Local Transport Board Meeting Note

10.30-12.30 Wednesday 1^st March 2017

Cranworth Room, County Hall, Norwich

Board Attendance:

Giles Perkins

Mouchel

Peter Ramsey

Mouchel

Margot Tancred

Norfolk County Council

Kathryn Deacon

Norfolk County Council

Ali Clabburn

Liftshare

Johnathan Denby

Greater Anglia

Steve Wickers

First Group

Paul Horne

Suffolk County Council

Graeme Mateer

Suffolk County Council

Sue Roper

Suffolk County Council

Cllr Guy McGregor

Suffolk County Council

Paul Davey

Felixstowe Port

Richard Perkins

Suffolk Chamber of Commerce

Richard Pace

Norwich International Airport

Cllr Stuart Clancy

Norfolk County Council

Cllr Martin Wilby

Norfolk County Council

Mark Pendlington

New Anglia LEP

Chris Starkie

New Anglia LEP

Emily Manser

New Anglia LEP

Christopher Soule

Country Land Owners and Business

Associations

Amelia Brookman

Highways England

Nigel Allsopp

Highways England

David Cumming

Norfolk County Council

Vince Muspratt

Norfolk County Council

Philip Broadbent-Yale

Sustrans

Gerard Whelan

KPMG

James Cutting

East of England Programme Manager

(Wider South East Collaboration

Programme on Infrastructure and

Growth)

Dan Aylward

KPMG

Hannah Grimes

Norfolk County Council

Public attendance:

Carolyn Barnes

Suffolk Coastal and Waveney District

Councils

Justin Segrave-Daly

Waveney District Council

Michael Newsham

Ipswich Borough Council

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Apologies:

Andrew Bell

Norwich International Airport

Caroline Williams

Norfolk Chamber of Commerce

Charles Horton

GT Railway

Chris Wiggan

Stansted Airport

Cllr James Finch

Suffolk County Council

Jamie Burles

Greater Anglia

John Dugmore

Suffolk Chamber of Commerce

Larry Heyman

GT Railway

Richard Schofield

Network Rail

Richard Tunnicliffe

Confederation of British industry

Karl Murphy

DfT

Dave Watson

Suffolk County Council

Martin Fellows

Highways England

Oliver Starbuck

East Midlands Trains

Rob Bellamy

Ipswich Buses

1. Welcome and Introductions

The Chair welcomed delegates and gave his apologies - he will be leaving at 11:45

but a replacement Chair (Cllr Martin Wilby) will be taking over.

2. Minutes and Matters Arising

The December 1^st minutes were agreed.

Due to travel disruptions, it was agreed to postpone items 3, 4 and 6 of the agenda

until the relevant delegates could arrive at the meeting.

Two actions from the December 1^st minutes were discussed. The East Midlands

meeting has not yet occurred, so this action will continue to next month. The East

Midlands consultation has yet to happen - David Cumming will contact all those

involved once this has happened.

A brief report on the Local Transport Body meeting, held March 1st 2017 from

9:00am to 10:30am was given for the benefit of those who were not present. There

has been approximately £8 million approved to four projects, including the Great

Yarmouth Rail Interchange, the Norwich Guardian Road junction and Ipswich radial.

The LEP will recommend to the LEP Board that £3.3 million be allocated towards the

Ely area rail enhancements.

5. Growth Deal

Chris Starkie outlined that £69 million has been received for Growth Deal Three from

central government (Growth Deal parts 1 and 2 were awarded a total of £220

million). There are around 28 projects active at the moment, in addition to the four

agreed upon in the Body meeting on the 1^st March. The £69 million for Growth Deal

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three is the fourth or fifth biggest of the LEP allocations so far, secured by the

deliverability of the schemes and the potential private sector leverage. Of this £69

million, £10 million is allocated to the Lowestoft flood defences, £10 million to the

Norwich northern distributor road, £15 million to an innovation and productivity fund,

£12m to an Enterprise Zone Accelerator fund and £22 million to capital infrastructure

funds. This funding is likely to arrive in 2018/19 - 2020/21.

Following this update, Cllr Martin Wilby flagged up the three Norfolk highways

projects agreed as priorities: Long Stratton bypass, Norwich Western Link and Great

Yarmouth Third Rive Crossing. He hoped that these would receive future funding.

Cllr Guy McGregor raised the importance of funding work on Lowestoft Bridge. This

will become more important if the construction of Sizewell C goes ahead. Also

flagged up for future discussion was the constant cost of maintaining roads in Norfolk

and Suffolk.

The Chair noted that the Local Transport Body pipeline prioritisation project,

discussed in the Local Transport Body meeting of 1^st March 2017, would be of use

here. This will be discussed in the next meeting in June.

ACTION: SCC will conduct an initial study of the A140 and all will consider the issue

of prioritisation.

David Cumming noted that the Integrated Transport Strategy would be a valuable

document in setting out the potential of the area and the transport investments

required. Richard Perkins agreed and noted that the DfT Executive Committee had

noted the absence of such a strategy in their recent visit. A Board member asked if

there had been any outcomes from this. It was suggested that a Westminster visit

should be arranged in the near future and the Chair stated the importance of

continuous lobbying.

The Chair reminded the delegates that there are other ways of funding as opposed

to just publically financed funding. It is important to make funds go further, as the

money available to spend is limited. Thus far this has been done efficiently.

ACTION: The New Anglia LEP investment map will be circulated with the minutes to

provide an overview.

