Stakeholder Review

This document provides information on the stakeholder review for draft Local Transport Strategy (LTS) guidance.

Overview

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. They are a way for such authorities to detail how they intend to deliver on national objectives at a local level, and provide an action plan for meeting local challenges and objectives. This guidance is intended to support local authorities as they develop and implement their LTS.

Local authorities are not statutorily required to have an LTS in place, in most circumstances. Updating the guidance supports the Climate Change Plan update (CCPu) 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.”

Scoping for the LTS guidance included early engagement with COSLA, SCOTS, and individual local authorities. This engagement informed the approach and tone of the guidance: feedback identified that as a non-statutory document, resourcing preparation of the LTS can be difficult to prioritise for local authorities but that the LTS can be a helpful tool to set priorities, agenda, direction and process to change at the local level. Therefore, the guidance is supportive rather than prescriptive in tone and approach, recognising that the scale and scope of the LTS will vary by local authority.

There is no new policy in the draft guidance or policy resource pack: it aligns with Scottish Transport Appraisal Guidance (STAG) principles, and existing policy as set out in the NTS (including Sustainable Travel Hierarchy), CCPu, and NPF4.

Who should respond

Interested stakeholders including local authorities, COSLA, SCOTS, public agencies, and advocacy groups are invited to provide their views on whether the guidance achieves its objectives of supporting local authorities. A questionnaire is available to complete and return to LTSguidance@transport.gov.scot by 15 June 2023.