Key information
Executive summary
The Mayor is required to publish a Transport Strategy (MTS) and to keep that strategy under review.
On 15 March 2017 the Mayor formally directed TfL to prepare a revised MTS, associated integrated impact assessment (IIA) and implementation guidance (LIP Guidance) for the London borough councils and the Common Council of the City of London (MD2081).
The Mayor also directed Transport for London (TfL) to consult stakeholders and the general public on the MTS and IIA and stakeholders on the LIP Guidance on his behalf. TfL has now completed its preparation of the draft MTS, IIA and draft LIP Guidance and it is proposed that they will be consulted on for a period of 15 weeks commencing on 21 June 2017.
Decision
The Mayor:
• approves the draft MTS document (and executive summary) for the purpose of the formal statutory consultation of the public and stakeholders;
• notes the IIA which has been done in respect of the draft MTS;
• approves the draft LIP Guidance for the purpose of the consultation of stakeholders;
• approves the consultation period starting on 21 June 2017 for a period of 15 weeks.
Part 1: Non-confidential facts and advice
1.1 The Mayor is required to prepare and publish a transport strategy (MTS) which contains his policies for the promotion and encouragement of safe, integrated, efficient and economic transport facilities and services to, from and within Greater London, his proposals for discharging his duty of exercising his powers under Part IV of the Greater London Authority Act 1999 (the GLA Act) for the purpose of securing the provision of those transport facilities and services and his proposals for providing accessible transport. The MTS provides the framework for Transport for London’s (TfL) activities and in respect of certain matters, namely, road user charging, there must be conformity between the charging scheme and the MTS.
1.2 As with all the mayoral strategies, the Mayor must keep the MTS under review and make such revisions as he considers necessary. In doing so, the Mayor shall have regard to the effect that the strategy will have on various themes (health, health inequalities, sustainable development and climate change) as well as on the need to ensure consistency with national policies, the UK’s EU obligations and such other international obligations the Mayor is notified of by the Secretary of State. The MTS must also be consistent with the Mayor’s other strategies. Work has started on new versions of all of these strategies, including a new London Plan. It is also relevant that the Mayor has regard to the resources available to implement the strategy.
1.3 There have been significant developments in transport facilities and services since the publication of the current MTS in 2010. Furthermore, there have been changes to London’s population and employment forecasts which envisage an additional 1.5 million residents in the capital by 2041. TfL’s funding arrangements will also change during the current mayoral term. Given this context the Mayor has confirmed that it is appropriate for the MTS to be revised to reflect the current climate and the strategic direction of the incumbent Mayor, as set out in his ‘City for All Londoners’ document (published for consultation in October 2016).
1.4 The Mayor also wishes to issue guidance to the boroughs and the City of London as to the implementation of the revised MTS. The boroughs and the City of London are required to prepare local implementation plans (LIPs) in respect of the MTS which are submitted to the Mayor for approval. The Mayor may only approve a LIP if he considers that it is consistent with the MTS, that the proposals contained in the LIP are adequate for the purposes of implementing the MTS and that the timetable for implementing those proposals, including the deadlines for doing so, are adequate. The guidance that is to be issued will assist the boroughs and City of London to produce LIPs which are capable of being approved by the Mayor. Draft LIP guidance will be published for consultation alongside the draft MTS but the consultation will be directed at stakeholders only (the Boroughs, London Councils, London Travel Watch, London Government Technical Advisory Group and the London Environmental Directors’ Network). The final LIPs guidance will be published at the same time as the MTS.
1.5 As part of the MTS process, an Integrated Impact Assessment (IIA) has been carried out in respect of the draft MTS and will be consulted upon alongside the draft strategy. The IIA collates and analyses findings from the following assessments in one overall integrated report in relation to the revised draft MTS:• Strategic Environmental Assessment; Habitats Regulation Assessment; Equalities Impact Assessment, Health Impact Assessment, Assessment of Economic Impacts and Community Safety Impact Assessment. The IIA aims to provide for a high level of protection of the environment, protected groups, human health, economy and community safety and security and to contribute to the integration of such considerations into the preparation and adoption of the MTS. In respect of the Strategic Environmental Assessment which is a requirement of the Environmental Assessment of the Plans and Programmes Regulations 2004, TfL will include the statutory consultees (the Environment Agency, Natural England and English Heritage) in the combined consultation process.
