A Plan to Fail? Part 2

Good day my good friend.

Its been a crazy hectic week again this week. Though I did get some time out to enjoy the company of good friends for many years over a lovely bottles of white and red wine. That’s as far as my knowledge of wine goes, unfortunately. More of an ale person myself. Anyway, enough chit-chat.

Last week, in my post on the Planning and Infrastructure Bill, I concluded my review of this Bill with this…

This goes straight to the heart of the English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill. Because for a long time it has been very clear as to what Whitehall’s ‘preferred’ form of devolution is: to city regions with regional mayors, who make their case directly to Whitehall. An inevitable outcome of just over a decade of devolution deals, where the gradual transfer of power away from Whitehall was done with its consent, as opposed to it being taken from it.

From a personal point of view, I don’t like the Bill that much. Not because there is anything bad within it necessarily, but because the ethos behind it is diametrically opposed to the way that I see public services. Namely that good public service needs to hand power to the organisers and enablers who try and get things done, and not centralise powers within monolithical government departments designed for a Post-War consensus. The Kings Fund calls this #DoWith. The brilliant New Local think tank has put together much of the theoretical framework behind this, which may be the subject of another post. For now, it is enough for me to say that what is behind this Bill is devolution by consent of government, as opposed to communities taking the power back.

That all being said, you have to play on the pitch that is in front of you, and the Bill as presented promises a wholescale restructuring of transport governance across England.

The most critical element of this is the establishment of Strategic Authorities, which will be the local transport authority for their respective areas. Meanwhile, new unitary councils will replace the existing County / District Council structure present across many areas of the country, with the unitaries acting as local highway authorities.

Clearly the intention behind this is to establish a strategic and integrated transport and planning body for each area of the country, as opposed to confining this to the current city regions covered by Combined Authorities. Critical to this happening is giving the Combined Authorities the duty to create spatial strategies, co-ordinating planning and transport under a single policy framework. Though it should be noted that Local Transport Plans and Local Plans will still be statutory duties upon transport and planning authorities.

This, to me at least, poses a challenge to the ability of Combined Authorities to deliver. This is potentially a duplication of planning requirements between different organisations and organisational types, with local authorities taking a local view, and Combined Authorities taking a strategic view. I can now see endless meetings and discussions between partner authorities on duties to cooperate, and who needs to identify what policy in order to get things done. Such is the boring nature of local authority work.

The Combined Authorities are getting some teeth in order to get things done, though. New authorities will have the powers of the Combined Authorities that already exist – notably the ability to franchise buses, so something for bus franchising fans there. An interesting aspect of the Bill for me is Mayoral Development Orders. Namely, Mayors being given the authority to bestow permitted development rights in their area.

These are modelled on the Local Development Orders that currently exist in planning legislation. Research from the Local Government Association shows there is some evidence that these can de-risk developments significantly, and can help planners to focus on planning by freeing them up from administrative burdens. But to date their focus has been on single sites under single landownership. So applying this concept at a regional scale will be interesting to see.

You can almost imagine a situation where a Mayor, desperate to unblock a major transport infrastructure project, deploys a Mayoral Development Order to conferr permitted development rights and accelerate approvals. That will be fun to test in the courts.

Combined Authorities have also received a hospital pass from government, in that they will have the power to regulate micromobility schemes. This does not deal with the more fundamental problems affecting e-scooter schemes across the country, namely the legal status of e-scooters. Plus the highway authorities will still have the final say on what goes on the highway. But Combined Authorities will have the authority to licence micromobility schemes in their area – effectively giving permission for one or more operators to operate in accordance with set standards.

To be honest, much of the Bill itself is procedural. Giving Combined Authorities the general Power of Competency being one such example. But the most instructive thing is how the government clearly sees Combined Authorities being the all-seeing strategic eye in their areas. Combining actions in transport, planning, economic development, climate change, social infrastructure, and many, many more into a single body. And critically, a single body politically accountable to a single person – the Mayor.

I know that there are many types of Combined Authority presently, including those without Mayors. But the government has clearly set out its stall on its preferred way forward. Having mayors as the single, elected lead, working in partnership with local councils to deliver.

This is where the biggest impact of this bill is. Strategic transport planning in England may finally be moving away from Whitehall and into the regions, after many, many years of battling for just that. Transport policy teams within Strategic Authorities will need to balance taking a strategic look at planning new infrastructure, with tackling the day-to-day operational issues on the ground. This has been tried, and largely unsuccessfully, by smaller local councils for some decades.

This does raise a question of the role of the sub-national transport bodies (STBs) in this future governance landscape. The Cities and Local Government Devolution Act of 2016 gave these bodies a single job – produce a regional transport strategy. My gut feeling is that in the future, STBs will have to demonstrate significant value in overcoming delivery issues for statutory transport bodies, including the new Combined Authorities. Transport for the North has shown how this can be done by developing the case for pan-regional transformational infrastructure, and having a leading transport modelling capability. My view is that unless other STBs follow a similar lead in showing their value, future government ministers will look at the budget line containing the Department for Transport’s STB grants very carefully indeed.

The only way, ultimately, where we can judge whether or not this will deliver transformations in how transport is planned in England is to do it, and come back 5 or 10 years later to check on progress. My honest view is that while these two bills do change transport governance in England and probably for the better (slightly), I fear that when it comes to transformational delivery, this is tinkering at the edges. Tweaking process and governance can only get you so far. My only evidence for this is 20 years of experience and pure gut instinct.

Still, I may be wrong. In 10 years time we might have light rail lines in every city of more than 200,000 people, bus franchising everywhere, and all the mayors sitting in a circle singing Kumbaya. In fact, I hope that I am wrong. Because we deserve better than what we have, and I know transport planners everywhere will work their hardest to make any system of governance work effectively, and to deliver for communities. If nothing else, there will be a flurry of Transport Strategy Manager vacancies advertised for over the coming years. 

The clever clogs at our universities have published the following excellent research. Where you are unable to access the research, email the author – they may give you a copy of the research paper for free.

Quiet routes to alleviate noise annoyance and promote active mobility

TL:DR – If you want your bike paths to avoid noisy areas, this tool might be for you.

The effects of residential zoning in U.S. housing markets

TL:DR – Restrictive zoning is bad for gentrification, and minimum plot sizes tend to increase prices and rents.

Artificial intelligence for spatial analysis in cities

TL:DR – AI could help to develop new, or refine existing, theories of urban areas.

Wheelchair accessibility to public facilities via transits and analysis of delay factors—A case study of Shanghai, China

TL:DR – The majority of routes result in delays for wheelchair users.

Here are some articles showing that, despite the state of the world, good stuff is still happening in sustainable transport. So get your fix of positivity here.

This inspirational video from Streefilms showcases the 5 week New York Summer Streets programme taking place this year. Watch it if you want a pick-me-up.

At the moment, I am heavily promoting work that I undertook last year on How to Make Friends and Influence Councillors. You can view and download the report here, but next Thursday I will be presenting my findings on a webinar with Mark Ames of Strategic Cities. You can sign up for free here.

Also, I am working with Scottish Rural and Islands Transport Community on ferries, and how important they are. This has involved me delving into the details of the many, many river ferries that still operate. Gerry and the Pacemakers will be pleased to hear that the ferry across the Mersey still runs. Other personal favourites include the ferry across the mouth of one of the busiest container and ferry ports in the country, the ferry across the River Wye piloted by the local landlord when they are not serving customers, and the MS Oldenburg plying the crossing from Bideford (and Ilfracombe) to Lundy Island.

These links are meant to make you think about the things that affect our world in transport, and not just think about transport itself. I hope that you enjoy them.

Stuff spilling across motorways is always newsworthy. This time, its hotdogs. They just needed a ketchup tanker to overturn on the other side.

This week’s song is actually one about a fatal collision. In 2018, the producer behind The Pretty Reckless, Kato Khandwala, was killed in a motorcycle collision. In her grief, the lead singer of The Pretty Reckless, Taylor Momsen, wrote this song – Harley Darling.

The lyrics are quite haunting and on the nose. As showcased by the opening lines “Oh Harley Darling, You took my love.” But is a lovely and somewhat soothing country-inspired rock ballad.