| FOREWORD |
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| Travel Choices
for Scotland, the Scottish Integrated Transport White Paper, provides a framework
for achieving local solutions to local problems. Local authorities are central to our new
vision for transport in Scotland: a modern transport network which protects the
environment and improves links throughout the country. Only local authorities can provide
the strategic leadership in their local communities necessary to turn this vision into
reality, working in partnership with central Government, business and public transport
operators. |
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| We announced in the White Paper that we would
be encouraging every local authority to develop a Local Transport Strategy for their area.
The Road Traffic Reduction Act 1997 also obliges local authorities to undertake a review
of existing and forecast levels of traffic on their local roads. On the basis of this,
they are then required to prepare a report setting targets for reducing either existing
levels of traffic or their rate of growth. Should they consider such targets to be
inappropriate, the report should set out their reasons for not setting any. This
preliminary guidance is intended to assist local authorities in preparing their interim
strategies for July 1999 and in meeting their obligations under the Road Traffic Reduction
Act 1997. |
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| We recognise the diversity of Scotland’s
transport challenges and opportunities. Local Transport Strategies provide a framework for
addressing local transport priorities, within the overall policy set by central
Government. The solutions appropriate in Glasgow or Edinburgh will not be appropriate in
the Highlands or the Borders. We have provided a tool kit of measures in the Transport
White Paper to begin to tackle Scotland’s transport needs. It will be for local
authorities in their Local Transport Strategies to utilise the tools at the local level. |
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| Not everything can be done at once. In the
short term local authorities will need to build on their existing initiatives on bus
priority, parking, park and ride, quality partnerships, cycle and pedestrian enhancement
and traffic calming. In the medium and long term, new powers on road user and parking
charging will become available and more extensive public transport improvements become
possible. Local Transport Strategies are the map by which local authorities should steer -
the means for connecting the practical realities of today with our shared vision for the
future. |
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| I would encourage all local authorities to
take advantage of Local Transport Strategies to think systematically about their transport
problems and opportunities; to establish coherent strategies for their areas, exploiting
to the full opportunities for partnership working; and lastly to adopt credible, yet
challenging, performance indicators and targets in order to measure progress and learn
from experience. It is important that we together make a success of this key policy
initiative. |
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| I would welcome your comments on this
preliminary guidance so that we can issue improved guidance in advance of local
authorities preparing full strategies in 2000. |
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Calum MacDonald MP
Minister of Transport
February 1999 |
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