Purpose

Decision to approve the acceptance of project
responsibility and grant funding from the Mayoral Combined
Authority associated with Phase 2 of the Bath City Centre CRSTS
scheme.

Decision

To agree that:
 
(1) 
The position of
responsible body be assumed by B&NES Council for Phase 2 of the
Bath City Centre project, to be delivered according to milestones
agreed with the Combined Authority.
 
(2) 
Approval be delegated
to the Executive Director of Sustainable Communities, in
consultation with the S151 Officer, to accept the Grant Offer
Letter (GOL) from the West of England Mayoral Combined Authority
when it is provided.
 
(3) 
Capital budget of
£711k be approved to develop the Full Business Case (FBC),
final Preliminary and Detailed Designs for the scheme. This is
entirely funded by CRSTS grant.
 
(4) 
The intention for
further approval of grant funding acceptance be sought at an
appropriate time, following Combined Authority approval of the Full
Business Case, for delivery of the works associated with the Bath
City Centre Phase 2 project.

Reasons for the decision

The project aims to improve accessibility of Bath city
centre by Public Transport through
measures such as the prioritisation of
bus movement at problem areas for reliability and congestion,
re-routing of buses to more direct routes, and segregation of buses
from general traffic. Interventions will deliver journey time
benefits and corridor cohesion for CRSTS Strategic Corridor
projects where they interface with the city centre, improving reliability, and strengthening
the end-to-end impact of the schemes.
 
The project will make a positive contribution to a
reduction in transport-related emissions, and an improvement in air
quality within the city centre, helping
Bath to achieve net-zero carbon by 2030.

Alternative options considered

The Combined Authority could continue to lead
the project, with council time limited to an advisory role and
Highway approval only. However, the council is the Highway
Authority so the delivery of highway interventions would be more
complex in this delivery model. Local community engagement will be
enhanced through increased cross-service liaison and interfaces
with other council projects.
 
Not to proceed with the project beyond its
current phase and return CRSTS grant funds to the Combined
Authority for distribution across other projects within the
sub-region, or to be returned to central government. However, this
is a transformational opportunity for the corridors in question and
not proceeding would prevent this scale of investment and
improvement from taking place.