Final LTP March 2006

Contents

Executive Summary

1. Vision Statement

2. Background to Accessibility Planning

3. Context within the West Midlands

• Community Strategies
• PTA / Centro 20-Year Public Transport Strategy
• West Midlands Bus Strategy
• West Midlands Cycling Strategy
• West Midlands Walking Strategy
• West Midlands Powered 2-Wheeler (P2W) Strategy
• Regional Strategies
• West Midlands Congestion Strategy
• National Policies and Strategies

4. Factors Affecting Accessibility

• Barriers to Travel
• Geo-demographic Changes
• Time of Day
• Planning Policy
• 24-hour Society

5. Key Groups who will benefit from Accessibility Planning

6. The Relative Priority of Accessibility within the LTP

7. High Level Accessibility Objectives

8. Strategic Accessibility Assessment

• Market Research
• Initial Accessibility Indicators and Mapping
• Consultation
• Local Strategic Partnerships
• Intra-Council working
• Cross-Boundary issues
• People with Mental Health issues
• High Level Accessibility Objective: improve access to employment
• High Level Accessibility Objective: improve access to health facilities, including fresh food
• High Level Accessibility Objective: improve access to education

9. Local Accessibility Assessments and Projects

• East Birmingham and North Solihull
• Other Projects in Birmingham
• Projects in Walsall
• Work in Coventry
• Work in Sandwell
• Work in Dudley
• Work in Wolverhampton
• Accessibility and Public Transport
• TravelWise and Travel Plans
• Demand Responsive Transport
• The 'Meriden Gap' Land Use Planning

10. The Way Forward

Appendix 1: Accessibility Statements in local Community Strategies

Appendix 2: PTA / Centro 20-Year Strategy standards applicable to Accessibility Planning

Appendix 3: Initial List of potential Accessibility Indicators

Appendix 4: Active Partners and Letters of Support

Executive Summary

Accessibility Planning tackles the problems of disadvantaged groups and areas and promotes social inclusion.  It concentrates on access to opportunities that are likely to have most impact on life chances: employment, education, health care and fresh food shops.

These opportunities are seen as important in the Community Plans or Strategies for all seven Metropolitan Authorities, so the Accessibility Strategy, set out in the Annexe, addresses them as high-level objectives.

Our Accessibility Strategy is based on a three-level approach:

• strategic-level analytical evidence produced by the Accession software
• discussions with Local Strategic Partnerships, Primary Care Trusts, Local Education Authorities and providers of transport for people who cannot use conventional public transport
• building on work in disadvantaged areas such as Regeneration Zones

Current Position

Strategic Travel Time mapping shows that there is generally good accessibility in most places at most times for the 33.7% (2001) of households without a car, due to the extensive bus network.  Two strategic 'accessibility gaps' have been identified and we have set the following targets to focus on these:

• Increase the number of people attending job interviews per year via access initiatives from 1150 in 2005 to 2300 by 2011;
• Increase the population within 30 minutes inter-peak travel time of a major NHS hospital by "accessible" public transport from the 2005 baseline of 580,000 by 50% by 2011.

Work in respect of the first target will focus on joint working with Job Centre Plus to develop our 'Workwise' scheme.  For the second target, we will focus our bus improvement programme, in partnership with operators in problem areas.

The consultation and partnership working has identified other barriers to accessibility that are possibly more important than travel time, including:

• Cost
• Personal Security
• Lack of easy-to-understand travel information
• Reliability of services

The groups most affected include:

• People with learning difficulties
• People with mobility problems
• Senior Citizens
• People without English as their first language

Our approach is to work in partnership to help overcome these broader problems as part of a coordinated response to accessibility problems.  This will include discussions with key groups as identified above as well as using detailed analytical work undertaken in key areas.  Potential solutions will be developed as action plans to ensure a corporate approach to resolving problems.  It is anticipated that the measures set out in the Bus Strategy for tackling personal security, understandable information and service reliability will be targeted to locations identified as having particular accessibility problems.

The Strategy

1. Vision Statement

The West Midlands Metropolitan Authorities aim to embed accessibility considerations within all the decisions we take and to raise awareness of accessibility issues with all other key service providers so that they also consider the impacts on accessibility when developing their policies, strategies and initiatives.  Our vision is of a Metropolitan Area with improved access for everyone to jobs and key services.

2. Background to Accessibility Planning

The concept of accessibility planning was conceived by the Social Exclusion Unit report 'Making the Connections'  The report set out the relationship between transport, accessibility and social exclusion and presented a cross-Government strategy for improving access to jobs and key services.  For key services to be accessible people must be able to get to them in reasonable time, at reasonable cost and with reasonable ease.

Accessibility planning focuses on promoting social inclusion by tackling the accessibility problems experienced by those in disadvantaged groups and areas.  It concentrates on access to those opportunities that are likely to have the most impact on life chances: employment, education, health care and fresh food shops.  The premise of accessibility planning is that policy development and service delivery can better meet the accessibility needs of local communities by being more evidence-based and by being implemented through coordinated action across a variety of agencies.  The West Midlands Metropolitan Authorities have welcomed the new guidance on accessibility planning as it gives us both an opportunity and an agreed framework for far greater levels of partnership working, thereby enabling a deeper analysis of problems and ways to address them.

3. Context within the West Midlands

Community Strategies

The over-arching policies that cover all aspects of work undertaken by the seven Metropolitan Authorities are contained in their individual Community Strategies or Plans.  These documents contain numerous statements about priorities for access to services (see Appendix 1).  From these statements it is clear that access to all four of the key services (health, jobs, learning and fresh food), plus access to leisure opportunities, are important issues throughout the Metropolitan Area.

PTA / Centro 20-Year Public Transport Strategy

This outlines the current situation in public transport, what needs to be done and sets out how the PTA and Centro hope to deliver better transport for all, with a long-term perspective on improving the public transport system.  The strategy therefore incorporates schemes and plans to improve accessibility within the West Midlands.  The strategy defines:

• Quality standards for local services essential to public transport
• A strategic network offering quality and high frequency for bus, rail, Metro and other rapid transit services on main routes
• A set of target standards for the network to be achieved over the 20-year period (Appendix 2 lists some of the targets relevant to accessibility planning)
• A business planning process based on customer requirements with thorough market appraisal / monitoring and review systems in place

West Midlands Bus Strategy

As the most socially inclusive mode of transport many of the policies detailed in the Bus Strategy are focused on improving accessibility.  The overarching objectives for local bus provision include enabling people without access to a car to easily reach a wide range of health facilities, education, training, employment, shopping, service, leisure and entertainment opportunities.  Furthermore the Bus Strategy seeks to:

• Improve the image, quality and attractiveness of bus services in the West Midlands; to significantly assist people without access to a car; to significantly improve access to jobs, centres and local facilities; and improve the quality of life for socially excluded people
• Unlock barriers to travel for people with mobility difficulties through a more accessible bus network with a large and increasing number of low-floor vehicles.

Key actions for the LTP2 period contained in the Bus Strategy include:

• Policy 1 Network Operation
  1. Working with partners to breakdown barriers to transport access
  2. Continue to subsidise socially necessary bus services

• Policy 2 Local Area and Estates Services
  1. Undertake accessibility planning (in relation to these services)
  2. Ensure replacement of withdrawn commercial local services where required to meet accessibility targets
  3. Enhance the existing local services network where demand exists
  4. Increase number of low pollution, easy access buses

• Policy 3 Rural Bus Services
  1. Replace withdrawn services in rural area on a subsidised basis subject to meeting PTA targets
  2. Investigate potential for expansion of 'Taxibus'

• Policy 4 Demand Responsive Bus Services
  1. Maintain current funding for the Ring & Ride service
  2. Produce and start to implement a Demand Responsive Transport Strategy

• Policy 5 School Transport and Education Needs
  1. Develop school travel initiatives & school travel plans

• Policy 6 Cross-Boundary Issues
  1. Discussions with adjacent authorities to identify cross boundary corridors to be improved

• Policy 8: Community Safety And Safer Travel, Policy 9: Information and Policy 12: Customer Care
  1. Numerous actions to improve actual and perceived safety, to ensure that current and potential users have ready access to bus information that is accurate and easy to understand, and ensure there are helpful drivers and staff on buses, at travel centres and in bus stations.

These are all key actions in helping to remove or reduce many of the wide range of barriers to access, and so are completely in line with the objectives of this West Midlands Accessibility Strategy.

West Midlands Cycling Strategy

A bicycle is a relatively inexpensive form of personal, door-to-door transport.  In terms of purchase and maintenance it is therefore socially inclusive, and cycling is well suited to short journeys to local services.  However a bicycle does require some degree of physical fitness to ride, and a perceived lack of safety when cycling on-road can also prevent people socially excluded by a lack of confidence from participating.  The West Midlands Cycle Strategy looks to develop on and off-road cycle links to create a safer cycling network across the Metropolitan Area, and seeks ways to provide more cycle training for children and adults.  These measures can be expected to increase the accessibility of key facilities by bicycle to some degree.

West Midlands Walking Strategy

Walking is the most widely available, socially inclusive, affordable and flexible mode of independent travel.  The West Midlands Walking Strategy looks to achieve:

• New and better maintained pavements, road crossings and street lighting
• The replacement of pedestrian subways with surface level crossings
• Promotion of the health and environmental benefits of walking, particularly through the TravelWise campaign and the Safer Routes to School initiative
• Better access to the public transport network for pedestrians and people with mobility difficulties

Distance walked per person is currently declining as people use other modes to travel further to work, school etc, but the scope and potential benefits for increasing accessibility by more walking are great.  The Authorities’ Rights of Way Improvement Plans, with their potential to improve connections to local facilities, such as shops, workplaces, schools and public transport facilities, can play a big part in this.

West Midlands Powered 2-Wheeler (P2W) Strategy

As a more affordable mode of transport than a car, P2Ws can widen travel choice and increase accessibility, particularly for journeys to work and education and, perhaps, also to health facilities.  However, their vulnerability is an obstacle to use.

Regional Strategies

In accordance with the West MIdlands Regional Spatial Strategy (RSS) land use planning policies are focused on concentrating new residential development within the existing built-up area, particularly on brownfield sites.  New retail, office and service provision is being channelled, as per PPG13, into centres for ease and choice of access by means other than the car.  Public transport access to all new developments is critically assessed before planning consent is granted.  All these actions are helping to increase the general level of accessibility within the Metropolitan Area by more effectively linking public transport services and centres of activity.  However, this is needed to offset expected increases in congestion due to our regeneration aspirations (see ‘Congestion Strategy Statement’).

Economic regeneration is one of the prime policy objectives for the Metropolitan Area.  The Regional Economic Strategy (RES), produced by the Regional Development Agency (Advantage West Midlands), has defined four Regeneration Zones and four High Technology Corridors within the Metropolitan Area to which new industrial development and job creators are directed.  The Regeneration Zones are also the areas of high unemployment and relatively poor standards of living, so by bringing new jobs into these areas access to employment for the more disadvantaged members of society is improved.

