Introduction
In 2020, in response to the global climate emergency, Scotland made a world-leading commitment to reduce car kilometres travelled by 20% by 2030. Transport accounts for around a quarter of Scotland’s greenhouse gas emissions, with cars making up nearly 40 per cent of those transport emissions. Reducing our overall car use, alongside a switch to cleaner vehicles, is therefore pivotal to meeting our statutory emissions targets.
Reducing the dominance of private cars can bring a number of wider benefits, improving our public places, and making Scotland a more attractive, safer and healthier place to live, work or visit. It will also help us address the inequalities of the status-quo. Those on lower incomes, women, disabled people, and people of non-white Scottish or British ethnicities are less likely to have access to or use a car, while the worst effects of car use – air and noise pollution, road danger, community severance and congestion – fall disproportionately on the most marginalised in our society. Reducing car use in Scotland will make it possible to reprioritise space and investment in accessible streets and public spaces to ensure inclusive and affordable access by walking, wheeling, cycling or public transport for those who do not have access to cars.
The Scottish Government is committed to finding ways to make sustainable travel modes more attractive and supporting people to take fewer journeys by car, wherever they live. Yet the solutions need to be driven by local requirements and opportunities. In order to transform our places and transport system, we need bold strategies and transformative change at the local level. These choices may be challenging, and the Local Transport Strategy (LTS) offers an opportunity to set priorities, agenda, direction and process for change at the local level.
Overview
This guidance is intended to support local authorities as they develop and implement their strategy. Local transport strategies should set out a local transport or traffic authority’s transport policies and plans, and align with Scottish national and regional strategies. They are a way for such authorities to detail how they intend to deliver on Scotland’s national objectives at a local level, and provide a delivery plan for meeting local challenges and objectives.
Local Transport Strategies have a statutory basis in the Transport (Scotland) Act 2001 (‘the 2001 Act’) which also makes provision for Scottish Ministers to provide guidance on the preparation of a LTS. The 2001 Act defines a "local transport strategy" as a strategy prepared by a local transport authority or a local traffic authority relating to transport in their area.
This guidance also supports the Climate Change Plan update
“commitment to work with local authorities to continue to ensure that their parking and local transport strategies have proper appreciation of the needs of climate change, as well as the impact of road users, including public transport operators, disabled motorists, cyclists and pedestrians.”
Purpose
Local authorities, on their own and jointly as part of regional transport partnerships, have a central role in delivering the improvements necessary to achieve the vision, priorities and outcomes set out in our National Transport Strategy (NTS). The NTS shows transport as an enabler – supporting priorities to reduce inequalities, take climate action, deliver inclusive economic growth and improve health and wellbeing.
The LTS could therefore be framed as a strategy for access to opportunities – opportunities such as education, work, training and social activities avoiding limiting the objectives and solutions to transport.
Access is delivered not only through physical mobility (motorised transport) but also through spatial proximity (land-use planning) and digital connectivity. Therefore the priorities and outcomes around transport and access within a LTS, Local Development Plan (LDP) and any digital strategy should align across all of these plans and strategies.
As set out below, there is no general statutory requirement for a local authority to prepare a LTS. A ‘one size fits all’ approach would not be appropriate as Scottish local authorities vary significantly in their context and objectives, and are themselves best placed to respond to their own transport needs. Therefore, this guidance is intended as a supportive, rather than prescriptive, tool for local authorities as they consider how to prepare their LTS.
The guidance was developed in collaboration with representatives from local authorities and regional transport partnerships.
This guidance is structured in two sections, which are intended to align with guidance for other local authority strategies:
- The first section sets out our national context and objectives, and details the role of local transport strategies alongside national and regional transport strategies. It discusses how transport can act as an enabler to support wider local, regional and national objectives.
- The second section discusses the process of developing the LTS using familiar best practice principles employed in transport appraisal and sets out information on the cross-cutting issues that local authorities should consider in developing their strategies.
The Transport Scotland website has further resources and information to support delivery of the LTS and provides guidance on how different types of transport, travel behaviour and demand management can contribute to the delivery of national and local objectives, structured in line with the sustainable travel hierarchy.
Legislative basis
Local Transport Strategies have a statutory basis in the Transport (Scotland) Act 2001 (‘the 2001 Act’) which also makes provision for Scottish Ministers to provide guidance on the preparation of a LTS. The 2001 Act defines a “local transport strategy” as a strategy prepared by a local transport authority or a local traffic authority relating to transport in their area.
There is no general statutory requirement for a local authority to have a LTS in place, and there is no provision for Scottish Ministers to approve a LTS. This is in contrast to Regional Transport Strategies (RTS), which are required to be produced by Regional Transport Partnerships (RTPs) and submitted for approval by Scottish Ministers.
However there are certain discretionary powers which the local authority may only exercise if they have a LTS and exercising these powers supports the objectives set out in the LTS. These powers are where the local authority has either a workplace parking licensing (WPL) scheme (under the Transport (Scotland) Act 2019) or a road user charging (RUC) scheme (under the Transport (Scotland) Act 2001) in its area.
Additionally local transport authorities have a number of powers in relation to bus services under Part 2 of the 2001 Act. Use of these powers require the local transport authority to be satisfied that the provision of the service or delivery of the scheme or policy in question will contribute to the implementation of their “relevant general policies”. Section 48 of the 2001 Act defines “relevant general policies” as including the local transport strategy. Therefore, if a local transport authority has a LTS in place, it will be considered to be a relevant policy for the purposes of consideration of the use of these powers.
While the legislation refers explicitly to local transport and traffic authorities, for ease, this guidance uses the term “local authority”. In the context of producing a local transport strategy, this reference should be taken to include local transport authorities, local traffic authorities (including the Forth Estuary Transport Authority) and, unless mentioned separately, Strathclyde Passenger Transport Authority (SPTA), who may prepare a LTS to cover elements that their RTS does not cover.
This guidance document has been developed with input from COSLA and is issued by the Scottish Ministers to local transport authorities and local traffic authorities under section 79(1)(d) of the Transport (Scotland) Act 2001.