TRANSPORT SEMINAR

On 14 June 2007, Stourbride Conservatives hosted a lively and informed discussion on transport policy at the Lyttelton Arms in Hagley (a list of attendees is attached). The morning began with a brief introduction from Margot James, the Conservative Party Candidate for Stourbridge. Chris Grayling, the Shadow Secretary of State for Transport then provided a national overview, followed by key speakers from the Black Country and West Midlands on the issues of road pricing, quick wins, bus priorities and the business perspective.

The national perspective

Chris Grayling told the delegates that the Conservative Party rejected the Government’s national road-pricing scheme outright. “It is utterly unworkable. This scheme would track every car in Britain for every mile travelled on every road in the country, seven days a week, 24 hours a day. Then the data would need to be collated and bills sent out every month. It is the greatest IT project this country has ever seen and would cost billions to run”. The Shadow Secretary for State also stated that current transport regulation was over-centralised.

The solution to road congestion would be a patchwork of different measures ranging from improved public transport, more home working, improvement in road infrastructure and more school buses. In particular, by the second half of the next decade, the UK would need to overlay an additional layer of capacity onto its transport system. Rather than advocate an increase in the number of motorways, he suggested making improvements to existing transport corridors. The Conservative Party was focussed on six priorities: the West Midlands, capacity building at Canary Wharf; the Trans-Pennine corridor; new developments such as Milton Keynes; access to the West Country and to parts of the UK bereft of public transport.

In terms of long distance links, Chris Grayling stated that the most viable option would be to install high-speed rail networks like our European counterparts. The Conservative Party was looking at detailed proposals outlining three options: (a) dedicated freight networks; (b) conventional high-speed rail, by extending the Channel Tunnel rail link with a second phase north to the West Midlands area; and (c) potential use of maglev technology (currently used only in China) that is considerably faster than existing rail systems.

In Chris Grayling’s opinion however, the solution for the future would be middle distance metro lines - possibly using maglev technology – linking urban centres e.g. Edinburgh-Glasgow, Liverpool-Manchester or Leeds-Manchester. This would not only get those people travelling between cities out of their cars, but would transform the local economy.

Chris Grayling stated that the party was investigating the cost of such improvements and the level of public subsidy required. “I want to start in Government with a clear sense of what we’re going to do straight away”. On this point, Neil Barker, Acting Chief Executive of National Express Bus Division, argued for more cross-party consensus on transport policy, since projects were long-term in nature and were adversely affected when a new government came into office.

Road pricing

Councillor Angus Adams, Cabinet Member for Transportation Dudley MBC, stated that road pricing in the Black Country would not work. However, Gary Clarke, the Chairman of Centro: WMPTA, noted that if the West Midlands did not support road pricing, it would not get the required funding for transport improvements.

Chris Grayling replied that there was no guarantee that local authorities would receive what the Government promised. Local government was being used as a proxy for the Government’s road pricing scheme and that they would end up trying to develop “the undevelopable”. He asked of the West Midlands “How are you going to use one scheme for your 7 cities?” That said, he noted that there were cities where such schemes could work e.g. York with its defined centre and ring road, with people paying for “the privilege” of coming to the centre. But, he stressed, this was a decision for the people of York.

Eric Harbour, Chairman of Wolverhampton Conservatives, suggested that rather than oppose Labour on its road-pricing scheme – which would cut off investment - local authorities should seek to impose stringent conditions on the implementation of the scheme which would allow a re-think or even an opt out at some later stage. Finally, Glyn Pickford stated that there needed to be a hypothecation of the charges and tests to be taken under the Government’s scheme before people would accept congestion charges.

Quick wins

The majority of attendees supported the use of quick wins proposed by George Munro, Director of the Black Country Chamber of Commerce. George began by stating that last year, the Government spent 30% less on transport than other European countries. Road taxes raise £42.2 billion but only £1.6 billion was spent on highway maintenance. Poor road design as well as inadequate funding contributed to congestion he said. He noted that the Government needed to appoint the statutory Transport Managers promised three years ago. Chris Kelly, Chairman and Managing Director of Keltruck Ltd. also took up the issue of inadequate planning.

