Annual progress report July 2003

Executive summary

This Annual Progress Report on the Bedfordshire Local Transport Plan is about progress we have made in delivering local transport schemes in Bedfordshire during 2002/03. It focuses on five key areas.

Schemes delivered

2002/03 was a successful year for delivering walking, cycling and safety schemes. On public transport, safe routes to schools and major schemes, we also made significant progress, which will lead to delivery of new schemes in the near future.

We maintained investment in road, footway and street lighting maintenance at a relatively high level to reflect the deterioration of road condition over the year and public demand.

Progress towards targets and objectives

Continual improvement in road safety is one of our key targets. We made clear progress towards this target in 2002/03. In the medium and longer term, our scheme delivery will focus on increasing walking, cycling, public transport use and to help reduce congestion and improve air quality.

The condition of our roads (and especially non principal roads) has deteriorated over the last year. This is largely because investment in maintenance in past years has been insufficient. It means that the amount of work needed to address problems is larger than we previously expected. We have adopted an investment programme to address this revised assessment.

An effective spending programme

 We spent all the money allocated to local transport in 2002/03 from the Local Transport Plan settlement, our own resources and also the discretionary element of our funding. Spending on integrated transport schemes was in line with the programme whilst we maintained a high level of maintenance spending.

Improvement

We have made significant changes to this year's submission and have addressed all identified deficiencies.

Consultation and best practice

We continue to consult with all stakeholders on transport issues and schemes. In this report we give several examples where consultation has been influential on action taken.

There are a variety of ways in which we are learning from others and sharing our experiences. These include working with others (like our joint arrangements for maintaining traffic signals), our reviews of what we do and our contribution to new ways of working (such as our 'On Yer Bike' promotional video).

Annual progress report contents

1 Introduction|

2 Schemes Delivered|

2.1 Background
2.2 Overview
2.3 Commentary on schemes delivered
2.4 Major Schemes
2.5 Integrated Transport schemes
2.6 Maintenance schemes

3 Progress Towards Targets and Objectives|

3.1 Core National Indicators
3.2 Local Indicators

4 Spending Programme|

5 Improvement|

6 Consultation and Best Practice|

7 Wider Issues|

Glossary|

Tables and Proformas

Table 1 - 2002/03 Local Transport Plan Schemes Delivery summary
Table 2 -Local Transport Plan spending in 2002/03
Table 3 -Proposed Local Transport Plan spending in 2003/04

• Proforma A – Core Indicators
• Proforma B – Local Indicators
• Proforma C – Improvement

 Annexes

A - Finance Forms
B - Before and After Monitoring
C - Policy and Strategy Development
D - District and Borough Statements
E – Additional Information for Maintenance
F – Deleted Local Indicators
G – Major Scheme Additional Funding