The linking of the LTP with the RSS and RES is practically demonstrated by schemes to improve access to the LTP centres (recent examples include Masshouse Circus redevelopment in Birmingham and West Bromwich Town Centre Strategy), Regeneration Zones (in particular the proposed East Birmingham / North Solihull Mobility and Access Project) and the Technology Corridors (for example, the Northfield Relief Road in south west Birmingham, which began on site in March 2005).

West Midlands Congestion Strategy

The number of trips will increase as a result of our regeneration policies creating more jobs and housing in the Metropolitan Area.  The majority of these are expected to be car trips, which will exacerbate congestion and increase journey times.  Bus users would also suffer increased delays.  The challenge we face is to ensure that measures to improve accessibility can help offset increases in congestion, which means that public transport, walking and cycling must play a bigger role in providing for extra trips in addition to improving transport options for people suffering, or at risk of, social exclusion.

National Policies and Strategies

Improving accessibility is one of the four key themes of the Transport Shared Priority, along with reducing congestion and improving road safety and air quality.  These themes are all linked in that improving accessibility through local actions will help:

• Reduce the need to travel so far and encourage modal shift, so limiting road congestion
• Limiting road traffic can reduce the potential for road accident casualties
• Limiting and smoothing road traffic flow helps to improve air quality, especially where pollution levels exceed national standards and Air Quality Management Areas are declared

Furthermore improving accessibility to jobs and services helps meet national and local objectives such as promoting social inclusion, economic regeneration and welfare to work, reducing health inequalities, and improving participation and attendance in education.

National Healthcare Policies and Strategies to increase patient choice and hospital specialisation are generally increasing the need to travel longer distances.  However, there is scope for patients to choose treatment sites and times that have better public transport access if appropriate information is available when making appointments.  The LIFT programme in the West Midlands (see High Level Accessibility Objective: improve access to health facilities, including fresh food section) is helping to improve local care in a more efficient way.

In terms of education, the new White Paper on schools ('Higher Standards, Better Schools for All - More Choice for Parents and Pupils') could result in increased transport requirements.  Policies to increase flexibility for 14-19 year olds by giving them the choice of attending more than one school or college during a school day, specialist schools and parental choice have increased the need to travel longer distances, and so impact on accessibility.

The ODPM’s requirements for more housing are increasing strains on transport infrastructure, although the Sustainable Communities Bill, if enacted, will support protection and enhancement of local facilities.

4. Factors Affecting Accessibility

Barriers to Travel

There are a number of barriers to travel that are consistently quoted in market research.  These will affect perceptions of accessibility and ability to reach key services but are difficult to quantify or evaluate within modelling work, including:

• Cost - the main West Midlands bus operator has recently simplified its fare structure, but this has been seen by many passengers as a fare increase
• Safety - crime levels on public transport are generally low but there is a perception, particularly among the elderly and female passengers, that crime levels are high.  This is considered to be a significant problem for shift workers and with the move to a 24-hour society (see above)
• Anti-social behaviour - related to safety, 29% of respondents to the 2001 West Midlands Transport Surveys felt this discourages travel by public transport
• Lack of information - for the infrequent traveller information is vital to provide reassurance and encourage public transport use, including stopping locations, timing and fares
• Reliability - 2004 Centro surveys showed 59% of buses in the West Midlands were on time (within 1 minute early and 5 minutes late).  This level of reliability reduces passengers’ confidence in the system, particularly for time critical trips, such as work and health appointments
• Ability to use public transport - disability, travelling with luggage or small children all reduce peoples’ ability to actually access the public transport network, board vehicles and interchange between services.  This barrier is being reduced through schemes such as Ring and Ride for disabled and elderly travellers.  However measures to reduce barriers on the standard public transport network will benefit all sectors of the community
• Language - poor English capability is a barrier to using public transport for many people.  Language Line, a telephone interpreting service for people who have difficulty communicating in English, is now available at New Street Station to provide assistance with timetables, public transport routes and ticket sales.  This service has recently been set up by Centro, allowing access to telephone interpreters in over 150 languages, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week

These barriers will be considered as part of the local accessibility assessment work and in discussions with partners and stakeholders.

Geo-demographic changes

The population of the UK is ageing, which creates a number of problems for accessibility planning in the West Midlands.  Those people retiring within the next 10 years have higher levels of car ownership and driving licence ownership than previous generations, therefore giving them higher expectations of mobility.  However, as we age mobility levels decrease because of disability and changes in perception of safety.  Elderly Asian people have been shown to rely quite heavily on family members for access to services in preference to using public transport, which is a particular issue for the West Midlands.

In addition to physical access problems for an increasing proportion of the population, a local study into the take up of concessionary public transport passes and travel among over 60s, and particularly ethnic minorities, has highlighted issues around:

• Awareness of the validity of passes – people are not sure whether they cover the PM peak, trains, Metro or non-TWM buses
• Awareness of eligibility criteria for trips by Ring & Ride
• 21% would use the passes more if they were valid before 0930
• Key barriers included mobility, anti-social behaviour at stops, time restrictions on tickets and service reliability

The West Midlands Authorities are committed to working alongside groups such as Help The Aged to ensure the access needs of older people are addressed.  The Age Proofing Toolkit provides an invaluable reference document in ensuring these needs are met.

Changes in affluence affect accessibility.  Unemployment levels in the West Midlands have fallen significantly over the last ten years (from 158,952 in 1994 to 64,525 in 2004).  Car ownership levels are still lower than the national average (33.7% households with no car in 2001, compared to 26.8% nationally), however car ownership is increasing, with fewer no-car and more 2+car households.  Spatially there is a difference in affluence across the West Midlands.  Generally city centre and edge of centre areas experience much greater levels of deprivation than the edge of conurbation areas.  This also reflects the continuing trend towards decentralisation within the conurbation.

Time of Day

Accessibility varies by time of day.  The West Midlands can be rightly proud of its comprehensive bus network, which is vital to the 33.7% (2001 census) of households without direct access to a car.  However parts of this network require subsidy at all times to maintain service levels, although there are significantly fewer subsidised services during weekday daytimes than at other times.  The map below shows routes that are subsidised on weekday evenings.  This can be seen as an indicator of areas of poor accessibility by public transport as these services are deemed “socially necessary” but the current level of demand cannot support viable commercial services.  More detail on subsidised services is provided in section 9.

Planning Policy

In the long-term the effects of Regional Spatial Strategy policies to focus housing and development in existing urban locations will place more people in closer proximity to jobs and key services.  However, more local trips are likely to be generated on a transport network that will not increase significantly in size, so increasing congestion, particularly in the current 'shoulders' of the peak periods.  It is a challenge for our Accessibility Strategy to help offset some of the accessibility tensions likely to be imposed by increased congestion.

24-hour society

Recent trends, particularly in Birmingham, have seen a move towards a 24-hour society.  Shops are opening for longer hours, with the Bullring shops open until 8pm and 10pm before Christmas.  Leisure facilities and restaurants are also opening later into the night.  This trend has been exacerbated by the recent changes in the licensing laws, so that many bars and clubs in Birmingham city centre are open until the early morning.  However, the public transport network, because of operational constraints and current demand levels, has generally not responded to this change in behaviour.

5. Key Groups who will benefit from Accessibility Planning

Accessibility planning is a people-focused activity, but for whom are we seeking to improve accessibility?  Basically for all, but especially:

• People who do not have ready access to a car
• People with low incomes who therefore have cost issues of access
• Many people who live in areas of high economic and social deprivation
• The less mobile (people with physical disabilities, learning difficulties etc)
• People with issues of personal security (people who live in high crime areas, people who perceive travelling to be ‘dangerous’, maybe particularly the elderly, people who need to travel after dark etc)
• Lone parents with young children
• Job seekers who may have restricted access to employment opportunities due to limited travel horizons
• People who live in areas that are relatively poorly served by public transport, for example some peripheral estates
• People who do not readily have access to public transport information they can understand, for example people for whom English is not their first or preferred language, or people who do not know how to get information
• People who require specialist services
• People with mental health problems e.g. who experience panic or anxiety; or have low levels of confidence in travelling independently

Some of these issues are difficult to identify, evidence and quantify, particularly as 2001 Census data is now beginning to age, but they are being addressed through partnership working.

6. The Relative Priority of Accessibility within the LTP

Improving access to key services to reduce social exclusion, particularly for those people who do not have ready access to a car, is a prime objective of the LTP.  By reducing the need to travel long distances the 'bigger picture' incorporating the congestion, road safety and air quality shared transport priority themes can also be addressed, and wider still we can reduce levels of greenhouse gases.  Due to the potential for improving people’s quality of life, accessibility is regarded as being equally as important as congestion, road safety and air quality in the West Midlands.  Evidence of this priority is the inclusion of a number of access-related targets in the LTP (to employment, hospitals, main centres by public transport, personal security etc) and the large amount of developing work being carried out across the Metropolitan Area (see section 10).

7. High Level Accessibility Objectives

The Community Plans or Strategies for the seven Metropolitan Authorities all state that access to jobs, learning and health facilities (inc fresh food) are all issues in their areas (see Appendix 1).  Therefore, as none of these issues can be considered unimportant, the high level Accessibility Objectives are:

• Improve access to employment
• Improve access to health facilities, including fresh food
• Improve access to education

These objectives are in line with our LTP vision, which, amongst other things, aims to see 'equal opportunities for everyone to gain access to services and facilities'.

8. Strategic Accessibility Assessment

This Accessibility Strategy has been largely informed by the DfT document 'Guidance on Accessibility Planning in Local Transport Plans', which was published in December 2004.  Accessibility is not a new issue in itself, but the process of Accessibility Planning as described in 'Making the Connections' is.  The West Midlands Accessibility Working Group was set up in November 2003 containing representatives of all seven Metropolitan Authorities and the PTE (Centro), and has developed to include local consultants and health interests.  The Group guides the Accessibility Planning process at a strategic level, while individual districts focus on more local issues.

Market Research

In the absence of existing information about 'reasonable' travel times and costs, Centro commissioned local surveys during spring 2004 to determine how long people would be willing to travel by public transport and other sustainable modes, and how much they would be willing to pay, to get to the four key services.  This was done with 2000 questionnaires covering a representative sample of residents with different characteristics (age, disability, employment status, gender, ethnicity etc) in wards covering the whole range of deprivation levels.

It was discovered that currently the longest average door-to-door journeys are to hospital (24.58 minutes), college (24.13) and work (23.43).  Respondents are also prepared to spend the longest time travelling to these locations, but it varies by main mode, see Table 1 ‘Time (minutes) prepared to spend travelling to key locations by mode’.

Table 1 Time (minutes) prepared to spend travelling to key locations by mode

Key Location	Train	Bus	Car
Hospital	29.03	28.50	22.05
College	26.21	25.43	19.38
Work	31.47	30.54	25.08

On average the majority of respondents were unwilling to make any local journey to a key service that lasted over 35 minutes.  Respondents were willing to pay most for rail trips to work (£1.41), hospital (£1.24) and college (£1.10), and by bus to work (£1.19) and hospital (£1.04).  However respondents only wanted to pay less than 50p for bus trips to local food shops and chemists.

