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Contact: Karen Martin, Local Democracy Officer Email: karen.martin2@portsmouthcc.gov.uk; 023 9284 704
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Welcome and Introductions Minutes: Councillor Jordan welcomed those present and introduced the meeting.
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Apologies for Absence Minutes: Councillor Nick Adams-King was represented by Councillor Lulu Bowerman.
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Declarations of Interests Minutes: There were no declarations of interest. |
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Minutes of the previous meeting held on 6 March 2023 RECOMMENDED that the minutes of the meeting held on 6 March 2023 be approved and signed by the Chair as a correct record. Minutes: RESOLVED that the minutes of the meeting held on 6 March 2023 be approved as a correct record.
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Business Plan 2024/25 Purpose of report This report sets out a proposed Draft Business Plan for Solent Transport for the 2024/25 financial year, for the Joint Committee’s ratification. The proposed main priorities for the next year are: 1. Solent Transport Prospectus - Take the agreed wider strategy and look to move it forward, gaining recognition, wider support, agreement with TfSE and national government. Lobbying to obtain funding to support the partnership and area goals. Developing the action plan shared across the four Member LTAs which will also help define the future focus of Solent Transport’s activities. 2. Solent Rail Connectivity SOBC - Further work (with Network Rail) to develop the Solent Rail Connectivity proposals: Building a business plan and a roadmap looking to make the study a reality. This will include lobbying national government, promoting the schemes, and working with the four partner LTAs with a view of obtaining match funding to make the proposition more attractive to national government. 3. Solent Go – Portsmouth City Council have agreed to fund the SolentGo ITSO card operation for a further year to fit in with their BSIP delivery. Solent Transport will seek to deliver SolentGo products on the Breeze app and develop new products with SHOBA and the transport operators. 4. SRTM maintenance and management – Consider the Transport for the South East (TfSE) and Hampshire County Council studies on modelling that will report in April. Provide options regarding future modelling needs, which could include procurement of an upgrade of the Sub Regional Transport Model (SRTM) or a transition to an alternative. 5. FTZ delivery - to continue the successful delivery of Solent Transport Partnership’s Future Transport Zone (FTZ) programme. This will focus on the final delivery and monitoring stages and start to look at which elements can be sustainably continued or obtaining funding that could extend all or part of the programme and develop an exit strategy for Solent Transport and the LTA partners, should this not be successful.
Solent Transport Partnership Changes - This is an emerging issue and is not reflected within this business plan. Time may need to be agreed on the management and transfer of the Solent Transport and its assets depending on the outcome.
RECOMMENDED that the Joint Committee agree the Draft Business Plan and ask the member authorities to take it through their local approval processes.
Minutes: Conrad Haigh, Solent Transport Manager, introduced the report and highlighted key points. The Business Plan was half-way through the year which was unfortunate timing. He hoped the Joint Committee would agree the Solent Transport Prospectus in order to facilitate progress. Solent Rail Connectivity had received funding partially from the LTAs (Local Transport Authority) and partially from a bid won from Transport for the South East (TfSE) to improve the Netley and Botley lines. The funding was enough to create an outline business case, from which Solent Transport will then make a case for delivery. Solent Go's ITSO card was kindly funded by Portsmouth City Council and it was hoped the Breeze, MaaS app, (Mobility as a Service) platform, would take over the role of ITSO. Solent Transport have custodianship of the Sub-Regional Transport Model (SRTM) and would provide regular updates; it was working on a proposal for the future of the model. Solent Transport's Future Transport Zone (FTZ) programme comprised several pieces of work. However, this Business Plan did not take account of emerging issues arising from possible changes to the structure of Solent Transport, as these are still in discussion.
In response to questions, Mr Haigh explained that with regard to rail connectivity Solent Transport was now trying to build an outline business case so as to put a case with Network Rail to the Department for Transport. In brief, the aim was to have four trains per hour in mainline stations which might entail infrastructure that might not be affordable, rather than just the infrastructure route, so the business case will look at the most affordable way to achieve this. The aim was to get a proposal that the government could potentially fund so officers will look to the Joint Committee to help them with lobbying at a later point. He noted that rail investment was not easy and can take a long time. Councillor Keogh said the proposal was an excellent piece of work and showed the importance of such projects. Rail was an important opportunity to encourage people not to use cars.
With answer to a question regarding staffing in the FTZ, Mr Haigh said that when the programme was designed staffing had been taken into account and any redundancies would be made without further costs to the LTAs. He confirmed there were strong links to TfSE, who would normally attend Solent Transport meetings, and had passed on their apologies for today.
RESOLVED that the Joint Committee AGREED the Draft Business Plan and asked the member authorities to take it through their local approval processes.
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Solent Transport Financial Update Purpose This report presents the Solent Transport
outturn position for 2023-24, the proposed revenue budget for
2024/25 based on current local authority contributions, and details
how these affect the reserves.
