Decision details

To announce the results of the distribution of the Local Transport Plan (LTP) Area Board ‘Substantive Highway Scheme’ budget of £250,000 in 2014/15.

I approve that the results of the Substantive Highway Scheme funding mechanism as set out in Appendix 2 be approved.

This decision was published on 5 August 2014 and will come into force on 12 August 2014         

There needs to be a mechanism for delivering Area Board transport scheme priorities that exceed the Area Board’s available discretionary highway budget and are unable to be implemented in phases over time.  The agreed methodology and the application of the Substantive Highway Scheme Bid Evaluation Formula has resulted in eight scheme bids being awarded Substantive Highway Scheme funding in 2014/15.

The mechanism that was approved in July 2011 for distributing the Substantive Highway Scheme Fund awards funding according to value for money and deliverability.  Under this mechanism, value for money is the ratio of the cost and benefit of the prospective scheme and deliverability is an assessment of how challenging a scheme would be to implement within a given financial year, considering technical, legal/procedural, operational, financial and public factors.  Appendix 1 sets out the Substantive Highway Scheme Bid Evaluation Formula incorporating the above.

Ten bids were received by the submission date of 30 June 2014.  However, two of these bids were considered ineligible for this funding either because the scheme that was bid for could be afforded within the Board’s discretionary highway budget or could be implemented in discrete stages spread over two or three financial years.

The eight valid bids have been scored using the Substantive Highway Scheme Bid Evaluation Formula.  The results are set out in Appendix 2 with the successful schemes highlighted in bold.  The two bids that were deemed ineligible are also shown in Appendix 2 along with the reason why they were discounted.

As can be seen from Appendix 2, the £250,000 Substantive Highway Scheme Fund will be distributed between the eight successful bids in order of cost-benefit and deliverability, with £9,100 unallocated and set aside as a programme contingency.

The Cabinet Member report that outlined and approved the mechanism for applying for Substantive Highway Scheme funding was circulated to all Members and Community Area Managers in July 2011.  In addition, informal consultation on the Substantive Highway Scheme funding mechanism and the opportunity to bid for funding has taken place at the Area Board Community Area Transport Group meetings since that time.