Letter To Parvis Khansari from David Wilson
The following is correspondence between Mr David Wilson from the Salisbury Neighbourhood Development Plan Transport and Movement Topic Group Lead to Mr Parvis Khansari, Director - Highways and Environment, Wiltshire Council
To Parvis Khansari, Director - Highways and Environment, Wiltshire Council 17th March 2021
Email: parvis.khansari@wiltshire.gov.uk
Dear Mr Khansari,
As you will be aware, there has been significant under-investment in Salisbury’s cycle infrastructure and we are rapidly falling behind comparable towns and cities. The most concerning element is that many of Salisbury’s new housing developments are now occupied and, in nearly all cases, Wiltshire Council has not managed to deliver the off-site S106 cycle infrastructure linking the housing sites to schools, shopping centres and the city centre.
The Local Plan Review consultation has sharply increased the focus on the lack of progress, with concerns being discussed at the City Council, the Neighbourhood Development Plan steering group, topic groups and the newly formed Salisbury Neighbourhood Plan Connectivity Group. As far as we are aware, you do not have a pipeline of cycle schemes in the engineering design phase, which are required to serve the new developments.
The funding for local authorities in the Government’s three year spending review settlement (22/23, 23/24 & 24/25) being allocated for Active Travel is expected to be significant and, after recently attending your Salisbury Cycling Liaison Panel meeting, I am far from confident you will be in a position to start delivering these cycle routes within the next 12 months. As far as I am aware, the majority of planned cycle schemes in Salisbury have been stuck in the early transport planning phase for many years now and have not been moved into the engineering design phase.
I understand that the Government has recently written to your Council, setting out their requirement for you to implement high standard LTN1/20 compliant schemes in order that they can fulfil their £2 billion Active Travel spend commitment, set out in last year’s Gear Change proposals.
We now have 12 months until the government is expecting Councils to start delivering these LTN 1/20 cycle routes on the ground and,as far as I am aware, you do not have any of Salisbury’s key routes ready to go to into the construction phase. We are currently working with Heather Blake to prioritise the list of cycle routes for the emerging LCWIP, but all of these schemes are at a very early stage of scheme development. Therefore, in parallel to the LCWIP consultation activities over the coming months, we need to move at least three key cycle routes into the engineering design phases in order to be able to successfully spend your Active Travel grant settlement by the end of this parliament.
In order to assist in getting Active Travel schemes on the ground from 22/23, the Government is giving local authorities additional revenue funding to cover the next 12 month period (through the recently announced Capability Fund) to allow you to finalise LCWIPs and to design and procure LTN 1/20 compliant cycling schemes ready for delivery over the three years from 22/23, as part of the multi-year spending review settlement for Active Travel. We would like you to ringfence a significant proportion of this funding to help Salisbury get back on track.
I am aware that the LCWIP covering Salisbury has been in the development phase for many years and still needs to be consulted on and adopted. In addition, the 2018 Salisbury Transport Strategy refresh has yet to be adopted. It must therefore be a top priority to get both documents adopted this summer and, most importantly, issue the long awaited 2018 Transport Strategy Implementation Plan to give local people confidence that you have a pipeline of highway capacity and active travel schemes in train.
Salisbury NP Connectivity Group are extremely keen to work with your team to support you in progressing the above. There is much cycle and walking infrastructure required, however we recognise the need to be realistic and the priority must be to deliver the S106 funded cycle links from the largest new development sites to the city centre. An LTN1/20 compliant cycle route linking St Peters Place on the northern edge of Salisbury, through the city centre to the approved Netherhampton Rd, Harnham Development on the southern edge would create a very important and much needed north-south spine across the city. Much of this spine would be implemented and funded as part of the approved EA River Park (Maltings) scheme. The other top priority is the east west NCN corridor from Petersfinger to Wilton to link with the large new housing developments in Wilton.
These routes are deliverable with minimal third party land requirements and most have S106 funding available. If we can plan to deliver the north-south spine and the east-west NCN link, using a combination of S106 and Active Travel grant, we will have a framework in place by 2025 linking the new residential sites to employment and education, and this framework can be further enhanced in future.However there seems to be a blockage in moving this work from transport planning phase into engineering design.
Can you please therefore confirm:
Your agreement to moving the following three key cycle routes to link the new developments (some already occupied) to the city centre into the engineering design phases within the next few months
St Peters Place –1250 dwellings
Netherhampton Rd, Harnham 640 dwellings (plus 82 dwellings Harnham Park)
Wilton UKLF site – 450 dwellings
That in the coming weeks a proportion of the Capability Fund revenue funding will be ringfenced to develop key cycle routes in Salisbury in order to achieve (1) above.
The programme for the LCWIP consultation & adoption. (I believe this is a DfT requirement to give them confidence you will be ready to start delivering from 22/23 onwards)
You will allocate additional resources to the other top 10 priority schemes in the emerging LCWIP to get them through outline design and feasibility ie allowing them to be ‘oven ready’/costed ready for future bidding rounds.
The 2018 Salisbury Transport Strategy Refresh will be adopted this summer.
The 2018 Transport Strategy Infrastructure Plan will be ready this summer.
Salisbury has many enthusiastic volunteers and groups working hard to help facilitate more active travel in the local area. Some of these groups are part of the newly formed Salisbury NP Connectivity Group and we feel that we are very well placed to assist you in meeting the Dft’s requirement for you to collaborate with local voluntary groups to develop and deliver initiatives that support the Active Travel funding objectives.
I would be grateful if ‘Salisbury Cycle and Walking Infrastructure to serve new developments’ could be added as an agenda item for your next Future Salisbury Place Board, which I believe is due to be restarted after the May election.
I look forward to hearing from you.
Kind regards
David Wilson
Salisbury Neighbourhood Development Plan Transport and Movement Topic Group Lead
Copied to
John Glen MP,
Cllr John Farquhar, Chair of Salisbury Neighbourhood Development Plan Steering Group
Cllr Bridget Wayman, Cabinet Member for Highways, Transport and Waste
Cllr Ashley O'Neil, Portfolio Holder for Climate Change
Cllr Philip Whitehead Leader Wiltshire Council
Cllr Richard Clewer Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Corporate Services, Heritage, Arts & Tourism, Housing and Communities
Cllrs Brian Dalton, Matthew Dean, Derek Brown OBE, Atiqul Hoque, Sven Hocking, Simon Jackson, Pauline Church, Liz Sirman, Ricky Rogers
Salisbury Neighbourhood Development Plan Steering Group.
COGS
Salisbury NP Connectivity Group