2.2 Participation and Community Engagement

Our LTP partnership continues to pursue strong relationships with a wide variety of stakeholder organisations. There are active working arrangements with agencies such as NWDA, Primary Care Trusts, Learning and Skills Council, local schools and Universities. Lancashire also believes in extensive engagement with our Local Strategic Partnerships, and transport priorities identified in their current plans have been built into this LTP2. The key agencies will have an important role to play in developing Access Plans in partnership with us.

Further engagement has taken place with all our District, Parish and Town Councils. We have undertaken consultation with people who represent the range of social groups, including community groups, Women’s Forums and people who have learning difficulties.

2.2.1 Our North West Partnerships

Lancashire works with the Government Office North West to contribute to the aims and national targets set by the Government. We will work to to improve the health and prosperity of the North West through the proposals of The Northern Way and the growth strategies for the City Regions. We will play our part in delivering the Regional Spatial and Economic Strategies, working with the North West Development Agency. Where we identify common problems, we will work with our neighbouring authorities to resolve them.

Lancashire County Council maintains particularly close relations with Blackpool and Blackburn with Darwen Borough Councils. We worked in partnership to prepare the Joint Lancashire Structure Plan and First Detailed Proposals for the Central Lancashire City Region component of the Regional Spatial Strategy.  Acting as the lead authority, we also coordinated the preparation of the joint Lancashire Rights of Way Improvement Plan. With the participation of public rights of way users, countryside visitors and the Local Access Forum we critically examined the opportunities available to the public to access the countryside. Through contact with specialist groups and a wider consultation exercise, we reflected the diversity of Lancashire's residents. The participation of these varied groups enabled us to publish a plan in 2005 which improves access to the countryside for people of all abilities and backgrounds.

Through the Lancashire Partnership for Road Safety, the three authorities work with the Lancashire Constabulary to bring the advantages of wider partnership to road safety. Road casualties are reduced through promotion of the wearing of seat belts, enforcement of speed limits and campaigns against drink driving across all three authority areas. The Partnership will seek opportunities to make further reductions in road casualties through new initiatives.

We also work closely together on crime and disorder reduction through the Strategic Crime Reduction Board for Chief Officers, the Group for Chairs of Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnerships and each local Community Safety Partnership. We maintain a joint Safer Lancashire website giving details of all the individual partnerships and we collect data centrally through MADE, the Multi-Agency Data Exchange.

We are keen to maintain crossborder links and take forward proposals that can be applied in other authorities. The NoWcard is a smart card for use on buses developed jointly by Lancashire and Cumbria County Councils, the Unitary Authorities of Blackpool and Blackburn with Darwen and all the District Councils. The initial application for concessionary travel will be extended to multi-operator journeys and multi-journey ticketing. The card will be given further uses in transportation and in wider fields where it can make a contribution to the five strands of local e-government; transactions, access channels, enablers, e-business and organisational development. We support the development of ITSO compliant schemes across the North West.

In many cases public transport services operate on crossborder routes. Lancashire County Council has successfully worked in partnership with its neighbours on routes serving major conurbations. Direct bus services from East Lancashire to Manchester have suffered delay at the M66/M60 Junction and we have discussed bus priority measures there with the Highways Agency. Lancashire County Council and Blackpool Borough Council have submitted a joint application to DfT for a major scheme to upgrade the Blackpool-Fleetwood tramway as the Fylde Coast Rapid Transit. We are working with Blackburn with Darwen Council to develop a major scheme bid for the East Lancashire Rapid Transit to help in the regeneration of East Lancashire and have co-operated closely in the development of proposals to enhance the Clitheroe-Blackburn-Bolton rail corridor . We are studying improved crossborder links with North Yorkshire County Council.

We have formed Quality Bus Partnerships with Blackpool and Blackburn with Darwen, and will form more to develop routes into Greater Manchester and Merseyside. Rural links are important too and, in partnership with the health sector and the Countryside Agency, we have established crossborder bus services. These improve access to services in general and healthcare in particular, with links to hospitals and clinics in Sefton, Blackpool, North Yorkshire and Bradford.

