Mayor of London Transport Strategy - Consultation Process - Very few aware within LB Croydon

Dear Ruthlyn

Thank you for your email received by Transport for London (TfL) on 15
January.

You have asked for information about the Mayor's Transport Strategy
consultations, with specific reference to Croydon.

We will deal with your request as soon as possible and in any case provide
you with a response by 12 February.

In the meantime, if you have any queries or would like to discuss your
request, please do not hesitate to contact me

Gareth Long
Customer Relations Officer

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Re: TfL102155

Dear Ruthlyn

Thank you for your email received by Transport for London (TfL) on 15
January.

You have asked for information about the consultation process that TfL
used to consult upon the Draft Mayor of London Transport Strategy with
specific reference to LB Croydon.

Your request is being considered under the Freedom of Information Act.

Unfortunately we will not be able to resolve your request within the
statutory 20 working day deadline. We will however respond as soon as
possible.

Please accept my apologies for this delay and any inconvenience it may
cause you. In the meantime, if you have any queries relating to your
request, please do not hesitate to contact me.   

If you are not satisfied with this response, please read the attached
help-sheet entitled ‘Your Right to Appeal’

Yours sincerely

Gareth Long

Customer Relations Officer

Your Right to Appeal

If you are dissatisfied with the way in which TfL has handled your
information access request, you can ask us to carry out an internal
review. This review will be conducted by an independent panel, in
accordance with the procedure published on our website at
www.tfl.gov.uk/foi. Requests for an internal review should be sent to:

Head of Information Access and Compliance

Floor 6, Windsor House

42–50 Victoria Street

London SW1H 0TL

Email: [email address]

If you remain dissatisfied after the completion of the internal review,
you are entitled to take your complaint to the Information
Commissioner’s Office. They can be contacted at the following address:

Wycliffe House

Water Lane

Wilmslow

Cheshire

SK9 5AF

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Dear Ruthlyn

Thank you for your email.

Again I am very sorry that we have not been able to respond within the
agreed timescale however the information is still being collated.

I anticipate being able to provide the information by the week commencing
22 February.

Yours sincerely

Gareth Long
Customer Relations Officer

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Re: TfL102155

Dear Ms. Black

Thank you for your email received by Transport for London (TfL) on 12
February. Please accept my apologies for the delay in responding to you.

You asked for information about the consultation process for the Mayors
Transport Strategy (MTS) with particular reference to the London Borough
of Croydon.

Your request has been considered under the requirements of the Freedom of
Information Act and I can confirm that TfL does hold the information you
require.

Please find attached a schedule detailing the summary of advertising for
the MTS.

Additionally please see below for details of the MTS consultation process.

Preliminary Consultation

Consultation on a Mayor’s Transport Strategy (MTS) is a two part process
and is an integral part of the development of the strategy.  The Greater
London Act 1999 requires that a preliminary consultation with the London
Assembly and the Greater London Authority Functional Bodies take place
prior to a full Public and Stakeholder consultation. The consultation with
the functional bodies and assembly on the MTS ‘Statement of Intent’
(SOI) took place between 18 May and 13 July 2009 (in parallel with London
Plan and Economic Development Strategy (EDS)).

After the SOI consultation a report was prepared for the Mayor outlining
the views of the Assembly as well as the other stakeholders and members of
the public who responded. The Greater London Authority (GLA), TfL and
London Development Agency (LDA) then worked on drafting the full draft
MTS, London Plan & EDS documents, which were to be consulted upon in
parallel to improve the integration of transport and land use planning.
This allowed a coordinated and consistent approach to policy making, using
a shared set of assumptions.

Promoting the Consultation

A decision was taken to promote the three consultations (MTS, GLA London
Plan, and LDA EDS) in one advertising campaign – Help Shape London’s
Future. Officers from TfL led on the planning and delivery of promoting
the consultation and worked closely with the Greater London Authority and
the London Development Agency to agree the key consultation activities. 
The consultation was promoted using different communication tools
including press advertisements, online advertisements, meetings and a 21
date ‘roadshow’. The roadshows were a good opportunity for staff to
meet members of the public across London and explain the policies and
proposals in the strategy and answer questions. This approach was
considered the most inclusive way to engage in face to face meetings with
the public in accessible locations.

The location of the roadshows was determined by the need to include
central, inner and outer London within London’s five sub-regions (north,
east, south, west and central) and at a mixture of public buildings and
shopping centres. Dates and final locations were also determined by
availability of the venues.

