Council collaboration is helping deliver positive social outcomes
Transport is the largest contributor to UK domestic greenhouse gas emissions, but decarbonising transport is difficult.
New government guidance on local transport plans (LTPs), which is to be released later this year, will place a greater emphasis on councils demonstrating how their LTP and associated transport investments will help reduce emissions.
Therefore, to support local authorities, the LGA recently ran an ‘Action learning set’ (ALS) programme to enable 30 local authorities to meet regularly online to share their challenges and learn from each other.
Over three months, the ALS programme, delivered in collaboration with management, engineering and development consultancy Mott MacDonald, brought together 10 councillors and 20 officers from across England.
The participants were divided into five groups that met every two or three weeks to address shared challenges in relation to transport decarbonisation.
Each ALS group created a community that built trust, shared knowledge, and identified solutions to some of the challenges being faced. Feedback from participants on the process included that it was “informative”, “collaborative”, “interesting” and “thought provoking”.
From this project we have been able to gather insight into the many challenges that councils are facing.
More than 50 topics were discussed and questions posed to participants to tackle, including:
- How do we engage the public in schemes?
- What sustainable transport options are available in rural towns and villages?
- How do we ensure sustainable transport users are prioritised in the planning application process?
Councils taking part faced similar challenges, which the participants found very reassuring. While members of the groups were from a variety of roles, they were able to support and provide different approaches and perspectives to these topics.
The ALS process allowed participants to come up with actions that could be followed up outside of the sessions to progress the challenges they are facing. For example, one participant who wanted to involve the public on a pilot project about using dual-fuel hydrogen refuse trucks decided to engage with schools on the learning opportunities around science, technology, engineering and maths, and to create a project website with regular updates on monthly carbon savings.
Participants wrote case studies to reflect on their ALS journey, and these provide a learning resource from which other councils can benefit. They include:
- South Somerset District Council on issues around e-scooter trials, such as evidencing reductions in CO2 emissions and policing
- Tees Valley Combined Authority on ensuring decarbonisation takes place on existing road space where there are competing priorities – for example, for bus and cycle routes and residents’ parking
- Wiltshire Council on ensuring that consideration is given to the needs of non-car users in determining planning applications.
The programme has also generated a long list of resources – including research reports, maps, videos, guidance, case studies and other information – on a range of topic areas relating to decarbonising transport.
Car clubs, local transport plans, mobility hubs, cycle and walking infrastructure plans, electric vehicle charging, transport equity, school streets and low-traffic neighbourhoods, car-free days, last-mile delivery, alternative fuels, and rural transport are among the areas covered.
Creating a time and place to regularly collaborate on and tackle each other’s challenges helped councils work together towards the goal of decarbonising transport – and, ultimately, build a better transport future that delivers positive social outcomes.