Cornwall LTP1 Delivery Report - July 2006

Travel to School Strategy was originally a series of programmes committing to implement:

• 22 Safer Routes Surveys a year (LTP 1, Table 10) revised downward after year one, to 15
• Increase Walk to School Week participation by 90% (baseline 2000)

To encourage all new and expanding schools to implement a School Travel Plan (Table 13 of LTP1)

110 Safer Routes Projects have been implemented - 89% of target, even though strategy was amended as the Travelling to School Initiative (TTSI) was introduced.

124 approved School Travel plans have been developed and implemented compared with the 119 planned. This equates to 46% of all schools and puts us slightly ahead of  the trajectory for all schools to have a STP by 2010.

170 schools taking part in Walk to School Week  - up by  150% on the 2001 baseline. We have used Walk to School Week as a key tool for raising the profile of sustainability issues in schools. Over the course of the LTP1, the number of schools taking part has risen from 67 to  170 (62% of all schools) and has become an established part of the school calendar. This, coupled with our yearly Travel Awareness Award event at County Hall, raises awareness amongst schools and the community at large. The data gathered also enables the potential for modal shift to be gauged.

All schools with a travel plan supply us with survey results in January and during their Walk to School weeks. From this, we have been able to monitor progress and use this information to shape our future strategy.

Based on this data, we have seen some good successes at individual schools e.g. walking up from 34% to 55% (Alverton) and 63% to 73% (Penryn); cycling up from 2.6% to 6.4% at Newquay Tretherras and from 3.7%  to 6.3%  at Newquay Junior School. Other schools have shown varying degrees of progress or, in some cases, sustainable travel has declined. In terms of our  50 Principal Schools – these are schools in the main urban areas and have 44% of all pupils in Cornwall – results from January 2006 show 58.5% of pupils travel to school by sustainable means compared with 58.9% in 2005, but we expect to see a slight  increase in this figure in our May 2006 surveys. This method of data collection has only been available to us for the last year.

Whilst good infrastructure is very important, increases in sustainable travel have often been achieved with minimal infrastructure improvement. This has underlined to us the importance of school champions, be they head teachers, teachers, governors, parents or pupil groups. This is why we have attached so much importance to recognising and rewarding success either through our TA Awards or through our 'Word on the Street' newsletter.

In 2003, we were pleased to work closely with the Health and Safety Executive to show them our approach to transport risks outside schools and, from that, go on to work with the Cornwall Health Promotion team to develop a new resource for schools - TASK - which they could use to compile their own travel plans, and make the link with risk assessments. The document was commended by HSE and featured at a national conference.

At the start of LTP1, The Safer Routes to School programme (SRTS) provided the foundation for encouraging safe, sustainable travel to school in Cornwall. Over the course of LTP1 and with the advent of the Travelling to School Initiative in 2003, the emphasis changed towards School Travel Plan  implementation (STP).

However SRTS has provide a solid bedrock on which to build and allowed us to set a target of all schools with travel plans by 2010 with confidence.

At the start of the LTP1 process, School Travel Plans were seen as the natural follow-on to the Safer Routes to School Projects (SRTS). Because of the relatively low numbers, at first, schools were offered a high level of assistance either individually or in clusters e.g. as in Falmouth.

The introduction of the Travelling to School Initiative (TTSI) in 2003 caused us to re-examine our forward strategy.

In the early stages of the TTSI, the data collection and analysis carried out as part of SRTS provided an excellent starting point for a STP.  However, as the scheme  rolled out and many schools had not taken part in a SRTS project, we adopted a different approach. Schools were offered initial help and  guidance by one of our School Travel Plan team and given copies of  our  ‘Travel Awareness School Kit’ (TASK) and ‘TTSI Guidance’ resources.  As a result, plans are produced predominantly by them, but with help from us as requested. This approach has resulted in more ownership by  individual schools and a more customised Travel Plan.

As we have improved and refined our data collection process, we have moved gradually to a more outcome governed approach (modal shift). This has caused us to focus on schools in the urban areas with the most potential for increased levels of walking and cycling whilst still offering a level of support for all schools with STP’s.