The consultation including the roadshows were publicised in local press
titles, borough titles, trade press and black and minority ethnic and gay
titles. There were also advertisements  in Metro on the following dates
12, 13, 21 & 28 October, 4, 11, 17, 23  & 30 November 2009.  Details of
the roadshows were also posted on the website:
www.london.gov.uk/shaping-london.  The road-shows were to encourage
members of the public to respond to the consultation and have the
opportunity to discuss the policies and proposals in person.

In addition a press notice was made at the start of the consultation and a
number of local and national titles ran stories on transport and featured
the MTS. TfL was able to secure features on the MTS in Metro on 16 & 30
November 2009 and 6 January 2010. TfL also contacted the press office,
communications and transport teams in each of the London boroughs to raise
awareness of the consultation, encourage features and to advertise the
roadshows. Advertisements were also placed in local titles (for details
see Appendix 1). Further, the London boroughs were offered meetings at the
start of the consultation.

To further promote the consultation a web based package was procured. This
included icons (Help Shape London’s Future) which clicked through to the
website and promoted the consultation to over 500 London web addresses and
this was further supported by the inclusion of online images on the main
TfL pages and a text based ongoing MTS feature posing example questions.
Furthermore, the TfL website receives amongst the highest web hits in the
United Kingdom. Online images about the roadshows were also offered to
London’s boroughs to place on their websites.

The Mayor’s twitter was also used on several occasions during December
and January to raise awareness of the consultation and to encourage people
to respond before the deadline. Around 57,000 people follow the Mayor on
twitter and this is swelled to an audience of around 250,000 through
‘re-tweets’. The MTS was also featured in the London Loop e-zine,
which is a TfL online magazine, emailed to approximately 100,000 people on
17 December 2009 and 7 January 2010.

Public Information Leaflet & Questionnaire

The public information summary leaflet to support the consultation on the
draft MTS; ‘Help Shape London’s Future’ was delivered to boroughs
and made available in borough libraries, along with the draft MTS. 
Posters were included at central London bus stations, bus stops and
Underground stations promoting the consultation, and this was further
supported by leaflets racked at zone one Underground stations (which are
heavily used by people from across London).  A call centre was also
available for leaflets to be sent on demand and the summary leaflet was
distributed at all of the stakeholder meetings as well as the roadshows.
It was decided that delivering leaflets directly to the 4million
residential addresses in the capital, which would be much more expensive,
did not provide best value. 

Responding to the consultation

The shaping-London website featured a full draft strategy and background
information, and an online response facility which included the same
questions as the hard copy leaflet and questionnaire (which was also
available as a pdf file). These questions were posed with the aim of
eliciting views on the key transport issues likely to be of interest to
the public and included more direct questions on demand management and
whether people agree with the proposed removal of the western extension of
the congestion charging scheme. Each question provided respondents with an
opportunity to provide their own views if they either agreed or disagreed
with the example benefits provided for each question. There was an
additional free form text box to allow respondents to provide any
additional comments.  Furthermore members of the public could write in
with their comments or email them directly to a mailbox
([email address]).

Stakeholder Meetings

With regards to invitations to groups, emails were sent to over 500
stakeholders at the start and during the consultation, with an offer of a
briefing or with an invitation to a stakeholder presentation. Meetings
were held with a wide variety of stakeholders groups representing London
boroughs, business, transport, environment, and the third and public
sectors.

Moreover in order to engage with traditionally more ‘hard to reach’
groups, TfL has worked closely with ’umbrella’ groups such as the
London Voluntary Services Council and London Civic Forum to promote the
consultation to an even wider group of stakeholder , particularly those
representing smaller community groups, disability, minority ethnic groups,
older and young people; and those who are disadvantaged. TfL has actively
encouraged both the London Civic Forum and the London Voluntary Service
Council to use their networks to promote the consultation and to encourage
representations.

A number of stakeholders held their own meetings encompassing the MTS, the
London Plan and the EDS.  TfL attended a number of meetings at the
request of stakeholders and was able to engage in comprehensive
discussions on the policies and proposals contained within the strategy.
This level of engagement has resulted in a broad range of views submitted
to the consultation.

