The Southwest region has been accused of focusing on ‘pet projects’ in its response to the Government’s consultation on delivering a sustainable transport system (DaSTS) beyond 2014.
While England’s eight regions are waiting to hear back from the Department for Transport on their bids to fund research into DaSTS, Richard Hebditch, campaigns director at the Campaign for Better Transport, claimed councils in the Southwest had ignored the need for projects to support an ‘overarching regional transport strategy’.
However, South West Councils said more than 60% of its regional funding allocation was heavily focused on public transport, with almost two-thirds going towards primarily non-road schemes.
A spokesman for SW Councils said: ‘The Southwest region’s DaSTS submission, we understand, has been well received by the DfT and work is progressing to ensure detailed projects are fully DaSTS compliant. This means balancing the requirements to support economic growth across the region and to meet challenging climate change targets.’
SW Councils chose six major studies across the region to consider the impacts of future transport improvements on tackling climate change. The Government has made up to £2M available to fund this, and is expected to reveal which regional research schemes get the ‘green light’ by the end of the month.
The region highlighted the need to address challenges on the Weymouth to London corridor, via southeast Dorset, as well as tackle connectivity issues on national and regional corridors converging at Exeter, Torbay, Plymouth and Cornwall. But Hebditch said: ‘We need to make sure that when it comes to actually spending money on transport, local authorities such as Wiltshire and Dorset put forward proposals which are consistent with an approach that considers smarter choices and public transport, rather than just another bypass or new road.’
He welcomed the region’s recognition that it needed to solve local transport issues in Bristol in order to address congestion on the M4 and M5, which he said echoed the CBT’s call for a government rethink on transport policy to prevent congestion (Surveyor, July 9 2009). He also said it was positive to hear smarter choices and public transport improvements proposed as methods to address Swindon’s needs.
The DfT has said it hopes to avoid the traditional approach of ‘solutions in search of problems’, and to broaden the consideration of investments that would best support economic growth, while reducing greenhouse gas emissions (Surveyor, 7 May 2009).
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