Transport Secretary Phil Hammond gave the greenlight yesterday to a £25 million "sustainable transport" scheme in Ipswich, as he pledged to spend £5.9 billion on road and public transport upgrades.
The '
Ipswich - Transport Fit for the 21st Century' scheme includes rebuilding
bus stations, a state of the art computerised traffic management and information system, and real time bus information and improvements to make it easier to
walk and
cycle around Ipswich town centre. It is one of 16 road and bus improvements announced by the
Transport Secretary on Tuesday following eight major schemes announced as part of the Comprehensive Spending Review (CSR) last week.
Suffolk County Council, which put forward the scheme, said it would improve walking and cycling around Ipswich and would help to support future employment and housing growth in the town.
Leeds 'trolleybus' scheme
Other city green transport schemes were not so fortunate though. A multi-million pound '
trolleybus’ scheme that would help take cars off the
road and cut
carbon emissions in Leeds, is among those schemes that will have to re-submit a bid for a share of £600 million earmarked for local authority transport projects by Hammond yesterday. The £254 million trolleybus scheme had received first stage approval by former Transport Minister Sadiq Khan back in March.
The £600 million announced yesterday is in addition to the £560 million Local Sustainable Transport Fund announced as part of the CSR last week.
A number of road schemes were also given the greenlight yesterday. They include the M6 by Birmingham, the M62 between Leeds and Manchester, the M1 where it passes through the East Midlands and the M25 around London.
Hammond said that, taken together, the funding would reduce congestion, shorten journey times and deliver a more efficient public transport system.
Economic boost
He said the schemes would also provide an economic boost for the country. "This Government sees transport as a key driver of growth nationally and in the regions," he said. "For every pound we spend on Highways Agency schemes, on average we will get back £6 of benefits and in many cases there are even higher returns for local authority schemes."
Comprehensive Spending Review
The Department for Transport (DfT) got away relatively lightly in the spending review. In real terms, it is seeing a 15 per cent cut in its overall, budget, much less than the average across Whitehall.
This means projects such as the High Speed
Rail, Crossrail, London Underground upgrades and network rail updgrades, will go ahead. Other projects such as the Intercity Express Programme and the electricification of the Great Western Mainline are also been looked at.
Electric and low carbon vehicles
Hammond has defended continued
investment in road infrastructure as necessary for medium, suburban and rural travel, saying it is wrong to "coerce" motorists out of cars. He has also said it fits in with the Government’s policy to back electric and low emission cars.
As part of its spending review, the DfT said it will make provision for over £400 million for measures to promote the uptake of ultra-low carbon vehicle
technologies, including a
grant to encourage consumers to buy ultra-low carbon vehicles until 2012 at least, and continued investment in electric vehicle recharging infrastructure through
Plugged-In Places. To fund this, however, it said some efficiency savings would have to be met from both the Energy Saving Trust and Low Carbon Vehicle Partnership.
Local Sustainable Transport Fund
In another effort to reduce carbon emissions, local authorities outside London are being invited to bid for funding through the £560 million Local Sustainable Transport Fund.
Although it replaces a range of previous grants for sustainable forms of travel, the DfT said it represented "a significant increase in funding for sustainable travel".
The fund will include a mix of £350 million revenue and £210 million capital funding over the next four years.
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Related links:
www.suffolk.gov.uk
www.dft.gov.uk/
