Also got Stuart uh kiss truck here attending on behalf of Ellie bars from Network Rail and councelor Simon Curry is attending today on behalf of Vince Maple from Medway so welcome to you all uh and we just need to record apologies from uh councelor Gerald Vernon Jackson from Portsmouth Vince Maple from Medway
Ellie bars Network Rail and danian Daniel RZ is is also sending his apologies so we come to agenda item two which is the minutes from the previous meeting they’ve been circulated uh and uh thanks again to all of you were able to make the extraordinary uh board members meeting
Uh the business plan was submitted to DFT on the 22nd of December and so with that can I seek approval from members for the minutes of the extraordinary meeting uh held on the 18th of December approved all right with me thank you very much and uh so following today they will be
Uh published on the tfse website um three is Declarations of Interest are there any uh declarations that partnership board members uh wish to make of any interests that they need to declare in relation to the agenda none okay so we come to agenda item four which is the uh statements from the
Public and um today um please I will report that we have no statements I won’t say whether I’m pleased or not but thank you very much we don’t have any uh statements today so that brings us to agenda item five which is a key agenda item this afternoon and
Um I I can ask Nick Harris chief executive of national highways to um introduce himself a bit more if he needs but Nick is responsible for the operational leadership of national highways including the day-to-day operations of their Network customer service and maintenance services and the company’s fiveyear Capital uh
Maintenance and revenue program so uh Nick thank you very much for making time to join us today and uh can I hand over to you to give us an update on the Riz 3 program and anything else that you want to uh to inform us on thank you yeah no
Thank you thank you very much thank you for the um the invitation so um I just how long have I got so I sort of can judge how long to go on for or you’re on mute Keith apart from Jeff telling me to get this through on time there is no timeit
Nick listen we don’t have the opportunity to have you here for long uh or often so please take as much time as you need I I’ll I will try and entertain you um for for an appropriate length of time and um I mean it’s kind of Timely I
Appeared in front of the transport select committee last week so um I’ll touch on on some of the uh the things that I shared with them last week but that was an hour and a half so I’ll cut it a bit um be a bit more concise than
That but yeah no thank you very much again for for the invitation I’m going to give a bit of an update on how Riz 2 is going and uh talk about the future R three um and um and uh I mean if if you want to do questions or anything at the
End then then then perfect um so I’ve I’ve now been the CEO of national highways for for three years um and it it’s having said that you sort of go wow that’s three years it’s gone very rapidly mainly because there’s just so much uh that we’re doing um and and RZ 2
Has been challenging uh we’ve had inflation which we’re all wrestling with um which has had impact not only on this road period but is of course having impact on the affordability of things going forwards uh we’ve got an Ever aging set of assets to look after most of the
Bridges and Roads that that form the Strategic Road Network you a lot of them were built in the 1960s and70s when um well I wasn’t driving around but for those that might have been um we were in things like Ford cortinas and hman minkes um so the loadings on on our
Roads were were significantly different to what we’re seeing today um and it’s through a lot of great asset management and looking after those assets that we have and of course enhancing the network that we um that we’re meeting um the the um the demands that are placed upon the
Roads that we’re looking after so so how are we doing so far in r two the second of two fiveyear periods and I think one one thing is that it’s if you like confirming that that this fiveyear cycle is the right way to look after strategic
Assets it enables us to plan with some stability um and you’ll have seen that as we’ve got ready for the next um Road period the Third Road period we’ve published connecting the country so that’s our view out 2050 um and um the um um the consultation documents that went out
Earlier in the year our root strategies and all of it um is really enabled by having this fiveyear cycle that permits a much more strategic longer term view of how we’re looking after developing and maintaining um the the roads that we have in our care so so in general it’s
Working well um we’re doing really well on things like our maintenance and renewal program they’re they’re on target to deliver what we planned for this this period uh despite the challenges of inflation which I managed earlier um what we have found challenging is is the uh getting planning for some of our largest
Projects so we as an organization as we went through the first road period into the second we got 14 large projects through the development consent order successfully um with no legal Challenge and then things rapidly changed in about year two of this current road period um and we’ve seen most of the
Larger um projects the the the dco decision being challenged um now all of those challenges so far we have won successfully apart from one which was the lower uh sorry the a303 which was um overturned on some important technicalities it’s since been resubmitted and consented but of course is having a um a
Legal challenge so ultimately we’re being successful that’s because of the the good work that is going into the um the material that we we put into the development consent order process but it remains a challenge so that’s affected delivery um in this road period um and then the
Other challenge I suppose in two ways was one we had of course the the covid pandemic which we successfully continue to deliver through but as we’ve seen traffic levels come back and traffic levels are now higher than we went into um the pandemic but the mix is different
So we’re seeing more trucks a lot more Vans relatively and slightly lower levels of private um car vehicles cars and that means it’s affecting things like we we measure average delay across the network well because Vans and lores go slower than car cars that’s affecting that metric and of course there a
Changing pattern of vehicle usage we’re also seeing because um we’re not seeing the peak so much in the morning and the evening um that’s spreading traffic out during the day more in general across the network and average speeds are going up so we’re seeing safety affected so um
Delivering on our Target to half or 50% reduction on uh killed and seriously injured incidents um in this road period is looking very challenging towards the end um of this road period and we’re doing additional activity to um to to improve that um the environment of course is
Quite rightly become more important and we’re making really good progress on delivering but um biodiversity so by the end of this road period we will have no net loss in biodiversity um we’re working I’m going to have to move because the lights have gone off in in this meeting room there
We go um and um I’m obviously not moving enough and and we’re we’re making progress on air quality mainly as a result of the um uh shift in vehicle fleets and more folk buying either cleaner Diesel and pet and Diesel and petrol cars and of course the shift to electric
Vehicles um and uh we’re making progress on discharges to water courses and decarbonization um and then I I was in terms of performance I was just going to mention um you we continue to support active travel and in fact I think we’re the the largest promoter developer of
Cycle cycle way cycle schemes and there’s a great one that runs alongside the a27 for I think about seven miles um which um is one of the many that that we’ve um that we’ve developed so quick Trot through um um RZ 2 going okay um there’s some challenges
Um but I mean know a good thing that I was just going to refer to another document you can have a look at is the um or’s office of rail and RADS annual assessment that was published last summer which kind of reflects I think much of what I’ve just
Said looking to the Future so um what’s the next five years look like well as I’m telling everyone in the company it’s Evolution not Revolution so it’s we’re eight years nine years old it’s continued development of us um we’re looking at focusing a bit more on the maintenance and renewal of our existing
Assets they’re getting older so um there will be more funding for that and of course we’re looking at a growing class of assets which is technology which is increasingly to be found across our network uh providing all kinds of um capacity safety uh support as well as in improving data and information available
To all of us to make decisions on our Journeys so that um is a growing um asset uh that needs um more and more focus and we we’ll we’ll be including that into Riz three in terms of process um I’m I’m touching wood here but we should have the draft Riz
Published in February so um there’s currently it’s been going through um um Department Al right round so I’m feeling reasonably optimistic that it will be published next month and then of course we share the draft business plan with the office of rail and road which should
Then result in uh to do their efficiency and deliverability review and we have a conversation about targets and by summer that should be complete with the hope that um the r will be signed off um in September by September hopefully ahead of a general election which maybe in the Autumn um of
Course um so um we have to wait to see uh the publication of the Riz but I mean I can share a few bits um of course the ongoing development of of the low temps Crossing is in there um the stonan j303 and of course all of the projects that
We’ve um that will’ll have started um before the end of this road period so that that’s a quick kind of state of the nation look ahead um but i’ also mention um before end that we’re making good progress on our um um on digital roads and in particular focused on our
Customer Journeys so how we now are increasingly looking at our role as a customer service provider and looking from the all of the road users customers communities alongside our networks inwards rather than looking at it from the engineering and and assets outwards but I’ll I’ll I’ll stop at that
Point thank thank you Nick and if you’re happy for a few questions I know there uh there there are a couple at least and if I can just start I mean one of the um big issues that we have uh have highlighted is the um is the pausing of
Uh work on the a27 arendall and and whatever um you know we really do think that once that comes out scheme and then you pick it up again there’s an enormous waste of money and uh and work that’s gone into that that will be you know that will be absolutely just wasted I
Don’t know if Joy is there whether she wants to add anything from West Sussex perspective but but from our uh perspective generally we can understand that you can’t do everything at once but actually to stop the planning to get this through to uh outline business case
Seems uh seems totally uh devoid of any sense to us so I don’t Joy is I think you wanted to add to that I was thank you very much e Sussex for thinking of us uh since you’ve got your wonderful a27 uh section and cycle routs yeah I
Mean you summed it up really it’s it’s very much a stop and start and I suppose that’s the frustration um you know we go so far um and and then it stops and when will it start again uh I suppose those are the questions that we have and when
Will it start again um and I suppose the question is is you you know when some of these stop is it because we’ve stopped because we think it’s not right route or because it needs to change or because in fact it’s just lost out in terms of business case compared to the other
Items it’s then understanding what so you can explain for your residents thank you Nick do you want to come back on that one then I go David thank you of course no absolutely and I you know understand I mean it is important to be able to share the
Reasons for for uh for things um and that’s um um this complex challenge for us when we’re going into the r three conversation as well as um um the um the particular moment in time we find ourselves at the m at the moment the the the clarity I’m hoping
Will come out of the conversations around R three and of course and I’m talking in general now not not specifically about the scheme um we we have to balance things at a portfolio level and there is is a limited amount of of money that’s available so um having a deliverable Solution that’s
Affordable that’s value for money having considered not not just the economic case but also environmental um strategic and Community issues um matters so um as we and it it won’t become clear as the draft Riz is published but as the Riz is developed and the um the delivery plan
Is agreed then um we will be able to um provide much more information on the the decisions that will have by that point have been made um for R three but it it will probably come down to we can’t do everything okay thank you rert is yours
Connected to that or should I wait and go to David first it is connected um Keith um thank you I mean I’m sort of reating things that Nick and I have had conversations about in the past but you know that M27 a27 a259 Corridor is the only orbital route south of the
M25 and is you know pretty fundamental for um uh businesses and residents getting across you know the south coast and I think you know that that whole coridor has had a a history over the last 25 years of stop start stop start um and I really think you know the