We have increased our team from two to five School Travel Plan Officers promoting STP’s, two of whom are funded through the DfT Bursary.

In addition to TTSI capital funding, we worked with our Education Directorate to provide a small fund which we used to enhance projects at schools that were keen to promote walking and cycling.  This is used for on-site improvements to link in with work carried out on the highway with Safer Routes funding. Although only a relatively small amount of money (£30,000 p.a.), this fund has often proved invaluable in 'kick starting' school projects and supplementing TTSI capital grants.

Travel Awareness Strategy (Section 7.3.11.1 of LTP1)

Strategy broadly implemented with positive outcomes.

Travel Awareness Strategy consisted of the following key components:

Promotion of  alternatives

• TA1 Support the co-ordination and adoption of travel plans by internal and external departments and organisations.

• TA2  Develop the format for Travel plans [for itself and others]

We have  promoted real alternatives such as carsharecornwall.com, which now has over 1,300 registered members and a 35% journey match..

On key public transport corridors, we have promoted special initiatives such as the Individualised Marketing Initiative along the Truro Highertown corridor (see Bus Information and Marketing - Section 7.1 of LTP1). This personalised travel planning scheme canvassed over 1,000 households and employers and subsequently involved  164 people. Meaningful reductions in car use were noted over the 12 month period and valuable lessons were learnt for any future schemes.

In terms of employer travel plans, we committed to taking a lead and introduced our corporate travel plan in October 2002 following extensive consultation with staff and other stakeholders. Targets on business mileage, parking and site specific travel plans were set.

1. Although we have not secured an overall decrease in business mileage, the rate of increase has been slowed and initiatives have been introduced which reduce travel. A good example of this is videoconferencing, which is saving the authority around 30,000 miles a year in travel and saving hundreds of hours of travel time.

2. We have met our targets for site specific travel plans, the four largest offices have them and;

3. We reduced car use at one of thse (Threemilestone) by up to 20% through the introduction of a variety of Travel Plan measures.

Our site specific Travel Plans for County Hall and other large offices have served as useful templates for other employers, as have the wide variety of measures introduced, including: car-share promotion; public transport ‘taster’ offers; improved cycle and shower facilities; pool cars; electric bicycles; improved public transport information, free taxi for car-sharers, and new home-working policy.

We understood from the outset that the Travel Awareness strategy could not move faster than local circumstances and public opinion would allow. We also knew that we had to put our own (County Council) house in order if we were to have some credibility when advising others. The tactic of developing and promoting specific initiatives such as carsharecornwall has served us well because it promotes an alternative even where public transport is sparse. The growth and regeneration that Cornwall has experienced over the last five years, though welcome, has led to areas of increased congestion and pollution. Local people can see this for themselves so the Travel Awareness message has begun to have much more relevance than it did previously.

The site specific travel plans we have developed ourselves, and their attendant measures and  initiatives, have proved invaluable when talking with other large employers because we can talk about things we have tried and which we have proved work.

Though we did not fundamentally change our strategy during the course of the year, we did decide not to attach a general branded approach to our Travel Awareness marketing. We see this changing over LTP 2 and will make much more use of the Travelwise logo and are also  considering developing a local twist to this along the lines of ‘keeping Cornwall special’.

At the start of LTP1, Travel Plans were few and far between in Cornwall. However, as Planning Policy Guidance Note 13 has taken effect, the number and quality of them has risen.

Several major sites now have Travel Plans, including the Eden Project; Royal Cornwall Hospital, Combined University Cornwall, and our own County Hall. We have worked closely with these and other employers to assist them in developing and implementing their Plans. Royal Cornwall Hospital has introduced car park charges for staff and operates the largest’ Liftshare’ hospital private group in the country (initially funded by CCC).

Over the five years of LTP1, 42 Travel Plans have been implemented across the range of employers, district authorities, hospitals, higher education establishments and others.  

Again, our approach on Employer Travel Plans has been modified only in the sense that we have increased the level of activity commensurate with the rise in the number of Travel plans being developed. We increased the number of staff working directly on this work to two in 2004 and have improved our internal  links between Transport Policy, Development Control and the Travel Plan team.  In addition, we now work much more closely with District Council Planning Departments on Travel Plans.