The Scottish Executive is to be told that new statutory regional transport strategies are unlikely to be in place across the country by next June, as planned. The seven regional transport partnerships are preparing to write a joint letter to the executive, asking it for an option to take an extension in order to produce the strategies. While the RTPs are reluctant to miss the March 2007 deadline for submission – which would delay the executive’s approval of £70M of capital investment – they believe the Scottish Parliament underestimated the time needed when it prepared the Act paving the way for the documents. The executive envisaged that the partnerships would have reported on the transport scheme options they were considering by next month. But they are currently embarking on an initial, broad appraisal of the options, and do not expect to have a list of potential schemes until September, at the earliest. ‘The current view is that a letter will be drafted by all the RTPs stating, “We are aiming to meet the deadline, but would like to apply for an extension, should we need it”, given the practical difficulties of sticking to this tight timetable,’ said David Peace of consultants CDU. ‘Some partnerships are starting from scratch, some are in the process of transferring powers, and others are recruiting staff.’ The Tayside and Central Transport Partnership, for instance, was a new body which did not have a non-statutory plan to base the new strategy on. Chief officers were not in place at TACTRAN to steer the strategy’s production. ~Jim Irons~ executive director (environment) at ~Perth and Kinross Council~ a member of TACTRAN, said: ‘If the Government, with all its resources, is finding it difficult to stick to a timetable for producing a strategy, it will surely have to acknowledge that it might be more difficult for the new partnerships to produce strategies which meet the requirements of the statutory guidance.’ The long-awaited national transport strategy had been delayed again, Irons noted, with ‘yet another round of consultation’. The executive has, in the latest consultation, posed the question whether it is appropriate for the national strategy to contain a target to stabilise traffic growth. ‘The decision on whether or not the national aim is to stabilise traffic growth is fundamental to what our regional strategies contain, but it’s unresolved.’ The seven RTPs hope to finalise their position on a timetable for producing the new strategies at their next meeting at the end of June.