Council on 20 June this year.
- The purpose of
this report is considered and it is suggested that the regular reviews
on the capital programme that have been introduced make this report
unnecessary in future.
Overview of the 2006/07
Transport Capital Programme as at 1 April 2006
- The total budget
for Integrated Transport Schemes agreed at Cabinet on 21 March 2006
was £13.730 million made up of £9.079 million from the Transport Capital
Settlement, £2.911 million of developer contributions and £1.740 million
of on-street parking surplus.
- There were two
main influences on the content of the programme, the priorities of LTP2
and the level of Transport Capital funding. The schemes in the five
year programme are value-for-money solutions that directly contribute
to the resolution of most significant, pre-identified problems of congestion,
accessibility, road safety, air quality and the street environment –
the priorities for LTP2. The guideline funding for the 2006 – 2011 period
is £12 million less than we would have had if funding had stayed at
the level of the first LTP.
- The combined effect
is a programme that can be seen as a fresh start, not a simple continuation
of what we did before, with schemes chosen to solve known problems rather
than be a response to requests and with fewer schemes in the programme.
A substantial part of the available budget for this year is committed
to the Abingdon and Henley town centre schemes and to the Green Road
roundabout improvement scheme.
- The capital budget
for structural highway maintenance is £16.222 million made up of £13.722
from the formula based LTP2 funding and £2.450 million awarded for specific
schemes on roads that were de-trunked in the last few years. Additional
to this is £2.145 million carried forward from 2005/06 to co-ordinate
carriageway reconstruction works on A40 at Sandhills with the Green
Road roundabout improvement scheme.
2006/07 Programme Update
- Overview
- Annex 1 (download
as .doc file)
lists the schemes and planned spending as at 1 April (first three columns)
and the updated information as at 7 September (last three columns).
This must be seen as an interim statement of the position because a
quarterly update to the Capital Programme is due shortly and a further
update of the position on schemes may result in some differences between
Annex 1 (download as .doc file)
and what appears in the revised Capital Programme booklet.
- Looking at the
bottom line the LTP2 funding in the SCE (supported capital expenditure)
column remains as at 1 April but the ‘Other’ funding shows an increase
of £5.516 million. The main reasons for this are:
- A40 Green Road
scheme – the addition of the structural maintenance money carried
over from last year.
- Structural Maintenance
– the additional allocation of £0.375 million for accelerating the
Oxford High Street scheme included in the Council’s budget decisions
for 2006/07.
- For completeness
- inclusion of a line from the Capital Booklet for schemes completed
in earlier years but where there may still be some expenditure – this
includes a small number of LTP schemes from 2005/06 where completion
ran over into the early part of this year.
- Otherwise, the
forecast is that things are on track to deliver the original Integrated
Schemes Programme with the exception of the A40 Cassington Signals scheme
where a value for money solution could not be identified. The budget
for this scheme will be re-allocated to the A40 Eynsham scheme delayed
from 2005/06.
Update on Specific 2006/07
Schemes
- The three largest
and potentially most difficult schemes to build – Abingdon and Henley
town centre schemes and the A40 Green Road roundabout improvement are
progressing to plan and in most aspects have a risk rating of green
on the regular scheme status review. The early involvement of the contractor
in the planning of each of these schemes appears to be paying off. The
one word of caution is that if there are unexpected delays on the Green
Road scheme the work is at a stage where it would be difficult to make
up time to recover those delays.
- The first phase
of the Oxford High Street reconstruction and remodelling, another complex
and difficult site with a lot that could potentially go wrong, has also
not met any serious problems thanks again to pre-planning and good teamwork.
The risk rating status for this scheme is also green. The Oxfordshire
Highways personnel involved in this scheme are largely those who worked
on the Abingdon Road scheme in Oxford and who won the Jacobs Performance
Excellence Award 2006 for partnering work. The work in High Street has
just moved on to phase two between Longwall and The Plain.
- The spending on
the Oxford Eastern Bypass barrier scheme was originally planned to span
2005/06 and 2006/07 but as things turned out all the spending could
be coded to 2005/06 which is why spending is shown as nil for this year.
- The increase in
spending on the Thames towpath repairs in Oxford between Folly Bridge
and Donnington Bridge is the result of a deliberate decision to extend
the works beyond those originally planned. This money was provided by
re-phasing schemes between years. The reasons for this were a rapid
deterioration in the state of that length of towpath during the year
and the saving in cost of the extra repairs by avoiding the contractor
set-up costs that would be incurred if he had to leave and return to
site.
- Last year’s equivalent
report set out an accelerated timetable for the implementation of Controlled
Parking Zones in Oxford, particularly in north-east Oxford, by the end
of 2009. The budget to enable this faster implementation was included
in Integrated Schemes Programme and so far the schemes are on track
to meet this accelerated timetable.
