Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
Challenge
definition
Option
generation
Policy
appraisal
Prioritisation
and selection
Delivery
planning
Figure 24.4 Indicative timetable for preparation of 2012 forward transport plans (source: DfT 2007
Figure 4.3)
investments which require commitments over an even longer timescale (e.g. the
programme to replace the HST train fleet) whilst ensuring that sufficient unallocated
funding remained for genuinely cross-modal decisions to be taken within each five-
year period.
The aim is to arrive at a programme of schemes which has been systematically
prepared for each period, thereby overcoming some of the problems which arise at
present as successive proposals are examined individually. The budget certainty
provided by the extension of the long-term funding guideline plus the improved
strategic planning process envisaged will also provide an attractive environment for
harnessing private sector support in the financing of public investments.
In preparing this programme the Department comments that its capability in using
analytical evidence is acknowledged but that external parties have remarked on the
need for dialogue at a much earlier stage and throughout the policy formulation process.
In response the Department has set out an indicative timetable for the preparation of
2012 forward plans (Figure 24.4) and the arrangements it is making for stakeholder
involvement during this period.
Following an initial informal dialogue with transport interest groups and public
bodies a further document titled Delivering a Sustainable Transport System ( DaSTS )
was published in November 2008 intended to 'continue the debate with you on the
fundamentals of our long-term planning system' (DfT 2008g). Its most notable feature is
the decision to focus national planning on fourteen 'strategic national corridors' which
collectively link the country's main ports and airports, the ten largest conurbations
and other areas (such as the Thames Valley and South Cambridgeshire) with strong
economic growth (Figure 24.5).
These corridors will replace the current 'national' category of Highway Agency
roads from 2014 onwards ( LTT508). Although the DfT claims that focusing on these
corridors 'does not mean that we are ignoring other areas of the country', the economic
implications for cities such as Plymouth and Norwich which lie well beyond them, plus
the regional funding of other areas currently served by HA routes which will lose their
national designation, will undoubtedly be a source of controversy.
The Department's plans for the nation's core transport infrastructure are being
progressed by a new cross-modal National Network Strategy Group headed by the
junior minister Lord Adonis with 'senior partners from the Highways Agency, Network
Rail, HM Treasury and other Government departments as required'. The Group will
consider how best to make use of existing networks (for example by the selective
 
Search WWH ::




Custom Search