We will work with Merseytravel to study the case for extending the Merseyrail Electrics rail network and will also study possible improvements to the transport hub of Liverpool South Parkway and to John Lennon Airport. We will work closely with our neighbours to establish effective Community Rail Partnerships on crossborder routes. These include the Kirkby-Wigan line, the Wigan-Southport line, the South Fylde line from Kirkham to Blackpool and the Leeds-Lancaster-Morecambe line.

The Mary Towneley Loop was the first section of the Pennine Bridleway National Trail to be completed. Acting in partnership with Calderdale MBC and Rochdale MBC, Lancashire was the lead authority in its design and construction and produced the Pennine Bridleway Design Guide to assist authorities working on other sections.

Three exceptional areas of countryside straddle the Lancashire border and Lancashire County Council works alongside the neighbouring authorities to manage their environment, recreation, tourism and transport. The greater part of the Arnside and Silverdale AONB lies in Cumbria and we are active on the Executive Committee which drew up the Management Plan for 2004-2009. The Forest of Bowland AONB lies principally in Lancashire with a small part in North Yorkshire. Lancashire County Council acts as the lead authority on the Joint Advisory Committee and we have guided the preparation of the Management Plan 2004-2009 Achieving Aspirations Through Partnership. This addresses the Natural and Cultural Environment, Social Equity, Economic Opportunity and Enjoyment of the AONB. The West Pennine Moors form part of the Southern Pennines Countryside Character Area, taking in parts of Lancashire, Blackburn with Darwen and Bolton. On behalf of the Management Committee, Lancashire has drawn up the Bridleways Strategy for 2006-2013 which will provide further opportunities for exercise and tourism through horse riding, off-road cycling and walking, including some challenging upland routes.

2.2.2 Our Lancashire Partnerships

We work closely with service providers to integrate our resources to deliver services effectively. Our partners include the NWDA, Police, NHS Primary Care and Hospital Trusts, JobCentre Plus and train and bus operators. The participation of service users is important too. The Safer Tavel Unit provides a valuable link with passengers on public transport and we have established a Cycling Liaison Group and a Local Access Forum for cyclists and walkers respectively. Mobility groups, particularly Galloway's Society for the Blind, participated in the development of the Code of Practice on Mobility. In future, we will invite the groups to participate in a permanent Mobility Forum. We also maintain regular links with a range of special interest groups as diverse as the Campaign to Protect Rural England, the Ormskirk, Preston and Southport Travellers Association and the Youth Council.

Cross-cutting themes have been identified in the delivery of services for Children and Young People, Adult and Community Services, Environment and Resources. From these, programmes have been drawn up to achieve the broad Corporate Objectives in a more effective way. Greater accessibility is a common need and the preparation of the Accessibility Strategy will allow the delivery of services to be improved even further. Within the Lancashire Local Area Agreement, programmes will be integrated to contribute to the four blocks of Safer and Stronger Communities, Healthier Communities and Older People, Children and Young People, and Economic Development and Enterprise.

2.2.3 Developing our Local Transport Plan

Participation has also played an important part in the preparation of the Local Transport Plan (LTP) and will continue to do so throughout its delivery. In delivering the objectives of the first LTP, we have formed close relationships with stakeholders, and in many cases these have grown into partnerships. To develop our second LTP, we have extended these contacts to reach a broader range still. In Spring 2004 we announced Destination 2010, a conference to introduce the new approach to transportation planning to local stakeholders. Representatives from the Social Exclusion Unit, the Strategic Rail Authority, Government Office North West, Sustrans and bus operators exchanged views with an audience invited from our register of transport stakeholders. The topics included the delivery of national transport policy across the North West Region, links between transport and social inclusion, the health impacts of motorised transport and how modal shift can be achieved. We circulated the draft LTP widely to explain the new approaches to transport policy and to give a broad spectrum of stakeholders the opportunity to let us have their comments. We maintain a website where we display the first LTP and each successive Annual Progress Report, and we used this website to display the draft LTP. We also maintain a growing register of stakeholders with an interest in transport matters. All the members were notified of the new document and asked for their comments. The formal consultation period lasted eight weeks and we accepted comments by post, by telephone, by email and on the Transport Forum of our website. The comments were collated and used to shape the Provisional Local Transport Plan.