In terms of barriers to public transport use 43% of respondents did not travel by public transport as they found the car more convenient, but 13% did not make public transport trips due to concerns about personal safety.  This figure rose to 20% in the most affluent quartile.  8% did not use public transport after dark and 5% did not make public transport trips due to mobility impairments, rising to 8% in the most deprived quartile.  7% of respondents had turned down employment because of inadequacies in public transport provision, reasons given included:

• No direct route
• Could not get there for the start time
• Buses didn’t run late enough to fit in with shift time

This research has been used to identify potential accessibility issues and to define the thresholds used in our local accessibility indicators.

Initial Accessibility Indicators and Mapping

The seven local authorities and Centro have, through consultation internally and with selected partners, developed a set of local accessibility indicators that reflect local concerns, as outlined in our High Level Accessibility Objectives.  The indicators cover access to all four key service areas, in line with the priorities shown in the Community Plans, although they have been constrained by data availability and accuracy.  The complete list of indicators is shown in Appendix 3.  Where possible (within the limitations of the Accession accessibility planning software) we have carried out strategic level modelling of these indicators.  Their value and long-term usefulness has been assessed in consultation with partners.

Because of the dense public transport network and the large supply of key services Metropolitan Area residents already have relatively short journey times to get to a range of shops, schools, health facilities or job opportunities.  This means that the indicators assessed have had to be quite specific to highlight an access problem.

Accession mapping work has been undertaken as part of the Strategic Accessibility Assessment.  An executive summary of the final consultants report will be available on www.westmidlandsltp.gov.uk in 2006.  The report emphasises that travel time access to key services in the West Midlands Metropolitan Area is not the size of issue it may be in shire counties.  These results have been shared with LSPs and other partners in local meetings across the seven districts.  Key outcomes are highlighted under High Level Accessibility Objectives later in this section.  This consultation process has influenced policy, for example in highlighting the importance of 'accessible' conventional public transport to enable people with physical disabilities to overcome barriers to access.

The West Midlands Regional Observatory has conducted a complementary, area-wide lifestyle survey of residents, which included both direct and indirect questions on accessibility.  A report of the results was made public on 13 October 2005, and can be found at www.wmro.org.uk.

Consultation

Table 2 ‘Type of consultation or partnership working’ briefly summarises the variety of techniques for engaging partners and mainstreaming accessibility that have been used so far in the Metropolitan Area, including the set up of working groups to jointly prioritise and monitor work on accessibility and take forward local objectives.

Table 2 Type of consultation or partnership working

	Birmingham	Centro	Coventry	Dudley	Sandwell	Solihull	Walsall	Wolverhampton
Membership of WM Accessibility Planning Group	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes
LSP theme group		n/a	yes	yes	yes		yes (2)
Occasional LSP extended sessions	yes	n/a	yes				yes
Intra-Council working group or theme group	yes	yes	yes		yes		yes
Individual work with service providers	yes	yes	yes	yes			yes
Consultation at ward committee level or other sub-LA governance level	yes	n/a					yes
Other consultation with community	yes		yes	yes			yes

Local Strategic Partnerships

The seven local authorities and Centro have embarked on direct involvement with Local Strategic Partnerships (LSPs) to try and raise the profile of Accessibility Planning.  In Coventry, the main remit of the Coventry Partnership Transport Theme Group is to bring forward the Accessibility Planning agenda.  A draft Local Accessibility Plan for Coventry has been jointly produced with Coventry City Council.  Its main purpose is to set out an action plan that explores where local accessibility problems exist, put forward a range of potential actions and take forward projects to resolve them.

In Birmingham, stakeholder discussions were spring-boarded by an extended session of the Birmingham Strategic Partnership (BSP) in November 2004, the BSP secretariat have continued to play a supportive role and a follow-up extended session occurred in October 2005 (see the reports of these sessions on their website www.bhamsp.org.uk). A transport summit on accessibility is planned for 2006.

Walsall Borough Strategic Partnership has embraced accessibility planning; stating in the Community Plan that 'we will take an active and leading role in accessibility planning, improving connectivity between homes and job opportunities, health and other community facilities'.  Accession modelling is being carried out by the Shared Partnership Information Resource (SPIR) team, which assembles and maintains a core indicator set and provides a comprehensive advice and analysis service.  The data is provided by all partners – crime from the Police, educational attainment from Education Walsall, a range of health data from the PCT, and will continue to widen as more partners contribute.  This will enable all the partners, and especially Walsall MBC to work in synergy with other agencies to consider a wider range of solutions to accessibility problems, including changes to the location and delivery of services and measures against crime around transport, as well as improved mainstream and specialist transport.  Further, through the nine Local Neighbourhood Partnerships, local people will conduct 'reality checks' on the outcomes of the modelling work.  A subgroup, identified through the Local Area Agreement process, will act as a steering group to ensure that there is a clear process and responsibility for identifying groups or areas with accessibility problems, and to direct the development and delivery of a Local Accessibility Action Plan.

Intra-Council working

Discussions on accessibility issues are also occurring between Council departments.  As an example, Birmingham City Council has set up a cross-council working group to raise awareness and comment on priorities.  In addition a transport consultation process is being rolled out in each of the 11 council districts within Birmingham that highlights accessibility issues within each district.  Centro has developed a cross-modal working group to take forward accessibility planning issues throughout the organisation, integrating into planning, transport planning, travel plans and capital programme prioritisation.

In Walsall, accessibility planning is firmly embedded in the Council’s Customer Access Strategy: making it easier to access local services.  By implementing this strategy, Walsall MBC will 'ensure that we deliver services across the borough to meet the needs of all our citizens especially those that could be socially excluded.  Where possible we should be investigating ways to go to our community rather than the reverse'.  To assist this aim, Accession modelling is being used to identify the best location in each of the nine local neighbourhood partnership areas to set up mini first-stop-shops.  Other agencies will share these facilities and modelling will identify the most appropriate services to meet the needs of the local population.  Modelling work is also informing location of library facilities, adult services, social care and supported housing.

Cross-Boundary Issues

The West Midlands LT2P area has administrative boundaries with Staffordshire, Warwickshire and Worcestershire, although the 2001 Census indicates that regular journeys to work cover a larger area, encompassing parts of Shropshire, Derbyshire and Leicestershire.  In terms of accessing jobs and services most movement is towards the Metropolitan Area from the surrounding shires.  Recent years have seen an increase in the number of commuters, with consequent increases in congestion, as people have moved to live in the shires while retaining jobs in Birmingham, the Black Country etc.  The Regional Spatial Strategy is addressing this issue by encourageing new development to locate within existing urban areas where there is a greater choice of travel mode and travel time to work can be reduced.

Cross-boundary issues have been discussed at consultation events such as the Worcestershire County Council Accessibility Workshops and at Local Strategic Partnership meetings, notably the Coventry Partnership Transport Theme Group.  Such issues include:

• The impact of the demise of MG Rover at Longbridge on former employees from North Worcestershire
• The very strong ties between Coventry and Warwickshire (the 2001 Census shows almost 30,000 workers a day commuting into Coventry from the surrounding districts, particularly from adjacent Nuneaton & Bedworth, Warwick / Leamington and Rugby, while the reverse movement is also strong with almost 18,000 people travelling daily from Coventry to Warwickshire)
• Access to health for patients in Coventry and Rugby where the hospitals specialise to provide different services (18% of Warwickshire outpatients attend Walsgrave Hospital in Coventry)
• In the north of the Metropolitan Area, South Staffordshire residents regularly use New Cross Hospital in Wolverhampton for treatment
• The Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham is a regional centre for some forms of diagnosis and treatment

Work will continue to develop both partnerships and an analytical base to progress cross-boundary working throughout the LTP2 period.  Plans currently include:

• The modelling of cross-boundary movements as authorities across the West Midlands region begin to develop working arrangements to share data
• To establish or develop networks between accessibility planning co-ordinators for each shire county and all its adjoining Metropolitan districts
• A review of public transport interchanges at edges of conurbation

Individual districts will consider these issues and their implications when undertaking local area assessments.  The feeling is that there is scope to make a real impact in delivering essential services in a more effective way, and the spirit of cooperation is a good base from which to build.

People with Mental Health Issues

Contact has been made with some specialist groups, for example the Valuing People Support Team which represents people with learning disabilities.  These people can have many barriers which prevent them using mainstream transport.  Some issues are similar to those experienced by other disadvantaged and socially excluded groups of people, but physical access is not the main barrier for most people with learning disabilities.  Other important factors are:

• Travel information that is hard to understand
• Concerns about personal safety and harassment
• Lack of understanding from front line staff
• Inflexible special transport services provided by social services departments
• Cost of transport
• Lack of support and training to use transport

Similar issues may be faced by people who have a disability resulting from mental health problems.  The cross-government report on 'Social Exclusion and Mental Health' (2004, ODPM) highlighted barriers to public transport as one of the basic problems affecting people with mental health problems in their ability to access local community facilities.  Discussions are planned with local Learning Disability Partnership Boards and Local Implementation Teams (LITS) for adult mental health service delivery about practical ways in which the transport system can be more responsive to the needs of these disadvantaged groups.

High Level Accessibility Objective: improve access to employment

Access to employment is an important local issue.  Locally only Solihull and Dudley boroughs have unemployment rates below the national average of 4.9%.  Unemployment is most prevalent in the inner city areas of Birmingham, Coventry, Wolverhampton and Walsall, but these areas also have the densest public transport network and are closest to most work opportunities in the major centres.  Physically travelling to jobs is more difficult from the relatively deprived peripheral areas of East Birmingham / North Solihull, south-west Birmingham, north-east Coventry and north Walsall, where public transport is less frequent and goes to fewer destinations.  With the recent collapse of MG-Rover, there is obviously a need to maintain or enhance accessibility to the Longbridge area and A38 Central Technology Belt to help secure future employment opportunities, both for West Midlands and Worcestershire residents.  The proposed Longbridge Link Road, Frankley Branch rail line and Longbridge Strategic Park & Ride Major Schemes are important catalysts in this respect, and will also help local people find employment elsewhere.

Table 3 Areas of new RSS focussed employment opportunities

Regeneration Zones	Technology Corridors
East Birmingham & North Solihull	Birmingham – Great Malvern (A38)
North Black Country & South Staffordshire	Wolverhampton – Telford
South Black Country & West Birmingham	M42 in Solihull
Coventry & Nuneaton	Coventry around Warwick University

These cover eight of the nine LTP centres, the exception being Sutton Coldfield.  To support the RSS, the LTP2 targets to:

• Increase the morning peak proportion of trips by public transport into the 9 LTP centres as a whole from the 2005/6 forecast baseline of 32.73% to 33.8% by 2009/10
• Support economic regeneration by maintaining inter-peak accessibility to the 9 LTP centres as a whole between 2004/5 and 2010/11

focuses attention on both economic regeneration and social inclusion issues.  Working towards these targets will provide more opportunities for people to reach jobs in the centres, jobs that may currently be beyond reasonable travel time.  The strategic assessment work identified that only 22.4% of households can reach a main centre within 15 minutes travel time, although 26.5% of non-car households are within 15 minutes.