1.6 As has been the case with previous revisions, the Mayor wishes to use the expertise of TfL and its resources to prepare the draft MTS and on 15 March 2017 the Mayor formally directed TfL to prepare a revised MTS, IIA and LIPs guidance and undertake related tasks, including undertaking the required consultations, and delegated the necessary powers to TfL.
1.7 The documents have now been prepared by TfL and the Mayor is required to approve them for public and stakeholder consultation.
2.1 Consulting on the draft MTS will fulfil the Mayor’s statutory obligations as stipulated in the GLA Act. Following on from engagement activities conducted prior to and during the course of preparing the draft MTS, stakeholders and the public will be able to review the complete draft document which the Mayor is proposing to publish and provide fully informed and constructive responses. The consultation exercise will allow TfL and the Mayor to understand and identify areas of support, concern or objection and to revise the strategy as the Mayor agrees necessary.
2.2 Following the consultation, TfL will report to the Mayor on the responses received and make recommendations for the final MTS to be published by the Mayor in January 2018.
3.1 Under s149 of the Equality Act 2010 (the Equality Act), as public authorities the Mayor and TfL must have due regard to the need to eliminate unlawful discrimination, harassment and victimisation, and to advance equality of opportunity and foster good relations between people who share a protected characteristic and those who do not. Protected characteristics under the Equality Act are age, disability, gender re-assignment, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex, sexual orientation, and marriage or civil partnership status (the duty in respect of this last characteristic is to eliminate unlawful discrimination only).
3.2 In respect of the draft MTS, the Mayor has an express duty to consult the Disabled Persons Transport Advisory Committee and such other persons or bodies which represent the interests of persons with mobility problems as the Mayor considers appropriate.
3.3 The consultation materials in respect of the draft MTS consultation will be made available in a format which is accessible to blind and visually impaired people who use screen readers and the executive summary will be available in an EasyRead format for people with learning disabilities. Deaf and hearing impaired people will be provided with a means of contacting TfL’s Customer Contact Centre if they require further information and do not have access to the internet or email. In addition, people will be able to request paper copies of the consultation questionnaire and are also welcome to provide responses in writing to a freepost address. Requests for the documents to be made available in other formats and translated into other languages will be considered on a case by case basis.
3.4 An Equalities Impact Assessment in respect of the draft MTS is included in the IIA.
a) Key risks and issues
4.1 The overarching theme of the MTS is to encourage people to choose active and sustainable forms of transport such as walking, cycling and public transport and it includes measures to discourage people from using private cars. While this is a reasoned approach, it is possible that it will attract opposition from certain groups. There are no identified risks associated with the consultation plan and approach.
b) Links to Mayoral strategies and priorities
4.2 In October 2016 the Mayor published for consultation ‘A City for All Londoners’ in order to set the context for the development of his statutory strategies, including the MTS. ‘A City for All Londoners’ set out the Mayor’s priorities including accommodating growth, providing more housing, supporting the economy, improving the environment, transport and public spaces, and ensuring social integration. All mayoral strategies are in the course of being revised to reflect the priorities and direction set out by the incumbent Mayor.
4.3 For the transport strategy this means outlining the necessary steps to make London an open, economically attractive, liveable and environmentally sustainable city. The transport strategy has taken this forward through the following three priorities:
(a) Healthy Streets and Healthy People: providing more space for walking and cycling, adopting a Vision Zero Approach to reducing road danger, reducing levels of traffic on our roads and ensuring that the transport system contributes to improving the environment by enabling London to become a zero carbon city and to be more resilient to the impacts climate change.
(b) A Good Public Transport Experience: Transforming the design and layout around stations to encourage the use of active and sustainable modes for onward journeys, improving customer service and ensuring public transport is safe, affordable and accessible, shaping the bus network to improve reliability and journey times, and improving rail services to tackle crowding.
(c) Supporting new homes and jobs: Embedding more sustainable travel patterns, planning infrastructure and services in an integrated way to unlock housing and support regeneration to respond to forecast population growth.
4.4 Section 41 of the GLA Act provides that in revising the strategies, the Mayor shall have regard to the need for each of the mayoral strategies to be consistent with each other. The draft MTS has been prepared with continued engagement with other strategy teams within the GLA. All Deputy Mayors have also been consulted through the Corporate Investment Board.
c) Impact Assessements and consultation
4.5 TfL has commissioned an external consultant, Jacobs, to effectively manage the delivery of the IIA. The findings and recommendations of an IIA must iteratively influence the development of the strategy and throughout the development of the draft strategy. TfL and Jacobs have worked closely together to ensure information is shared and proper regard has been given to all recommendations.
