Joint Local Transport Plan 4 sets out vision for transport in West England

The Joint Local Transport Plan 4 (JLTP4), which sets out the vision for transport in the region up to 2036 and is led by the West of England Combined Authority – working with Bath & North East Somerset, Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire councils – has been released.

The plan is said to show how the organisations aim to achieve a well-connected sustainable transport network that works for residents across the region; a network that offers greater, realistic travel choices and makes walking, cycling and public transport the natural way to travel.

Tim Bowles, West of England Mayor, said: “To keep our region’s economy moving, reduce our carbon emissions and improve air quality we need a better, reliable and sustainable transport network. I’ve been making the case for this since I was elected Mayor and while we’re making progress, particularly on improving our railways, we still face challenges ahead. Thanks to the thousands of people who took the time to give us their views, our regional plan to meet our challenges will now be stronger.

“As West of England Mayor, I’m ambitious for our region, bringing partners together to improve transport on whole region basis, because people’s journeys don’t stop at council boundaries. The West of England Combined Authority is already investing millions in bus and train travel, and walking and cycling routes, to tackle congestion and improve air quality. Our longer-term transport plans will take time to develop and build – it’s important that we don’t just focus on quick fixes because we need sustainable solutions that will work into the future. We’ve got to find new ways of doing things, and we’re working on a new and ambitious mass transport system that will revolutionise the way we move people around the West of England, dramatically improving congestion and air quality while reducing our carbon emissions.”

Councillor Joanna Wright, Bath & North East Somerset Council’s Joint Cabinet Member for Transport Services, added: “Responding to the Climate Emergency requires action across all aspects of society.  With transport accounting for 34 per cent of all carbon emissions in Bath and North East Somerset, our biggest opportunity to transform the way people travel and address the very real climate emergency is to reallocate road space to sustainable transport modes.  We are committed to and actively pursuing mass transit (buses, trams, light rail, light rapid transit, tram/train) from Bristol to Bath as one of our transformational infrastructure projects as well as a mass transit network within Bath city centre itself. The JLTP4 also includes low traffic neighbourhoods, and encourages more walking and cycling to transform the low carbon travel choices around our UNESCO World Heritage city, as well as public realm improvement schemes in Keynsham and Midsomer Norton.

“The JLTP4 includes a South East Bristol orbital corridor to address a lack of connectivity but it does not commit us to any particular scheme or alignments. Considerable further work in consultation with the communities on how we go about addressing this challenge will be essential to progressing this South East Bristol orbital corridor. While the JLTP4 addresses many issues it only takes us takes us so far and we now need to work towards the JLTP5.”