RECOMMENDED that the Joint Committee: 1. Notes the outturn for the 2023/24 revenue budget 2. Notes the balance in reserves for 2023/24 3. Approves the proposed revenue budget for 2024/25 4. Notes the position of the Future Transport Zone 5. Approves the Future Transport Zone funding reprofile Minutes: Dominic McGrath, Strategic Transport Manager, introduced the report on behalf of finance colleagues. The budget was very similar to previous ones. Mr Haigh said Solent Transport found itself in quite a good financial situation. It had been even more efficient and contributed to the reserves as previous requested by Joint Committee. There was about £1m in the bank including the SRTM reserve.
Councillor Jordan noted that most projects were on or under budget and seemed prudently managed. This type of news was infrequent on other projects so he urged Solent Transport to keep up the good work.
Mr Haigh said the FTZ had £28.9m of government funding across six years, subject to approval later on in the meeting of a six month extension. Solent Transport had been quite successful in getting grants in 2023/2024, for example TfSE provided £102k funding for the SRTM updates and studies, and £50k for a rail connectivity study this year. The budget had been re-profiled to account for the six-month extension to the FTZ, a later item in this meeting.
RESOLVED that the Joint Committee: 1. NOTED the outturn for the 2023/24 revenue budget 2. NOTED the balance in reserves for 2023/24 3. APPROVED the proposed revenue budget for 2024/25 4. NOTED the position of the Future Transport Zone 5. APPROVED the Future Transport Zone funding reprofile
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Hampshire County Council withdrawal from Solent Transport Purpose To outline the financial outcomes of HCC withdrawing from the Solent Transport partnership by 31 March 2025, and the forecast position of the reserves detailing how the balances could be disaggregated.
RECOMMENDED that the Joint Committee:
1. Notes the projected balance of the Solent transport operating budget at the closedown/transition point on 31 March 2025 when HCC withdraws from Solent Transport. 2. Notes the first call on reserves will be to pay for closedown/ transition costs and other liabilities. 3. Notes the balance of the SRTM reserve is held by HCC and will be retained by HCC until such time as an alternate management arrangement for the model is agreed. 4. Notes that in the situation that HCC manage the model post 31 March 2025, that HCC will cover its costs of doing so on a no better no worse off basis. Minutes: Dominic McGrath, Strategic Transport Manager, introduced the report on behalf of finance colleagues. In the light of Hampshire County Council's departure from Solent Transport it was appropriate to set out a baseline although it was not possible to say exactly what this was as it depended on discussions and what it might look like at the point of departure.
Councillor Jordan was having positive discussions with other council leaders but these had not yet arrived at a place where all were comfortable. These discussions, together with those about the LEP (Local Enterprise Partnership), led into discussions about devolution of power in the region. The Isle of Wight, Portsmouth and Southampton were trying to find ways to continue but the perfect solution had not yet been reached. Councillor Keogh agreed with the report, in that there were a number of issues to be addressed. The situation was moving quite quickly and it was important the Solent Transport Joint Committee noted there was a lot more work officers could be doing behind the scenes. There could be a future role for the Joint Committee with Hampshire playing a part. Councillor Candlish echoed these remarks as it made sense to continue the discussions as they had not yet arrived at a destination.
RESOLVED that the Joint Committee: 1. NOTED the projected balance of the Solent transport operating budget at the closedown/transition point on 31 March 2025 when HCC withdraws from Solent Transport. 2. NOTED the first call on reserves will be to pay for closedown/ transition costs and other liabilities. 3. NOTED the balance of the SRTM reserve is held by HCC and will be retained by HCC until such time as an alternate management arrangement for the model is agreed. 4. NOTED that in the situation that HCC manage the model post 31 March 2025, that HCC will cover its costs of doing so on a no better no worse off basis.
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Solent Transport Prospectus Purpose of report The present year has seen delivery of the Solent Transport Prospectus, with assistance from Portsmouth City Council. This is an important sub-regional document which consolidates the national, regional and local transport plans (published by the LTAs) in one document. It presents a shared vision and approach for transport improvements in the Solent region over the next 20-30 years.
RECOMMENDED that the Joint Committee considers and endorses the document, with a recommendation that partner LTAs take the document through their individual authorities for ratification and approval.
Additional documents: Minutes: Richard Adams, Principal Transport Planner, introduced the report, which represented a significant amount of work done by the working group. The Prospectus was a good, attractive document and he thanked Felicity Tidbury, Assistant Director of Transport at Portsmouth, and her team for their assistance in its design and presentation. It built on the strategies of each of the LTAs and the schemes are included in Transport for the South East's Strategic Investment Plan work and it is important as it presents a unified view at regional and local levels.
