Agenda item

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.

The high level risks associated with delivering a Regional Transport Plan for South West Wales were presented to the Committee:

·       Political agreement on polices and high level outcomes – although the RTP was a Regional Plan, it also needed to suit the individual Local Authorities (not just the agreement of the plan, but the timescales for the approvals through the individual Local Authorities);

·       Regional agreement on prioritised Regional Transport Delivery Plan (RTDP) schemes list – producing this list would require Officers to have an indication of the level of funding that will be made avaliable to deliver the schemes, however this was still unknown;

·       Challenging timescales for submission and adoption of the RTP – the fixed deadline for final RTP submission (29 March 2025) was first set some time ago, and since then there had been delays associated with this work stream, such as the delay in Welsh Government providing their guidance. However, the fixed deadline had not been amended and was noted to be very ambitious in terms of delivering a meaningful piece of work.

·       Available resource within Local Authorities to deliver the RTP, and the number of specialist studies to be untaken in the development of the RTP and lack of funding to deliver – there were limited resources in each of the Local Authorities, and therefore certain pieces of work will need to be commissioned. However, currently there were no clear streams of funding to be able to do this.

Following on from the above, the Committee discussed the identified risks in more detail; particularly highlighting the high levels of concerns in regards to timescales and resources.

Officers were asked to give an outline in regards to the current funding avaliable to develop this work stream. It was stated that along with Welsh Governments commitment to provide £125k, there was some funding set aside from within the South West Wales Corporate Joint Committees budget; though the cost of developing the RTP would be significantly higher than this. It was noted that there was mention of support from Transport for Wales (TFW), and the Region had been appointed a Coordinating Officer from within TFW; however, there wasn’t much further support beyond that for helping with the delivery.

Members recognised the importance of raising these concerns to Welsh Government. It was suggested to formally ask the South West Wales Corporate Joint Committee, when submitting the Implementation Plan, to write to Welsh Government addressing the concerns in regards to these matters. A further discussion would be welcomed in regards to timescales and resources; in order to determine whether there was any flexibility to the timescales, and clarity on any additional funding and support going forward from Transport for Wales.

In addition, it was suggested that it would be useful to link in with other Corporate Joint Committees across Wales, through writing to the Welsh Local Government Association (WLGA).

RESOLVED:

·       That the Implementation Plan, contained within the circulated report, be submitted to the Corporate Joint Committee for approval, prior to submitting to Welsh Government;

·       That when submitting the Implementation Plan to Welsh Government, a letter be sent to the Minister to address the risks highlighted in the plan.

·       That feedback be obtained from other Corporate Joint Committees and the Welsh Local Government Association (WLGA) on the wider pan Wales progress on Implementation Planning and the progress of the RTP in each Region.