Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
20.5 The form and content of LTPs
For the first round of LTPs the Government asked that five key elements should be
included:
Objectives consistent with our integrated transport policy and commanding
widespread local support
• An analysis of problems and opportunities
• A long-term strategy to tackle the problems and deliver the objectives. In
developing the strategy the range of potential solutions will need to be tested
to establish the best combination of measures.
• A costed and affordable 5-year implementation programme of schemes
and policy measures [with individual schemes costing more than £250,000
separately identified].
• A set of targets and performance indicators and other outputs which can be
used to assess whether the plan is delivering the stated objectives.
Each of these should feature as discrete sections or chapters within the LTP.
(DETR 2000a Part 1 para 29)
However what these represent in practice is highly variable due to the enormous
differences in the size of areas for which LTPs are prepared. For example the whole
of Rutland's LTP is devoted to addressing issues in an area of just 34,000 population,
whereas an equivalent area would barely register in the LTP for Greater Manchester
(population 2.1 million)!
Subject to including the above five elements, local authorities had discretion over
how they structured their LTPs. Many included separate chapters for particular topics
or areas, in part reflecting their particular circumstances. (For example policies for
rural areas or for promoting rail use would be much more significant in some areas than
others.) However this diversity created difficulties for the Department when seeking
to compare LTPs for assessment purposes. It also makes it difficult to form a coherent
view of the policies and proposals being put forward for an area covered by two or more
LTPs. (Outside the metropolitan areas DfT has tried to encourage the preparation of
joint LTPs for closely related areas, but with only limited success - the shift from four
plans to one for the so-called 'West of England' (Greater Bristol) area being a notable
example.)
For LTP2 the items listed above were retained as the 'basic features' to be contained
in a plan. Again DfT did not prescribe any particular format. However a degree
of standardisation was implied by asking authorities to present a core of material
addressing its priority objectives (explained in the next section).
In contrast to the procedures specified for local development planning there was
no requirement for the content of LTPs to be developed through an integral process
of sustainability appraisal. (Mention of 'sustainable development', other than as an
overarching goal, is conspicuously absent from the LTP2 guidance whereas it occupies
a central position throughout the planning guidance issued by ODPM/DCLG.) Only
modest encouragement is offered to integrate environmental assessment:
LTPs should, where possible, include evidence about how the environmental
assessment process has improved … local transport planning. It may also be
 
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