The 1990s paradigm shift - Transport Policy and Planning in Great Britain - page 118

detailed data collection and model building, relying instead on 'sketch planning'
models and professional judgement.
Integrated transport studies were carried out for about 20 cities during the period
1987-91, often to accompany the 'bubble' of light rail proposals which surfaced at the
time (6.6). One such study in Birmingham was also used to pilot the development of
what became known as the 'package approach'. This was a set of low-cost management
measures in an area designed as part of a coherent strategy (as distinct from the
disjointed implementation of individual measures as was more common practice).
At the time that the package approach was being piloted the Bus and Coach
Council (forerunner of the present Confederation of Passenger Transport) published
a report which highlighted the types of investment which local highway authorities
could make which would assist bus operation (Bus and Coach Council 1991). The
Government initially responded by providing grants for bus demonstration projects
and the initiative was later incorporated in the Package submissions within TPPs.
The Department of Transport formally adopted the package approach by inviting
local highway authorities to prepare proposals covering whole urban areas in their
1994/95 TPPs. The Government also indicated that it expected this form of submission
to become the norm in future. The new approach reflected the Government's view
of local transport as requiring 'overall transport infrastructure provision - not simply
roads - to encourage a shift from private to public transport' and 'to establish demand
strategies'.
Any consideration of urban demand management raised the issue of restraint
methods. Reliance thus far on parking policies had been undermined by difficulties
in securing adequate enforcement of on-street controls by the Police. Under the 1991
Road Traffic Act powers were given for the designation of Special Parking Zones (SPZ)
in which responsibility for enforcement was transferred to local highway authorities.
These authorities had a much more direct interest in the effective implementation
of parking policies and, working with specialist firms, were able to sub-contract
enforcement as part of a self-financing business.
The package approach could be regarded as the reincarnation of management plans
which the Ministry of Transport had invited urban authorities to prepare in 1968!
(MOT 1968.) The difference 25 years on was recognition of the permanent nature
of such an approach - not merely as a temporary expedient pending hoped-for road-
building. The associated change in professional culture was an important precursor for
the introduction of Local Transport Plans a few years later.