Challenge for us is how do you give confidence to businesses who use that Corridor how do you give confidence to residents how do you deal with some of the issues where you’re effectively splitting communities as a result of a unsatisfactory Trunk Road going through their community and when you sort of add
All those things up you know delays to the dco process around the a27 arendall start to erode that confidence at a time when you know we need it most and um Council Glazier has has you know said within our business plan that you know
Now is not the time to uh um uh you step back on you know funding for major infrastructure is one of the things that is going to help us in the longer term uh and I know we’ve rehearsed these conversations many times Nick but you know it’s important to set that out
Again absolutely and I you know I recognize um very much the importance of east west connectivity that that of course is not is not how the roads have develop but but it’s increasingly important not not only um in the South there but we’re seeing it in the midle
Lands um and in the north and um the I mean the the the challenges as you know are not are not small for the a27 squeezed between the sea and um um areas of outstanding natural beauty the national park Etc it is it is incredibly difficult but um but nevertheless um you
Know they they are the projects that are in the pipeline about when they will go ahead um is going to be a matter of having affordable schemes and around aidol it is it is very challenging um and and as I said the um the availability of funding uh in the next
Well not only in the next Road per but the following one so um we no doubt we’ll be talking more about it but I absolutely recognize um the concern for both Clarity and progress on on that and other schemes thank thanks for that Nick um David counc Roy thank you chairman uh
I’m David Roby I’m the deputy C of the highways at KCC um thank you for your talking it very interesting um two questions for you one specific and one uh more General um the a229 Blue Bell Hill Improvement scheme very important for Kenton very important within the context of the development surrounding
The law attempt Crossing uh and um it’s a 10 million pound scheme and we’re 3.5 million short of it from the dfts and we have to find that and we’re in a difficult position like councils are K County Council can you help us with the money and also can you help us perhaps
Even more immediately with the £300,000 we need a trivial sum of money really to develop the outline business case for the scheme which is sound we’ve got everything line we just don’t just have the cash so that’s the first thing the second thing is there was a top man in
National highways you know a lot more about roads than I do but um I sat through a meeting the other day going through the Kent County council’s uh proposals for submitting in the low um local transport pan 5 or ltp5 and in that we looked at all of the
Road major road schemes in Ken that are proposed including the law attemps Crossing whether they’re our schemes or other people’s schemes and the thing that really struck me is how long some of these things have been going on how long it takes to get anything done at
All in some cases even quite small schemes and I I wondered what you would do if you had a magic wand what would you do what could be done to make things happen faster irrespective of who schemes they are you must have a view on
It thank you um yes no no and thank you for the the magic wand um and it’s a great it’s a great question um so I’ll come back to that I mean the specifics of the 8229 is I mean that’s being funded by the major roads um funding I think isn’t
It yes and then that’s the reason there there needs to be a contribution to get it to OBC um yeah okay um I mean I mean it’s we’re very supportive I mean it’s a good it’s a good scheme um and and an important piece of connectivity and I
Think there have been conversations in the past about whether it it should be trunked or not um and I I think the I suppose the question is is we don’t want to do something that would slow down the delivery of it um because it is a good scheme I I mean
I um what I can do is I’ll don’t know perhaps enough about it I’ll take that away and I am interested in talking to the DFT about it to see if there’s anything that’s possible there I I I don’t know off the top of my head but I
Will I will take that away thank you um but coming to your magic wand I mean it is an interesting one the um I mean significant schemes normally have a lifespan of 12 to 15 years some of them have have been around a lot longer than
That though of course of course um I mean if I think about the Stonehenge 303 the tunnel this is the third time there’s been a serious attempt to build in the last 40 years probably if not more um so they they have a habit of
Being there a long time you know I go back to my comments earlier that the five-year funding of us is beginning to redress that and we’re beginning to get um greater stability of a of the forward strategic view of what he’s doing and and the contribution from uh yourselves
And the other subnational transport bodies is incredibly important in that because what what matters is taking it away from the the cyclical decision of ministers um and and giving a much stronger strategic prioritization and context there will always one there’ll always be sort of movements around balancing the north the South um other
Economic goals that the country may have but by having a much clearer pipe line that that is then funded um we should bring a much better process um and then I think touching on the the planning I’m okay I think the the development consent order process is
Fine it has time it has a timetable it has Clarity maybe um it it produces an awful lot of material um which no that could be improved um but it’s the legal challenges that come after now of course legal challenge is appropriate we live in a democracy but that there should be
A better balance I think of consequence um it is too easy to bring a question of judicial review for very little Financial impact that can cost all of us not only time loss but millions and millions of of pounds so I think that that’s one area that I’m talking about
The other is um schemes that we do Under the highways act we’ve proposed a whole series of improvements that that could make that a better um process as well but I think the key is really good planning together so that um the more we build a consensus over what we want Into
The Future then then the more chance we have of um of progressing things I think thank you thank you for that thank you um rer is that a final on that one or should I go to counc I I mean Keith I think this is a um the point that um
Council rabby raises is is as relevant to a number of authorities in that you know the costs of getting from s SOC to OBC are becoming quite challenging at a time when local transport authorities are facing broader pressures around cndd in children’s or homeschool transport or
Adult social care and um you know they have to make some really difficult decisions around prioritization and it means schemes such as the a229 which we’re all behind and you know is the right outcome become increasingly challenged for ltas and I wonder whether there is some Merit in um uh us as an
Stb convening the DFT and National highways to have a broader conversation about these sorts of schemes that you know have a relationship between the srn um uh to try and navigate A Way Forward I mean I don’t think there’s going to be an easy answer because there isn’t
Suddenly a pot of money available but you know it then becomes a shared Endeavor on how we get best outcome for businesses and residents and communities although just coming in I think no it’s interesting what you say there because um we we have every six months a portfolio and portfolio risk review with
DFT so there’s um but you know there hs2 and um um netw Rail and um um and of course all of the local authorities represented by just one bit of DFT but what what struck me is there’s quite a lot of pots of money available um and there is an argument
For coordinating a bit better um and we we um because there I yes there is overal shortage but in some senses not so I think um that yeah that could be an interesting conversation we’ll see what we can go thank you for being patient um councelor
Curry thank you no no that’s fine and and thanks very much it’s my first meeting uh time this meeting so it’s nice to meet you all I’m to hear um I’m portfolio holder for Medway Council for strategic regeneration one to other things including highways and transport and really I mean the question is
Probably leading on from your previous question when you talking about blue b Hill about the A2 M1 Junction and how that’s operating and and the other Junctions to the south of Medway as well I mean our local plan is emerging now and Daka giving us figures of in excess
Of 28,000 houses along with maidon who are building similar numbers and and graim and swell as well and we’re already told that that that Junction is over capacity or at capacity over capacity and we’re hearing also that we can’t go ahead with some got holding objections to some um
Developments within Medway based upon on the road Network so just what your thoughts really around around what can be done about that but also um this sort of squaring the circle between duu and DFT because we’re getting two messages one is that the roads aren’t working and
The other one is that we have to build more more we have to do a lot more development so it’d be interesting to hear hear your thoughts on that issue thank you yeah no no thank you so is that the um I’m just trying to think of is that
The brenley corner and um A2 no no this is up near just to the sort of south east of graves end as you come to into strw and there yeah yeah no I’ve got yeah got it now yeah was challenging to hold the whole network in my in my head
But yeah I mean it’s um it’s not an unusual conversation we have which is how you square what you need to put in the local plan of course you want to support economic growth and housing versus and it’s often a Time timing issue what what what might be in R three
For example or or or later and um it is a challenge and I think the I mean the there what can I say um you know that that’s the local plans will will need to be developed um yes with the knowledge of the schemes that are confirmed and
Going ahead ones that aren’t then that’s that’s not possible um other mitigations will have to be put in um what I do find really interesting is of course the Department of Transport is funded to fund us from a transport point of view um and it strikes me that more
Coordination with elux and others because there are other drivers is is is a good idea and um certainly you we’re interested in engaging more in that because um if you look at the area you’ve just described it’s exactly the same as you look in the Eastern region
Around um sort of Peterboro and through to Cambridge it’s housing that is driving a lot of the development there and um um it does call for a bit more joined up thinking I think thank you for that there appears to be no more no more hands up so um can
I um thank you and I think you know from our perspective as a subnational Transport Board we actually really do value the working uh relationships that are developing and have developed um we’ve come a long way in in the five years since uh since we started and and
To uh to have you attend and and give us your thoughts is very very uh appreciated so thank you very much for that no no thank thank you and um yeah I mean the working relation ship with yourself and the other subnational transport bodies is is really important
To us as well so thank you very much thanks thank you okay um so we we’ll move on to agenda item six which is the Strategic prior prioritization tool and Sarah I think you’re going to introduce please yes thank you very much counia and afternoon everybody um so the
Purpose of this item is to provide the board with an update on the development of a strategic prioritization framework and Tool that will support delivery of the Strategic investment plan I think it’s worth saying straight up that this is one of the key roles for DFT um sorry
For stbs the guidance we received from DFT um particularly directs us to have a methodology by which we can give um prioritization information to the Secretary of State to help on that I think for us as a as as an stb we were a bit ahead of the curve we’ve actually
Started working on this quite some time before the government told us to so we we’re really ahead of the game here um and the board has obviously had previous updates which I’m sure you will recall both on the framework for decision- making and on the methodology for for
Prioritization at the last meeting the board agreed that framework and methodology and they also agreed for a tool to be developed that would allow that methodology to be employed that tool has been created and is now finished um it was developed very much um in conjunction with all the local
Transport authorities in our patch transport strategy working group and Senior officer group both saw some outputs as we went through the process they had the opportunity to feedback and we we took on board that feedback and and Chang the tool and as as it was developed so the presentation today
Describes um how the tool actually works and then also how it will be used in any prioritization that we are asked to do I think it’s really important to remember as as you look at the presentation that the tool is there to provide an evidence-based um you know draft
Priority list for your consideration it doesn’t make the decision for you that that decision very very much with the board um and stays that way which is why there’s a process attached to the end of it without further Ado I’ll hand over to Steven Bishop from steer who will take
You through how the tool has been developed and how it works and then you’ll come back to me for some information on the governance process that sits alongside it St thank you Sarah and good afternoon everyone um could I have the next slide please and the next one again please so
