Are there too many organisations planning the region’s transport links?

The Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority Mayor James Palmer has called for greater cooperation between government bodies planning transport links across the region.
The Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority’s Transport and Infrastructure Committee at their online meeting.The Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority’s Transport and Infrastructure Committee at their online meeting.
The Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority’s Transport and Infrastructure Committee at their online meeting.

The Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority (CaPCA) has announced its latest consultation for a Transport Strategy with England’s Economic Heartland.

England’s Economic Heartland (EEH) is a government-formed partnership of councils within the Peterborough-Northampton-Oxford connectivity area, informally known as the ‘OxCam Arc Technology Corridor’.

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Broadly speaking, this covers an area from Peterborough/Cambridge to Milton Keynes down to Oxford, then extended west to Swindon and broadened to include the Aylesbury, Luton and Northampton catchment areas.

At this week’s online meeting (September 9), of the Transport and Infrastructure Committee, Tim Bellamy, Strategy and Policy Transport Manager CaPCA, said: “This report is firstly to advise the CaPCA Board of the terms of the public consultation response to the EEH Transport Strategy, and a proposal for a subnational transport body.

“The CaPCA is being asked to provide feedback on the proposed Peterborough-Northampton-Oxford connectivity study to be undertaken by EEH.

“EEH’s Transport Strategy broadly aligns with the CaPCA’s priorities set out in the Growth Ambition Statement, Local Transport Plan, and Business Plan and has five proposed policy priorities.

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“These are: firstly, to use the need to decarbonise our transport system as the opportunity to harness innovation and deliver solutions that in themselves generate economic growth.

“Second, champion investment in digital infrastructure as a means of improving connectivity, particularly within our rural communities, in order to reduce the need to travel.

“Third, use delivery of East West Rail as the catalyst for the transformation of our strategic public transport networks, investing in those networks to connect our economic assets and communities in a shared endeavour that unlocks added value.

“Fourth, champion increased investment in active travel and shared transport solutions to improve local connectivity and ensure that everyone can realise their potential:

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“And fifth, ensure that our freight and logistic needs continue to be met whilst lowering the environmental impact of their delivery.”

Cllr Chris Seaton (Fenland District Council) responded: “I must confess that I knew nothing of EEH and it’s plans until I was informed by our Leader, Cllr Chris Boden, which is a bit surprising because I hold the Transport Portfolio for Fenland.

“I know we’re on the periphery of what could be called the Heart of England, but I just wonder do we really need a third-layer of transport authority, which this appears to be?

“We have the CPCA, we have County’s Highways and now this – I thought the government were trying to reduce the layers of bureaucracy? Yet now they seem to be increasing them? So, I would like to know a little bit more about EEH before I make any decisions.”

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Metro Mayor, James Palmer replied: “The reality is that you’ve got several areas that could deliver a transport solution, and Cambridgeshire sits between them.

“There’s the Norfolk/Suffolk/Essex area on the one hand, and then there’s the EEH as well.

“As you quite rightly say, the CaPCA already has certain transport powers, so the question is where are we best aligned?

“My view has always been that if there were one transport body for the whole of the east and the economic heartland, then you could potentially create something exceptional.

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“I don’t feel that there’s anything in any one or the other that determines who we should join up with, that gives the CaPCA something we don’t have already.

“And of course, the Cambridgeshire economy is so extraordinarily strong that as a Combined Authority we’re able to stand slightly to one side while we make a decision.

“I have tried to encourage the Norfolk/Suffolk/Essex partnership (Transport for the East) to come into a single scheme with us, and while Norfolk were keen, Sussex and Essex were not, so they ended up going their own way.

“But I still think in the long-term, the likelihood is that there will be a single transport body across the central belt of the United Kingdom.”

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Cllr Aiden van de Weyer (South Cambridgeshire District Council) said: “Clearly the question is how do we respond to the desires of this organisation and its ambitions to become a sub-national transport body.

“As I understand it the government wants these bodies to be set up so that they can do large-scale strategic work with established organisations such as us.

“The position therefore that should be implied in our response, is that we don’t think anything should happen until we’ve figured out how EEH, Transport East and the CaPCA should all fit together.”

Tim Bellamy added: “In past discussions, CPCA members have raised the question of EEH’s geography. On the one hand, EEH’s membership does not coincide with the OxCam Arc’s geography, although it supports the OxCam Arc’s transport discussions.

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“But EEH includes Northants, Hertfordshire and Swindon, while not all Cambridgeshire and Peterborough authorities participate in the Arc.

“On the other hand, some of the key corridors in EEH’s scope run eastwards beyond Cambridgeshire and Peterborough to the East coast.

“CPCA members had concern that EEH geography makes Cambridge, and particularly Peterborough, look like something of a ‘bookend’, and that their scope should now be extended to include Transport for the East partnership in Norfolk, Suffolk, and Essex”.

Committee members were asked to prepare feedback on ways that the CaPCA and EEH could better integrate their transportation strategies, in particular where respective policies do not coincide such as the A10 and the A47 dualling schemes, and environmental emissions priorities.
The next meeting of the CPCA Transport and Infrastructure Committee will be on November 4, 2020.