Agenda item

Report ES17065

The Committee considered a report confirming that Bromley’s LIP allocation from Transport for London (TfL) for 2018/19 would be £2.432m and  details of Officer proposals as to how the funding for 2018/19 would be allocated and to which particular schemes.  

The Transport Planning and Traffic Engineering Manager highlighted some key issues to the Committee, most importantly the reduction in the  proposed LIP allocation for 2018/19 of £2.432m which was £50,000 less than the 2017/18 settlement, which represented a 2% reduction. 17 of the 33 London Boroughs would receive less funding next year although Bromley compared well with the average reduction of 3.65% across those 17 boroughs, the range of reduction being from 1% to 10%.  Regrettably TfL had also announced that the Local Transport Fund (LTF), which had been used to support local transport priorities and resulted in an additional £100,000 of funding each year is also to  be withdrawn with effect from 2018/19. 

He also described that the Major Projects funding stream was to be replaced with a new funding stream called ‘Liveable Neighbourhoods’, although this would involve a new process whereby schemes were submitted and tested against the new criteria and, if successful, would receive funding. The Chairman asked Officers to circulate the criteria and guidelines to enable Members to consider and put forward suggested uses for the funding.

In response to a question surrounding access issues at Clock House station, the Transport Planning and Traffic Engineering Manager confirmed that all access issues would be reviewed and suggested that it may be helpful to have a dialogue with local Ward Members to enable Officers to be guided on local issues.  The Head of Traffic and Road Safety highlighted that it was likely that a bid would need to be made to Network Rail’s ‘Access for All’ budget to install a lift to the platform and, even if successful, was unlikely to coincide with the improvements funded through the LIP.  The Head of Traffic and Road Safety agreed to follow this up with Network Rail.

In response to a question from Cllr Stevens regarding improvements at Keston Mark in order to improve the Biggin Hill corridor  the Head of Traffic and Road Safety reported that the LIP funding would fall far short of  meeting those costs  Officers had been lobbying TfL for additional funding and there  was  now a design although this needed to be modelled and required further input from TfL, although LIP funding could be used to support that. Unfortunately, this had not been straight forward and there had not been any promise of funding at this stage.  The Chairman suggested that Officers should liaise with Ward Members and that any concerns surrounding funding should be brought back to a future meeting of the Committee if necessary.

Cllr Stevens also requested that the Committee be provided with timescales concerning improvements to the bus stops that will serve the new Biggin Hill Visitor Centre, opening in November 2018, to enable progress to be monitored.

Turning to the cessation of the Local Transport Fund, the Transport Planning and Traffic Engineering Manager reported that the funding had always been fully allocated  £38,000 had been allocated to support the provision of School Crossing Patrols across the Borough..  In response to a question, the Transport Planning and Traffic Engineering Manager confirmed that funding for the School Crossing Patrols would continue in 2018/19 but would come from other sources.  The Head of Traffic and Road Safety reported that the money had previously been used to fund smaller schemes that had supported some of the larger schemes and it was therefore unlikely that residents would notice any impact from the loss of funding.

The Executive Director of Environmental and Community Services reported that all London Boroughs were upset about the withdrawal of the funding and a great deal of lobbying was underway. The Environment PDS Committee expressed dissatisfaction and disappointment at the withdrawal of the funding and requested that concerns be raised with GLA Assembly Members.

In response to a question from the Chairman concerning issues surrounding inappropriate use of electric car charging bays, the Transport Planning and Traffic Engineering Manager reported that Parking Enforcement had been made aware to look out for improper use.  In relation to the location of charging bays, a good database had been developed and this was already helping inform the location of future bays.  It was highlighted that Bromley had one of the highest levels of electric vehicle ownership.  In addition, the Portfolio Holder highlighted that going forward it was expected that there would be more residential charging as electric vehicle owners chose to  trickle charge overnight.  It was anticipated that this would be a policy development item going forward as plans were trialled and issues identified.  It was agreed that the Committee would receive a further update on this issue at a future meeting.

RESOLVED: That the Portfolio Holder be recommended to:

1. Approve the programme of schemes for 2018/19 contained in the enclosure for submission to Transport for London,

2. Note the Environment PDS Committee’s dissatisfaction and disappointment that TfL have withdrawn the Funding of £100,000 for Local Transport Priorities with effect from 2018/19; and

3. Authorise the Executive Director of Environment and Community Services, in consultation with the Portfolio Holder and notification to Ward members, to make post-submission changes to the programme to reflect necessary changes to priority, potential delays to implementation following detailed design and consultation, or other unforeseen events.