Meeting

RECOMMENDED that the minutes of the meeting held on 6 March 2023 be approved and signed by the Chair as a correct record.

Purpose of report

This report sets out a proposed Draft Business Plan for Solent Transport for the 2024/25 financial year, for the Joint Committee’s ratification. The proposed main priorities for the next year are:

1.    Solent Transport Prospectus - Take the agreed wider strategy and look to move it forward, gaining recognition, wider support, agreement with TfSE and national government. Lobbying to obtain funding to support the partnership and area goals. Developing the action plan shared across the four Member LTAs which will also help define the future focus of Solent Transport’s activities.

2.    Solent Rail Connectivity SOBC - Further work (with Network Rail) to develop the Solent Rail Connectivity proposals: Building a business plan and a roadmap looking to make the study a reality. This will include lobbying national government, promoting the schemes, and working with the four partner LTAs with a view of obtaining match funding to make the proposition more attractive to national government.

3.    Solent Go – Portsmouth City Council have agreed to fund the SolentGo ITSO card operation for a further year to fit in with their BSIP delivery. Solent Transport will seek to deliver SolentGo products on the Breeze app and develop new products with SHOBA and the transport operators.

4.    SRTM maintenance and management – Consider the Transport for the South East (TfSE) and Hampshire County Council studies on modelling that will report in April. Provide options regarding future modelling needs, which could include procurement of an upgrade of the Sub Regional Transport Model (SRTM) or a transition to an alternative.

5.    FTZ delivery - to continue the successful delivery of Solent Transport Partnership’s Future Transport Zone (FTZ) programme. This will focus on the final delivery and monitoring stages and start to look at which elements can be sustainably continued or obtaining funding that could extend all or part of the programme and develop an exit strategy for Solent Transport and the LTA partners, should this not be successful.

Solent Transport Partnership Changes - This is an emerging issue and is not reflected within this business plan. Time may need to be agreed on the management and transfer of the Solent Transport and its assets depending on the outcome.

RECOMMENDED that the Joint Committee agree the Draft Business Plan and ask the member authorities to take it through their local approval processes.

Purpose

This report presents the Solent Transport outturn position for 2023-24, the proposed revenue budget for 2024/25 based on current local authority contributions, and details how these affect the reserves.

The report also includes a financial update for the Future Transport Zone (FTZ) £28.7m Capital Programme funded by the Department for Transport (DfT) and financially administered by Southampton City Council (SCC).

RECOMMENDED that the Joint Committee:

1.    Notes the outturn for the 2023/24 revenue budget

2.    Notes the balance in reserves for 2023/24

3.    Approves the proposed revenue budget for 2024/25

4.    Notes the position of the Future Transport Zone

5.    Approves the Future Transport Zone funding reprofile

Purpose

To outline the financial outcomes of HCC withdrawing from the Solent Transport partnership by 31 March 2025, and the forecast position of the reserves detailing how the balances could be disaggregated.

RECOMMENDED that the Joint Committee:

1.             Notes the projected balance of the Solent transport operating budget at the closedown/transition point on 31 March 2025 when HCC withdraws from Solent Transport.

2.             Notes the first call on reserves will be to pay for closedown/ transition costs and other liabilities.

3.             Notes the balance of the SRTM reserve is held by HCC and will be retained by HCC until such time as an alternate management arrangement for the model is agreed.

4.             Notes that in the situation that HCC manage the model post 31 March 2025, that HCC will cover its costs of doing so on a no better no worse off basis.

Purpose of report

The present year has seen delivery of the Solent Transport Prospectus, with assistance from Portsmouth City Council. This is an important sub-regional document which consolidates the national, regional and local transport plans (published by the LTAs) in one document. It presents a shared vision and approach for transport improvements in the Solent region over the next 20-30 years.

RECOMMENDED that the Joint Committee considers and endorses the document, with a recommendation that partner LTAs take the document through their individual authorities for ratification and approval.

Purpose

To detail the proposal for requesting an extension to the FTZ programme of an additional six months to end Dec 2025.

RECOMMENDED that the Solent Transport Joint Committee:

1.    Accepts the agreement from DfT (ratified by SMB on 04/09/2024) for a further six-month extension to the FTZ programme to end Dec 2025.

2.    Accepts the SMB approved funding reprofile to accommodate the six-month programme extension.