Three topics to to cover um building on Sarah’s introduction a bit on the backgrounds to the framework and the and the tool that supports it then moving on to how the tool operates uh and then I’ll pass back to Sarah um we’ll look at the the governance and how the framework
Is applied with decision making next slide please and one more please um C’s mentioned there is an imperative from the Department for transport that all subnational transport bodies have a means of prioritizing investment to provide advice to ministers so this obviously strongly aligns with that um in development of
The framework and the tool we realize there’s more than one area of prioritization so the first is around focusing uh limited Revenue funding for studies that’s for early stage business case development for example feasibility studies and strategic out business cases the next is our schemes move into a development phase things like outline
Business cases and the like and we just had some questions um from various attendees um to Nick there and then finally the large amounts of capital funding required to deliver interventions so as schemes move through different phases of development we might want to prioritize in different ways and
As Sarah mentioned and we would been able to do this without the engagement of of yourselves as well as senior officer group and the working group Next slide please we’ve passed through these four stages now of um of development we spent quite a long time on the first stage
Really agreeing the pr and understanding the principles that should underline prioritization I think most of us would have been through similar exercises and know that um it can be quite contentious um to to prioritize limited funding across multiple um bonds needs um we then confirmed the approach for prioritization and develop the the
Tool that supports it and we are today see the approval on that final step next slide please the principles that we agreed um are shown here the first is that it must be evidenced we must make best use of the existing evidence and for many of the interventions in the Strategic
Implementation plan that we’re seeking to deliver the consistent evidence base comes from the area studies program that informed the Sip um including a multicriteria assessment framework as well as a delivery action plan that provides the the more logistical considerations of of implementation the second principle I think Sarah’s already mentioned this is
That it supports decisions and does not make decisions this is not an algorithmic model that spits out an answer that we seek approval for it is there to inform the third consideration is that it must be resource efficient um strategic prioritization can be an industry in its own
Right and um we want to uh be able to conduct this um efficiently um and reduce the costs and and and resource required and that finally it needs to help manage uncertainty at the moment there isn’t a current call from central government to submit a prioritization so
When we know the rules of engagement we need to be able to respond accordingly and simly perhaps as tf’s um roles and responsibilities change over time that it can work in tandem with that next slide please the tool that supports this framework Works across four stages first it organizes each of the interventions
From the Strategic intervention plan based on their existing stage of scheme development so those that um have only been considered for the first time as part of the Strategic investment plan or or perhaps have a feasibility study conducted to those that are at later stages in nearer
Construction the second is to then score them as mentioned this is based on the multicriteria assessment framework and Alliance to the Department of transports early assessment and sifting Tool East and considers areas of benefit value for money and some deliverability and financial considerations the third is then to
Evaluate that list so based on the criteria uh for bidding for funding and and any additional prioritization considerations um we key these in into the tool and then we produce action plans um for your review uh to then prioritize and that is an iterative process ultimately and Sarah will come
On to that in a bit next slide please so a little bit on the tool here um I’ve already mentioned that it draws on two key inputs that have brought been brought before the board previously the first is the delivery action plan this effectively is monitoring of of of
Expenditure um and where different St schemes are in their delivery process the second is the multicriteria assessment framework that was was moderated in reviewed by the transport strategy working group and Senior officer group that contains a baseline of information that’s consistent across all 250 to 300 interventions in the Sip next slide
Please the third input budget constraints um so if we know the uh pot of funding that is available um we can um then constrain the model the tool in that way uh to come up with short and more prioritized lists and we allocate the cost of schemes based on a
Rule of thumb of 10% of the capital cost to the develop phase that’s going from Outland business case to a shovel in the ground and then 90% into the delivery phase the the large Capital cost of construction and then finally there but perhaps most importantly are the filters
And waiting so um again sub subject to uh the criteria the central government sets for funding or any other local criteria that TFC and its Partners wish to um allocate we can further filter and in fact we can apply weightings as well if we want to give one criteria greater
Priority than another for example decarbonization or leveling up we move to the next slide please so based on those input parameters uh the the tool has a number of of reasonably simple calculations that it makes and it allocates each schemes into prioritize sets of fiveyear Windows and identifies whether schemes
Should be studied studied and developed developed developed and delivered or delivered and then some instances of smaller schemes it could be that they pass through all three stages in a five-year window we then have a number of checks and balances so for example in any draft prioritization action plan we
Can see the number of schemes by fiveyear window and by local transport Authority area or by typologies to to ensure we’re having a multimodal balance of interventions next slide please um so here’s just an example of of the output we’ve been through a number of iterations of this with
Yourselves with senior officer group and transport strategy working group broadly uh content that the example prioritizations or be this is a hypothetical one for the major road Network um a returning sensible outputs there’ll always be local circumstances or um local priorities that means there may be um desire to move things around
And and that will be subject to to negotiation and the provision of of compelling information but I think that fairly neatly Segways on to Sarah’s slides about decision- making and how this approach will apply thank you thank you thank you Steven so Steven has just outlined you the operation of
The tool pep how how it does its calculation but it is only a you know a piece of evidence that supports you in your ultimate decision- making around what the priorities should be so we’ve developed this process here by which that tool would be employed so the tool
In this case is that green box in in the second level down um we start at the top with obviously government announcing a funding round or bidding prioritization criteria so we understand what the rules are what it is that we are having to prioritize against and then as Stevens
Described the tool can then be set up to you know prioritize those those particular things so those criteria are reflected um in how the tool sorts through the schemes the output is then a draft prioritized list which we’re proposing should first go to transport strategy working group for their review
Then onto senior officer group and then onto the partnership board once senior officer group are happy with it you’ll see within this there are feedback loops so if any of those levels of the tfsc governance structure are not content with the draft priority list there’s the opportunity to feedback consider whether
Those weightings and filters within the tool are correct or whether there’s some tweaks that should be made whether that is as Steve said to better reflect perhaps some of our local priorities versus the specific criteria that’s coming out out of government run the tool again and produce a further draft
Prioritize list so there’s there’s a number of instances where you know if if if we’re not seeming to be happy with with the list that’s coming out there’s that um opportunity to to iterate it and produce a different one at the final point at the bottom as we said the
Decision ision rests with the partnership board so the toll informs but the partnership board decides and once the list has been agreed then it can be submitted back up to government to provide that advice to ministers that we we are required to do so hopefully that that all makes sense
Um that’s the the end of our our presentation but obviously very happy to take any questions chair um or move on to the recommendation if that’s the right thing to do thank you um I mean again an awful lot of work Gone In by an awful lot of
And and thank everybody who’s been involved um are there any specific questions on this today Rob cancor HBY yeah ke thank you and like you say a lot of work gone into it I think there has been some previous discussions on this like all these sort of things it’s
Sometimes difficult to imagine how it sort of actually works in practice until it’s probably been through a few sort of Trials if you like schemes it was just to make sure that that there is enough flexibility within that to adapt it if it doesn’t necessarily sort of produce
Not the answers that you want but you know in terms of how it works so I just want to make sure that there is enough flexibility within it that it can work like that I think the governance arrangements are okay because obviously you know it does say that can be
Reviewed by officers and and sort of board members as well so I just want to make sure that there is that flexibility that it can be adapted if it if it’s if it’s required I think Steven’s probably sort of covered that to a degree but it’s really just to put down a little
Bit of a marker that it could be and if if I can just add to that Rob it’s it’s it’s the stage at which because um it’s all right waiting until you get to the end part coming to the board but just an assurity that if there’s anything controversial then then
Board members would know about it because some of us don’t sit on all the working group so if you can build that into your response as well Sarah that’d be good thank you yes if I if I pick up the second point and then perhaps come to to Steve just more reassurance around
How how the tool works but yes absolutely um you know we don’t want anything coming to the board you know completely unsighted the the whole sort of thought about going through the governance process is that it is signed off at all levels and obviously your senior officers brief you
Before you come so you would you know we would trust that the senior officers would know and would feedback to us prior to anything coming to the board so those checks are there and obviously the loops to feedback to to iterate and and you know review the filters and waiting
Um are there as well but F step if I can come to you just a little bit more reassurance about how we can turn you know different criteria up or down in the tool thanks sir there’s a huge level of flexibility in the tool as to what criteria are applied whether that’s
Budget constraints whether it’s considering we only want to put forward schemes to government that have already passed a certain stage of development so we can demonstrate shovel readiness through to the kind of objective um criteria we’re interested in such as air quality Road Safety supporting local
Development Etc and in turn we can turn things on and off and we can also increase the waiting or the priority of some of those criteria before we start developing um draft lists for for review the data just going to quickly add sorry the data um some of the data
Sets are updated annually so thank you to officers who have provided updates on on how different schemes are are progressing those schemes that are closer to development um in turn receive a higher score um in the assessment because um we have greater level of of assurity that they can be
Delivered thank you keth if I may thank you sorry ke sorry um you for that it’s just um yeah and I think that has answered it but I think once it’s once we had a chance to apply it to schemes it then sort of used that as a measure
Of check to make sure you know the inputs and and what it what it is then saying is that what we thought it would and and and is that helping us and if it isn’t is there still that flexibility I think you you reassured me I think it
Just a mark down Keith that it’s an sort of ongoing approach of monitoring I think that’s what I would say but thank you absolutely ret yeah thank you I just uh again to reassure cancel Hy the board and the members of the board are the decision
Makers this is just an aid to help you make that decision and it the point about flexibility is absolutely part of this so that the that slide that you’ve got up shows those feedback loops so if something isn’t working um then we have that opportunity to reflect on that and amend the the
Process bril thank you are there any other questions or comments none showing on my screen so um we’ll go to the recommendation so um the recommendation is that well it’s written there are we happy to agree the recommendation is printed or anyone objecting against okay agreed thank you very much then we’ll
