Following our Decarbonising Transport Action Learning Sets programme, councils have shared their learnings and outputs to showcase what decarbonising transport looks like in their area.
How can we avoid building roads in Bradford to 'unlock' new development?
When creating a masterplan and vision for urban extensions, potential for sustainable transport mode share is often squandered by the classic predict and provide process. Urban fringe developments often have poor transport outcomes. In our case, an Urban Extension will be ‘unlocked’ by the provision of a new road link. We used the ALS process to explore how we could evidence sustainable transport investment to unlock new development instead, to minimize new highway construction and avoid the emissions that a highway-focused plan would lead to.
This case study looks at how officers in Cambridgeshire are exploring the issues affecting and influencing rural transport in relation to decarbonisation. Here the council is identifying barriers in connectivity, accessibility, and other factors which highlights the need for new approaches to reduce or remove carbon from transport where more urban solutions are unlikely to work in a rural setting.
What is the true value of park and ride (P&R) service in Chester? How can the required procurement process for a revised P&R services grow the market and broaden the appeal and viability of P&R services for the future, whilst at the same time demonstrate the hidden social and environmental values it inherently holds to meet the climate agenda. What information and evidence is required to inform the procurement process and operational model, identify service needs, target audience and acceptance of the mode. How did participation in the Action Learning set change or challenge the original approach. This case study explores park and ride and its contribution to decarbonising transport in Chester.
The ownership of EV charge points in the public realm is a new uncertain challenge for councils, given the rising public expectation and government’s opaque guidance with regard to resources/funding. For a council, who are seen by the public as a trusted local provider, the problem is how we translate policy and funding into physical, publicly accessible charge points, whilst meeting procurement, consultation and other requirements.
To progress this, we are holding a soft market event to link up the individual service expectations with supplier/operator deliverables, with the aim of generating evidence and information for a wide scale multiple lot procurement, to provide an internal framework for services to utilise and make the transformative step to low carbon vehicles.
This case study focuses on using the action learning process with the LGA to develop a community communication programme that reassures the local community that using hydrogen as a low carbon fuel for transport is safe.
South Derbyshire District Council are developing a Hydrogen Innovation Project to assess the performance and cost benefit analysis of retrofitting two diesel fuelled Refuse Collection Vehicles (RCV’s) to a dual blend fuel of green hydrogen and diesel to support the decarbonisation of the Council’s vehicle fleet.
If successful this will provide a cost-effective solution to reducing carbon emissions from refuse collection trucks used in the Councils statutory kerbside waste collection service delivery.
Since 2020 South Somerset District Council (SSDC), has piloted e-scooter transport to evaluation there usage and the public’s response to feedback to Department for Transport ministers to help them decide how e-scooters could become a legal form of personal micromobility transport. SSDC decided to apply as felt it would help with the ambitions to decarbonise transport, support reaching carbon zero by 2030 and give a rare opportunity for rural communities to engage in such a trial, this blog outlines the challenges that have been encountered through the pilot and how the LGA action learning set process has helped the council overcome these barriers.
A reflective case study on how councils and the combined authority in Tees Valley can introduce schemes to ensure decarbonisation takes place on existing road space where there are competing priorities.
South Warwickshire is a large geographical area with isolated centres of population but with large rural areas and limited public transport options. The main mode of transport across the area is the car. Approximately 40 per cent of the CO2 emissions from South Warwickshire are transport related so it is crucial that the solutions include the increased use of car-clubs contributes towards reducing the reliance on single occupancy car travel.
Core Policy 61 ‘Transport and New Development’ in the adopted Wiltshire Core Strategy includes that in determining planning applications, consideration must be given to the needs of all transport users according to an identified user hierarchy. In practice, however, this is often not adhered to, with the needs of non-car users not being given the required priority in the design of new development.
Ultimately, this leads to new developments being largely car focused and perpetuating a car dependent lifestyle with resultant social and environmental impacts including increased carbon emissions.
This reflective piece discusses the experience of an upper tier authority officer when trying to approach road space reallocation in rural and urban locations. The output explores how this project area has become a barrier to stakeholder engagement and convey the environmental and social benefits of certain initiatives. The piece shares lessons learnt through the action learning set process.
The following is an anonymous blog on how a council is considering and planning the replacement of council fleet vehicles to work toward net zero. This officer sets out the challenge and where projects could be carried out to kickstart pilots in this space. This learning has been informed through the action learning sets with the LGA and Mott MacDonald.
