Hi Mark,

Most LA spending on transport is funded by a grant from Central Government. This is doled out in a settlement letter which is written annually in Dec by the relevant Government Office to the LA. The settlement is decided on based on the LTP and the Annual Progress Reports submitted by the LA. There is a lot of information about the process on the DfT website.

The settlement consists of money for major schemes (those costing over £5M) and a block allocation which is maintenance plus integrated transport allocation (which has to pay for all items of transport capital expenditure apart from major schemes). Normally expenditure for cycling comes out this integrated transport allocation (and so does almost everything else) and the LA can spend it how it likes, but the DfT and GO expects it to be spent "in line with the objectives and strategies contained in your LTP".

The most recent BANES settlement letter is on the GOSW website - it was reported in Local Transport Today as "one of the less impressive submissions that GOSW received". 

I tried to attach it but my mail bounced, the most relevant section is probably this:

"Details for your authority

Your total block allocation is £5.130m for 2005/06.  This covers all items of transport capital expenditure apart from major schemes.  The total figure includes £2.738m for maintenance.  It means that the Government has, each year, honoured its commitment to provide local transport authorities with at least the five year indicative allocations announced in 2000.  Your indicative maintenance allocation for 2006/07 is £2.580m.  

Your total indicative integrated transport allocation for the full five-year LTP period was £11.790m.  However, the addition of supplementary bids and reward funding has meant that your authority has been allocated an extra £0.530m.  

Your integrated transport and maintenance block funding will be allocated as non-ringfenced SCE(R).  You will therefore be able to spend it in accordance with your local priorities, although we would expect such spending to be in line with the objectives and strategies contained in your LTP."

My calculations give the BANES integrated transport allocation (for 2005/6) as £2.392M.

I hope this is useful

Matthew

Matthew Page
Lecturer
Institute for Transport Studies
University of Leeds
Leeds, LS2 9JT
tel:   0113 343 1789
email: [log in to unmask] 
 

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Cycling and Society Research Group discussion list 
> [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Mark 
> McGuinness
> Sent: 12 May 2005 10:41
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Urgent - HELP re Integrated Transport Budget
> 
> Dear All
> 
> I'm hoping one of you lovely people out there will know the 
> answer to this off the top of your heads - it's all a bit of 
> a rush however....
> 
> I'm involved in a local cycle pressure group, we have a 
> 'secret' publicity stunt/event tonight (fortuitously 
> coinciding with a full meeting of Bath & NES council) aimed 
> at exposing the council's petty expenditure on cycling (23K 
> last year on the figures we have). Bath is a UA.
> 
> We have the local press and regional TV coming to record what 
> we're going to do. Only problem is, we obviously have a 
> KGB-style mole in our camp as the Council have caught wind of 
> our stunt and - in a dirty, pre-emptive strike - have stolen 
> our thunder and sent out a press release this morning 
> rebutting the claims (that we havent made yet!), stating that 
> in fact they spend 8% of the council's "Annual Integrated 
> Transport Budget" on cycling, which to the lay ear probably 
> sounds quite reasonable, especially as cycling accounts for 
> between 4 and 6% of trips in Bath city centre. The councillor 
> responsible is extremely pro-car and indifferent (at best) to 
> bicycles.
> 
> We're going to go ahead anyway, but the press and BBC are 
> bound to want to ask us about this 'fact'. Can anyone out 
> there tell me, briefly, what this budget is all about? It 
> sounds like it's a separate budget from the mainstream 
> transport allocation? if 23K is 8% then the overall budget is 
> around 280K. You couldn't build a single proper road junction 
> with ASLs and signage for 280K could you?! Am I right in 
> thinking that this a separate pot of money specifically for 
> IT projects, and not to be seen as THE pot of money for 
> cycling related provision. Could we legitimately say, "that's 
> very nice of you, but what about allocation from the 'proper' 
> transport budget"
> (where the real money is) without looking hopelessly ill-informed?
> 
> Any help gratefully received - wish us luck for tonight!
> 
> Cheers
> 
> Mark
> 
>