Assume that’s agreed so we then come to um the Lori parking study which uh I think Kate you’re going to introduce please thank you chair and yes um good afternoon ladies and gentlemen um the purpose of this uh uh item is to ask the members of the partnership board to
Agree the draft tfsc Lori parking study the purpose of the study was to help the gft and other public bodies understand the experience of Lori drivers and provide an Evidence base for policy development on hgv Lorry parking and the welfare needs of drivers Paul wils from Acom who produced the recently completed
Study is here today and he will uh give you a short presentation about it very shortly it’s long been recognized uh that there are problems with Lor parking across the southeast with the lack of facilities that drivers face when they do find a recognized place to park and
The impacts uh Lori parking can have on local communities when they Park in lais or in industrial Estates instead while the DF has undertaken uh various Lorry parking surveys on the srn in England over the last decade or so the most recent of these didn’t provide
Us with enough of a complete picture uh to uh give us a clear picture or situation across our geography so we commissioned Acom to carry out a more detailed study in our area using a a similar methodology and extending it to cover some of the uh MRN and other railroads but also supplement
Supplementing it with driver surveys to find out about their experien at those recognized truck stops aom began began this work in October 2022 and a draft report was completed in August 2023 this was then circulated to the transport strategy working group as well as a senior officers group for both of
Their reviews and their comments have been incorporated into the final draft I’ll now hand over to Paul wils who will give you more information about the study uh how it’s carried out its outcomes and findings Paul thanks Kate um good afternoon everyone now come the next slide
Please um that’s fine um as Kate said I’m here to talk about L parking study which we completed last year I just want to give a quick background to us to explain why we were um it’s important that we were commissioned for this piece of work as the freight and fleet team
Within Acom we’ve been the leading consultancy in Lori parking quite some years now and have completed many studies including the Department of Transport National survey of hgv parking National highways review of Lorry parking facilities and a number of other Lorry Park in projects and strategies for other um stbs and local
Authorities um so to talk about the study uh we were asked to bring our expertise to look at Lorry parking in the TFC area and we did this by bringing together the information from existing studies to identify current and future parking gaps as Kate said we uh we
Looked at the the DFT National surve which we had recently updated in 2022 and this covered the Strategic Road Network and a 5 kmet buffer around it um and that meant that it didn’t cover any of the roads beyond that 5 km uh buffer which left quite a large gap when you’re
Looking at a regional area uh in terms of our understanding of where these trucks are parking uh overnight we have the next slide please so we built on our existing data set uh with three different activities firstly we carried out um nighttime audits on a sample of non SRM routs
Including industrial estate clusters and this covered around 31% of non SRM routs and gave us a statistically valid sample to allow us to factor up the numbers to give a forecast for the entire non srn Network in the region secondly we completed a series of driver surveys at
Srn sites to enable a better understanding of overnight parking preferences by drivers and identify any further issues and thirdly we developed a series of Ro root profiles 11 for s n and one for non srn Lorry parking um routes by putting together all the different information we had for these
And these were useful because the demand for Lorry parking isn’t consistent across the region and it’s a useful way of of highlighting how that changes across the different routs um so what do we find go the next slide please so an estimated 77% of HGB parking at night takes place on the srn
And of that 77% 72% Park in truck stops uh which is great 19% park at Lis and 9% park at industrial Estates and you can see from the top two tables that the number of each type of parking location on the srn and non srn is shown um and it’s worth
Remembering for the non srn table on the right that this is based on the 31% audit findings facted up to cover the whole network so these numbers are IND Ive not not necessarily actual um and they add up to 5,435 hgvs parked overnight every night
For both the srn and non SRM routes and if you look at the bottom table you can see that there’s a currently an excess demand for on-site parking of 868 for the srn and 674 for the non srn which is 1,528 spaces in total and this assumes that any vehicle parked at an
Industrial estate or laid by would park at a truck stop if the space was available and the excess demand also takes into account the sites on the network which are not fully utilized um and using a number of factors which um you can read more about
In our report but I won’t go into now uh we developed a forecast for the demand out to 2040 against low medium and high case scenarios and at a high case scenario we’re forecasting an increase in excess demand from uh 1,528 spaces ly up to 2774 by 2040 next slide
Please I talked about the driver survey feedback um we we surveyed um a number of drivers at eight Motorway service areas across the TFC um area and uh in total we talked to 42 different drivers and the key feedback was that the drivers weren’t particular well they didn’t have particular have any
Preferences on sites it was more around the location of the site when they needed to um stop at the end of the Day’s Journey um they relied very heavily on their local knowledge of the area to know where where sites were um and a key a key issue for them was
Making sure that whatever site they were parked at it was as close to the srn as possible to make it as easy for them to restart their Journey the next day and they highlighted a number of issues as well so things like lack of security measures including absence of
CCTV light and fencing um was raised at a number of locations and inadequate facilities such as toilets and showers and this is um not just specific to to tfse it’s this we’ve seen across the whole country um and there’s work being done by the DFT and National highways
And they’re going to fund together to look at at how they can address and update some of the facilities to to bring them up to a better standard um and um we also uh had the the interesting feedback that um some of the drivers would rather run the risk
Associated with not parking at an MSA rather than pay the high cost associated with parking there uh next slide please I talked about the root profiles which hopefully you can see the detail of here um and this is a um a summary of the data we’ve got for the M20
A20 and it shows on the left and map of the route with the parking sites identified um and they’ve been overlaid with the gnome crime hotspots and you might just be able to see there’s a red circle around Maidstone um as a as a key crime hotspot and this was identified within
The police national vehicle crime intelligence survey Freights cargo crime report um highlighted the parking hotspots um which we’ve seen um and and this is based on the truck stop sites where we have uh witnessed uh parking parking utilization of 85% or above at the site and that was through the
National um DFT surveys um and as this is a key route um you’ll be able to see that all five of the um truck site truck parking sites on the route are hotspots um which isn’t really isn’t really a surprise um in the top right uh
For each of the surveys we show the number of truck stops on the route and below that the demand factors um which might drive that growth and then to the left of that in the uh table in the centrer at the top um we’ve got a profile we we’ve identified the current
Excess parking demand specifically for that route and the growth forecast out to 2040 against those low medium and high case scenarios um and you can see for this route we would see excess demand increasing from 145 at present to 4 32 High case in 2040 and then bottom right we’ve also
Included a summary of each truck stop on the route and it shows what services are provided so you can see the range of of services that are on offer um from each of those sites uh next slide please so shown the the potential size of the excess Lorry parking demand
Within the TFC area and we’ve developed a number of recommendations mainly around sharing the report and the information you can see the the first two around sharing that with the local transport authorities and local planning authorities to make them aware of any um if there are any opportunities for new
Lorry parking sites then they’re aware of whether or not that there’s a particular need for it on that route or area um share the report with the national highways um they’re always interested to understand what’s happening away from the srn um because there is a link between that and the and the
Srn um includes um as these are strategic uh sites for for hgvs worth including in the um in the the map uh looking at alternative fuel charging sites and make sure that’s built into the tool so that these are included in there um share the report it recommendations with truck stop
Developers and operators we know there’s some uh developers out there that are interested in buying new sites or developing purchasing and developing existing sites um so it’s good good to to make them aware of where the opportunities are for their investment and share the information with hgv operators and drivers to
Encourage them to make better use of uh of Lorry parking parking at the uh the the formal truck stops and mway service areas um add the information about the sites and the reports to the TFC website and consider running a Communications campaign with drivers and operators in the area and produce a
Truck stop guide with locations of known facility I to better share the information about what sites are available and and the facilities that are available there um and share the report and its findings with the uh wider Southeast Freight Forum to discuss potential ways of addressing the issues
And high that have been highlighted in the report and look at how these can be resolved so that was uh um that covers all of the information I wanted to to to pick out for our study and I’ll now hand back to Kate for any further discussion or questions thanks
Paul um how people got a question for us Paul or myself um I believe Mike Bron had one hi Kate thank you very much Matt Bon I’m leader of tumbridge and Morin Bar Council in uh in West Kent and one of the district and bar Representatives on
The board uh I wanted to pick up on something Paul said at the very end there about uh dissemination report which is very interesting in and of itself and I’m pleased this is going to local planning authorities if I can be parochial for a moment the reason that
That piqued my interest is because we have a uh particular uh I won’t say who it is a particular operator who is very keen to build a uh truck stop in the bar but just happens to be um next to the motorway and it is in green belt and a
Andb so we’ve got a real tension on between between the need for uh a truck stop in the area and planning policy on the other side because of course the constraints that you got on green belts and a andb so my request built on that was twofold firstly the simple one is uh
Can I have a can I have a soft copy of the report if that’s okay because it could be very helpful for us in determining that planning application one way or the other but secondly and probably of more relevance to uh to all of those on on the meeting
Is how far do you intend to go in terms of engaging with critically operators of these sorts of facilities and frankly anyone involved in the freight industry because we’ve and I see David roby’s got his hand up from Kent as well but we found issues where you can change
Something in one particular location so it becomes harder to park or something like that and you simply just move the problem so when we had a situation a few years ago in tent where you had um KCC were able to enforce in the east of the
County but not in the west of the county and the problem just moved from east to west as well so I’m quite Keen that we use this this sort of work that you’ve done to try and um stop that happening and have a more strategic and holistic
Approach to um dealing with the vexed issue of Lori parking in all its forms thank you Kate do you want to take that one now I think so because I’m I’m I’m very aware of of the site that Matt’s talking about um and um and will’ll willingly share it and I believe
Um Mr Ren has also said that it’s it’s been brought to the attention of your committee but um I think um it is we need to work out a strategy for how we take this forward we have recently uh established a wider Southeast Freight Forum which which has um developers
Operators Logistics um local authorities they’re all involved um so we would like to take it to them because I think it would be interesting to get their perspective on it and to get perhaps more information about this pull push factor factors that you you mentioned because I think that is um one that
Needs to be considered quite carefully um I think the the other issue is that in sharing it we hope to to raise the issue um to to everybody’s and and put it on everybody’s Horizon because I think um it came up as part of uh particularly as part of the call for
Evidence that the DFT and d uh gave out about planning and freight and Logistics last year um so we need to work with our local authorities um uh both from a transport officers and planning officers to try and work out how these difficult resolutions or how these difficult issues can be resolved