4.6 In the course of revising the MTS, the Mayor is required to consult certain groups and extend the consultation to the public at large. A detailed consultation and engagement plan has been devised to ensure that the consultation meets legal requirements and provides for constructive responses from stakeholders and the public. Various consultation materials have been produced to support this, including an Executive Summary.
4.7 There is no statutory requirement for consultation on the strategic LIPs guidance. The draft guidance has been developed in conjunction with the Boroughs and London Councils. TfL will formally issue the draft strategic guidance along with the MTS for formal consultation. However, this will be a select audience to include the Boroughs, London Councils and a limited list of transport representative groups (London Travel Watch, London Government Technical Advisory Group and the London Environmental Directors’ Network).
4.8 Following the statutory consultation period, the responses to the consultation will be analysed by TfL and a report prepared for the Mayor, with recommendations for potential changes based on the responses. The Mayor will then submit the final proposed version of the revised MTS to the London Assembly, which has the power to reject it (but not amend it) by a two-thirds majority of those voting. If not rejected, the Mayor will proceed to formally publish the revised MTS and publish an IIA Post-Adoption Statement.
5.1 There will be no direct financial implications for the GLA arising from this decision. TfL has allocated a budget of £172,000 for consultation and all related activities.
6.1 The statutory framework which applies to the revision of the MTS is described under heading 1 above. Section 41 of the GLA Act sets out the general duties the Mayor has in respect of all of his strategies with obligations specific to the MTS contained in s142. The relevant functions were delegated to TfL pursuant to s38 by MD2081 with approval of the draft MTS reserved to the Mayor.
6.2 The proposed consultation exercise in respect of the draft MTS is to be done in accordance with the requirements of the GLA Act. Section 42 provides that when revising any mayoral strategy, the Mayor must consult the Assembly, the functional bodies, each London borough Council, the Common Council of the City of London, voluntary bodies some or all of whose activities benefit the whole or part of Greater London, bodies which represent the interests of different racial, ethnic or national groups in Greater London, bodies which represent the interests of different religious groups in Greater London and bodies which represent the interests of persons carrying on business in Greater London. When revising the MTS, s142 requires the Mayor to consult the Disabled Persons Transport Advisory Committee and such other persons or bodies which represent the interests of persons with mobility problems as he considers it appropriate to consult.
6.3 The requirement to produce an IIA derives from various pieces of legislation which either impose a duty on the Mayor in respect of a specific subject area, for example, crime, or create an obligation to undertake a specific type of assessment of a plan or programme. At the IIA’s core is the environment report which is required by the Environmental Assessment of Plans and Programmes Regulations 2004. At this stage in the MTS revision process, the Regulations impose a statutory obligation to consult certain agencies (Natural England, English Heritage and the Environment Agency) as well as the public.
6.4 The LIP Guidance is produced pursuant to s 144. As noted under heading 4, there is no statutory requirement to consult on the Guidance although it has been decided to seek the views of certain stakeholders.
6.5 It is proposed that the consultation period will last for 15 weeks. This is in keeping with consultation periods for previous revisions of the MTS (for example, in 2009/10, the general public and stakeholder consultation period was 12 October 2009 to 12 January 2010, a period of 13 weeks). Allowance has been made for the summer holiday period and the lack of scheduling of local council meetings during that time. It is considered that in light of the ease with which consultation materials can be disseminated and responses received, the nature of the policies and proposals being consulted on, the size of the consultation materials and the time of year in which the consultation is being undertaken that 15 weeks is an appropriate consultation period.
7.1 The key dates for the delivery of the MTS are as follows:
• Publication of draft for consultation: 21 June 2017
• Consultation period: 21 June – 2 October 2017
• Consideration of consultation responses and preparation of report for the Mayor: November/December 2017
• Proposed final version of the MTS laid before the London Assembly – December 2017
• Publication and adoption of final version: January 2018
• Appendix 1: Executive Summary
• Appendix 2: Draft MTS for public consultation
• Appendix 3: Draft LIPs Guidance
• Appendix 4: Integrated Impact Assessment (IIA)
Signed decision document
MD2136 Mayor's Transport Strategy