And then there were four – Major Schemes Development Pool Update

Submitted by Amy Denton on Mon, 19/12/2011 - 09:44

Following on from the major schemes announcement as part of the Autumn Statement, DfT gave initial funding approval to a further 21 schemes from the ‘development pool’ this week.

So let’s just have a look at the total package of schemes from both announcements:

  • The total cost of the schemes is in the region of £1.5 billion, requiring a DfT contribution of £972 million and resulting in an overall local and third party contribution level of 35%;
  • The value for money of the schemes range from 1.98 to 84.5 with a median BCR of 5.17;
  • The modal split of schemes going forward (based on funding) was 49% road schemes, 30% public transport 15% packages and 5% maintenance;
  • Almost two thirds of the public transport funding was on bus based schemes (63% including park and rides) with a third on rail based schemes and the remaining 4% on light rail.

But it wasn’t good news for all the schemes in the development pool – the following schemes were not granted programme entry:

  • Leeds New Generation Transport
  • South Essex Rapid Transit schemes
  • Waverley Link Road
  • Bexhill Hastings Link Road

However the door is still open for these schemes, as they have all been given till 31st March 2012 to submit additional work. And for the Bexhill-Hastings Link road the DfT have pledged to work with the scheme promoter to establish the optimal solution to the issues in that area.

Finally, although North Yorkshire’s scheme for the A684 Bedale Bypass was granted programme entry, this was on the condition of a revised funding offer from DfT.

It could be argued that many of these schemes are now only where they were before the 2010 general election and have incurred 18 months of additional delay and expense to complete the required Expression of Interest and Best and Final Funding Bids. Plus a number of schemes have trimmed off significant elements of the project to achieve cost savings.
But overall the announcements have provided a much needed boost for local authorities and the process certainly had local authorities thinking hard about which elements of their schemes they really want.

The successful authorities will now be working their schemes up to full approval and with 18 of the scheme due to start construction in the coming financial year they will have to act quickly to get the necessary statutory powers, preferred bidder and evaluation plan in place in time for their programme start dates.