Agenda and minutes

The Chairperson welcomed everyone to the meeting.

There were no declarations of interests received.

The Committee was informed that the South West Wales Corporate Joint Committee had a duty to prepare a Regional Transport Plan (RTP); the first stage of this work was to produce an Implementation Plan, for submission to Welsh Government by the end of October 2023.

The draft Implementation Plan was attached as Appendix 1 of the circulated report, and Officers were seeking Members endorsement to submit this Implementation Plan to the Corporate Joint Committee for approval.

Officers presented the draft Implementation Plan to the Committee, and highlighted key points in regards to the project goal, the work packages required to completing the development of the RTP, the identified risks and the timeline for delivery.

Members were sighted on the policy context of the RTP, and were informed of the importance to ensure that the RTP was reflective of the Wales Transport Strategy (Llwybr Newydd); and aligned to other National, Regional, Local strategies and priorities.

It was explained that there were two main elements to the preparation of the RTP; Developing the Case for Change, and Developing the Regional Transport Plan. Officers highlighted the following key areas of work in relation to the two main elements:

Developing the Case for Change

(To be submitted to Welsh Government by 29 February 2024)

·       Stakeholder Engagement;

·       Defining the Area of Study;

·       Setting out the Strategic Case – linking in with all policies and frameworks currently in place;

·       Identifying Issues and Opportunities – mapping out the current position from a transport point of view across the Region, and including the findings from the South Wales Transport Model;

·       Development of the RTP Vision – identifying if the current Joint Transport Plan vision was still the overall vision, and amending this if necessary;

·       Development of SMART objectives for the RTP – to be aligned to the priorities in the Wales Transport Strategy;

·       Identifying Governance Arrangements – the sign off and adoption of the RTP was vital from both a Corporate Joint Committee and Local Authority level;

·       Developing a Stakeholder Management and Public Engagement Plan.

Developing the Regional Transport Plan

(First draft, before public consultation, be submitted to Welsh Government by 29 May 2024)

·       Identifying the High Level Interventions and Policies;

·       Carrying out a review of schemes from the existing Joint Transport Plan – understanding what had been delivered, what hadn’t been delivered and was no longer required, and what hadn’t been delivered and needed to be included in the RTP;

·       Identifying a methodology for prioritising schemes.

It was stated that the final Draft of the Regional Transport Plan was to be submitted to Welsh Government by 31 October 2024; with the final Regional Transport Plan to be submitted to Welsh Government by 29 March 2025.

Officers made reference to the development of the Integrated Well-being Assessment, and mentioned that there would also be a lot of public and stakeholder consultation associated with the different stages of developing the RTP. It was added that some of timescales for these pieces of work to be undertaken would be challenging.  ...  view the full minutes text for item 3.

Members were provided with the Forward Work Programme for the Regional Transport Sub Committee.

Reference was made to the need for an additional meeting for the autumn period. Democratic Services would arrange this in liaise with the Transport Leads for the Region.

The Forward Work Programme was noted.

Any urgent items at the discretion of the Chairperson pursuant to Section 100BA(6)(b) of the Local Government Act 1972 (as amended).

There were no urgent items received.