Agenda item

This paper is to brief the Local Committee Members on the Epsom Banstead Sustainable Transport Package (STP). The scheme is currently being developed into a business case for submission to the Coast to Capital (C2C) Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) in a bid for funding from the Local Growth Award. The bid submission date is expected at the end of September 2016, although a firm date is still to be confirmed by the LEP.

Declarations of Interest: None

Officers attending: Neil McClure, Project Manager, Transport Policy

Petitions, Public Questions, Statements: None

Member Discussion – key points:

Neil briefed Members on progress to date. The public consultation was carried out between 27 June and 14 August. Five hundred and four questionnaires were completed and email responses were also received from a number of organisations including Residents Associations, Highways England and Natural England.  An analysis of the consultation was included in the report. In general there was positive overall support for the proposed schemes. The proposed new crossing on the A217 was supported by a petition which was presented to the Local Committee (R&B) on 7 March 2016. The public had identified Real Time Information as a key measure that would encourage them to start using a bus or use a bus more often. (Members noted that the real time passenger information (RTPI) at Redhill station was now functioning correctly. Free wifi on board buses was a less popular measure, although still considered attractive by the public for encouraging greater bus usage. 

Neil stated that the business case funding bid was due to be submitted this autumn but the exact date had not yet been confirmed by the LEP. It was noted that it was a scalable scheme and final costs would not be known until designs had been finalised. On current timescales, construction was expected to commence in the first quarter 2017 and be completed 2018/19.

Members thanked Neil and his team for their support. 

The Local Committee (Reigate and Banstead) NOTED the:

(i)  project progress to date;

(ii) results of the high level analysis of the public engagement on the proposed

     Schemes (Annex 1 to the report).