Merseytravel’s double celebration

11 January 2007

LTP2 top performers are celebrating being awarded ‘double excellent’ for their plans, and are safe in the knowledge they are guaranteed additional funding to plan for future projects.
Merseytravel, which submitted a joint LTP with Knowsley, Liverpool, Sefton, St Helens and Wirral councils, had the distinction of being the only metropolitan authority to get excellent for both LTP classification and Delivery Report classification.
Neil Scales, director general of Merseytravel, hailed the partnership as key to the success of the plan and hoped it would help erase memories of the doomed Merseytram project (Surveyor, 23 February 2006).
Scales told Surveyor: ‘We are making great strides – rail patronage is at 3% a year and bus patronage has stabilised.’
Scales, who will have £36.5M to spend, also praised neighbouring authority Halton Borough Council, also a ‘double excellent’, for its co-operation.
Halton’s LTP was singled out because of work on the Silver Jubilee Bridge, and in complementing the proposed Mersey Gateway scheme in LTP1.
Reading, the only unitary authority to get two ‘excellents’, has been allocated £6.5M. The authority will now be able to proceed with plans for the inner-distribution road – a road safety scheme intended to reduce accidents, and the continued modernisation of bus services.
Cambridgeshire County Council won plaudits for its ‘excellent overall performance on strategy delivery, especially on road safety, journeys to school, and maintenance’. The authority has also put a ‘substantial investment’ into transport infrastructure, and has successfully delivered the Fordham Bypass.
Cornwall County Council achieved all 15 of the minimum benchmark requirements in relation to the Delivery Report assessment of the five core assessment areas, and 29 out of 38 benchmarks for strong delivery.
Norfolk was also praised for the success of its park-and-ride scheme, which has taken 11.4M passengers and has the most parking spaces in the country.
Buckinghamshire was mentioned for road maintenance and bridge strengthening as ‘success stories’ where targets have been met.
Shropshire ‘exceeded expectations’ with the success of its Road Safety measures, while North Yorkshire was praised for good school travel plans.
Nottinghamshire county and Nottingham city councils’ joint plan has been awarded an extra £17.3M investment for Nottinghamshire, while Derbyshire county and Derby city’s joint plan also scored top marks.
Of the £25M total awarded, it is likely around £17M will go on continuing to improve roads, bridges, pavements and footpaths.
Another £8M, which includes money awarded as part of the Derby Joint Local Plan, is to be spent on congestion-tackling schemes.

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Merseytravel’s double celebration

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