‘Fundamental weaknesses’ within the West Midlands transport infrastructure need to be addressed, a review by the West Midlands Regional Assembly has found.

The Transforming transport report, published last week, says a ‘bottom-up’ approach in which the 38 local councils promote their own ‘pet projects’ rather than take a strategic view has hindered improvements to the network.

It also blames the lack of progress on a ‘parochial’ approach by the councils, the passenger transport authority Centro, and regional development agency, Advantage West Midlands The region was awarded £1bn under the regional funding allocation to fund better transport, housing and economic development from 2006 to 2016. The majority of the money is meant to pay for major highways schemes, other than motorways, deemed by the councils to be important.

However, the report found not enough effort had ‘been spent in managing transport expenditure within the RFA’, and the authors said they ‘strongly feel transport within the region lacks clear leadership.’

Current structural arrangements within the Regional Transport Partnership ‘stifle creative thinking, collaborative working and discourage innovation’ the report also warned.

The appointment of a ‘regional transport champion’, who is able to ‘reflect the varied interests of the region in an integrated way’ was recommended.

Other sugegstions include the ‘strengthening of the regional assessment of RFA submissions’ in order to ‘encourage more realistic timescales’.

A spokeswoman for the West Midlands Regional Assembly said the organisation was working towards a deadline of February to get the RFA programme back on track.