§ Mr. BakerTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions if major schemes in local transport plans will require appraisal of alternatives using the New Approach to Appraisal. [92213]
§ Ms Glenda JacksonOur guidance on provisional local transport plans requires the appraisal of the whole provisional plan using a simplified Appraisal Summary Table (AST). The simplified AST is derived from the 713W New Approach to Appraisal. Where the provisional local transport plan includes a major road or public transport scheme simplified ASTs are also required for an alternative strategy without the major scheme. This process identifies the contribution of the major scheme to the overall plan.
Simplified ASTs will also be required to show the impact on the plan of any additional alternative strategies that are tested.
In addition to the appraisal of the impact on the provisional plan, the major transport scheme itself will also be subject to scrutiny. For provisional plans, major road schemes will be assessed using the existing New Approach to Appraisal. Major public transport schemes will be appraised using current Section 56 requirements. We intend to have a multi-modal version of the New Approach to Appraisal in place in time for the assessment of full local transport plans next year.