To the satisfac of everyone because obviously we have um you know residents are involved just as much as as local local councils and and counselors so um we will come back to the board with with more information and progress on this um once we’ve had a chance to speak to all
Those different stakeholders that we we’ve mentioned in those recommendations um and I think it is does need very careful balancing as you say thank you it is the start of another process so um David um thank you thank you chairman um I’m a I’m sorry I’m a KCC member but I’m
An as member so you know I’m very familiar with the a20 corridor and the points that have just been raised about the problem um and as it happens uh I was a b counselor Tasha before and one of the first resident queries I had to deal with back in 2011 was somebody
Complaining about Loris parking outside her house and then doing the toilet in the garden um so that led me into it and I I’ve had an interest in it since I mean I welcome the report I think it’s a good report um I I think that the end
Position we need to be aiming for is this is a statement of the obvious is that we’ve got enough proper L parking capacity within the county and perhaps even outside the county because it’s not just a Kent problem it tends to get dumped on Kent because of the geography
So I think it’s a national thing and we need the capacity but once we got the capacity they’ve got to be made to use them one way or the other and it’s going to be a stick and carrot thing I mean I think it’s a drive of welfare issue at
One and because do we really want people doing the toiletting people’s Gardens in 2023 in Brin when you ought we ought to have alternative facilities that’s not really the way you want to go but a big distribution work either a Tesco or a un quite often the work at
The end gets gets sent get given to a subcontractor who could easily be the guy from Lithuania with the scaria and he’s the one who hasn’t got the money and he’s he’s doing the toilet in the garden sort of thing and I think it’s
Got to we’ve got to get to a stage where people are prepared to pay a bit more for the the shirt in Primark or the canab beans in Tesco or whatever it is in order that the transport costs a bit more in order that the drivers are in a
Truck stop and of course you need the truck stops in the first place so I think I think that’s the sort of general direction I see and you know I welcome the reporter’s progress on that route thank you I think we can all agree with that um is there anything you want
To add to that or should I just go to Joy now go to Joy thank you thank you chair um I’m really following up really on David’s point point I think more than anything um in so much as you know it’s it’s going to be about costs um because we
Have facilities on on the a23 but um when I’ve asked Lorry drivers who are doing exactly as David says and I’ve stopped and asked them why they’re parking on little side Lanes uh inappropriate parking um they put it down to cost so it’s about you know what
Do we do stick and carrot or is it do you make it free so there’s no excuse very good um point to consider I guess but it’ll be uh probably more of a national uh debate about whether it’s free or not because I can’t see that
Being left to us at the local level is there any either of you want to add to that I I think I would I would only agree with with both um David and and joy it is it is a cost issue I think and I’m pretty sure that that’s uh would be
Backed up by Paul’s uh research um as it has been in in the in the report and I think it is something that we perhaps do need to have conversations about with operators um but also with the highways agency as well um I think that would be
Quite useful um because I think it’s something that we do have to address but as I say we’re sort of the we’re at the early doors of Next Step so um let’s see where some of those conversations take us um and as I said I’ll report back
Thank you sorry can I just come back in on that one it is costing us because obviously it’s costing the districts to clear um but it’s also means you know the number of requests I get for TR Etc to try and prevent lws from parking up overnight small Lanes yeah thank you Jo
I’ve made a note of that David was yours an intervention on the same point if not uh um yes yes it was you know purely on the on the costing I don’t see it can never be free somebody’s got to pay for it but I mean but but you need to find a
Way around the problem of the the the guy having to put his hand in his pocket or the employer giving him5 a night when it costs 50 or whatever it is and I mean I don’t know whether such things as making it that when people buy a cross
Channel ticket for example they have to pay extra to get a coupon that can only be redeemed at a lorry Park if you see what I mean now obviously that would be a cost on The Operators but nobody would be able to avoid it and every other the
Lry drivers would be in the lry par you still need the capacity though I mean I think it’s imaginative Solutions like that require but obviously you need national government to help with that because it probably require legislation absolutely I think you’re right and but
I do think it’s wider than us but we can come up with some good suggestions Rob thank you for hang on yeah chairman thank you um first of all uh excellent piece of work um huge amount of data and very valuable I think there’s two things here there’s also a fundamental issue
Keith and what is the role of TPS um I’m a little bit concerned there is nobody really that there isn’t any Clarity on who is responsible and then there is a risk that ltas maybe tpsc are taking on a role that end up could be we could be
Asked to sort of address it and deal with it when it’s not actually us to do that and and I know Rupert made a comment last time about is it right T tpsc Lobby and I think it absolutely is so we’ve identified if you like the
Scale of the problem and I think there is a role here for us to maybe Lobby uh DFT but what I don’t think we should be doing is definitely we shouldn’t be identifying sites then we start to put pressure already on local authorities that are already struggling with their budgets anyway um
Absolutely share it with planning authorities because they are you know they have a role to consider the need for HD uh hdv facilities on that I’m I’m unmet demand I suppose you could put it like that it would seem to me and it’s interesting that Nick was on earlier
Wasn’t it that there’s a role here for maybe DFT to take on this issue and then going forward maybe there a new role placed on National highways to to take that action I’m just worried that we might be making oursel a problem that you know that we have to deal with and
It’s not our issue to deal with it’s a serious problem and it’s a serious issue but I just think we need to be careful and I don’t see any I don’t see any problem with us lobbying to make that point with the data that we’ve now got
Keith I’m quite worried about not only this particular issue about what is our role for TPS Keith um let me give you your assurance from the chairman and then the rest of the team will tell me I’ve got it totally wrong but um my view is we’re
Doing this um on behalf of the southeast and we will present our um findings to DFT and and all of the other um planning authorities and whatever I don’t think that puts any responsibility on us and I’m I I’m in the same place as you we we should identify where there are hotpots
But we certainly shouldn’t be identifying the solution to those uh hot spots on where they’re going because you know um I Matt with his um planning hat on would be disgusted to have transport for the southeast to say and by the way it’s that that alloc uh site should be
Allocated there because I don’t think we’ve got that power but but I think having this information pulled together is what was needed because it was never uh if you like never concluded there was bits and pieces done here and there but I think this gives an overall view of um
Of the parking issue so I’m with you on that now um I don’t know whether Kate or or Paul want to add anything to my interpretation of the purpose of this I I think you’re perfectly correct uh councilor Glazier I think you you’ve hit
The nail on the head so our role is is uh intermediary uh raising other people’s attention and um providing that supporting evidence base that they can then work with um to do what they um need to do in their particular areas um if we can bring people together we can
Do that we can do that as well we can facilitate those conversations so I hope that gives you some comfort councelor Hy yeah if I may come back absolutely I agree with all that just got to make sure it’s not interpreted so you’ve identified this so therefore you got to
Fix it and there is a risk that could happen if we don’t keep an eye on it I have noted I have noted those and I will make sure that doesn’t so that’s fine thank you put it put it in plain English Rob that right that’d be good um such
There’s no ambiguity but that’s ser again I think we’ve been blessed today we we got some really good reports coming through and uh and so thank you for all those that have been involved in this we are asked to uh as it says on the board U members of recommend to
Agree the transport for Southeast Lori parking study report are we happy to do that no one against thank you you very very much indeed um so we now move on to the uh Regional seter Center for excellence I’m sorry I can’t move my computer at the moment um to
Find out who’s introducing I will very shortly I hope hello sh it’s me Emily Emily apologies I’m on the next thank you you thank you um thank you very much if I could just have the next slide please Jamie great thank you hello everyone um I’m going to just providing a very quick
Update on the development of the regional center of excellence to date um so I’m joined today by Kate farhall from Arab and Max R from Arab so hopefully everyone will have met with them because they have been with us for a while now um so if I could just move over to the
Next slide please uh so the intention to cover today is just a very quick recap on the background and then just providing you with an update on where we’re at with the project and then going over some of the progress that’s been made so we’ll be looking at the governance stakeholder
Engagement components functionality skills users and partners management plan and Steering group um so they’re the deliverables that we’ve achieved so far and then we’re also just going to be commenting on the fiscal benefits um of the regional center of excellence and then looking at next steps so if I could
Just move over to the next slide please thank you um so I think that everyone will be familiar with this but just to recap um so the leveling up white paper which was published in 2022 um included the commitments to develop Regional centers of excellence um and so
In ter the DFT stbs to create their own for their regions um so as a result we were awarded 250,000 um for the year 2324 um in which we have appointed Arab to continue this development as they were included within the local capability and also the road map which
Was signed off last March um so we have had them working with us since July 2023 um as part of the technical call of Consortium which was approved at that July board thank you if I could just have the next slide so this is just a really quick overview
Um of the five tasks so there are deliverables within each one um so what we’ve achieved to date so far was the alignment and prioritization which was up until the end of December um sorry September so that established the governance um which will run up until
The end of the project and then within task two we’ve also done lots of planning and engagement so we’ve met with universities external partners and all of the local authorities on a onetoone basis and then also via steering groups which have been established as well so all of that
Engagement is used to inform and shape the um specification of the platform and then once it’s live as well so at the moment we’re just in task three um so we’re just creating the platform so at the end of January we should be in a position to be able to commission the
Digital consultant to start actually building the platform um so we’re in the exciting stage now um so we have geared up the um engagement with the Steering group to sort of make them understand what kind of expectations we need from them um as it just does sort of pick up
The pace a little bit and then as we move into task four and task five five we are moving into the launch and then ongoing maintenance um so that Steering group will continue through the life cycle of the uh project but it might
Just be that it um is more on an ad hoc basis as in when we need things rather than on a monthly basis like it is now so if I could just add the next slide please so this is just a very quick capture of the governance apologies it
Looks like the boxes have just come through as black there um but essentially what those two black black boxes are the bottom one is the original of Excellence Steering group and then the one just before the partnership board is the senior officer group um and that just basically sets
Out how we are trying to feed the information from the development so it will come through that Steering group in back into the delivery team so that will be myself and colleagues at tfsc and ARP um and then we will be presenting it back to the senior offic group and
Partnership board like normal uh just to get that sign off um but they are being shaped and informed by all of the forums that are existing within TFC and then how we can utilize them to make best practice and um get some shared information from them as well so we’ll
Be moving on to the progress updat so I will be handing over to Kate as just on that next slide so that’s great thank you very much great thank you Emily and good afternoon so this slide provides an overview of the stakeholder engagement completed to dat on the project so