Furthermore, George Munro advocated the placing of protection orders on artillery routes e.g. the M5 passed through Birmingham but could not be developed as the area was built up. “We’re about to have 50,000 new homes in the Black Country and West Midlands. How are we going to deal with extra transport?” Chris Kelley echoed this sentiment, lamenting the proliferation of unnecessary traffic lights throughout the region at great public expense.

Chris Kelly observed that the Metro was losing money due to security issues and vandalism. He also stated that too many dual carriageways had been converted to single carriageways. In addition, there were too many bus lanes. On the latter issue, George Munro felt that the use of bus lanes could have a positive effect but only if they went from park and ride sites which were secure and had proper toilets and catering facilities.

Paul Bennett, a Partner of George Green Ltd., recommended tax breaks for car sharing. However, Chris Grayling noted that this might be hard to measure. Instead, increased car parking may reduce overcrowding on streets.

Mike Ponsonby, Director of Michael J Ponsonby Ltd., informed the meeting that his company had given a presentation to Network Rail on how to increase capacity by extending the platforms at Bromsgrove. A pressure group had been formed and now the scheme had been accepted by the local authority. It was, he said, a blueprint for how the public and business could organise to make an impact on public policy.

Bus priorities

Neil Barker observed that only 5% of the West Midlands had bus priorities. Transport routes need to be better managed and the area needed more park and ride schemes and red routes. He stated that there were a number of barriers to the effective use of bus transportation: (a) it was perceived as expensive - yet the system in the West Midlands was one of the cheapest; (b) buses were unreliable; (c) there was too much congestion; (d) buses were dirty - however, investment had been made in cleaning and litter clearing; (e) buses were seen to be dangerous thanks to low-level anti-social behaviour; and (f) politically, bus priorities had been given low importance.

The business perspective

Chris Kelly reported on a collaboration with George Munro on the development of a transport policy for the Black Country and West Midlands. However, there was little progress due to the attitude of local authorities. Gerry Blackett from the Birmingham Chambers of Commerce & Industry managed to pull 30 organisations together to form the West Midlands Business Transport Group.

Chris Kelly noted that there had been inadequate consultation with the business community on transport policy. Paul Coxhead, Chairman of TTP Ltd., stated: “the fact that business is supporting congestion charging has been blown out of proportion. We are sent out a questionnaire saying, ‘do you think congestion is a problem?’ Of course we said yes. But businesses are not in favour of road pricing as the potential solution!” Chris Kelly provided a further example of such distorted consultation. He pointed to “Gridlock or Growth”, a policy which Centro was responsible for administering. Centro held a number of consultations but the meetings were dominated by quangos. Therefore, when the vote was ultimately taken, the business community was outnumbered in a show of hands and Gridlock or Growth was accepted.

Finally, in terms of planning, Chris Kelly stated that the authorities simply did not understand the business perspective (he gave the example of a new roundabout having been put in, only for the access to be so narrow that lorries kept hitting the curb).

Funding options

Angus Adams stated that the West Midlands have some of the most efficient transport links outside London but 97% of public transport operates without public subsidy.

He noted that funding for highway maintenance had been squeezed from £2,500,000 in 2004/5 to £1,000,000 in 2007/8. The West Midlands needed to look at funding schemes to improve transportation. Of these, the Transport Innovation Fund (“TIF”) was dependent upon the implementation of road pricing (in any event, Manchester had already won a TIF bid which would take a chunk of the available funds). Another option to explore was the TIF Economic Fund. The criteria for applications to this fund is the provision of employment and economic regeneration. Grants are not conditional on the introduction of road pricing or congestion charging. Finally, the local transport plan was also available. However, this entailed targets which were dictated by Central Government.

Chris Grayling considered that select charging projects could be implemented to ensure investment e.g. a pricing scheme for heavy goods vehicles coming into the UK – these were in place elsewhere in Europe and would level the playing field for UK business.

Other options

George Munro stated that cycling and walking should be encourage, that there should be a national standard for cycling lanes. The possibility of staggering school opening times was also discussed. However, Liz Walker, lead member for children’s services, Dudley MBC, replied that congestion around school timings would be reduced if more public transportation was provided in the form of school busses. She also favoured ‘walking busses’ whereby groups of children were walked to school under supervision.

The discussion finished with Chris Grayling thanking the delegates for a very helpful discussion. He noted that the Conservative Party was committed to developing a clear policy on transport so that by the time it would be in office, it would know exactly what action was required.