In turn, the Provisional LTP was displayed on the County Council website, distributed to our register of transport stakeholders and circulated widely through council offices, Council Information Centres and libraries. A special report in the County Council's newspaper Vision, delivered to every household in Lancashire, was devoted to the Provisional LTP and comments were invited by post, telephone and email as well as the forum of the Transport for Lancashire website until the consultation exercise closed in November 2005. We responded to the comments in the preparation of the full LTP. For example, comments from several sources expressed concern about the growing number of casualties among motorcyclists. To address their concerns, we have prepared two training programmes, one tailored to the needs of novices and the other designed to educate more experienced riders.

With the participation of the District Councils, we have prepared a programme of key local schemes in each of the districts to produce a balanced programme of work to deliver the objectives of the LTP across the county. These have been submitted to the Lancashire Local Committees to engage the local communities.

2.2.4 Local Consultation

Participation and consultation are considered fundamental to local government in Lancashire. The County Council has established a panel of 1700 residents across the County who regularly complete surveys to give a picture of Life in Lancashire. This panel is the source of a quantitative view of the state of the transport network in Lancashire. MORI was engaged to conduct an opinion poll to establish baseline values and this poll will be repeated at three-yearly intervals to monitor changes. This information is viewed alongside qualitative information from an extensive list of interests which continues to grow.

Lancashire County Council has shown its commitment to achieving a balance between countywide and local needs and provision through delivery of the Locality Focus Agenda. We have established the Lancashire Strategic Partnership and appointed District Partnership Officers in all District Council areas. We have set up Lancashire Local Committees to bring decision making on County Council functions closer to communities. They will strengthen policy making to reflect local needs, develop further joint working between the County Council and District Councils and enhance engagement with Parish and Town Councils. Devolution of highway, planning and maintenance management to new Area Offices will allow greater local participation.

Parish Councils are engaged through our Parish Partnerships programme. In addition to everyday contact between officers, there are formal partnerships, such as the Community Safety Partnerships, to deal with specific topics. All these forums have provided opportunities for Unitary, District, Parish and Town Councils to participate in the development of the Lancashire Local Transport Plan.

2.2.5 Working with Health, Education and Care Services

The second Local Transport Plan places a new emphasis on Accessibility. We arranged a series of workshops in May 2005 specifically to examine access to the four essential services identified by the Social Exclusion Unit. The first examined the problems of accessibility to education, learning and skills and employment. A speaker from the Lancashire Learning and Skills Council began the discussion with the invited audience of education, skills and employment providers plus the leaders of programmes for people seeking to re-enter employment including ex-offenders.

The second workshop examined access to health services, healthy, affordable food and the further topic of active leisure. A speaker from Preston Primary Care Trust introduced the debate with delegates from the health sector, the Community and Voluntary Sector, Sport Lancashire and the Public and Patient Involvement Forum. Following the introductory talks, moderators led group sessions in which stakeholders described the difficulties they encountered in delivering their services or in reaching the services they required. The comments from the workshops were developed into problem statements to guide us in the development of the Accessibility Strategy.

The third workshop was arranged in Lancaster in conjunction with the Learning Disability Partnership Board to examine the barriers encountered by people with learning difficulties when accessing services. People with learning difficulties, assisted by staff from Social Services, expressed the difficulties that they face when they travel on foot, by bicycle and on public transport. These statements were useful in identifying needs which must be met thorough the Accessibility Strategy and the Local Transport Plan.

2.2.6 Working with Partners to Deliver Schemes

We have an excellent record of working with stakeholders. Where an issue arises on a specific matter or in a single location, we consult the local stakeholders on the issue to gain their knowledge and seek their advice on the most appropriate solution. The following examples show schemes where the participation of stakeholders, including local residents and businesses, scheme users and wider interests, has been central to achieving a successful outcome.

Best Value Transport Review

This cross-cutting review of transport procurement employed a variety of techniques in an exemplary consultation exercise which included the interests of all the stakeholders. The County Council invited the participation of transport providers, the service users and the staff from the very beginning and  it was possible, therefore,  to produce a radical Service Improvement Plan which gained the approval of all parties.

Heysham-M6 Link

The plans for this major highway scheme were exhibited locally and views on the design were invited. The most important change to result from the participation of local people was a redesigned crossing at Torrisholme Road, where a grade-separated crossing eliminated the need for a pedestrian subway. More extensive landscaping was another amendment to minimise the visual intrusion of the scheme.