Firstly we held a workshop with the ltas on the 11th of September last year to ensure that the road map was still fit for purpose and to validate next steps we’ve also held 13 interviews with the LTA to discuss the key components the structure the functionality and partners
For the regional center of excellence the outputs from these discussions have been being collated to form a specification for the digital platform which is in development we’ve also distributed a university survey and joined the university panel and we have plans for further engagement with them and the other partners overall it is worth
Highlighting that there is a desire for the center of excellence to be co-designed to ensure that the content is enhanced supported and makes good use of the existing tools and guidance available at a national and local level next slide please so this slide shows the confirmed requirements for the virtual platform
Some new components have been added based on the upon the recent engagements such as the case studies funding procurement news and blogs which are all viewed to be important and then the next slide talks about the functionality requirements of the platform so firstly there will be some restrictions so core users will
Have access to everything and other partners will have limited access to some areas such as a chat function it will be designed to encourage collaboration it will also encourage learning from others as well as self-learning for example reading materials such as case studies and people’s own time and it will also be
Modular so will have different elements so a place for resources as well as a chat function but brought together under a single platform and it will be simple to use yet visually attractive and align to transport of Southeast branding next slide please so this shows this is focusing on
Skills we have started to capture the skills that the central accents will need to focus on so key words being modeling business cases and scheme delivery we are going to continue to explore what the skills priorities are through further engagement with the ltas and will create an expertise Matrix so
To understand what the current skills levels are and where future focus is required it is also important to note that skills being focused on will need to link to themes from the DFT objectives which we all do and we will also consider how these skills relate to skills Maps held
By different professional institutions so we can understand any linkages and overlaps so I’ll now hand over to ma to talk about users and partners yeah thanks Kate good afternoon everyone it’s very good to be here um with you all so this diagram you can see
On the screen we’ve used to help map the different layers of users partners and stakeholders of the regional center of center of excellence and and it also Maps the relative level of collaboration interaction with the platform and the contributions into the center of excellence that we’re that we’re
Expecting um so starting with the sponsors at the the highest level those the department for transport and tfse those they’ve commissioned the project and they will oversee oversee it for the regional center of excellence is Kate as sort of mentioned has been designed really around the needs of the core
Users so those in the center of the diagram who are the ltas and they’ll be obtaining the most value from this platform um but that value will will require them to be collaborating um sharing their knowledge and experience uh with their with their LTA peers um moving out of layout we’ve got
The key partners and we we expect and and indeed hope uh we they will be using this platform form um to actively contribute their specialist support expert guidance best practice access to research projects um uh and Etc um depending on what the opportunities are that uh that that are available um we’ve
Already done some engagement with these Partners um early on and um and those uh those meetings have been very positive and um they’ve communicated their support for what we’re doing so some of these Partners include professional instit ions like sea IC C ciht Etc um as well
As who have their Regional centers of excellence of their own um as Emily mentioned before key universities and bodies such as active active travel uh England national highways Network route other stakeholders uh moving a layer out we’ve identified as people who will be interested um but may not be actively
Contributing into the center of excellence um so we will be keeping them informed and that and they include um people in this call elected members transport operator groups like R RDG and CPT business groups and um and other interest groups like susr transport Focus uh if we go to the next slide
Please so um a deliverable from task two as Emily outlined at the top was a was a management plan um and that management plan detailed how we intend to bring this of Excellence into being um manage it in its operation and and also prepare for the for the long term um so the
Management plan included elements such as the core processes so that’s the that’s a slide that you can see on the screen but also included Ro the role structure that we need for for a successful delivery um a plan for partnership engagement as I mentioned before and also success measurement um
For the platform so just looking at the core processes here in a bit more detail um this slide here illustrates the different processes in the in the blue bars um and and those those are the processes we think will drive the right activity at the right stage of the
Project um which is which are the orange boxes across the top the core process processes include ongoing project sponsorship stakeholder engagement and governance um which we’ll need throughout the project and we’ll also be capturing the needs of ltas throughout uh throughout the commission the development of the platform and
Transferring which then transfers into ongoing platform maintenance have all been detailed um and also the running of the center of excellence so processes around you know the the nuts and bolts uploading content supporting with collaboration and events Communications and um measuring success we can go to the next slide
Please this uh this slide is essentially a benefits map that we’ve created to um uh to help us plan to measure our success against the overall DFT objectives which have been sent out for us at the top of the listed at the top of the diagram there um you’ll notice
The there’s there’s some blue numbers and letters those correspond to the actual um kpi measures and monitoring measures that will we will we will be designing to to help monitor the performance and outcomes and benefits including the fiscal benefits which um I’ll hand over to Emily in a moment to
Speak about um and it’s important to note this this work will also link to the m& workstream uh measurement evaluation workstream which is also part of the broader technical callof contract next slide please so here just just a note on the governance so a Steering group has been
Set up which comprises a group of uh of the core users so the ltas uh this group g u provides guidance on the setup the design the ongoing management of the center of excellence as well as provide as well as they provide a user testing type function um
Which is particularly important at this phase of the project as we are co-creating the design with them and the Steering group will ensure that um the regional center of excellence stays in touch with the most pressing needs of uh of ltas um as they emerge as well and
The quality of the outputs that are delivered that are suited to the needs of the Southeast region so I’ll hand back to Emily um fcal next steps that’s great thank you Max and Kate um so the fiscal benefits there should be some text hopefully if you
Yeah yeah perfect thank you um so it’s just to really set out what the Ambitions are for the center of excellence so it’s not just to improve capability and capacity but it’s also to deliver economies of scale um so through that best practice sharing of resources um should hopefully improve
Consistencies as well um and also working with all stbs to try and remove that duplication and try and find out what is available already um so that we can then sign post to other people’s centers of excellence as well so we’re just trying to really make the best use
Of what’s already out there um and what will also be of benefit to our local authorities because we do appreciate that um some of it needs to be bespoke for our area but some of them will be able to look at best practice studies from Blackpool for example if
That has a more similar uh geographical landscape to somewhere in our region um and so one of our key performance indicators as a result of this will be to measure the cost saving that this platform will provide for our local authorities um so this will be captured through the provision of licenses that
Will be offered and also training and access to expertise um and then there there also the provision of some data as well so this will hopefully um help people Implement and develop business cases um and so just trying to have that shared Center of uh truth and um one
Area for people to access as well so just really trying to demonstrate the benefits of this um through as I say not only the capability and capacity improvements but also the cost saving that will be associated with it so if I could just go on to the next slide
Please uh so this is just the last slide it’s just going to be talking about the next steps so as we’ve mentioned we’re in task three now so we are looking at creating the platform so that will start very soon once we hand over that digital specification um and it will include
Some testing so we will be utilizing the Steering group but also um having a willingness to let that go out further than just the Steering group so that people can try and break it and hopefully won’t be able to um and then also welcoming feedback from those
People as well to try and make it um the most robust platform that we can um and then in conjunction with that we will also be developing and collecting the resources to be able to be populated and published on there as we move into task four so just beyond March we’ll be
Looking at the management of the virtual platform and then also looking to launch it um so we’re looking to have a training and Improvement of capability day and then within that it will just be a more formal launch of the actual site and physical events itself um so we look
Forward to working with this on you and uh just to thank all colleagues who have been involved with the engagement to dat as it has been really really useful um so hand back to you chair please thank you thank you Emily any questions or comments on the progress so far none oh
Yeah there was one and then it’s disappeared Dan thank you yes you’re back yes no problem I must have somehow hand up down accidentally yeah and just to say thanks for this and um you know a really important part as you know of the things that we looking for stbs to do
And um it looks like like a really good um work in development there so um so so so really good you know keep keep working on that and I heard you say it but really important that you link up with the other stbs um and what they’re doing with their their sense of
Excellence as well I know you you’ve captured that um but yeah important that that that continues but um but looks like a really good piece of work so thanks thanks for presenting it thank you thank you Dan um no other comments well again it’s another exciting
Development lots of work going on and um we look forward to seeing the um uh well the test if not the end product so I’m sure it’ll take a a bit of while to to settle in so thank you all thank you um so far we are asked to um note the
Progress of development on the regional center for excellence so I guess we’re happy to do that yeah thank you on uh to agenda item nine and thank you for that uh to um the audit and governance committee and and um Joy Council Dennis would you like to introduce please yeah thank you very
Much we um on Thursday 11th of January was our last meeting it was a lively and very engaging meeting I know that most of you also feel shocked at an audit and governance meeting can’t feel Lively engaging but it was and it cly provoked some conversation um in the report I’m
Sure you’ve all read it um the first two reports I just want to make comment about the first one was sets out how tfsc delivers value for money um and you’ll see there was two papers how we deliver it um and how then we deliver value for partners they were both very
Welcomed by the committee but we asked for further work to be included covering the fiscal assessment of the financial savings and how we use the plan to focus on where tfse adds value and the second report which Al set out the impacts of inflation on our projects and how this
Is impacting our local authorities and we particularly um we wanted to wish to highlight the report provided a good overview but we ask for further information on supply chain availability Market confidence specific material presses to be included so we’ve asked for those reports to be return to the committee at
The 9th of April meeting and they’ll be represented to the board on the 13th of May um we also um just to sort of also just of highlight um the draft an report outline was reviewed uh we agreed the structure um and this will present to
The board as a standalone item on the 13th of May um we also reviewed the risk register and I think I just want to note um two items that were added risk 20 and risk 21 uh the first one that local authorities may not be willing to Bear
The risk associated with large schemes which could lead to failing to deliver our transport policy strategy sorry and risk 21 the dissolution of the local Enterprise Partnerships zps in March and it should say 24 not 23 leaves a gap in business representation within the tfsc governance structure that we made we need to
Consider um and we also just highlight the four risks that have a high probability impact um which will risk 9 15 16 and 20 um I won’t read them out um per say I’m sure you’ve looked at them yourselves and then there are nine risks that remain a medium medium probability