Other work is being carried out to improve access to jobs and link in with existing groups who look at a wider set of issues including skills, aspirations and the travel horizons of individuals.  Workwise is one element of this (see below).  Access to job and training opportunities was identified as a priority for the East Birmingham / North Solihull Regeneration Zone (see Local Accessibility Assessments and other Projects section).  A mapping study in 2003 identified areas where local residents have difficulties in reaching jobs.  This was followed up with a more detailed accessibility audit in 2005.  Discussions through the Local Strategic Partnership revealed issues around cost, reliability, personal security and information when using public transport.  The East Birmingham and North Solihull Mobility and Access Project aims to take forward the work on accessibility in the area.

In South-West Birmingham, the University Hospital Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust is replacing two hospitals with one enlarged site which will cater for over 10,000 people visiting each day of which around 6,000 are staff.  An additional 1,700 staff work at the nearby Birmingham Women’s Hospital.  This has been considered an important project for further investigation.

At the strategic level it was initially felt that public transport access to the many local industrial employers and big organisations like Birmingham International Airport, the NEC and hospitals that operate shift working would prove an 'accessibility gap'.  As shift work is traditionally low-paid these workers are more likely to be reliant on public transport to get to early morning starts, and services at this time are infrequent compared with those in the daytime.  We found that 94% of people in areas of high unemployment could get to at least one shift work site at 6am within 30 minutes by public transport, however partners feel that there are problems in accessing shift work at key employment sites so these will be investigated in local accessibility assessments.

Meanwhile the Strategic Accessibility Analysis did highlight a problem for unemployed people in getting to job centres, see Figure 2 ‘Travel Time by Public Transport to Job Centres / Job Centre Plus (1230-1330)’

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The hatched squares show the 20% densest areas of unemployment, and it is clear that there are deprived areas within each council area where residents find it difficult to even start the job seeking process.  48% of unemployed residents in the Metropolitan Area are unable to reach a job centre within 15 minutes travel time.

The award-winning WorkWise initiative operates out of job centres in Sparkhill (Birmingham), Chelmsley Wood (Solihull) and a 'Steps to Work' office in Bloxwich (Walsall).  WorkWise provides unemployed people with personalised journey information, free public transport tickets to attend interviews and two months of free travel passes if starting work.  A similar project operates in Wolverhampton run by Job Centre Plus.  Since its launch in May 2003 WorkWise officers have helped over 2600 people get to interviews and over 2200 unemployed people to start work.  Over 80% of users say they would not have been able to attend their interview or take up an employment offer without assistance from WorkWise.

There is a strong local desire to maintain and develop the excellent jobs both WorkWise and the Wolverhampton Job Centre initiative are doing.  Access to Job Centres and employment areas in Walsall is also an issue with modelling being used to inform the Walsall Regeneration Company proposals.  Given the problem of getting to job centres as identified by the Strategic Accessibility Analysis we have decided to adopt the following LTP2 target for access to employment:

High Level Accessibility Objective: improve access to health facilities, including fresh food

a) Access to Health facilities

It is important to ensure good access to the whole spectrum of health facilities.  These range from regular and short notice access to local GPs or dentists, to infrequent use of specialist hospitals (including mental health facilities), that could serve the whole population of the West Midlands.  Unfortunately existing health plans and policies talk about “access” in terms of how long people must wait for doctors’ appointments or whether they have a choice of what hospital to attend, not whether the facilities can be reached with reasonable ease.

There are a large number of NHS GPs’ surgeries in the Metropolitan Area ranging from over 220 in Birmingham, the most populous district, to around 20 in Solihull, the least populous district.  They are relatively evenly spread throughout the Area, although there is a slightly higher concentration in the Birmingham Inner City where there is also the highest concentration of disadvantaged people as defined by the Index of Deprivation (2004).

Around 80% of residents live within 15 minutes walk of their nearest GP surgery.  This figure increases further if we take 15 minutes by public transport (as confirmed by the market research) as being an acceptable threshold.  Physical distance from a surgery is therefore not currently a major issue, but the individual circumstances of some potential patients (degree of illness, disability, the need to find child care, the position of carers etc) may restrict access at particular times.  There will also be a growing issue of retiring GPs in coming years, which will have implications for the accessibility of GP services.

There is also a developing trend for local health facilities to be grouped together in ‘LIFT’ (Local Improvement Finance Trust) centres.  Services can be provided to patients more efficiently in one purpose-built, multi-functional location, with longer opening hours and a wider range of services, than in several diverse, possibly unsuitable locations.  Patients can find it more difficult to reach these centres in the first place, as one centre often serves a larger catchment area than the facility it has replaced, but LIFT centres are part of a wider strategy to increase the quality and range of services that can be delivered within the community, including peoples’ homes, so fewer, but longer, journeys should need to be made.  When considering sites for the new facilities, accessibility by public transport and the scope for shared facilities are major considerations.

The Metropolitan Area is served by ten general hospitals, with at least one in each district.  Although they are mainly located on radial routes, rather than in highly accessible town centres, analysis has shown that the vast majority of local people can get to a hospital by conventional public transport in reasonable time.  However, with hospitals tending to specialise in certain types of treatment, patients can receive appointments that require cross-boundary public transport trips at inconvenient times.  For Walsall residents, for example, modelling has been used to analyse access to Walsall Manor Hospital and Wolverhampton New Cross Hospital.  Longer journeys may result in missed appointments (at an estimated cost of around £100 each to the local health authority), unnecessary expense to the patient and/or additional congestion due to the perceived need to travel by car, not least at the already over-capacity hospital car parks.  The provision of better public transport information when booking appointments could help overcome some of these difficulties.  Unfortunately WMSNT Ring & Ride operations do not provide transport to hospital appointments because of conflict with patient transport services.

Consultation on the Strategic Accessibility Analysis report has shown that groups representing disabled people are keen to see the development of low floor or accessible public transport that serves hospitals.  Figure 3 ‘Accessibility to Main Hospitals by Accessible Public Transport (1000-1200)’ shows a 30-minute isochrone around the main hospitals for current trips by low-floor bus, Metro and from / to 'accessible' railway stations:

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There are obvious gaps in access in all districts.  In view of the potential for increasing access to hospitals for vulnerable groups, and related issues such as reducing parking demand and pressure on some Demand Responsive Transport operators, we have chosen to adopt the following LTP target:

Access to pharmacies and dentists is also important for good health.  Pharmacies can be found adjacent to associated GPs’ surgeries, in the vast majority of local centres or inside large supermarkets.  Only their opening hours, particularly on a Sunday, may be a barrier to access.  Dental surgeries are almost as numerous as GPs’ surgeries, but many that offer NHS-supported services have no capacity to take on additional patients.  Barriers of cost prevent many people from registering with private dentists.

Consultation on accessibility issues has been going on at a local level.  For example in Dudley, services that have been provided over four hospital sites have been centralised into one (Russell’s Hall).  Initial discussions with the local Primary Care Trusts (PCTs) have proved fruitful in revealing a willingness to provide additional bus services to improve access to facilities following this change.  These issues have pointed to the desirability of a Black Country-wide audit of accessibility to health services to reflect the reality of catchment areas crossing administrative boundaries.  Sandwell MBC has taken this idea on board in a study of access to health facilities and local centres in the borough.

To build better links with the health sector and increase awareness of the Accessibility Planning agenda, Centro and the districts approached the West Midlands Regional Health Partnership (WMRHP).  With active support from the WMRHP Accessibility Planning is now a key part of the forthcoming WMRHP Action Plan for the West Midlands.  The Partnership is currently developing a series of actions to address health / transport issues in the areas of effective transport planning, travel choice and sharing good practice.

b) Access to fresh food

Trips to local centres for fresh food are usually combined with other trip purposes, for example to pharmacies for regular prescriptions, to a Post Office or bank or to leisure facilities.  In line with the preferred travel times that came out of the Centro market research access was evaluated to local, district and main centres:

The centres used are defined in local Unitary Development Plans.  Table 4 ‘% of households within 10 minutes of a local, district or main centre on a weekday by public transport or walking’ highlights some difficulties in getting to a centre in 10 minutes, although this is a 'preferred' and rather idealistic isochrone from the market research.

Table 4 % of households within 10 minutes of a local, district or main centre on a weekday by public transport or walking

	Birmingham	Coventry	Dudley	Sandwell	Solihull	Walsall	Wolverhampton	Met. Area
8 – 9am	51.6%	61.9%	58.5%	61.2%	58.9%	71.1%	50.1%	57.1%
1 – 2pm	47.9%	54.9%	53.0%	62.1%	54.4%	71.8%	47.8%	53.8%
7 – 8pm	41.8%	46.4%	45.5%	47.5%	46.0%	60.5%	39.2%	45.4%

While the table appears to show some level of problem it has not been possible to model all fresh food outlets due to incomplete knowledge and Accession limitations.  We are encouraging sustainable trips to local and higher centres by making locational planning decisions in line with WMRSS policy UR3: Enhancing the role of City, Town and District Centres ('develop strategies to maintain and enhance the underpinning role of all urban centres to serve their local communities in terms of retail provision, access to services and cultural / leisure activities').  However, the driving force behind the choice of fresh food as a key service appears to be the 'five fruit and vegetables a day' health agenda to help address the “obesity problem”.  There is currently no evidence of a significant strategic-level problem in obtaining fruit and vegetables in the Metropolitan Area, although some local difficulties exist.  For example in Walsall the Pheasey and Paddock Local Neighbourhood Partnership has provided funds to continue and extend the ‘Community Bus’ service to transport older citizens to shopping areas.  During the LTP2 period it is also intended to investigate the developing issue of 'food deserts', reported in Sandwell and Coventry, in more detail.

High Level Accessibility Objective: improve access to education

The Metropolitan Area is well-served by nearly 800 primary schools, 243 secondary schools and a widespread public transport network, including specific school bus services, that mean it is reasonably easy for 5-16 year-olds to get to school on time on a typical weekday.  In local education policy documents access requirements are quantified in the 1944 Education Act, in which LEAs are required to provide free transport for children living more than the 'statutory walking distance from school' (for under 8s more than 2 miles from their nearest school, for over 8s more than 3 miles, with some slight local variations).  However, due to the number of schools available, this is not a significant concern for most of the Metropolitan Area.

In reality parental choice and school specialisation, particularly in terms of faith, technology colleges etc, mean that pupils (especially 11-16 year olds) do not always go to their nearest school.  Alongside parental fear of crime or accidents, this can encourage being driven to school, rather than walking, cycling or catching public transport to their closest alternative.  This contributes significantly to road congestion, which is itself a barrier to access.  To give some idea of the potential impact, it is estimated that around 100,000 car trips are taking children to school every weekday in the West Midlands out of approximately 250,000 car trips in total between 8-9am.  Policies to increase flexibility for 14-19 year-olds by giving them the choice of attending more than one school or college during a school day has increased transport requirements.

Access to post-16 education is an issue, especially in terms of getting to specialist A-level and vocational training courses, which may only be held in a limited number of establishments.  This is most acutely seen in the 'Meriden Gap' between Solihull and Coventry, as Figure 4 ‘Accessibility to Further Education for 16-19 year olds’ shows.