Quiet Lanes and Greenways

A specialised consultancy developed the preliminary proposals in Ribble Valley with the assistance of local user groups. The consultancy displayed the plans for the first phase at a series of local exhibitions and workshops, giving local people the opportunity to raise individual concerns. The participation of the local communities assisted the preparation of the detailed plans, which were displayed at a second series of exhibitions and workshops. This provided a further opportunity to introduce amendments before implementation began. In the second phase, with the participation of the Parish Councils, we extended our consultations more widely still to reach more local people and address their concerns.

Poulton Home Zone, Morecambe

This scheme in a residential area was developed with the participation of residents and through the Poulton Neighbourhood Management scheme piloted by the Neighbourhood Renewal Unit of the ODPM. Construction was carried out under the Considerate Contractors scheme with a Community Liaison Officer to inform residents of progress and resolve any problems. The scheme won the award for Urban Traffic Scheme of the Year in the Highways Magazine Excellence Awards 2005 and the judges noted that it demonstrated good resident involvement.

Lune Millennium Park Cycleway from Aldcliffe to Glasson Dock

This reclamation scheme, funded through REMADE, runs through an enviromentally sensitive area. The draft design was distributed to adjacent landowners and other stakeholders and displayed locally and on the REMADE website. People were able to identify difficulties and propose amendments at an exhibition at Glasson Dock village hall and also via an on-line questionnaire. The comments received were used to produce a design which satisfied the needs of all the stakeholders.

Local Safety Schemes

Proposals for each scheme are circulated to all households and businesses in the local neighbourhood. Alternative arrangements put forward are considered for the final design provided that they do not compromise the potential of the scheme to reduce road casualties.

2.2.7 Strategic Liaison with Transport Agencies

Lancashire has regular meetings with the Highways Agency to review the management of the network and the interface between local and national roads. The Highways Agency was a partner in the Fylde Coast Transportation Study which examined sub-regional transport issues for the Fylde Coast, including the issues of capacity on the A585 trunk road.

Lancashire is actively involved in the Regional Rail Group working with Network Rail on the Route Utilisation Strategy for the North West. We were involved with the Strategic Rail Authority on the Regional Planning Assessment and look forward to a continuing dialogue with the DfT on the long term planning of rail provision for Lancashire.

We work closely with Lancashire Constabulary on strategic issues including crime and disorder, road safety and network management. We  work in partnership with the police on speed enforcement issues and other road safety campaigns through the Lancashire Road Safety Partnership.

We hold three-monthly meetings with the Vehicle and Operator Services Agency (VOSA) to discuss operations of bus services. The meetings are primarily involved in sharing intelligence.  The meetings also allow us to work together in formulating the programme of spot checks and the information we share is used for this purpose. VOSA also tell us of their forthcoming Operation Coachman national checks and we often programme Lancashire schools into them and accompany VOSA. The County Council has a programme of spot checks at schools on buses and taxis. We visit the school unannounced with a team of engineers and inspectors and check all vehicles that are arriving on contract. We liaise with VOSA over the programme of checks and they regularly accompany our inspection team.

We hold meetings with the Traffic Commissioner to exchange information on local issues of mutual interest.

We work in partnership with the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) for the exchange of information for the National Driver Improvement Scheme.

We hold regular meetings with the Driving Standards Agency to discuss strategic issues and work in partnership on driving standards projects such as the recent development of a hazard perception DVD for use in driver training courses in Lancashire.

2.2.8 Working with European Partners

We are keen to exchange experience with our European partners and to work together to develop best practice. We are active members of six current projects funded by through the European Union;

• CiVITAS; This is a demonstration project within the SUCCESS programme for sustainable transport in Preston and South Ribble.
• OPTIMUM2; We are improving accessibility to health services in Preston and Chorley.
• PILOT; We are developing a sustainable transport plan for Lancaster.
• EUROPARC; We are promoting sustainable transport and tourism in the Forest of Bowland AONB.
• AGILE; This project will help elderly drivers to continue to drive safely for as long as possible.
• e-bygov; We are improving communications within Local Government using the latest technology.

Back to Top