Councillor Bowerman echoed these comments and thanked Solent Transport, Ms Tidbury and everyone involved. She completely agreed with the comments on devolution. It was also important to involve PfSH (Planning for South Hampshire) to "join the dots" in view of the development expected, for example, at Junction 10 and Welborne. Mr Haigh commented that he had met PfSH a couple of weeks ago and was discussing closer working with them in a mutually beneficial way. PfSH has a memorandum on land use, so connections were already there. Solent Transport also had close connections with the University of Southampton. Councillor Jordan said the University of Southampton had met on devolution and devolved powers and the Isle of Wight was absolutely committed to joined-up thinking. As an island, connectivity was one of its most important issues and it would continue to work to improve it. It was committed to a potential journey towards devolved powers and was asking for ambitious powers as it did not want to be turned down for being unambitious.
RESOLVED that the Joint Committee CONSIDERED and ENDORSED the document, with a recommendation that partner LTAs take the document through their individual authorities for ratification and approval.
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FTZ Report and Extension Reprofile Purpose To detail the proposal for requesting an extension to the FTZ programme of an additional six months to end Dec 2025.
RECOMMENDED that the Solent Transport Joint Committee: 1. Accepts the agreement from DfT (ratified by SMB on 04/09/2024) for a further six-month extension to the FTZ programme to end Dec 2025. 2. Accepts the SMB approved funding reprofile to accommodate the six-month programme extension.
Additional documents: Minutes: Tim Forrester, Future Transport Zone Programme Manager, introduced the report and noted some key highlights:
· The Breeze app now had over 35,000 users, and dynamic QR codes are in development which will reduce the risk of potential fraud thereby encouraging bus operators to put more tickets in the system. As far as we are aware, Solent Transport had the biggest MaaS platform in the UK and Nottingham and Derby had followed by purchasing the same platform, though are not yet operating. Breeze had new integration and functionality in production. Some other models of MaaS had closed as they were not viable, leaving Breeze as the only operating MaaS app in the UK; this supported the approach Solent Transport had taken in developing the app. · Dynamic Demand Responsive Transport would hopefully have 35 new vehicles, after it expands into Hampshire. · Micro-mobility - e-scooters and e-bikes were now both under Voi's auspices. August was the busiest ever month for usage which validated the decision to use one operator. Voi was a responsive company. As a result of building on user feedback, some areas had 24-hour operation and 16-year-olds could use them if they had a moped licence (permissible at age 16). · Using drones for medical logistics has strongly progressed with stakeholders like the Civil Aviation Authority with Solent Transport at the core of decision making. It was working with the University of Southampton to develop gust-proof drones that functioned in the Solent's unique environment. The West of England Forum had asked if they could model Solent Transport's approach for their drones. · Mobility credits were unbelievably exciting. A six-month survey had recently been conducted in Havant with an 80% response rate. Early findings were positive and showed that credits helped people find employment. Last Friday additional trials were agreed with the Micro-mobility board in conjunction with the Trussell Trust and food banks. Hopefully it would cover 600 additional credit participants.
Councillor Keogh asked Solent Transport to continue the good work. He was impressed with the move to a single operator for e-scooters and e-bikes; the transition was almost seamless. The take-up was not huge under the previous operator. Enabling 16-year-olds to use them helped with access to education and employment and 24-hour operation helped women feel safer travelling at night. With a significant amount of people not in work mobility credits helped prevent transport being a key barrier to work. The more Breeze was pressed home with the bus operators the better it was for the customer, as having one app was innovative and feedback from users showed this was preferential. Drones could enable hospitals to send items back and forth. Solent Transport should tell the government that now the e-scooter trial had proved the case they should be made permanent although they would need regulation, enforcement and education. As with other vehicles, some users were the problem. Officers said there now seemed to be a move towards legislation on e-scooters but it could take some time.
Councillor Candlish said Portsmouth faced many ... view the full minutes text for item 9. |
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Any other business Minutes: Mr Forrester and Mr Haigh asked if members thought the amount of information they received was sufficient and if they wanted it in different formats, for example, a short monthly summary. Councillor Candlish thought the quality and quantity was sufficient. He liked charts and trends and asked if there were any "quick and easy" statistics. Officers said they could create key statistics and infographics.
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Date of next meeting Minutes: The Joint Committee requested the next meeting to be held in the first two weeks of February 2025 or as close to this as was possible. The following dates and times were suggested (all in the Council Chamber, Guildhall, Portsmouth):
· Tuesday 4 February at either 10 am or 2 pm · Thursday 13 February at 10 am
Those present noted that the Terms of Reference would need to change to accommodate Hampshire's departure from Solent Transport. All four authorities would need to agree them.
The meeting concluded at 3.12 pm.
Post-meeting note: the dates above turned out to be unsuitable and it was subsequently agreed to hold the next meeting at 2 pm on Tuesday 11 March 2025 in the Council Chamber, Guildhall, Portsmouth.
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