ACTION: The Board will follow-up the Executive Committee visit for an update.

4. Integrated Transport Strategy

Giles Perkins from Mouchel gave a presentation, which is summarised below and

circulated with the minutes. The presentation covered expected and possible

changes and strategies up to 2030, then covered an overview of possible scenarios

for 2030 and finished with the possible next steps in 2040 and beyond. The main

changes are technological (increases in digital infrastructure, automation, changes in

transport technology) and changes in employment models (such as the spread of

peak travel times, increase in people working remotely).

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The key features of the presentation were stated to be policy and agility. The

importance of agility and deliverability in order for people to have confidence was

stressed. The question was raised if it would make any sense to retain some money

for agile work, if the need arises to act quickly.

The Chair requested that questions and comments be reserved for the Transport

Strategy Reference Group after this meeting.

3. Sustrans Deep Dive

Philip Broadbent-Yale from Sustrans gave a presentation, which is summarised

below and circulated with the minutes. He introduced Sustrans as a company and

went over some of their recent accomplishments. The economic benefits of cycling

were stressed, in particular the contribution of £2.9 billion to the UK in 2015 with 3.6

million bikes sold that year, as was the various health and social benefits of cycling

schemes. He also covered the benefit cost ratio of the cycle city scheme, it having a

5.5:1 benefit cost ratio. In comparison, the Norwich Northern Distributor Road has a

4.1:1 ratio.

6. Wider South East Planning

James Cutting gave a presentation on planning within the wider south-eastern area

encompassing London, the East and the South East, which is summarised below

and circulated with the minutes. This would involve engagement between all three

areas and co-operative working on road and rail strategic corridor routes as well as

co-operative lobbying opportunities.

The possibility of integrating work on the A47 was raised. James Cutting

acknowledges that this is a notable absence. The work being done now is a first step

and expansions beyond this will come up later in the year. It was also noted that this

is a good intermediary to the sub-national transport body. Knowing priorities from this

establishes a good position to go back to central government. However, it is

important to make sure that the individual voices of Suffolk and Norfolk are not lost.

The Board now needs to provide ongoing support, information sharing and

assistance in identifying the critical next stages.

7. Airports National Policy Statement Consultation

Richard Pace gave a presentation which is summarised below and circulated with

the minutes. The draft Airports National Policy Statement consultation closes on 25^th

May 2017 - any questions on this need to be submitted as soon as possible. The

Airspace consultation on noise was also covered, and was the Aviation strategy,

which is not yet published.

ACTION: All - any responses to the draft Airports National Policy Statement need to

be submitted as soon as possible to Richard Pace. In addition please send any

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comments to David Cumming to allow NCC to draft a response on the Local

Transport Board’s behalf. Please send any comments by Monday 27^th March.

8. Updates

8.1 Greater Anglia Rail Plan

The importance of keeping this infrastructure going was stressed, along with the

importance of ensuring that Network Rail keeps in view what we want to be done.

8.2 NALEP Board

Chris Starkie outlined that evidence is being gathered and specialist support

procured for the development of a new economic strategy. This will be finished in

March/April, the document will be drafted in June/July and the first draft published

towards the end of the summer.

8.3 Local Transport Major Schemes

All the schemes are on track, with the business case for Great Yarmouth Third River

Crossing due to be submitted at the end of March and construction due to begin in

the early 2020s.

8.4 Sub National Transport Bodies

There will be a dedicated meeting on 30^th March to discuss this amongst

representatives of the local authorities concerned.

8.5 Road

Nigel Allsopp reported that the works on renumbering the A12 as the A47 between

Great Yarmouth and Lowestoft are almost complete. The A47 schemes due to be

constructed as part of the Roads Investment Strategy (RIS) 1consultation will begin

in March. Nigel reported that work continues on development of a programme for

RIS2 (2020-2025) and thanked those who submitted evidence last year. The LEP

will respond to the A12 and A120 consultation after the deadline.

8.6 Air

Richard Pace reported that Norwich Airport is growing well, with a masterplan to be

circulated to stakeholders in due course.

8.7 Rail

Jonathan Denby outlined that, due to previous investing in the existing fleets, they

are now much more reliable. The local units (Class 170) are now 15-18 years old

and so there is a major refurbishment programme underway. The programme to

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deliver new trains by 2019/20 is on schedule. A £70 million investment will result in a

new maintenance/service depot at Brantham near Manningtree.

Issues were raised about seating, safety, provision of toilets and catering on the new

stock and inner-city rolling stock. A request was made to see the seating layout of

this stock. There are some steps to address these issues, however more detail and a

timeline will not be known until nearer the time.

The importance of consistency of messaging on key projects was re-iterated.

8.8 Ports

No updates.

8.9 Buses

No new updates, but the mention of smaller sized buses in the Integrated Transport

Strategy presentation was highlighted. Issues surrounding disabled access on buses

were also highlighted.

8.10 Liftshare

Ali Clabburn reported that nationally car sharing journeys are set to double from 1

million to 2 million. Locally, it was introduced at Anglian Water and 40% of staff

signed up within two weeks. Co-operation with sites such as the Norfolk and Norwich

Hospital and organisations such as Park & Ride, cycling schemes and Stagecoach is

progressing well. In the future, there may be an opportunity to present to the

Department for Transport and civil servants to bring attention to this scheme.

9. AOB

There was no other business.

Items for next agenda - Buses deep dive - all.

10. Date of next meeting

10:30-12:30 Tuesday 6^th June in Ipswich

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