Decision details

Councillor Osman Dervish, Cabinet member for Environment, Regulatory Services and Community Safety, introduced the report

Cabinet was reminded that the Council made an annual Local Implementation Plan (LIP) Spending Submission to Transport for London (TfL) for funding transportation initiatives.  This was the major source of funding for transport for the Council.

The Submission had to be consistent with the Mayor of London’s Transport Strategy, and the Council’s own adopted Local Implementation Plan strategy document.

The report before Members recommended that Cabinet approval of the detailed and full LIP Submission (including its Principal Road Maintenance and Bridge Strengthening bids) should be delegated to the Cabinet Member for Environment, Regulatory Services and Community Safety prior to it being submitted to TfL.

The report made clear that the recent Mayoral election and the Government’s Comprehensive Spending Review would have influence in the way that the submission for 2017/18 was prepared.

TfL was expected to provide guidance to boroughs on preparing the 2017/18 submission in the near future.  A copy of this guidance will be placed in the Members Resource room when it becomes available.  TfL was also expected to inform boroughs of its indicative allocation for the 2017/18 financial year later this year.  It was currently expected that TfL would confirm the funding for the proposed 2017/18 programme in late 2016 and, as in previous years, Members would be advised about the outcome.

The report confirmed that, as previously, the Council would continue to explore additional opportunities for funding transport programmes/policies to supplement those from the LIP allocation such as other TfL funding streams (e.g. TfL Major Schemes funding), other external funding sources and contributions from development proposals.

Reasons for the Decision

The LIP Funding Submission was a statutory requirement submitted annually to TfL in order to secure funding for a range of initiatives in the Borough with a focus on transport which also encompassed public realm, safety and the environment.  Without the LIP funding, it was extremely unlikely that the Council would have the resources to take these forward.

Alternative Options Considered

There are no alternatives if the Council wished TfL to confirm its LIP funding award to Havering for 2017/18.

Cabinet:

1.            Noted that approval of Havering’s full final LIP Funding Submission for 2017/18 to TfL be delegated by the Leader to the Cabinet Member for Environment, Regulatory Services and Community Safety.

1.            Agreed that other opportunities for investment in transportation initiatives would continue to be sought from TfL outside the LIP Annual Spending Submission process and from other stakeholders and funding sources.