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Community Transport (CT) in Wolverhampton is working to improve access to specialist A-level courses through the transport service initiated under the DfE Pathfinder education scheme, and has also established a City wide project enabling access to educational activities for children and young people.  CT Sandwell has established a project to improve access to Pupil Referral Units.  Both of the latter projects were funded through Urban Bus Challenge, administered by Centro.

The Birmingham and Solihull Learning and Skills Council considered Basic Skills and English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) courses were both worthy of early examination using Accessibility Planning software, as were the locations of Information, Advice and Guidance centres.  In addition many other uses could be seen for the software with the result that the organisation have decided to acquire it for use internally.  Their analyses will lead directly to “plugging gaps” in service provision.

The West Midlands Authorities do not yet feel able to define a target for access to education given that the choice issues overwhelm any influence that may be exerted by the transport authorities.  This situation will continue to be monitored over the LTP2 period.

9. Local Accessibility Assessments and Projects

Much work has been carried out locally to gain experience of the Accessibility Planning process and to help close previously identified accessibility gaps.  This section contains numerous examples.

East Birmingham and North Solihull

In Birmingham / Solihull accessibility has been analysed in a large part of the East Birmingham and North Solihull Regeneration Zone.  The initial aim was to derive a comprehensive and consistent methodology for accessibility planning based on the five-stage process defined by DfT.  Accession generated area-wide isochrones of public transport and walk journey times to hospitals, doctors, schools etc, then co-ordinated initial discussions with local stakeholders took place to get a 'reality check' of the results.  This pointed to the need to focus on three local assessments of:

1. The safety, cost and awareness of public transport in the East Birmingham section of the Regeneration Zone
2. Forward planning for access to GPs throughout Birmingham, taking account of closed lists and imminent retirements
3. Access to employment at Birmingham Airport, the National Exhibition Centre and Birmingham Business Park, in particular from North Solihull and areas of Sheldon and Shard End

The existence of the Regeneration Zone in the area, in addition to the development of a prospectus for growth in housing, represented a significant opportunity to influence land uses.  From the work a partnership known as the East Birmingham & North Solihull Mobility and Access Project was set up, with both authorities represented, along with transport partners.  The partnership aimed to develop an appropriate transportation scheme through bottom up consultation with the public and key stakeholders to identify the scheme elements.

The East Birmingham & North Solihull Mobility and Access Project links initiatives to improve accessibility to key services with a holistic approach to improving all elements of bus travel within the scheme area.  The overarching objective of the project is to improve accessibility for residents of the scheme target area, particularly those without access to a car, through better transportation provision to reach employment, education, health, fresh food retailing and leisure facilities, thus improving quality of life for scheme area residents.  It is anticipated that this project will deliver outcomes towards the end of the LTP2 period.

Other Projects in Birmingham

Accession is being used in each of the 11 council districts in Birmingham to:

• Test access to a standard set of destinations (GPs, hospitals, local centres, Birmingham city centre, primary schools, secondary schools) at specified times
• Potentially look at specific issues that have been identified as important in that District's Community Plan or through discussions with local representatives

Other accessibility-related maps showing road accident and crime hotspots, indices of deprivation, key employment locations and levels of car use for work are also being used to give a fuller picture of access issues.  This baseline information is then being augmented by consultation with residents to identify both transport and non-transport improvement schemes.

The University Hospital Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust is replacing two hospitals with one enlarged site that will cater for over 10,000 people (staff, patients and visitors) a day.  They are jointly working with Birmingham City Council to investigate the % of households within 15, 30 and 45 minutes of the new hospital site by public transport (bus only, then bus and rail) and walking.  Access at various times is being assessed for the whole of Birmingham and for specific priority areas.  To support this work the home addresses of 'missed appointments' have also been plotted.  When the baseline work is complete it is intended to test and assess various scenarios in Accession then, based on the results, work with commercial bus operators and DRT providers to improve access.

The intra-council working group on accessibility planning in Birmingham City Council has been investigating the location of Child Development Centres.  Large parts of Quinton, Kingstanding and Oscott wards were found to be well over 30 minutes away by public transport.  The intention is that Children Centres and / or schools that are best sited to cater for these areas will be upgraded to provide the additional functionality of Child Development Centres.

Projects in Walsall

In Walsall a study into whether post-16 students can get to places of learning is still ongoing, with Walsall MBC’s Strategic Intelligence Unit doing Accession modelling.  A change in funding for subsidising travel by 16-19 year olds to further education courses has led to concerns over students’ ability to pay for travel and so reduced accessibility to the 19 FE schools and colleges in Walsall.  This work has raised the profile of the subject to the extent that Walsall LSP have stated in the revised Community Plan that they will take 'an active and leading role in accessibility planning'.  Links have also been made with Birmingham Learning and Skills Council which is now providing data on post-16 students in Walsall, which should help to identify those not in education, employment and training (NEETs).  Accessibility planning will play a key role in validating Walsall’s Local Area Agreement.

A further study in Walsall was commissioned in 2004 to discover the level to which inadequate public transport is preventing the residents of Blakenall and Bloxwich East from taking up employment opportunities within reasonable travelling distance.  The Blakenall New Deal for Communities (NDC) area is one of the ten most deprived wards in the West Midlands.

Public transport accessibility modelling confirmed that the lack of cross-borough services is restricting access to key employment areas.  Recommendations include:

• The provision of cross-borough bus services that pass through the NDC area and directly access key employment areas to the east and west
• Introducing a local shuttle / circular service dedicated to serving the NDC area and the main radial routes
• Improving the quality and quantity of bus service information
• Promotion of the WorkWise initiative
• Improving and promoting walking and cycling routes for short journeys to the key bus corridors or local employment sites
• Improving the public transport environment to help minimise discomfort whilst waiting for services
• Better integration of services with shift times
• Encouraging employers to develop Workplace Travel Plans

The final report has been circulated to the local New Deal Employment Theme Group.  Modelling supports anecdotal evidence and a subgroup has been formed to look at the recommendations.

Work in Coventry

The LSP Transport Theme Group has jointly produced with Coventry City Council a draft Local Accessibility Plan for Coventry.  Theme group members include reps from Coventry City Council, Coventry Partnership, Primary Care Trust, Swiftlink, Centro, Jaguar, a Community Advocate, Travel Coventry, Coventry University, Warwick University, Learning & Skills Council, Chamber of Commerce, Coventry & Warwickshire Hospital, Community Empowerment Network and West Midlands Police.  Its main purpose is to set out an action plan that explores where local accessibility problems exist, put forward a range of potential actions and take forward projects to resolve them.  A series of meetings with other LSP theme groups (health, learning, jobs and economy) and other groups (e.g. Older Persons Forum and Physical and Sensory Impairment Partnership) are taking place and will inform the key priority issues.  An accessibility planning transport summit in 2006, led by the Transport Theme Group, is planned to bring together all the partners to agree priorities and identify a series of suitable actions to take the plan forward.

Work in Sandwell

Sandwell MBC is looking at a number of local accessibility issues, particularly in the areas of access to healthcare, employment and education.

An exciting use of accessibility planning has been in building it in at an early stage to the radical restructuring proposals for healthcare in West Birmingham and Sandwell.  Early stage strategic decisions have been made in the full knowledge of how accessible various option sites are to public transport and walking.  The close partnership working has enabled key issues to be addressed at the earliest possible stage, allowing accessibility information to be linked into the 2012 Agenda public consultation on options.

In terms of access to post-16 education statements on Accessibility Planning will be included in the LEA and partners’ joint policy and procedures by May 2006.  Another major piece of work involves the Building Schools for the Future initiative.  Secondary Education in Sandwell is being radically reviewed and the school transport implications of the various options are being identified and evaluated.

In 2006/0 it is proposed to review the transport arrangements for children and adults with Learning Difficulties to maximise the use of public transport for trips to school, day centres and community venues.  Other proposed work includes:

• Using Accession to help determine potential locations for healthcare facilities
• Developing a Workwise project in Sandwell with Job Centre Plus (which would also satisfy an objective of the Council's regeneration department in connecting more people to jobs)
• Working with businesses and developers so they know what is expected from them in terms of making developments accessible by all modes
• Using Accession to develop cross-sector transport solutions to enable Sandwell residents to better access education, social care, leisure and health care facilities and services
• Working with partners to provide innovative solutions to the passenger transport needs of the community including investigating the feasibility of using flexible, accessible, semi-fixed public transport

Work in Dudley

As part of an initial pilot study, Dudley MBC has investigated the issue of access to healthcare.  This is seen as a particularly important area to focus upon in Dudley since most hospital facilities have recently been centralised into one site.  Similarly, the PCTs are embarking on a project to provide ‘Health Improvement Sites’ within the borough and it is essential that the locations of these new facilities are accessible.  To date, the accessibility of hospital sites in Dudley have been assessed using Accession and this has been used as the basis for analysing changes in accessibility with the movement of facilities.  Work is being carried out in partnership with the Dudley PCT to develop a priority list of potential projects for consideration.  Dudley MBC has already been successful in working in partnership with the major bus operator to provide new Bus Showcase routes extending to the hospital thereby improving strategic accessibility.

Dudley MBC has also set up a pilot scheme in partnership with the local Community Transport project to provide improved access to food stores from the most deprived wards in the borough.  It is intended to expand upon these early initiatives and, through the creation of an ‘Accessibility Partnership’ Group, issues arising from the Strategic Assessment can be developed, prioritised and solutions proposed.

Work in Wolverhampton

Wolverhampton City Council has already begun to address issues relating to accessibility through the Unmet Accessible Transport Needs study and its support for initiatives such as Citywide and the 'Five a Day' project led by Wolverhampton Hospital Trust and PCT.  It has taken the first steps in establishing partnerships with the LSP and other local partners, such as the health and regeneration sectors, in order to develop a local accessibility strategy.  In parallel it has established an intra-Council group to develop corporate working between transportation, planning, urban renewal, education and other areas of Council service provision.  Early indications are that the following areas require further examination for possible inclusion in the local accessibility strategy:

• Access to health services such as the redeveloped New Cross Hospital and LIFT projects
• Access to new employment areas such as i54 and Bilston Urban Village, in particular from areas suffering from social exclusion
• Linkages between Accessibility Planning and urban renewal

Accessibility and Public Transport

Centro provide socially necessary bus services in accordance with standards set by the Passenger Transport Authority where there is evidence that there would otherwise be a gap in provision and this can be addressed by providing a subsidised service at an acceptable cost.  Services are provided to ensure that minimum service quality standards are met in terms of maximum walk distance to bus services or minimum service frequency in built up areas.  Subsidised services are generally provided in the early morning, late evening and on Sundays and provide an important role in improving accessibility levels, see Figure 5 ‘Subsidised Evening Bus Routes (after 7pm)’.

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Centro has a programme of minor works to improve public transport stops and interchanges, to provide integration between services, a safe environment, passenger information and appropriate levels of facilities accessible to all passengers.  To evaluate and prioritise the minor works programme a 3-stage process is followed:

• Coarse sieve of scheme ideas
• Business case evaluation
• Prioritisation

At the coarse sieve stage the broad impact of all schemes on the four shared priorities, including accessibility, are assessed.  The prioritisation process also evaluates each schemes impact on accessibility, using the impact on the PTA / Centro’s 20-year strategy standards (see Appendix 2).  This 3-stage process has been successfully used to prioritise Centro’s minor works programme for four years.

