Agreements ‘could divert funds from LTPs’

24 October 2007

There is a risk that the Local Area Agreements between different public agencies, championed by ministers, will sideline transport services, the County Surveyors’ Society has warned.

If local transport plan funding goes to the boards of Local Area Agreements between councils and other agencies, such as NHS trusts and the police, ‘this funding could be diverted, despite what the LTP states’, the CSS has told the Government.

Graeme Fitton, chairman of the CSS transport committee, said there was ‘a need for clarity’ on how LTPs and LAAs would work together. Communities secretary, Hazel Blears, was offering LAAs ‘freedom and flexibility’ to select just 35 of 198 national indicators to guide the spending of non ring-fenced grants.

But the Department for Transport wants councils to continue to report on additional LTP targets. The Department for Communities and Local Government proposal to monitor certain LTP indicators – on road condition, congestion and bus patronage – was welcomed by the CSS.

But Fitton urged: ‘Care, however, must be taken to ensure that the choice of indicators in the LAA basket reflect the issues authorities are trying to address through their LTPs, and that we don’t lose sight of indicators not in the basket.’

The CSS believes that requiring councils to report on their progress in improving transport accessibility, and network management, provides ‘an important focus’.

The CSS was responding to the consultation – just closed – on the future of LTPs. A spokeswoman for the DfT said LTP progress reports would provide ‘more flexibility for local authorities’, providing a means ‘to assist them in reviewing their own progress’. But she highlighted that there were indicators relating to accessibility in the national set, numbers 175 and 176, and the legislative framework for the network management duty ‘will remain in place’.

The CSS also threw its weight behind the new formula for distributing highway maintenance capital funds, which leaves 11 authorities facing cuts of up to 12% next year (Surveyor, 27 September).

It believes the shake-up would be ‘removing the formula’s tendency to penalise those successfully maintaining their networks’. Norfolk, which would lose £8M over three years, warned this ‘would result in failure to meet LTP targets’.

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Agreements ‘could divert funds from LTPs’

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