Better Transport

You need to know who holds the power and who makes decisions. In this case:

• Regional assemblies
• Regional development authorities
• Local authorities and county councils
• The Government

Regional assemblies
The regional assembly is made up of county councillors from the region, plus representatives from a variety of bodies including environmental ones. Your local authority will have a representative on the regional assembly, and there will probably be other people there with an interest in sustainable transport or the environment. These people can be valuable allies.

Your regional assembly will also have a regional transport board that has a key role in advising the regional assembly on transport matters. The board is made up of assembly members plus representatives from the regional development agency, the Government Office and the Highways Agency, among others. Members of the public can observe – but not participate in - regular regional transport board meetings.

RAs are working from a Regional Spatial Strategy, and will prioritise schemes which have been accepted into the RSS. You can find the RSS on the region’s website.

In the North West, the regional assembly has been replaced by a Leaders’ Forum, a slimmed-down regional assembly. In time, all regions will have a Leaders’ Forum.
 
Regional development agencies
Regional development agencies are made up of heads of business tasked with increasing economic growth in the region. Regional development agencies can be notoriously difficult to influence because they are unelected and cannot be held accountable by the electorate. Of the two decision-making bodies, the regional development agencies are more likely to be wedded to road building.

Local authorities and county councils
Each county council will put together a list of its favourite schemes for the region and try to get them into the final list the region submits to the Government.

Local authorities have already made lists of schemes they think are important. They have set out their priorities in their local transport plans for 2006-11. It’s likely that schemes which are included in these plans will be prioritised by local authorities and the Department for Transport for RFA funding.

Each local authority has an elected executive member that has responsibility for transport as well as having a number of local authority staff as officers in the local transport department.

Local authorities have signed up to a number of commitments under their Local Area Agreement that may see them looking towards reducing CO2 from transport. As the regions have been asked by government to take into account the national commitments to reducing CO2 emissions from transport the Local Area Agreements (LAAs) are key for setting priorities.

Most local authorities also have a Local Strategic Partnership. The LSP brings together private and business sector representatives together with community and voluntary sector representatives to provide a single overarching local co-ordination framework that assists the implementation of LAAs.

The Government
The ultimate decision to proceed with a transport scheme is taken by the Secretary of State for Transport. The Secretary of State has three Ministers of State who are also involved in decision making. The ministers are advised in their decision making by civil servants in the department.

We've collected together documents on the RFA from each of the regional decision makers, as well as priority lists and useful contacts.

Get some support to help with your campaigning