Issue - meetings

Report by Head of Transport & Development Planning)

(1)       Kent County Council’s (KCC) local transport funding for 2009/10 was determined by the Department for Transport (DfT) in November 2007 as part of its assessment and settlement announcement regarding Kent’s transport strategy, the Local Transport Plan (LTP).  This funding had been provided to support local transport schemes that delivered the LTP, which itself set out the County Council’s approach to achieving a number of key transport objectives, including:-

·        Improve access to key services by sustainable modes of transport;

·        Tackle the occurrence of peak hour congestion, particularly in larger urban areas;

·        Improve road safety by reducing the number of people killed or seriously injured on Kent’s roads;

·        Improve local air quality, particularly in designated Air Quality Management Areas (AQMAs).

            (2)       Kent’s LTP funding for 2009/10 included a capital allocation of £14.752M, which consisted of borrowing approvals and grant and was specifically for the implementation of Integrated Transport (IT) schemes.  Of the £14.752M, £2.600M would be used to fund detailed design and supervision of construction of 2009/10 schemes as well as forward design of 2010/11 schemes, and £2.200M was required to complete the 2008/09 programme.  These included schemes which had been deferred in order to provide additional funding for maintenance in 2008/09.  This resulted in a budget of £9.952M for implementation of new schemes.  The allocation for new schemes in 2008/09 was £9.65M.

      (3)                   The report provided details of the 69 schemes that made up the proposed Transportation and Safety Package Programme for 2009/10 together with a brief summary of key elements of the programme.  The schemes proposed for 2009/10 were set out in the Appendix 1 to the report.

(4)       The proposed Transportation and Safety Package Programme for 2009/10 had been devised using Kent’s Scheme Prioritisation Methodology, PIPKIN.  A report outlining the principles and a proposal to implement PIPKIN was presented to the Board in July 2006, and was approved by the Cabinet Member for Environment, Highways and Waste on the strength of the recommendations of this Board.

            (5)       All scheme proposals had been subjected to a formal assessment and prioritised in accordance with their likely impact and wider contribution towards Kent’s strategic and local transport objectives.  The relative merit of each scheme had been determined in comparison to others submitted in the same year.  Revisions to the viability of some schemes, such as their public acceptability and their deliverability, and the inclusion of previously approved carryovers from the 2008/09 programme had resulted in a final list of 69 new schemes to be funded from the 2009/10 budget.  Schemes which had not achieved sufficient priority could be resubmitted as part of the 2010/11 programme.

(6)       The 2010/11 programme would be assessed using a revised scheme prioritisation system.  The system was currently being developed through an informal member group and would be the subject of a future report to the Board.

(7)       The proposed Transportation and Safety Package Programme for 2009/10 included:-

(a)       Funding for  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6