Managing the Road Network

TfL is responsible for the Transport for London Road Network (TLRN), the
busiest radial and orbital arterial routes in the capital which carry more
than 30 per cent of London’s traffic. There are around 9 million car
journeys per day on average and although the strategy seeks to encourage a
shift to more sustainable modes such as public transport, walking and
cycling where appropriate, it is recognised that cars play an important
role in the transport network. In outer London, in particular, the car is
the dominant mode of transport accounting for 52 per cent of all trips by
residents. A growing population and increased economic activity will put
further pressure on the road network potentially leading to significantly
more congestion and less reliable journey times. Policies to smooth
traffic flow aim to maximise the efficient use of  scarce road space by
maximising the efficient and reliable operation of the road network
including investment in intelligent traffic control, minimising the impact
of road and street works and maintaining road network assets in a good
state of repair. Measures will be introduced to smooth traffic flows to
manage congestion and improve journey time reliability for all people and
freight movements and maximise the efficiency of the road system from a
business and individual perspective.

Moreover it is recognised that for some, the car will remain the most
efficient mode to make certain journeys and therefore for those who
continue to need to drive the Mayor is keen to promote the cleanest
vehicles. The uptake of Electric Vehicles (EV’s) is a priority, not only
for environmental reasons, but also for the associated economic and job
creation opportunities.

Encouraging Cycling

The Mayor is keen to mainstream cycling as a transport mode by making it
more attractive and safer. Relative to other cities, London has a low
cycle mode share. 

The strategy aims to increase cycling to achieve a five per cent mode
share which could deliver a number of benefits including improved health
and environmental and congestion benefits. Cycling can offer fast and
reliable journey times.  Rates of cycling in outer London are currently
lower than in central and inner London and TfL analysis suggests that
around two thirds of the potential for increased levels of cycling is in
outer London as about half of all car trips in outer London are less than
two kilometres. It is also recognised that there are challenges including
safety and behaviour and therefore the strategy will support the cycling
revolution by providing better information and training to promote
behavioural change and further improve infrastructure to make it easier
and safer to travel by bike.

Funding

The MTS is a statutory document, developed alongside the London Plan and
Economic Development Strategy as part of a strategic policy framework to
support and shape the economic and social development of London over the
next 20 years.

The MTS is intended to be a high-level strategic document to 2031, and
does not include details of funding for schemes beyond TfL’s current ten
year Business Plan (to 2017/18). Funding for new schemes beyond 2018 has
yet to be agreed. The MTS contains a number of proposals for seeking
continued and additional funding to secure the investment necessary to
support London’s continued growth and contribution to the UK economy,
including seeking investment capital from central Government and business.

If this is not the information you are looking for, or if you are unable
to access it for some reason, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Please see the attached information sheet for details of your right to
appeal as well as information on copyright and what to do if you would
like to re-use any of the information we have disclosed.

Yours sincerely

Gareth Long

Customer Relations Officer

Your right to appeal

If you are dissatisfied with the way TfL has handled your information
request, you can ask us to conduct an internal review of our decision. The
internal review will be conducted by someone who was not involved in the
processing of your original request, in accordance with the complaints
procedure published on our website at www.tfl.gov.uk/foi

Requests for internal review should be addressed to: 

Head of Information Access and Compliance

Floor 5, Windsor House

42-50 Victoria Street

London

SW1H 0TL

E-mail: [email address]

Complaints to the Information Commissioner

If, following the internal review, you remain dissatisfied with the way
TfL has handled your request, then you can take your complaint to:

Information Commissioner’s Office

Wycliffe House

Water Lane

Wilmslow

Cheshire

SK9 5AF

A complaint form is available on the Information Commissioner’s Office
website at: www.ico.gov.uk

Copyright  

Any copyright in the material provided with this response is owned by TfL
or one of its subsidiary companies unless otherwise stated. The disclosure
of information does not give the person or organisation who receives it an
automatic right to re-use it in a way that would otherwise infringe
copyright (for example, by making copies, publishing it, or issuing copies
to the public). Brief extracts of the material may be reproduced under the
fair dealing provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1998
(sections 29 and 30) for the purposes of research for non-commercial
purposes, private study, criticism, review and news reporting. In respect
of use for criticism, review and news reporting, any reproduction must be
accompanied by an acknowledgement that TfL or one of its subsidiary
companies is the copyright owner.

Re-use

If you would like to re-use the information supplied with this response
please contact TfL using the details provided in the attached letter.
Requests for re-use will be considered in accordance with the Re-use of
Public Sector Information Regulations 2005.

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