National planning - Transport Policy and Planning in Great Britain - page 282

accessibility by public transport have to be expressed in a way which is as applicable
in Whitehaven as in Westminster! As a result the statements are inevitably rather
generalised. Whilst they have been welcomed for introducing a degree of consistency
into the workings of the development planning system they nevertheless leave plenty
of room for argument in their precise application to local circumstances.
A further difficulty faced by users of national guidance is the proliferation of
material and the problem of distilling all the elements from the various documents
which are relevant to a particular situation. In making the transition from PPGs to
PPSs the Government has therefore attempted to shorten the documents and to
focus more explicitly on items of policy (i.e. those which have to be taken account of )
as opposed to 'good practice' advice which is now generally published separately. A
further focusing of policy, possibly with spatial references, is anticipated in connection
with infrastructure of national significance (22.5).
17.6 National planning in Wales
National transport planning in Wales
Following devolution the Welsh Assembly Government (WAG) produced an overall
Plan for Wales (2001a) and within this a range of strategies for individual topics -
transport being one (WAG 2001b). This set out the overall objectives and priorities
of the new Government and signalled its intention to review, adapt and develop the
inherited legal and procedural arrangements for delivering them. These arrangements
included the provisions of the Transport Act 2000 which applied to Wales.
A Welsh Transport Forum was established comprising representatives of about
two dozen national transport-related organisations in Wales. As with the Commission
for Integrated Transport set up by the UK Government this acts as a consultative
body in the development of national policy and, via working sub-groups, acts as a
mechanism through which options for the delivery of policy in particular fields can
be investigated. An Executive Agency - Transport Wales - was established to deliver
national policy, which (under the inherited arrangements) was responsible primarily
for the development and management of trunk roads in the country.
In its early years WAG's aspirations were constrained by a combination of limited
powers at a national level and fragmented decision-making at the local level, consequent
upon the pattern of unitary local government introduced in the late 1990s. A series
of voluntary regional consortia of local authorities was formed to promote integration
and develop services across their individual boundaries. It was through these consortia
that WAG invited bids for grant funding of major projects. These arrangements have
been used as the basis of more recent sub-national reform (18.7).
As a result of the Transport (Wales) Act 2006 a duty has been placed on the Welsh
Assembly to develop transport policies and to carry out its functions in pursuit of
these policies. It is required to consult on and publish a Wales Transport Strategy to be
approved by the full Assembly and to be kept under review. (This will replace the non-
statutory Framework published in 2001.) A consultation document on this Strategy
was published in 2006 (WAG 2006) and the 'outcomes and themes' identified in this
have been used to provide a policy context for new Regional Transport Plans. The final
version was published in May 2008 (WAG 2008b).
The 2006 Act also provides for subordinate legislation to be passed to enable Welsh
Ministers to revise the pattern of transport authorities and procedural arrangements