In the rail sector, work is ongoing with operators and other partners to improve service quality and the travelling environment of the rail network through improvements to rolling stock, stations, information provision, track and signalling and provision of secure cycle parking and Park & Ride.  Centro are also working with rail industry partners to improve accessibility at stations, providing facilities that are accessible to all passengers.

Work is being carried out on the development and implementation of a Network West Midlands brand, which will improve understanding of the public transport network.  This brand will be used on all vehicles, stops, information, ticketing and publications, providing clearer information and a consistent public transport image.

Centro provide journey-planning information to meet the requirements of all communities in a variety of forms of communication, including at-stop printed and real time information and printed, verbal and technology-based information.  The further use of technology in information provision is being investigated, including personal journey planning information through the website and WAP-based real time information.

Centro’s concessionary travel scheme for elderly, children and disabled people provides travel concessions above the national minimum.  Since July 2005 the concession to cover bus, rail, Metro and Ring & Ride has provided free off-peak travel for all those over 60 and eligible disabled people.  This was introduced in advance of the Government’s national statutory minimum scheme, which enables free off-peak travel on buses with effect from April 2006.  Half fare is also given (where not commercially provided) for 5-18 year olds in full time education.  These schemes provide vital access to transport for these groups, thereby dramatically improving their level of social inclusion.  Current take up of the over 60s travel pass is estimated at over 90%.  Centro also provide a range of easily understood multi-modal and multi-operator tickets, which allow seamless interchange and value for money for passengers, thereby making access to services easier.

Centro also supports Safer Travel, working with other agencies to develop joint initiatives to improve the whole public transport journey for passengers, including lighting, landscaping, CCTV, education schemes and integration of strategies.  This will help reduce perceptions of crime as a barrier to travel, which is particularly important for the elderly and women.

A range of work is also responding to the findings and recommendations of research to ‘Identify the level and extent of unmet accessible transport need in Wolverhampton’.  This includes collaboration with all local providers of accessible transport in the city to better meet existing and latent demand for essential services.  The feasibility of setting up a brokering agency to share vehicles, staff and other resources is currently being undertaken.  Centro will continue to work with partners through its Social Inclusion Team in order to identify future barriers to employment, health and other key services as specified in the LTP Social Inclusion Strategy appendix.

Centro has recently started a comprehensive review of the West Midlands bus network.  This is being undertaken on an area basis in order to identify future bus service options, including opportunities for improved interchange with other modes and possibly bus feeder services to rail and metro.  Accessibility Planning information is one of the key inputs to this review which is expected to be largely complete by Spring 2006.  It will then be possible to consider delivery mechanisms for the revised network of services.  The technical work being undertaken for this will also develop a single accessibility measure, which can then be used for testing other transport schemes and developments.  This measure uses a combination of access to schools, hospitals, GPs, main and local centres and job centres.

TravelWise and Travel Plans

Through the TravelWise campaign the West Midlands Authorities work in partnership with employers, schools, further and higher education establishments, developers and other large trip generators to deliver travel plans which will assist modal shift from car.  As well as reducing congestion this provides information on the availability of transport alternatives and encourages a change in behaviour.  Centro also have key involvement in the WorkWise campaign.  See the 'High Level Accessibility Objective: improve access to employment' section for more detail.

Centro and the districts work with developers through the planning process to develop travel plans for industrial developments and business parks to encourage staff and visitors to travel more sustainably to work or for business.  They are looking to extend this to work more closely with residential developments to increase access to sustainable modes of travel (such as buses, walking and cycling).  Developments will have reduced car parking on site, so it is essential that help is given to developers and local authorities to promote alternatives to the car.  It is hoped that a pilot scheme will be started with Sandwell MBC TravelWise to provide public transport information and timetable updates to householders on a residential development.

Centro are planning to use Accession and accessibility planning principles to aid the TravelWise programme through:

• Providing information to employees on residential areas that are accessible by sustainable modes from their business
• Providing bespoke public transport maps for schools and companies (particularly useful for hospitals)
• Identifying gaps in public transport provision to schools and businesses where services do not operate at optimum times or frequencies, and discuss with bus operators

It is intended to launch Community TravelWise in 2006, which will offer a TravelWise-type service to Community and Faith Organisations.  Two community groups have been identified to trial the service, along with community transport options, which will provide significant benefits for members who do not have a car or access to a car.  The centres will be using their own volunteers to help with travel planning, with information provided through a web portal.

The TravelWise service is being extended to leisure facilities, with work currently ongoing with Sandwell Leisure Trust, West Bromwich Albion and Walsall FC to provide site specific information for staff and visitors on accessing leisure facilities using public transport.  This is usually available as a leaflet or on the organisation's own website.

Demand Responsive Transport

Local door-to-door Demand Responsive Transport (DRT) operators, including Community Transport (CT) and Ring & Ride (operated for Centro by West Midlands Special Needs Transport), provide transport on a 'not for profit' basis.  They operate at a community level by 'filling the gaps' left by commercial operators, so meeting the needs of those experiencing, or at risk of, social exclusion.  They most usually provide transport for youth groups, churches, old people’s groups and other voluntary bodies to enable individual and group needs to be met with travel for shopping, leisure, health, to places of worship, and for other purposes.  Users are required to register to use Ring and Ride and must meet eligibility criteria; journeys must be booked in advance.  The service provided is generally good but is often oversubscribed leading to difficulties with the telephone / booking facility in particular.

Unfortunately DRT is generally not proving to be self-sufficient.  In order to survive operators are becoming increasingly financially dependant on Centro and the Districts.  Main sources of funding include:

• Centro’s Social Inclusion 'Quick Wins' Revenue Fund - this fund has been running since 2003.  It is approved through the public transport levy on an annual basis and is a £260,000 revenue budget that funds projects aiming to combat social exclusion
• Urban & Rural Bus Challenge and Kick Start - these funds come directly from DfT and cover the running costs (capital and revenue) of successful projects during the first three years of operation

Table 5 Local partnership projects involving Centro, the districts and DRT operators

Project	2005/06 Funding
CT Dudley, ‘Inclusion through Consultation’ Project	£22,030
Shencare (for elderly and less able people in SW Birmingham)	£21,594
New Hope Partnership ‘Increased Access to Employability’ Project (for refugee youth in NW Birmingham)	£12,523
CT Solihull ‘First Steps for Group Transport For All’ Project	£10,000
Yemeni Elderly Association, ‘Health Access’ Project (SE Birmingham)	£8,640
Dudley Mind, ‘On the Buses’ Project	£3,646
Walsall, Pheasey and Paddock Community Bus service to transport older citizens to and from places of interest	£3,500
Birmingham and Solihull Mental Health Trust, ‘All Aboard’ Project	£2,205

The 'Quick Wins' Revenue Fund also supports WorkWise with around £65,000 annually.  All these schemes are operating in recognised deprived areas and dovetail with other regeneration programmes.  Some further development projects involve CT Wolverhampton taking local elderly people to church activities to reduce social isolation and a co-ordinated approach for service delivery involving social care, education and health care transport providers in Birmingham.

The 'Swiftlink' DRT scheme in Coventry, initiated by the Coventry LSP Transport Theme Group and operated by Coventry Community Transport, runs services for people living in deprived areas of the City to get to work.  Coventry CT is a member of the LSP Transport Theme Group, which will ensure that the scheme develops in line with the currently draft local accessibility strategy.  Discussions are being held with the University Hospital Coventry and Warwickshire on how accessibility planning could benefit them in providing demand responsive transport.  This work will continue throughout early 2006.

Centro and Community Transport are currently looking into the development of a DRT Strategy for the West Midlands as part of the Bus Strategy.  This is expected to recognise that CT require capacity building support and that some CT initiatives will require long-term investment programmes since they might never become commercially viable.  The Ring and Ride service is also currently the subject of a Best Value review, which will be completed in 2006.

The 'Meriden Gap'

The West Midlands Metropolitan County is overwhelmingly urban.  The built-up areas are served by a comprehensive public transport network, meaning access to key services is relatively good.  However this is not true in the 'Meriden Gap', the substantial rural area of Solihull between the West Midlands conurbation and Coventry.  This area is characterised by low levels of deprivation and disability, high car ownership, low unemployment and high levels of home working.  The majority of work trips within the area are by car, however there is also some use of rail, with a local service to Birmingham and Coventry.  The relatively sparse conventional bus network is supplemented by specialist services such as Dial-A-Ride and taxi buses, offering lifts to main centres, and school buses, although access to post-16 education is still a problem.  The DRT Strategy is expected to have particular impact in this area.

Land Use Planning

An important, developing area of work is tied to the planning programme set out in the Local Development Schemes of the local authorities.  It involves performing an accessibility analysis of Local Development Documents and working with planners to enhance access to services for people considered in most need.  Key areas include Local Centres Strategies and car parking guidelines.  In Birmingham and Walsall it is intended to introduce use of 'Accession' in transport assessment work for large new developments to help determine conditions and the use of Section 106 funding.  Centro will also be using Accession outputs in negotiations with developers on Section 106 funding and travel plans.

All these projects have resulted in the development of new relationships with individual service providers and a raising of the profile of Accessibility Planning.  This in turn has enabled partners to see the benefit of the process and allowed priorities to be determined in a new light.

10. The Way Forward

The Accessibility Planning agenda is developing at a rapid rate.  There are almost as many definitions of accessibility as groups who should be engaged in the process.  Even while just concentrating on the central theme of reducing social exclusion it has become apparent that we are at the start of a long-term process that will continue to evolve beyond the LTP2 period.  In line with our vision statement there is a lot of work to do to embed accessibility planning within the many mainstream local authority practices it is relevant to.  There is also more work to highlight its importance to partners and stakeholders so that they too incorporate it when developing policies and schemes.  The mainstreaming and partnership work is neither one-off nor limited by the LTP deadline.  Ensuring accessibility is embraced by all local authority departments and partners, especially in seeking benefit for the most disadvantaged groups in society, will be a fundamental principle underpinning our work over the next five years.

The Strategic Accessibility Analysis has highlighted a number of areas of concern that need to be investigated in more depth.  This will form another important strand of work for the first two years of LTP2.  It is apparent that travel time to key services is not the level of problem in the Metropolitan Area that it is in rural areas.  Barriers to travel in terms of fears for personal security, cost, availability of travel information etc are possibly more pertinent.  These are issues that will also require more study.  A good start has been made in the local projects, which will bring forward key actions in themselves.

The lateness and particular problems in using Accession in the West Midlands have delayed consultation and action planning in terms of area-wide issues.  However local work with partners, especially in Birmingham, Coventry and Walsall, is moving forward more quickly.  A number of locally identified priorities are shown in Table 6 ‘Timetable of LTP Accessibility Planning Work’  These will form the basis of local work in the near future.