In Impact after mitigation and as you can tell we we reviewed them quite quite succinctly I can assure you there’s a number that we discuss quite quite some depth and you’ll see there are two recommendations one to note our discussions and actions and the second one to agree the Strategic risk register
Um as I say it was um quite Lively thank you very much it sounds like a good meeting and uh and it’s really important that we do keep on top of monitoring where we’re at so thank you all for doing that are there any questions or comments for uh the audit
Committee uh Ro canel humy yeah in the in the tone of being a lively meeting yes it was but like to thank um and joy I think those risk registers 20 21 were really important and joy it was a really good meeting and I thank you for that
And those discussions and that being added because I think it was really important Keith as you know I’m always talking about in terms of what our role is and that and the risk to it to make sure that we are still there and keep functioning you know as a whole group as
In a partnership and it’s quite right that we identify those risks so ready to say thank you for to Joy for a good meeting and really pleased to see those added and a good report thank you and if I could thank you councel Hy for being such a a vocal Participant yeah okay let me think about that one Joy okay if we if we can ever get that minuted I’ll I’ll frame it but there you go thank you very much uh both of you there’s no other questions or comments seriously we are um doing you’re doing a
Really important job and uh uh and without that we we put ourselves at risk so thank you all very much so as Joor say we’re asked to note the discussions arising from the committee of the audit and governance committee and ask to agree the Strategic risk register no and
Against okay well thank you for that thank you so we then come to the finance update and Sarah I think you’re going to do that please yes thank thank you chair um so the purpose of this report is to update the board on the budget position um till the
End of quarter 3 which is the end of December um 2023 so the the table appendix one sets out the position um a couple of things to note um the main technical program is the main element of expenditure with now um that accounting for 700,000 out of the 1.5 million total
Spend a date the Staffing costs are as expected um now that we have a full complement of of Staff recruited to tfse so that is looking like it will forecast out as expected um spend on the technical program is increasing rapidly now that projects through the callof contract are actually underway um and
Just on that since the contract has been up and running six months ago we’ve now commissioned over1 million pounds worth of work through that contract so that’s been real real help to us to to Really accelerate work through our technical program the forecast is currently 1.8 million of expenditure on the technical
Program and there are work outside of the call of contract that goes through the technical program and this will continue to be monitor monitored obviously as we approach the the year end of the financial year the operation and Communications budget has as spend a date of around about 50,000
Um this budget is projecting an under spend of around about a 100,000 that’s due predominantly to us deciding not to print any vast quantities of this string investment plan um instead relying on the electronic copies and also um far less legal um support and assist assistance than we that we had
Envisaged the technical program itself is forecasting an underspend of around about 700,000 I think first of all is worth saying that this is significant reduction on the amount last year when we carried forward2 million pounds of of expenditure so DFT do do want us to reduce the expenditure and we are making
Some some really good invades to that it’s been really helped by having the indicative funding allocation um but there is still the issue with us not actually receiving our final budget till a way into the Financial year which does mean we can’t actually get going with
All the work that we want to as as soon as we would like to however of that 700,000 projected carry forward 226,000 of it is already committed and that’s shown with an asterisk in the table in appendix one and that’s predominantly for work that actually um the time scale
For the work spans across Financial years so the work is committed the work is underway it just won’t be fully spent this financial year because the work doesn’t complete until till next financial year the remaining 475,000 carry forward from the technical program has been ring fenced within the budget um the sorry
The business plan for 2425 that the board signed off and approved in December um and also the 100,000 of um operation comm’s budget has also been allocated through that business planning process to be spent in the next financial year um happy to take any questions on
The B um budget position to date before moving on to the other part of the report any questions on the budget no appears to be none so you want to carry on bril thank you so the last part of the report was just remind the board that following um your approval of
The draft business plan at the December meeting this has now been submitted to the department for transport um by the deadline which was the end of December last year um as we understand it DFT officials I don’t know whether Dan might want to come in and say anything here um
Are s of you know currently considering all the various business plans they’ve got from the stvs before they’ll be making their recommendation to ministers thank you Dan is you want to come in please thank you yeah so first of all just just thanks the team for
Getting the um the business plan in on on time to us just before Christmas which you did which was which was great thank you for for doing that um in terms of an update yeah as as you summarized there Sarah so we we’re now reviewing the business plans from all the stbs
With a view to shortly providing advice to ministers on um funding for next year so um we we’re hopeful that we’ll be able to um move the process through more quickly this year we note note your point Sarah that it’s um uh you always want to get your um funding allocations
In earlier in the year on later and we we we we’re aware of that so um so yeah so we’re just reviewing the plans at the moment with a view to shortly um providing advice to ministers on on on the position and um we of course keep you updated with with
That thank you we can uh only wish you well and hopefully it’ll be a smooth um run through for you uh any questions on that um councelor Hy Rob I’m trying to put me hand up now because I got any comments but you know I’ll carry on
First of all yeah two good reports and it’s great to see the business plan and you know it’s noted and supported as well Keith as more for you just whether you’d seen the uh report about the Midlands connect and tfn don’t have a Member Subscription fees I was just
Wondered where that sat with us and sort of leveling up Keith um uh answer no I haven’t and um I’m sorry I’ve missed that um and uh as you know part of the uh membership fee for us has been the key part of us drawing in uh
Significant funds from DFT in the past if they’re going to get away with it or somebody else pay their fees for them then we might need to think about that in in the future but understood and I wasn’t really it was just more that had seen that and
That is out there and I was I thought it it will be raised at some point so I’m just raising it I’m not supporting or not supporting I’m just raising the point I I Rupert’s got a comment on that no no no I’m sure you won’t have
Rert oh thank you uh I mean you’re correct in that there are five subnational transport bodies that draw a local contribution and two that don’t um and members will recall that when we established transport Southeast local contribution enabled us to secure much greater levels of DFT funding um I think
We are of course acutely aware of the pressure that our local Authority colleagues are all under and some really difficult decisions around where you prioritize investment you know is it social care is it place-based Services um and we will be having ongoing conversations with the Department about the viability of some of those
Contributions going forward but just to go back to I think I got in early Rob in my last newsletter by um by acknowledging that and and saying that genuinely it is a really difficult um decision what I think we as a as a board and we as a group need to
Do is to continue to show our value not only to DFT and other um uh people up the chain but actually to ourselves that actually uh the combined uh efforts and the combined knowledge that we have managed to bring together over these last last five years is actually worth a
Premium um I accept that it’s really really difficult we’ve all been there we’ve got more to do but um if we can continue to show that we’re worth our um subscription fre uh fee for a better one of a word um then I think we stand some chance of keeping us together
So I hope that it doesn’t change the thing but it also helps me understand that um we’ve got to still prove that we’re worth our salt so uh we’ll continue to do that colleagues uh we’re asked to note The Current financial position for 2223 to the end of December
Including the forecast for the end of the year and note that the business plan uh arrived and was submitted on time so are we happy to do that yes noted read thank you um we come to a response for consultation Rupert do you want to do that yeah thank you chairman it’s just
Two um responses one is in relation to G go t Railway um and the uh South Coast the west southwest coastway service and broadly support the um what they’re seeking to achieve what we have said is that where um Direct Services change that The Interchange if that makes sense
Where you have to change trains to get another where you’re losing a direct service that that is adequate to um smooth the passage from you know one platform to another for example um but the response is relatively short and containment in your pack the second one is in relation to um reading bough
Council’s transport strategy um we made a a number of suggestions um I think they’ve set out a really good strategy um there clearly challenges but also opportunities facing reading um and you know what is ke is the alignment to the Strategic investment plan which broadly they have um done so those two responses
Are there for you to consider thank you is there any comments or um questions on on either of those two no okay well um we’ll consider them approved uh if that’s the case no one against thank you uh right so rer we come to your um lead officers
Uh report yeah thank you chairman um I mean the following items are predominantly for information um uh I would ask members just to take the paper as R and I’m really happy to take questions on what we’ve been up to since we last met any questions for
Rert none okay well we’ll note the uh um report um activities of Transport Southeast between October and December thank you for that rer Jeff you’re going to introduce transport Forum update please yeah thanks well congratulations if youve if you’ve managed to stick with it to Pages 175 and
176 your concentration does you great credit uh ladies and gentlemen um and it’s quite it’s a sort of interesting time as if you if you remember for the transport Forum it had got big and unwieldy and we wanted to to change the pattern of meetings and that sort of thing um so
Um we what we’re going to have or let’s just um say what what we’re going to do so the first face-to-face transport Forum this is all of the people that used to be in involved um will take place on Thursday April the 11th at a suitable Central
Location uh I.E somewhere that’s easy to get to by public transport um but what we’re also um introducing before I get on to the advisory panel but what we’re also introducing is um a digital engagement which will be a live Q&A session with uh with rert as the lead officer and Keith
As the chair I Hope they’ve been Prett warned about that um as a way of allowing people who uh are members of The Forum or the The Wider Forum to actually um raise questions and uh query answers I guess uh and we were were intending to have um that sort of
Um digital engagement perhaps twice a year um in September in in the autumn um you what you’ll also remember is as part of the transport Forum uh we we decided what we needed to have was an advisory panel and the advisory panel was going to take each of the theat
Thematic groups and and ask them to put one individual um forward for it uh and they uh those people will sit on the V panel by the end of February the Thematic group terms of reference these people are currently being drafted by officers the first advisory panel
Meeting will be held we commencing April the 29th uh just before a couple of weeks before the the next board meeting so so that’s what we’re doing we we’ve changed it significantly tried to get different things in direct access to Rupert and Keith as appropriate getting each of the Thematic
Groups to identify one individual to be part of the the the transport Forum um and um The Wider transport Forum um meeting twice a year so that’s all happy to take questions as long as they’re easy ones it sounds like quite an effort to get that far um Jeff I mean let’s be
Absolutely honest the um the success that you created in in the Forum um was uh was enormous because it did start to outgrow any expectations so well done on that and um uh and so uh you know I think um refining is is a great thing to
Do are there any questions for Jeff I mean apart from our thanks for what he does no I said thank thank you for not asking any well we asked to uh note the plan for the forum for 2024 following the recent transport Forum review are we
