Cuts, cuts, cuts
The Department for Transport has given more details of the £309 million worth of cuts being made to local authority grants in the coming months.
At the end of May the DfT said a total of £683 million would be slashed from spending in the current financial year with almost half of it coming from direct payments made to highways authorities. This total is part of the £6.2 billion of in-year savings already announced by the Treasury.
The budgets being cut include:
- Integrated Transport Block – £150 million
- Major projects – £61.4 million
- Capital detrunking – £6.8 million
- Road safety capital and revenue grants – £37.8 million
The Transport Secretary also announced that more than 60 other projects – valued at over £1.5 billion and which had been agreed in principle – are now on hold pending a spending review. (A full list follows below).
Commenting on the news, Professor Stephen Glaister, director of the RAC Foundation, said:
“We are talking about a lot of money out of an already relatively small budget. This does not bode well for motorists or indeed any members of the travelling public. Whilst some departments have been protected from cuts it appears transport will bear the brunt and already difficult journeys are set to become harder as traffic growth is not met by increased infrastructure provision. It is particularly sad that the road safety budget is to be slashed and this is an area where very high returns can be got from minor amounts of expenditure.”
Public inquiries for three Highways Agency schemes have also been shelved:
- A5/M1 link (Dunstable northern bypass)
- A14 Ellington to Fen Ditton improvement
- A21 Tonbridge to Pembury improvement
This is on top of three other Highways Agency schemes which have been postponed indefinitely as part of the initial announcement of the £683 million cuts:
- A453 widening
- A23 Handcross to Warninglid widening
- Phase three of the Birminngham Box scheme on the M6
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Full list of local authority scheme now on hold, pending the comprehensive spending review in the autumn:
Isles of Scilly Link (Cornwall)
Reading Station Highway Improvements (Reading)
Walton Bridge (Surrey)
Bath Transportation Package (Bath & North East Somerset)
A57 Worksop Road- Sheffield Road Impt M1 J31 to Todwick Crossroads (Rotherham)
Heysham-M6 Link Road (Lancashire CC)
Sunderland Strategic Transport Corridor – New Wear Bridge (Sunderland)
Luton Town Centre (Luton)
Loughborough Inner Relief Road (Leicestershire County Council)
Kingskerswell Bypass (Devon County Council)*
Mersey Gateway Bridge (includes TWA Order) (Halton Borough Council)
Bexhill to Hastings Link Road (East Sussex County Council)
Bexhill to Hastings Link Road (East Sussex County Council) (see also statutory orders section above)
East of Exeter improvements (Devon)
Mansfield Public Transport Interchange Scheme (Nottinghamshire)
Rochdale Interchange (GMPTE)
Darlaston (Walsall)
Waverley Link Road (Rotherham)
A6182 White Rose Way Improvement Scheme (Doncaster)
A43 Corby Link Road (Northamptonshire)
A509 Isham Bypass (Northamptonshire)
Sunderland Central Route (Sunderland)
Midland Metro Phase Line 1 impr + City Centre (Centro)
Castleford Town Centre Integrated Transport Scheme (Metro)
Ipswich Fit for the 21st Century (Suffolk)
Nottingham Ring Road (Nottingham)
Cross City Bus (GMPTE)
Taunton Northern Inner Distributor Road (Somerset)
Weston-Super-Mare package (North East Somerset)
Leeds New Generation Transport (Metro)
BRT Ashton Gate to Temple Meads (Bristol)
Norwich Northern Distributor Road (Norfolk)
Watford Junction Interchange (Hertfordshire)
Crewe Green Link Southern Section (Cheshire)
Pennine Reach (East Lancs Rapid Transit) (Blackburn)
Leeds Station Southern Access (Metro)
Access York Phase 1 (York)
Hucknall Town Centre Improvement Scheme (Nottinghamshire)
A1056 Northern Gateway (North Tyneside)
Thornton to Switch Island Link (Sefton)
Camborne-Pool-Redruth Transport Package (Cornwall)
Beverley Integrated Transport Plan (East Riding)
A18-A180 Link (North East Lincolnshire)
A684 Bedale/Aiskew/Leeming Bar Bypass (North Yorkshire)
Croxley Rail Link (Hertfordshire)
South Essex Rapid Transit (SERT) (Essex)
Lincoln Eastern Bypass (Lincolnshire)
Tyne & Wear Bus Corridors Phase 1 (Nexus)
Morpeth Northern Bypass (Northumberland)
Tipner Interchange (Portsmouth)
Northern Bridge (Hampshire)
Kingskerswell By-pass (Devon/Torbay)
A338 Bournemouth Spur Road maintenance (Dorset)
North Fringe to Hengrove Package Bus Rapid Transit (Bristol)
South Bristol Link Phases 1&2 (Bristol)
Elmbridge Transport (Gloucestershire)
Chester Road (Birmingham)
Coventry-Nuneaton Rail Upgrade (formerly NUCKLE) (Warwickshire/Coventry)
A164 Humber Bridge to Beverley (East Riding)
South Yorkshire Bus Rapid Transit Phase 1 (Northern Route) (SYPTE)
A61 Penistone Road Smart Route (including QBC)
Leeds Rail Growth (Metro)
Supertram additional vehicles (SYPTE)