Table 6 Timetable of LTP Accessibility Planning Work

ACTIVITY	LEAD RESPONSIBILITY	2006	2007	2008	2009	2010	2011
Evidence Gathering
Further investigation of outcomes from Strategic Accessibility Analysis	CST / Districts
Non-modelling evidence of accessibility problems	CST
Monitoring & review of schemes / targets	CST
Develop Partnership Working
Local Strategic Partnerships	Districts
New Deal for Communities, Regeneration Zones, SRB etc	Districts
Internally within authorities	Districts / Centro
Community Transport, Ring & Ride	Centro
Primary Care Trusts	Districts
Strategic Health Authority	Centro / CST
Education Authorities / Learning & Skills Council	Districts
Job Centre (Plus)	Districts / Centro
Regional Assembly	Centro / CST
External interest groups (age, ethnicity, learning difficulties etc)	CST
Scheme Development
WorkWise	Centro / CST / Job Centre Plus
Resource Audit	All as part of partnership working
Local Action Plans
Local action planning in 11 districts Access to new University Hospital Birmingham and other employment sites	Birmingham
Develop issues in draft Local Accessibility Plan, particularly access to health and employment	Coventry
Further work with PCTs Look at access to fresh food via Community Transport	Dudley
Access to post-16 education Building Schools for the Future Review the transport arrangements for children and adults with Learning Disabilities	Sandwell
Develop DRT in Meriden Gap	Solihull
Access to nine partnership sites (one-stop shops) Development work with LSC	Walsall
Development work ongoing through local Accessibility Group	Wolverhampton
Other (Pilot) Projects
East Birmingham Mobility & Access Project	Birmingham
Access to post-16 education	Walsall
Access to Employment in Blakenall	Walsall

Table 7 Appendix 1. Accessibility Statements in Local Community Strategies

Birmingham Community Strategy – access to:
General Services	Aim for a city where people are not disadvantaged by where they live, where everyone receives a high standard of public services Use locality planning to improve access to key services and continuing support for local centres that provide people with access to shops and other services Make getting about in the city easier, with improvements that focus on congestion, making streets safer and more pleasant and improving the quality of public transport Reduce re-offending by improving priority offenders’ access to drug treatment and to opportunities for education, training and employment
Health	Make it easier to take exercise and promote healthy eating Improve access to coordinated services across the city for parents and young children Provide up-to-date care close to home for those who suffer ill-health Improve support in local communities for those with long-term illness
Jobs	Engage with businesses so they can provide investment and jobs in localities Sustain local centres of employment
Learning	Expand the number and quality of childcare places in the city with a focus on improving access to those in greatest need Improve adult skills through the successful community-based learning that has been helping many adults who lack basic skills, and by increasing vocational training and modern apprenticeships for both young people and older adults
Other Services	Provide culture up your street through better access to, and opportunities for, cultural, sport and leisure activities outside the city centre, with a particular focus on involving young people Extend the use of schools to provide the base for other public services and to offer support to parents and pupils beyond school hours Improve people’s access to, and enjoyment of, green and open space

Coventry Community Plan – access to:
Health	Provide better access to services to maintain and improve safe and healthy living Work in partnership to improve access to drug treatment services
Jobs	Improve physical access (transport) and social access (childcare) to jobs
Learning	Develop alternative and additional learning activities in priority neighbourhoods and communities

Dudley Community Plan – access to:
Health	Promote fairness of access to health and social care services across the borough
Jobs	Enable local people to get local jobs, in particular the disadvantaged to access good quality training and employment Improve childcare provision, information and training to encourage take up of employment
Learning	Improve access to learning opportunities for everyone
Other Services	Improve mobility for people who find it difficult to travel in the borough

Sandwell Community Plan – access to:
Health	Introduce a network of Healthy Living Centres for Sandwell
Jobs	Developing a partnership-based “Access to Jobs” Strategy
Learning	Establish a network of learning centres across Sandwell through Sandwell Learning
Other services	All sections of the community will have access to opportunities and services which are appropriate to their needs

Solihull Community Strategy – access to:
Health	Improve access for patients Continue to move services traditionally based in hospitals into the community, making them more convenient for residents to access and reduce inequalities in health
Jobs	Enable local people to gain local jobs, in particular assisting those people who experience disadvantage or discrimination Improve access for disabled people to an increased range of employment possibilities
Learning	Improve access to learning, creative and cultural opportunities for everyone Set targets to ensure every 3 year old has a nursery place Improve access to computers
Other Services	Develop wider surface and air transport choices to improve accessibility to work, education, key services, to minimise congestion and improve accessibility for business, leisure and tourism Provide leisure facilities that are easy to access

Walsall Community Strategy – access to:
General	Indicators to be developed to measure the proportion of Walsall’s population within easy access by public transport or walking of key health facilities, education, employment and fresh food Take an active and leading role in accessibility planning, improving connectivity between homes and job opportunities, health and other community facilities Coordinate transport services to improve connections between neighbourhoods and essential services, and to make better use of resources, e.g. combining community transport services Work with transport agencies in developing sustainable transport provision
Health	Improving health and life expectancy, reducing health inequalities, furthering social inclusion by focusing on the accessibility of services
Jobs	Target and link job opportunities with our communities and neighbourhoods most in need

Wolverhampton Community Plan – access to:
Health	Locate GPs where they are most needed Provide new healthcare facilities, including traditional hospital-based services, closer to people's homes by 2006
Jobs	Local peoples’ skills will be broadened to access greater job opportunities
Learning	Provide more adults with access to advice, guidance and learning services at local centres
Other Services	Better local access to leisure activities and facilities Increase the number of leisure sessions / activities for people with disabilities

Appendix 2. PTA / Centro 20-year strategy standards applicable to Accessibility Planning

1  Network Access

• Local Networks - Bus
  1. 100% of the Metropolitan built-up area to be within 250 metres of a local network stop with a service between 0700-2000 Monday- Saturday
  2. 100% of the Metropolitan built-up area to be within 400 metres of a local network stop with a services between 0500-0700 and 2000-2400 Monday-Saturday and 0700-2000 Sunday
  3. 100% of the Metropolitan rural area settlements of over 2000 inhabitants will be within 400 metres of a local network stop

• Local Networks - Accessible Transport
  1. 100% of the Metropolitan Area will be accessible by door to door services to destinations within 5 km of the origin and interchanges within the Network West Midlands, for people unable to access conventional public transport

2  Integration

• Small interchanges
  1. As short a walking distance as possible, up to a maximum distance of 200 metres between all stops / stations at an interchange, subject to physical limitations
  2. Safe pedestrian crossing of any relevant highways, with crossing facilities where appropriate
  3. Signage

• Medium interchanges (as small plus)
  1. Kiss and ride / accessible transport lay by

• Large interchanges (as medium plus)
  1. Mechanised transport to be investigated between stops / stations at an interchange where distance is greater than 200 metres
  2. Taxi rank

• Accessible Transport
  1. 100% of the Metropolitan Area will be covered by door-to-door services between origins and Network West Midlands stops / stations to provide transfer from origins onto high frequency Network West Midlands services which can take the customer beyond the local area served directly by door-to-door services

• Network West Midlands and Local Networks - Ticketing
  1. Single journey tickets will be available which are valid for more than one service to make any end to end public transport journey, which involves transfer between services of any operator
  2. Return journey tickets and passes will also be available to transfer between all services of any operator on the Network West Midlands and local networks to meet all customer journey requirements
  3. Simplest understandable fare structure
  4. Pre-paid tickets / passes will be available at all local shopping centres, district centres, main centres, post offices, through direct debiting and at bus and railway stations

3  Accessible Design

• Network West midlands
  • Unaided access using footways, footpaths and pedestrian crossing facilities to stop for all people
  • All services will fully conform to DiPTAC specifications.  All services and infrastructure will fully conform to Disability Discrimination Act regulations

• Bus / Midland Metro
  1. Unaided access on / off all vehicles and all stops for all people
  2. Unaided access inside all vehicles from entrance to wheelchair space / seat / standing area for all people
  3. Unaided access in / out / inside all facilities at all stops for all people

• Rail
  1. Unaided access to all platforms for all people at stations in the Metropolitan Area subject to physical constraints
  2. Aided access on / off all services for all people who require it
  3. Unaided access inside all individual train cars from entrance to wheelchair space / seat / standing area for all people
  4. Unaided access in / out / inside all facilities at all stations for all people

• Accessible Transport
  1. Unaided access on / off / inside all vehicles for all people
  2. Aided access with trained staff assistance on / off / inside all vehicles for all people

4  Affordability

• Network West Midlands and Local Networks
  1. Through research, identify a target for the number of journeys everyone should be able to make to get access to social, economic and educational activity.  Identify and remove, in partnership with other agencies, cost barriers which prevent people making the target number of journeys
  2. The cost of a person’s public transport journey is not more than the equivalent car journey’s fuel and parking costs, divided per person if travelling in a group
  3. Discounted travel available to unemployed people based on existing welfare to work arrangements i.e. half price travel for job seekers
  4. When cash is used boarding a vehicle, change or a public transport coupon giving the equivalent value of the change, will be given

5  Frequency

• Bus Showcase, Midland Metro - Monday-Saturday Minimum frequency (starting time from terminus)
  1. 0000-0500 Subject to commercial demand
  2. 0500-0700 Every 12 minutes
  3. 0700-2000 Every 6 minutes
  4. 2000-2400 Every 12 minutes

• Bus Showcase, Midland Metro - Sundays and Bank Holidays Minimum frequency (starting time from terminus)
  1. 0000-0500 Subject to commercial demand
  2. 0500-0700 Subject to commercial demand
  3. 0700-0900 Every 20 minutes
  4. 0900-2000 Every 10 minutes
  5. 2000-2400 Every 20 minutes

• Local networks (Bus) - Monday-Saturday Minimum frequency (starting time from terminus)
  1. 0000-0500 Subject to commercial demand
  2. 0500-0700 Every 30 minutes
  3. 0700-2000 Every 30 minutes
  4. 2000-2400 Every 30 minute

• Local networks (Bus) - Sundays and Bank Holidays Minimum frequency (starting time from terminus)
  1. 0000-0500 Subject to commercial demand
  2. 0500-0700 Subject to commercial demand
  3. 0700-0900 Every 30 minutes
  4. 0900-2000 Every 30 minutes
  5. 2000-2400 Every 30 minute

• Accessible transport
  1. Through research, identify a target for the number of journeys everyone who is unable to walk to Network West Midlands, or local bus stops, should be able to make by accessible transport to get access to social, economic and educational activity.
  2. Operating hours 0700-2400

6  Direct Services

• Network West Midlands
  1. Cross town/cross city routes will be developed where practicable

• Local Networks - Bus
  1. All residential areas should have a direct service to a district or local centre
  2. All residential areas should have a direct service onto the Network West Midlands
  3. Accessible transport
  4. 100% of the Metropolitan Area will be covered by door-to-door services between origins and destinations within 5 km of each other
      

7  Information

• Layout / format of information
  1. All information will conform to Disability Discrimination Act Regulations
  2. Printed information in languages other than English for ethnic minorities and tourists will be available from libraries and other appropriate outlets

Appendix 3. Initial List of potential Accessibility Indicators

These indicators were developed based on the Community Strategies and other priorities from partners and stakeholders.  They use information from the market research undertaken by Centro (see Section 8) and have been evaluated using the Accession software.

