Agenda item

2015-20 prioritised infrastructure investment programme

To consider the attached report.

Decision:

The Executive Board APPROVED the Greater Cambridge City Deal’s 2015-20 prioritised infrastructure investment programme, made up of the following schemes:

 

-       Milton Road bus priority

-       Madingley Road bus priority

-       Histon Road bus priority

-       A428 to M11 segregated bus route / A428 corridor Park and Ride

-       City centre capacity improvements / cross-city cycle improvements (to include Hills Road in the scope)

-       A1307 corridor to include bus priority / A1307 additional Park and Ride

-       Chisholm Trail cycle links / Chisholm Trail bridge

-       Year 1 to 5 pipeline development

-       Year 6 to 10 programme development

-       Programme management and early scheme development

 

Minutes:

Consideration was given to a report which provided the Executive Board with an opportunity to agree priority schemes for the transport infrastructure investment programme for delivery from 2015/16 to 2019/20 as part of the Greater Cambridge City Deal.

 

Graham Hughes, Cambridgeshire County Council’s Executive Director of Economy, Transport and Environment, delivered a presentation on the concept of the Greater Cambridge City Deal and the infrastructure investment programme.  He highlighted that the Greater Cambridge area was a truly internationally competitive city and region, that it had unique characteristics known commonly as the ‘Cambridge Phenomenon’ and that it had a global scale concentration of high-tech industries but  that future growth was threatened by congestion and housing. 

 

The vision of the City Deal was noted as being to realise the economic potential of the area, to unleash the next wave of the ‘Cambridge Phenomenon’, to improve connectivity and enhance reliability of journeys.

 

The infrastructure investment programme had been drawn from Local Plans and the Transport Strategy and City Deal funding would be delivered in three tranches over 15 to 20 years.  In terms of the first five years of investment, the focus would be on maximising network benefits, maximising economic benefits and deliverability.

 

It was noted that the Greater Cambridge City Deal Joint Assembly considered the schemes on 12 January 2015 and broadly accepted the recommendations for the prioritisation methodology and high priority schemes, as reported by the Chairman of the Assembly at this meeting in the previous item.

 

The process for assessing the prioritisation of schemes consisted of a high level economic analysis of schemes that had been undertaken to identify relative economic benefits and deliverability.  The recommended programme drew together results of assessments to help inform a robust and deliverable programme to 2020 to achieve the aims of the City Deal.  Taking into account the amendments put forward by the Joint Assembly, table 1 of the report set out a list of schemes totalling £260.59 million. 

 

Mr Hughes confirmed the process for scheme development that would be followed going forward.  Schemes would be developed via an iterative process with significant consultation, including a baseline survey, data gathering and options development, an options report and outline business case, a decision on the preferred option to develop, full business case development, a decision to deliver a scheme, statutory processes as applicable and construction.  A shorter process for smaller schemes was likely to be introduced.

 

The need to develop schemes for later stages of the City Deal was emphasised.  Technical work for schemes in years six to fifteen could run alongside the development of schemes in years one to five.

 

Councillor Lewis Herbert, Chairman, invited Members of the Board to consider the recommendations of the Joint Assembly.  The Board supported the recommendations but felt that the priority list of schemes was too large at £260.59 million when only £100 million was available for the first five years of the Deal.  It was acknowledged, however, that allocating schemes in excess of £100 million would be sensible in order that there were contingencies should some of the schemes be removed from the programme following the feasibility work.  Members of the Board discussed the list of prioritised schemes and made the following points:

 

·         the final list of schemes should not be set hierarchically as all schemes in the programme should have equal standing as priority schemes.  Listing them in a specific order with priority numbers may be misleading;

·         it was important that a pipeline of schemes was available for taking forward subsequent to years one to five of the Deal.  The Board had to plan for the longer term and be confident that trigger points would be met to ensure the further tranches of City Deal funding from the Government;

·         the priority list should focus on those big projects that would make a significant difference and long length cycle paths outside of the city did not necessarily reflect that approach;

·         long length cycle routes were made up of various segments, from village to village for example.  Each segment could deliver benefits in their own right, so a different approach to consider could be the development of individual segments of cycle routes rather than committing to deliver a long length cycle route as a single scheme;

·         the priority programme should include city centre cycling and bus routes as priorities to alleviate the significant problems that currently existed there.  Other cycling schemes based outside of the city centre should be included as longer term programme items;

·         the key problem in relation to employment and economic growth was infrastructure.  When looking at priorities, the focus should be on corridors to ensure that people were able to easily travel to and from places of work.  This approach would support existing businesses and employers, as well as attract new businesses to the area;

·         residents of and people working in South Cambridgeshire also had a significant interest in the priority schemes included in the City Deal programme, so some of the schemes needed to reflect that;

·         the introduction of additional Park and Ride facilities could go a long way to address the congestion problems in Cambridge.  More cycle ways would not make a significant difference to the number of private cars going in and out of the city in the same way that further Park and Ride facilities would;

·         priority should be given to those routes that could free up buses and get the traffic in the city moving;

·         there were priority schemes for cyclists that would result in lots of people transferring from their private cars to bicycles, such as the Chisholm Trail for example;

·         the project for Hills Road in Cambridge would need to unlock buses and movement from the railway station;

·         the city centre scheme was at the heart of the City Deal.  Some of the changes required would be substantial but significant to the way in which the city worked;

·         an item on the City Deal’s extended programme, to include continuous pipeline schemes, would be considered by the Joint Assembly and Executive Board in due course.

 

The Chairman invited Members to consider which schemes to include as part of the 2015-20 prioritised infrastructure investment programme.  The Executive Board unanimously APPROVED the programme, made up of the following schemes totalling £180.52 million:

 

-       Milton Road bus priority

-       Madingley Road bus priority

-       Histon Road bus priority

-       A428 to M11 segregated bus route / A428 corridor Park and Ride

-       City centre capacity improvements / cross-city cycle improvements (to include Hills Road in the scope)

-       A1307 corridor to include bus priority / A1307 additional Park and Ride

-       Chisholm Trail cycle links / Chisholm Trail bridge

-       Year 1 to 5 pipeline development

-       Year 6 to 10 programme development

-       Programme management and early scheme development

Supporting documents: