Purpose

To announce the results of the distribution of the Local Transport Plan (LTP) Area Board ‘Substantive Highway Scheme’ budget of £250,000 in 2024/25.

Decision

DECISION MADE

I approve that the results of the Substantive Highway Scheme funding mechanism as set out in Appendix 2 be approved.

This decision was published on 7 March 2024 and will come into force on 15 March 2024.        

Reasons for the decision

There needs to be a mechanism for delivering Area Board transport scheme priorities that exceed the Area Board’s available discretionary highway budget and are unable to be implemented in phases over time.  The agreed methodology and application of the Substantive Highway Scheme Bid Evaluation Formula has resulted in six scheme bids being ranked and awarded Substantive Highway Scheme funding in the 2024/25 financial year.

Alternative options considered

The mechanism that was approved in July 2011 for distributing the Substantive Highway Scheme Fund awards funding according to value for money and deliverability.  Under this mechanism, value for money is the ratio of the cost and benefit of the prospective scheme and deliverability is an assessment of how challenging a scheme would be to implement within a given financial year, considering technical, legal/procedural, operational, financial and public factors.  Appendix 1 sets out the Substantive Highway Scheme Bid Evaluation Formula incorporating the above.

Six bids were received in this bidding round and the sum of the bids exceeds the proposed allocation for the Substantive Highway Scheme Fund in 2024/25.

All of the bids have been scored using the Substantive Highway Scheme Bid Evaluation Formula which ranks the schemes according to cost-benefit and deliverability.  It is proposed that Substantive Highway Scheme funding be awarded to all six bids.  The results are set out in Appendix 2.

The estimated cost of delivering the six schemes currently exceeds the £250,000 Substantive Highways Scheme fund level. However, it is the intention that cost savings will be made during the detailed design stage of the schemes to bring them back within the overall budget.