Maidenhead & Windsor

Maidenhead Borough residents and businesses on the move are benefiting from better and safer roads and improved bus services – and the council is well on track for delivering more of the same in the future.

A report going to Thursday evening's Maidenhead cabinet meeting (July 27) will ask members to agree the five-year review delivery report of the Local Transport Plan 2001-2006 (LTP) to be submitted to the government by the end of this month.

This is the final review delivery report on the borough's first LTP and it shows how Maidenhead council has made a difference to people's lives by:

* continuing to maintain the roads that carry most traffic – 87.4% of principal roads now meet the national standard and at the end of the LTP period the council was 0.6% (the equivalent of just 400 metres of road) away from achieving a 'good condition' rating – the 400 metres (and more) have since been achieved! Also, 84% of B roads now meet government expectations.
* making roads safer by reducing the number of people killed or injured on borough roads – the total number of deaths and serious injuries has been cut by 46% (the national target is 40%) and the number of children killed or seriously hurt has also been reduced by 53%, putting the borough in the top 25% of local authorities for road safety in 2004/05
* increasing bus passengers in Maidenhead by over 10% since 2003/04* – this has been achieved by supporting services in areas that are not commercially viable and working in partnership with bus operators to provide efficient, reliable, clean, safe and branded buses; it also bucks the national trend outside London which has seen a 7% decrease in bus usage over that period
* promoting cycling and providing facilities for cyclists – there has been a 14% increase in cycling journeys since 2000 which, although lower than the council's target, is still a good result against the national background of declining cycle use
* working with employers and developers, including Ascot racecourse, to develop green travel plans to help reduce peak time congestion
* introducing one of the first construction travel plans in the country to ensure the site traffic generated by major developments does not clog up local roads
* strengthening bridges to keep them up to modern standards, including the historic Windsor, Cookham and Marlow bridges (the latter in conjunction with Buckinghamshire County Council) and Baldwin's (Barnespool) Bridge, Eton.

Building on the success of Maidenhead buses, the council is now working in partnership with the First Group in the Windsor area and will be introducing a fleet of modern buses in the autumn, along with electronic information at bus stops to give real time updates on bus arrival times.

The LTP review also highlights that Maidenhead council achieved it targets for limiting the growth of traffic on key roads – measured at permanent monitoring sites across the borough. Over the past five years the national target was to limit traffic growth by 6%. Here in the borough the growth was just 1.3% in Maidenhead, 3% in Windsor and 3.1% in the rest of the borough.

Cllr Antony Wood, lead member for Maidenhead traffic and transport, said the review gave a clear indication of very positive achievements which were continuing as the borough approached LTP2 (2006 – 2011) – including carrying forward the programmes to maintain both main roads and B roads and exciting developments ahead for buses in Windsor.

He said: "This was the council's first attempt at a Local Transport Plan covering five years and, now in its final year, we can demonstrate the many ways we have contributed to a better quality of life for local residents.

"Unfortunately, the government's way of assessing our performance against the LTP – by looking only at capital spending on roads – meant our annual progress reports did not reflect the standards being achieved, despite meeting a high percentage of our performance targets. Had the government taken revenue spending into account we would have warranted much higher ratings than the records show. I'm glad to say this system is changing in the future and I believe it will lead to a much more accurate assessment of our progress.

"We have achieved a lot so far but there is much more to be done, and already there have been encouraging comments from the government and GOSE about LTP2."

The cabinet report explains that government assessment of the council performance on transport affects the size of the annual settlement. However, this has been of no tangible benefit to the Maidenhead Royal Borough since most of it is in the form of borrowing approvals, not direct cash.

The Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead