As part of the Examination in Public of the Yorkshire and Humberside Regional Spatial Strategy, Action-Access-A1079 was invited to produce a short written comment on Matter 7A (Strategic Transport Integration).  This is the text of our reply:

Transport infrastructure enables and underpins almost every aspect of the Regional Spatial Strategy. Get it right and we can have economic development, regeneration, and ultimately a better quality of life for our area. Get it wrong, and we see the rise in congestion, and accidents, stifling the regional economy and driving down our quality of life.

As it currently stands however, it appears that the RTS has been developed by urban planners to address the requirements of urban environments. These areas are characterised by excellent public transport infrastructure, high levels of public subsidy for integrated transport schemes, relatively easy access to jobs, public services, and retail and leisure opportunities, and static or declining populations. Transport planning in these areas is based on the principle of "demand management", and characterised by the use of  transport strategy as a revenue-raising opportunity (through parking charges, safety cameras, public transport fares, congestion charging and so on).

Life is very different outside of the big cities like York and Leeds - in areas such as the A1079 corridor. This rural and semi-rural area is characterised by long distances, increasingly dangerous roads (for all road users), inadequate public transport infrastructure, low levels of public subsidy of integrated transport (compare LTP2 average annual subsidy per person of £9.12 in the East Riding with £19.13 in York), difficult access to public services, and low levels of investment in transport infrastructure. This would be bad enough, but the A1079 corridor is also one of the fastest-growing areas outside of London, and the impact of population growth is now the key factor in all aspects of planning policy. About the only thing we have in common with the urban areas is congestion, and safety cameras – but unlike in urban areas, transport users in the A1079 corridor have very few choices about mode of travel. 

The underlying problem is the mis-match between the supply of transport infrastructure, which is static, and the growth of population – and it is this that we feel the RTS should seek to address. Transport strategy in this situation requires a different approach to the demand management strategy favoured in urban areas – this might be called "supply management". Under this approach, housing, retail, and business development would be directly linked to investment in and (supply of) transport infrastructure. (In fact we recognise there is an argument for linking development to investment in other infrastructure such as health services, refuse services, water use, power and so on - but that is outside our scope, although perhaps not outside the scope of the overall RSS). 

The equation should be simple: if a local authority allows the building of more houses, or more business or retail parks, it must also build more strategic transport infrastructure. This approach has quite a lot in common with one of the core principles of sustainable development – the "polluter pays" principle.

We think the RTS needs to fully recognise the very different challenges faced by areas such as the A1079 corridor, and provide the appropriate long-term framework to ensure that the overall objectives of the RSS can be successfully delivered across the whole region.