Local Access to Health indicators:

• % of households within 8 and 15 minutes travel time by public transport or walking of a GP surgery or health clinic from 0800-1800 on an average weekday
• % of registered disabled and pensioners over 65 within 15 and 25 minutes travel time of NHS hospital out-patient facilities, by low floor public transport services from 0830-1830 on an average weekday
• % households in low income wards that can travel to GPs' surgeries and health clinics by public transport for less than £0.80 fare per person from 0800-1800 on an average weekday
• % households in low income wards that include children, within 10 and 20 minutes travel time by public transport of an NHS registered dentist from 0830-1730 on an average weekday compared to % all households that include children
• % households in low income wards within 15 minutes travel time of a local authority leisure centre from 0800-2100 on an average weekday

Access to GPs affects all sectors of the community, but is particularly difficult for those without access to car.  The indicator therefore considers all households and public transport and walking modes.

Access to hospitals affects all sectors of the community, however disabled and elderly people may need regular outpatient appointments, may have less access to private transport and are more likely to find access difficult than other groups.  The indicator considers low floor buses and fully accessible railway stations to consider only those route options accessible to wheelchairs and mobility-impaired passengers.

The cost of travel to GPs is recognised as a barrier to making / keeping appointments and is likely to affect low-income groups in particular.

With declining numbers of NHS dentists, access is becoming an increasing problem, particularly for those without access to private transport.  Good dental care is particularly important for children and with lower car ownership levels those in low income households will find it difficult to access dentists.  The indicator looks to determine whether access is a problem for all children or whether there are regional differences related to income levels.

Improving health also means improving general physical fitness.  The indicator measures access to leisure facilities, particularly for those in low-income households who generally have poorer levels of nutrition and health and will be more reliant on local authority facilities than private gyms.

Local Access to Education indicators:

• % of 4-10 year olds within a 2 mile walk (under 8s) and a 3 mile walk (over 8s) from their nearest primary school
• Public transport accessibility for 11-15 year olds to secondary schools from 0830-1600 on an average weekday
• Accessibility by public transport and walking to adult education centres, universities and colleges from 1700-2200 on an average weekday
• % of households within 8 and 15 minutes travel time by public transport or walking from a public library from 0830-1800 on an average weekday and Saturday
• Public transport accessibility for 16-19 year olds to full time further education course providers between 0830-1600 on an average weekday

Secondary school pupils are likely to be more independent, but with increasing parental concerns over safety and driving pupils to school, improving access to schools is an important issue.

There is a West Midlands wide drive to increase take up of adult education services, the indicator looks at accessibility to evening classes to fit around the working day.

Improving education levels will be helped by ensuring access to learning materials.  The indicator considers access on Saturdays as well as weekdays to take into account those people working during the week.

Access to further education is a particular problem for the 16-19 age group, who may need to travel some distance to access suitable courses, are independent but have low income levels and low car ownership.

Local Access to Employment Indicators:

• % unemployed within 15 and 30 minutes travel time by public transport of shift work employment sites  from 1900-0600 on an average weekday compared to the % 16-65 year olds
• % unemployed within 10 and 15 minutes travel time by public transport or walk of job centres and job centre plus from 0830-1700 on an average weekday
• % of long term unemployed (unemployed for more than 6 months) within 15 and 25 minutes travel time of training destinations by public transport from 0830-1730 on an average weekday
• Public transport accessibility for non-car households to employment sites from 0830-1730 on an average weekday compared to all households accessibility
• Public transport accessibility for registered disabled to employment sites from 0830-1730 on an average weekday compared to all households accessibility
• % lone parent households within 15 minutes travel time by public transport and less than £0.70 fare per person of childcare facilities from 0700-0900 on an average weekday

Shift work employment sites, because of their size and tendency towards edge of town or out of town locations, are generally not well served by public transport.  When compounded with night shift working, when public transport is particularly poor, this makes access difficult.  By improving access for the unemployed one of the barriers to returning to work will be removed.

When unemployed access to job centres is important to use the services provided, however while unemployed income levels are low, increasing reliance on public transport.  For the long term unemployed access to training facilities would increase their skills base and the job opportunities available to them.

Although a high proportion of employment is located in town centre locations, which are usually well served by public transport, there is an increasing trend to out of town business parks, which are difficult to access without a car.  The indicator therefore considers access to all employment sites for those people without access to a car.

Disabled people may have less access to private transport and therefore greater reliance on public transport, by improving access to employment sites for these groups one of the barriers to employment is removed.

Access to childcare is vital to attract lone parent families, particularly those with young children, to work.  With one parent income levels are likely to be lower than in two parent households and the cost of travel will be important.

Local Access to Fresh Food Indicators:

• % of households within 5 and 10 minutes travel time by public transport or walk of local centres from 0800-2000 on an average weekday and Saturday
• Public transport accessibility for non-car households to main shopping centres from 0900-2000 on an average weekday and Saturday
• % of households in low income wards able to access main shopping centres for less than £0.80 public transport fare from 0900-2000 on an average weekday and Saturday
• Public transport accessibility for registered disabled and elderly to main shopping centres from 0900-2000 on an average weekday and Saturday compared to all households accessibility

With the rising dominance supermarkets for food shopping and the decline of the town centre, easy access to local centres for convenience goods and everyday services is becoming increasingly important for all.  The indicator therefore considers all households access to local centres.

Main shopping centres provide a wider range of goods and services than the local centres, it is therefore important that access is equally good for all sectors of the community, however for those without a car this may be more difficult.  This will be a particular problem where goods and services are moving towards out of town shopping centre locations.  For those on low incomes, where public transport fares are an important issue, access to main shopping centres may be difficult.

For disabled and elderly people with lower mobility levels access to all facilities will be harder, by accessing main shopping centres they can access a range of goods and services.

Appendix 4. Active Partners and Letters of Support

Attendees at West Midlands Strategic Accessibility Analysis Consultation events included:

Overall Strategic Level Event at Centro

• Job Centre Plus
• East Birmingham / North Solihull Regeneration Zone
• Advantage WM
• Mott MacDonald Consultants
• Government Office for the West Midlands
• Community Transport
• Ring & Ride
• Birmingham International Airport
• Worcestershire County Council
• Birmingham City Council
• Centro
• Coventry City Council
• Dudley MBC
• Walsall MBC
• Wolverhampton City Council

Local meetings in the following districts

Birmingham

• Birmingham & Solihull Learning & Skills Council
• Mott MacDonald Consultants
• Community Transport
• Birmingham Strategic Partnership Board
• Birmingham Strategic Partnership Secretariat
• University Hospital Birmingham NHS Trust
• Yardley District Strategic Partnership
• Centro
• Birmingham City Council Housing Strategy Unit
• Hall Green District Strategic Partnership
• Birmingham City Council Resources Dept
• Birmingham City Council Local Services Dept
• West Midlands Police
• Eastern Birmingham PCT
• Birmingham City Council Transportation Dept

Coventry

The Coventry Partnership Transport Theme Group members include:

• Coventry City Council
• Coventry Partnership
• Coventry Primary Care Trust
• Swiftlink
• Centro
• Jaguar
• Community Advocates
• Travel Coventry
• Coventry University
• Warwick University
• Learning & Skills Council
• Coventry & Warwickshire Chamber of Commerce
• Coventry & Warwickshire Hospital
• Community Empowerment Network
• West Midlands Police

Dudley

Dudley Community Partnership Board members include:

• Dudley Muslim Association
• Dudley Race Equality Council
• Dudley Federation of Tenants Associations
• Dudley CVS
• Dudley MBC
• West Midlands Police
• Dudley South PCT
• Job Centre Plus
• Black Country Learning and Skills Council
• Dudley College
• Black Country Chambers of Commerce
• Black Country Federation of Small Businesses
• Dudley LSP Jobs Theme Group
• Dudley Learning Partnership
• The Dudley Group of Hospitals NHS Trust
• Dudley LSP Safe and Sound Partnership
• Dudley LSP Strategic Housing and Environment Partnership

Sandwell

• Sandwell MBC Transportation Planning
• Sandwell MBC Education
• Sandwell MBC Employment / Regeneration
• Sandwell MBC Planning Policy
• Sandwell MBC Social Inclusion and Health
• Sandwell MBC Passenger Transport Unit
• Sandwell Leisure Trust
• Sandwell MBC Policy Division
• Sandwell MBC Neighbourhood and Community Services
• Sandwell MBC Town Teams
• Sandwell MBC Highways Direct
• Sandwell MBC Crime & Disorder
• Sandwell MBC Human Resources
• Sandwell MBC Planning & Development
• Sandwell MBC Development Control
• Urban Living
• Sandwell Partnership
• Sandwell MBC Housing
• Sandwell MBC Licensing
• New Deal for Communities
• Sandwell Homes
• Sandwell Regeneration Company
• Health / Sandwell Primary Care Trusts
• Sandwell MBC Joint Policy Unit
• Voluntary Sector / Agewell
• Independent Living Centre
• Access Alliance
• Centro
• Job Centre Plus
• Sandwell People First
• Sandwell Transport Users’ Group
• Community Transport
• Ring & Ride
• Black Country Chamber
• Black Country Consortium
• Groundwork in Walsall
• Youth Select Committee / Youth Strategy Team

Solihull

• Birmingham International Airport
• Mott MacDonald
• Solihull MBC
• Travel West Midlands
• Centro
• Ecology, Solihull MBC
• Arts, Solihull MBC
• Environment Agency
• Warwickshire Wildlife Trust
• Housing Strategy, Solihull MBC
• Solihull Residents Association
• Warwickshire Rural Community Council

Walsall

• Walsall MBC Policy unit
• Walsall Police
• Walsall Borough Strategic Partnership
• Disability forum
• Walsall MBC Economic Regeneration
• Learning & Skills Council
• Centro
• Walsall MBC Environmental Regeneration
• Accord Housing Association
• Environment Forum
• Safer Walsall Borough Partnership
• Health & Social Care Partnership Board
• Walsall MBC Education
• Strategic Intelligence Team
• Mott MacDonald consultants
• Walsall MBC Youth Service
• Travel West Midlands
• New Deal for Communities
• Walsall MBC Physical Regeneration
• Walsall MBC Organisation Development

Wolverhampton

• Transportation Development Wolverhampton City Council
• Centro
• Wolverhampton City PCT
• ABCD
• Wolverhampton Strategic Partnership
• MAPP (Merry Hill & Penn Partnership)
• Wolverhampton Community Empowerment Network
• Low Hill South Regeneration Programme
• Education Services, Wolverhampton City Council
• Mott MacDonald consultants

Letters of Support

Letters of support for the strategy and the wider work ongoing in the West Midlands have been received from the following organisations.

• Coventry LSP
• Walsall Friends of the Earth
• Walsall MBC Built Environment
• Birmingham Child Development Centre
• Walsall Borough Strategic Partnership
• Regional Health Partnership
• Walsall MBC Social Care and Supported Housing
• Cllr Martin, Walsall MBC
• Sandwell PCTs
• Walsall PCT
• Walsall MBC Support Neighbourhoods Directorate

If required copies are available from:

CEPOG Support Team,  Centro House,  16 Summer Lane,  Birmingham,  B19 3SD.  Tel: (0121) 214 7332