Happy to do that thank you Jeff thank you um 14 is the transport strategy refresh update Mark I think you’re just going to do a short introduction uh yes thank you chair yeah the report just provides U members of the board with an update on on the technical and engagement work that we’re
Undertaking as part of the transport strategy refresh uh happy to take any questions on any of the content that’s set out in the report thank you very much are there any comments or questions for Mark no well thank you again Mark for um for a good report and members are asked
To note progress with the work to refresh the transport strategy thank you um so we come to the delivery of the Strategic investment plan and Sarah you going introduce please yes thank you very much chair um very similar to to the last item um the report sets out a
Number of um just updating the board on the position of where we are with um developing the Strategic investment plan and how we deliver the interventions with the Sip um again quite happy to take any questions based on the report if there are any thank you any questions for Sarah
Again there’s an awful lot going on and it’s good to see it thank you for that um we are asked to note the progress of the range of work streams to support the Strategic investment plan I guess we’re happy to do that thank you um 16 is the technical program update Mark
Please yes thank you chair yes so this report just provides members of the board with an update on various elements of our technical work program that we haven’t heard about on the rest of the agenda so an update on the work we’re undertaking on the development of um uh electric vehicle charging
Infrastructure uh work on the development of the regional active travel strategy progress on the delivery of the future Mobility strategy um further update on the non Lorry parking elements of the uh Freight Logistics work we have ongoing and the work we have going on decarbonization happy to
Take uh any questions on any of the contents out in the report thank you Mark Trevor canc M I can’t hear you Trevor can you hear me now yes we can oh good that’s hope for me yet um thank you and thanks for reports on on these
Matters um was going to quickly just check in on the EV charging infrastructure um clearly there’s a drive to improve upon that and uh the and Report identifies that that that that need and that that program um it clearly involves quite a lot of uh well
There there’s a number of uh hurdles or barriers to it to deliver that at PACE um and the emphasis is to work with uh say the power supplies the UK power Network for example um are we confident that the the program for delivery uh is possible or do do you
Think the risks are so substantive that we not we’re not going to deliver those at PACE uh you know so so clearly there’s a road map there been presented but you know where where the hazards and risks associated with some of the barriers particularly in terms of power
Supply capacity um it’s it’s one of the constraints in Bren and ho for instance where we uh got quite concerns about trying to get high very rapid um charging points into our city um so I just really flag that in that I don’t know if you can respond in in this
Regard thank you Mark yes just very quickly uh yeah I mean our role here is a sort of convening a convening role I mean uh the the the working group that we run has both the local authorities the charge Point operators UK power networks uh on there and very much to
Bring together that that community of people who need to be talking to one another about these issues because you’re absolutely right there are some significant challenges ahead in terms of getting this infrastructure out at the pace that is needed to um you know ensure that you know it keeps Pace with
The the supposed uptake of electric vehicles and if we don’t it will affect that so it puts our sort of decarbonization uh plans at risk so we’re doing everything that we we can we’ve sort of in a position to offer more uh you know very keen through the
DFT such if there was an ask on us to to to do more work in this area there’s an offer from us to do that because of our convening ability trying to do more work to encourage particularly local transport authorities to work together more on you know cross-boundary issues
With the the development and implement mentation of this infrastructure so significant challenges ahead but I think we’re playing our our part in bringing people together to try and talk through some of these difficult challenges that you’ve highlighted yes thank you thank you thank you um Rob canc HBY yeah just a
Sort of general question about when we’re looking at all this how do we as an organization I suppose keep up to date with sort of policy change or announcements coming out from central government that might affect this and I get five or six seven policy sort of
Updates throughout the course of the day on things that are happening and changing just how do we do that how do we how do we manage that at tpsc BR well we we’re very you know connected in through DF and through the oev unit which is you know the the sort
Of the engine of of future planning in this area from a government point of you so and we also have a a joint stb uh working group on this issue so there’s the opportunity for us to uh share ideas and and knowledge and and reconnaissance with one another so as much as we’re
Able um we keep uh keep keep make sure we’re up to date with the latest thinking about how this that this issue is going to move forward as with as with many of the other technical work areas that we’re involved with sort of done if I may chair through
Other organizations we don’t sort of actively monitor that I suppose I could say it’s just done through as a matter of course with being involved with other group yes I think this is some an area for you know our development through the center of excellence is something with a
Resource we could be more uh proactive on you know in this area potentially having you know more resource devoted to um you know active reconnaissance of of chasing down some of this information as it comes forward you know we do have a strong listening ear but you know our
Ear could always be made uh made stronger but that would need you know additional resources as we move forward but I think the the center of excellence provides us potential with a vehicle to do that to you know be collecting this this information as soon as we hear it
And broadcasting it out through the center of excellence to keep everybody up to date on exactly what is happening on this issue and lots of the other work that we’re involved with so something for us to think about more as we move forward that’s brilliant Mark for May
Chairman that was your point about saying adding value and the value we have so it keeps us on the front foot and being on the front foot is is hugely valuable thank you Mark it is thank you um no other questions we have five um recommendations there to note so are we
All happy to do that yeah okay so we come on to agenda rizon 17 which is Communications and stakeholder engagement update Duncan please thank you chair uh the detail regarding comms and engagement activity is clearly outlined in the board paper uh we’re in a healthy place our social engagement figures increase our
Newsletters sign up UPS increase as to our podcast listening as well and we continue to roll out and hit the objectives of our comms and engagement plan for 2023 2024 and to continue Provide support to uh other team members with things like the transport strategy refresh uh with engagement activity like
Your voices all of the detail is in the board paper but I’m more than happy to take any questions or observations thank you thank you Duncan well a big thank you to me I’m sure R would agree and podcasts seem to grow and uh uh I just
Think the value of them is enormous um and some of the other ones not just the two that we’ve participated in um it’s another good way of getting good information out there so well done on that front I any questions or comments for Duncan on the uh
Coms one thing i’ never expect to see Keith is you being an influencer well done I’ve tried with you all my life Rob and failed but there you go enough of that thank you very much um so we are asked um to note the engagement and Communications activity
Has been undertaken since the last board and last meeting and thank you um Duncan and team for for uh continuing with that good work brings us to aob uh and I know um David councelor Roby has a um something he wants to raise David over to you yes still thank
You thank you chairman um this is the question of the Tilbury two graves and furry um this is a passenger F that operates across the temps um it’s operated for some time it’s very well used uh and it is operated with a small subsidy comparatively small subsidy from
Kent County Council and uh until recently Thor Council over £200,000 a year £100,000 each um I think aics have taken over the £100,000 from Thor but at KCC we’re currently Consulting as to whether we can afford to carry on paying the £100,000 because of all the other pressures the council’s under um it
Obviously I mean it’s a very desirable thing I say it’s well used and it also is a a sort of a passenger complement to the uh vehicle Crossing that the lower terms Crossing represents which doesn’t actually have much of a public um transport provision in it um what I’m
Asking really is there any way we can find uh the comparatively small amount of uh Haruna our Haruna CH our Hardway director has written to Matthew Palmer uh at um the person I think at National Highway was in charge of the law attemps Crossing but I mean it seems so
Ridiculous that given the scale of that project in particular and indeed you know General expenditure well generally that for such a small amount of money we can’t keep something going that’s I think it’s obviously desirable in every way apparently it’s also likely to be a factor in attracting labor to come
Across the uh River to actually work in the on the actual construction of the uh of the crossing so um I’m I’m not sure where we as a as a um subnational Transport Board could go with it but I’ll come to offices in a minute um we all know we we are having
To cut back on bus subsidies and all sorts of subsidies across the piece so um rert do you want to help us out here thank you yeah thank you I mean we recognized the value of that ferry service and the Strategic investment plan and um you know we did flag that uh
In the medium term you know that is an area that we would want to work with and support um enhancement to I suppose since the um the development of the Sip you know in some respect events have overtaken us so you know many authorities are looking at things like
Subsidies as part of the wider budget pressures I mean certainly um can Obi we could have a conversation with the DFT um and and convene that for you um I don’t think there is um 100,000 from the transport Southeast budgets um uh that would be able to uh support you but um
We’ be really happy to work with your officer team to see if we can Engage The DFT in in you know recognizing the value of this and seeing if there’s anything we can we can do in that respect it might be something that um uh engagement with the dft’s local transport teams
Where sort of bus provision sits I mean it’s a wellbe it’s on water but it’s you know the the principle of um uh uh of it is similar um and we’d be very happy to do that I’m not sorry I’m not please don’t think that I’m suggesting is an
Easy answer to all this because the financial pressures are everywhere it just seems It’s like many of these things it seems like an absolute no-brain but I’ll take that suggestion away and I’ll go back to offices and see what we can do and and we can open it up
Here I mean is there may be other people have have found other um innovative ways of funding these things so if there’s any other good advice around then let’s share it that would be really helpful as well Rob yeah I’m not sure it’s good advice to share but I think we got to
Make sure this is another issue that we have sort of parity and consistency from what we’re saying and doing because we got several theories we’ve had a similar issue and David if I may this comes back to really discussion with local MPS you’re in the same position as us where
We’re having to look at what is the legal I suppose minimum I suppose and lots of these sort of things I I I’m by all means I think it’s you know okay to raise it here but I think whatever we do we got to make sure that’s consistent
Across all the partner authorities that would be my only concern I’d very much Advocate you know speaking to your local MPS and I’m sure you have but that’s what you know that’s what we’ve been doing and we’ve had to look at whether we can continue to support our fies and
Indeed we’ve already uh stopped one of them already so it’s just that consistency Keith I would say that all yeah it’s it’s the right thing to do to bring it here get as much advice as we can so thanks for that David but um if there’s anything else we can do we will
But um as Rob says it’s got to be uh recognized that we got 16 transport bodies here not all of them got fairies thankfully we have in e suex one but um um is that helpful or is there anything more you think we can do no I think I
Think what council H says is right I mean I think I’m a great Advocate trying to put put this strong arm on government in whatever way we can and the MPS are a good a good Channel but I absolutely agree with that I don’t think well I
Don’t think I think we could do more in can to be honest but we’re doing our best but I agree with the point very much okay thank you for that is there other any other any other business that anyone wants to raise no well um thank you all again um for
Another really um useful meeting uh and next meeting is on Monday the 13th of May and that g will be uh virtual so on teams between 9 and 12:00 so if that uh nothing else anyone wants to raise thank you all again and look forward to catching up with many other you soon