'Light touch' deal call to cut delays in transport schemes
Mar 11 2009 by Patrice John, Birmingham Post
Transport projects could be better delivered to tighter time scales if the Government grants more power to regional bodies, according to a report.
The West Midlands Shadow Joint Strategy & Investment Board (JS&IB) and passenger authority Centro are calling for the power to press ahead with all transport schemes costing less than £20m.
This would mean that large projects like the Nuneaton to Coventry rail scheme and the next phase of Red Routes would escape Whitehall bureaucracy and be controlled in the region.
The ‘light touch’ approval process would give regional bodies more power to manage projects within cost limits set by the Department for Transport (DfT).
The JS&IB is made up of officers from Advantage West Midlands, local government, Homes and Communities Agency, Learning and Skills Council and the Highways Agency.
They formulated the West Midlands’ Regional Funding Advice to Government document which calls on the DfT to give them more powers and states: “The DfT are currently reviewing their approaches with a view to possibly having a light touch process to deal with schemes costing less than £20m.
“Given that our potential programme includes projects that cost less than £20m we offer to work with DfT to develop and pilot the new process.
“Regional partners feel that there are opportunities to accelerate the development of important transport projects.”
The report recommends this new approach would make the approval process much swifter and states that regional partners want to work with the DfT to “improve the efficiency and effectiveness of transport decision making within the context of the JS&IB.
“At present all funding decision and accountability rests with DfT and there is a detailed process for the approval and funding of schemes.
“However our experience is that this can take a considerable amount of time and can result in confusion.”
If the DfT decide to pilot this approach in the West Midlands it would allow greater flexibility and management of the transport schemes that are currently being developed by a range of local transport authorities.
Two such schemes are the Coventry to Nuneaton Line, currently a freight corridor with two terminals. There are plans to improve the route and speed on the line, and a build a new station named Coventry Arena Station.
The Red Routes Package 2 project involves the rolling out of 260 miles of Red Routes across the region.
According to the West Midlands Local Transport Plan, the Red Routes Package 2 plan has not yet been decided but it will involve major roads throughout Walsall, Wolverhampton, Dudley, West Bromwich, Coventry and Birmingham.
A Centro spokesman said: “At present the region can approve projects costing £5m or less but we have been pressing the DfT to raise that threshold as this would help make sure schemes get delivered and in many cases more quickly.”
The report was presented to the DfT last month and a decision is expected by the summer.
