Agenda item

Councillor Robert Benham, Cabinet Member for Environment, 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, the Council’s own adopted Local Implementation Plan strategy document and its approved 2014/15 to 2016/17 Three Year Delivery Plan.  The Delivery Plan formed an important context for the submission for 2016/17 and, as in previous years, included the ‘core’ elements of the current year’s submission. 

TfL had informed the Council that Havering’s indicative LIP funding for 2016/17 was £2.822m and later this year it must tell TfL in detail how it planned to spend this.

The report recommended that Cabinet’s approval of the detailed and full LIP Submission (including its Principal Road Maintenance and Bridge Strengthening bids) should be delegated to the Lead Member for Environment prior to it being submitted to TfL in October 2015.

TfL was expected to confirm the funding for the proposed programme in the 2016/17 submission in late 2015 and, as in previous years, Members would be advised about the outcome.

This report confirmed that 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, Bus Stop Accessibly Programme and the Mayor’s Air Quality Fund), as well as other external funding sources and contributions from development proposals.

Additionally - and separate from the main TfL LIP funding stream - the Council would continue to develop public realm proposals for the areas around the stations at Romford, Gidea Park and Harold Wood as a result of funding secured through the Crossrail Complementary Measures funding package.

The report also explained that the Council was also starting to progress a Major Scheme Step-One funding application for public realm improvements to the A1306 in Rainham and was preparing a funding submission for the Mayor’s Air Quality Fund.

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 but also encompassing 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.

Other options considered:

There were no alternatives if the Council wished TfL to confirm its LIP funding award to Havering for 2016/17.

Cabinet

1.            Noted the context provided by Havering’s LIP strategy and its 2014/15 – 2016/17 Three Year Delivery Plan for the preparation of the Havering funding submission for 2016/17 (as set out in paragraph 2 of the report).

2.            Endorsed the content of Havering’s approved 2016/17 LIP Programme (as outlined in Appendix A to the report) as the basis of the Council’s 2016/17 Spending Submission.

3.            Agreed that the approval of Havering’s full final LIP Funding Submission for 2016/17 be delegated to the Cabinet Member for Environment.

4.            Approved that the Council sought other opportunities for investment in transportation initiatives from TfL including potential Major Scheme applications outside the LIP Annual Spending Submission process and those would be delegated to the Leader Member for Environment as necessary.