- Two major schemes,
Hennef Way, Banbury and Skimmingdish Lane, Bicester were completed some
time ago but there have been substantial outstanding claims for additional
payment on each of the schemes from the contractor. The contractor (who
happens to be the same for both schemes) elected to use the adjudication
provisions in the contract in regard to his claim on Skimmingdish Lane.
The Adjudicator’s decision awarded some money to the contractor but
a lot less than his claim and the Council has paid this to the contractor
with the result the Skimmingdish Lane issue is now settled. The Hennef
Way claim remains to be resolved and therefore some provision remains
in the budget against risk of having to make further payment although
the advice from the Council’s Engineer is that all money due has been
paid. This provision is contained in the line for schemes from 2005/06
and earlier.
- Annex 2 (download
as .doc file) lists the individual schemes under the Banbury
Western Corridor and the Better Ways to School headings.
Potential Risks to the
Programme – Heat Damage to Roads
- The extreme heat
earlier in the year caused damage to a number of roads where the bitumen
became so soft that the surface stone was submerged into it. These roads
now have a very slick surface which will need repair for safety reasons.
Assessment of the full scale of the problem is being done but first
estimates are that £4.0 million pounds will be required to correct all
the damage in a long lasting way and a bid for special funding from
the government is being prepared. However, warning signs and more urgent
short term remedial action is needed on some roads and a figure of £0.5
million is the estimated cost for this work which will have to be done
this year. The means of funding this is being considered at the moment.
Cow Lane, Didcot – Council
motion
- On 20 June this
year the Council resolved as follows:
"This
Council notes that:
- a letter was
sent in March this year to members of the Didcot ITS Committee to
advise them that as a result of a reduction in Government funding,
combined with a lack of developer contribution there were insufficient
funds to take forward the Cow Lane Subway Project in LTP2;
- the Didcot ITS
Group met on 17 November 2005 and their views expressed at the time
were taken into account;
- the project
had been approved as a Major project by the Transport Implementation
Committee and the previous Executive;
- the project
had been allocated a Project number and design work had commenced
but the indicative funding the Council expected in the draft LTP2,
submitted to Government in July 2005 was subsequently reduced from
£55m to £43m (-£12m) and consequently many schemes that were originally
planned had to be delayed or cancelled.
The
Council asks the Cabinet to confirm that the Cow Lane Project remains
a positive aspiration of this Council subject to the necessary funding
being identified."
- The position remains
as noted by the Council, that Cow Lane Subway together with a number
of other previously committed schemes, is not included in the 2006 –
2011 LTP Programme as they did not contribute sufficiently to solving
identified transport problems relative to other priorities.
- We have also identified
that some of the developer contributions which had been earmarked for
the Cow Lane project, totalling some £178,000, would not be available
for the project because of the precise terminology of the legal agreements;
though this is a small issue in the context of the total cost and the
priorities for the use of available funds.
- As the letter
sent in March to the Didcot ITS Members Steering Group confirms, the
Cow Lane Subway project remains an aspiration of the County Council
subject to the necessary funding being available but is not a part of
the 2006-2011 LTP programme.
The Need for this Report
in Future Years
- This report has
been a feature of the Transport Capital Programme management for a number
of years and has provided a useful means of reviewing issues affecting
programming of schemes and obtaining necessary approvals to amendments
in the programme before it is too late in the programme year to act
on the decisions.
- However, the report’s
origins lie in the days when there was not the regular monitoring and
reporting of the capital programme that now takes place. Significant
variations to spending are reported monthly to Cabinet and there is
a quarterly update of the entire capital programme which provides approvals
for any new schemes that are brought into the programme in the course
of the year and for significant revisions. There is a regular reporting
system of progress on the larger schemes within the Transport Service
that is provided to the Cabinet Member for Transport. This report could
be seen as superfluous in the light of the other reporting that now
takes place. It does lift the Transport Capital Programme out of the
other reports and provide a focus on it, but this could be just as well
achieved by better and more widespread use of the Capital Programme
booklet. In the interests of efficiency and avoiding unnecessary work,
my recommendation is to discontinue this report and rely on the other
reporting now in place.
Financial
and Staff Implications
- There are no implications
to report arising from delivery of the programme as agreed in March.
The largest issue is how the funding of repairs to heat damage to roads
can be achieved and at the time of writing the report this is still
under discussion.
Links to Local Transport
Plan (LTP) and Corporate Priorities
- The Transport
Capital Programme is entirely about pursuing the LTP priorities and
the corporate priorities that these contribute to as described in the
LTP document.
Recommendations
- The Cabinet
Member for Transport is RECOMMENDED to:
- note
the progress on the Transport Capital Programme;
- confirm
that the Didcot, Cow Lane Subway scheme remains a positive aspiration
of the Council subject to the necessary funding being available;
- agree
that a report on a mid-year review of the Transport Capital
Programme is no longer necessary.
(Statement
of Decision)
STEVE HOWELL
Head of Transport
Background
papers: Nil
Contact
Officer: Richard Dix tel. 01865 815663
September
2006
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