Strategic Initiatives

Community Transport Strategic Review

Background
The provision of good quality community transport services is a key feature of the Trust's Access to Transport programme. It is a valuable means of providing safe, affordable and accessible transport to disabled people or anyone with a mobility problem who is unable to use mainstream public transport services. 

In January 2004 the Trust awarded a grant of £30,000 to commission the Community Transport Association (CTA) to conduct a review of the way in which community transport services are structured and funded within Greater London and to make recommendations as to the changes that might be necessary to bring about a more sustainable long-term future.

The review
All  24 community transport schemes in Greater London and other interested parties participated in the review and a great deal of information was gathered. A picture emerged of a wide variety of schemes across the capital with differing funding requirements. The disparity between the schemes led to the conclusion that there was no ready solution that would move all the schemes individually towards a long-term sustainable financial future.

The solution therefore appeared to lie at a more strategic London-wide level:

• reviewing the the role that the CTA could play in supporting local schemes to engage better with statutory funders;
• strengthening the co-ordination and communication between schemes across London;
• improving the level of standards required for individual schemes to increase the quality and quantity of service available.

The future
The review identified two key strategic issues that need to be addressed for a successful future:

• to ensure that community transport is recognised by the statutory services - Transport for London (TfL) - as a principal constituent part of the overall transport provision within the capital;
• to ensure that community transport is included as part of the integral provision within each London borough's Local Transport Plan and funded accordingly.

The report recommends that the CTA appoint a London region strategic director to negotiate with the policy makers at TfL and in the local authorities and to develop better strategic communications across community transport schemes in London.

In June 2005 the Trust awarded the CTA an additional strategic initiatives grant of £35,000 to help maintain the momentum created by this review during the time it would take to recruit the strategic director. This funding would be used to draw up a CTA London business plan, start work on an operator's forum, maintain channels of communication already opened with TfL and the boroughs and to recruit the strategic director. A further grant of £175,000, over three years, was approved in July 2006 under the Access to Transport programme as a contribution towards the budget for operating the strategic director post.