Briefing: Cambridgeshire Travel for Work Partnership SCDC is a core Steering Group partner in the Cambridgeshire Travel For Work Partnership (TfW). TfW provides travel solutions for Cambridgeshire employers and developers. They help prepare and implement effective travel initiatives that ease transport and access problems associated with existing sites or new business developments. These initiatives save businesses money whilst promoting sustainable and healthy travel, thereby increasing productivity and contributing to a positive corporate image alongside more generally reducing traffic congestion. The Council presently contributes 6k/annum to the core funding of TfW. In return the local economy and district as a whole benefits under the following principle headings. 1. Travel Plans required by the planning process. SCDC attaches travel plan requirements to new developments. Unfortunately whilst the process is very good at getting a travel plan written there is currently no process to ensure support, monitor or enforce such travel plans. Often therefore these plans do not get implemented or if they do they quickly fail. TfW is the only organisation to provide support for employer members who have travel plans derived by the planning process. If TfW was not here the employers with travel plans required by the planning process would most likely not be putting resource into travel planning. TfW is presently taking forward the significant scope to improve on this situation and, at the same time provide a funding source for the Partnership. If successful this could reduce the reliance on Steering Group funding. 2. Support for TfW network employers based in SCDC Employer Members: Current membership across Cambridgeshire (N.B. many South Cambs residents will benefit from travel plans active in work places outside of the district): Dec 11 Mar 12 Sept 12 Dec 12 Full members 102 108 107 119 No of employees 65,670 64,234 63,193 68,437 103,200 people work at employers with more than 100 staff. This row shows the % of these people affected by TfW initiatives 62% 61% 61% 65% Breakdown by District: City Council Dec 11 Mar 12 Sept 12 Dec 12 63 63 72 members) 60 Employees 38,819 37,308 37,558 38799 South Cambs DC 1
29 27 29 members) 28 Employees 19,414 18,623 18,298 19030 Hunts DC members) 9 10 10 10 Employees 7,256 7,257 7,257 7,257 East Cambs DC members) 4 6 6 7 Employees 692 796 796 796 Fenland DC members 1 0 1 1 Employees 1,000 0 24 24 Two members have joined TfW from South Cambs since Sept 2012: - Cambridge Research Park (350 emps) - Dalehead Foods (250 emps) If TfW was not in existence it is certain that many of these employers would be doing little to promote sustainable travel. TfW is well respected nationally and now in Europe as an exemplar for how to support employers. The DfT Essential Guide to Travel Planning includes several best-practice case studies of SCDC employers on the TfW network. 3. CO 2 monitoring TfW provides CO 2 calculation from transport for employers that take part in its annual travel survey. No other organisation is providing this service to employers enabling them to have some form of monitoring of their CO 2 effect from the daily commute. Our efforts will be reducing the effect over time by reducing the number of drive alone journeys. 4. Economic Development Recruitment and retention of staff is aided by workplace travel planning. Employers with travel plans help their staff beat congestion, and present themselves as an employer of choice, with green and healthy credentials. Health of staff; Many staff are encouraged to begin cycling and walking to work and to begin to include exercise into their daily routine. This further assists the economy by keeping people fit and well, and reducing impact on local health services Employer location and car parks; Employers find they do not need to expand car parks and in some cases have decided not to move location following the introduction of travel plans with our assistance. Business Travel: TfW encourages all its employers to put Business Travel into their travel plans thereby reducing journeys, but importantly saving business costs. TfW disseminates good practice between employers (eg. the County council have provided officers to speak to TfW meetings on work life balance policies; and we are working with the Streetcar car club to encourage business to consider their use for pool cars). 2
TfW is the only organisation supporting employers in this effort in the County. 5. Congestion reduction The area has shown considerable resilience to the current economic circumstances in the UK. Indeed there are clear signs of growth returning with new homes being built and many employers taking on new staff. The new Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) has declared that it wishes to establish 160,000 new jobs in over 1,000 organisations in its area (including SCDC) by 2025. However with infrastructure such as the A14 improvements and the Chesterton Railway Station now not happening, it is clear that without significant intervention that the current considerable levels of congestion will only get worse - and will in time disrupt the growth trajectory. This can only happen if new and existing commuters and business travellers do not change their behaviour and do not default to drive alone travel for every journey. Workplace travel planning, with a typical reduction in drive alone commuting of 15% is a most cost effective intervention. TfW is the only organisation supporting employers in this effort in the County. 6. Travel Plan Plus and the Local Sustainable Transport Fund TfW has been key in establishing the UK site of the EU supported Travel Plan Plus project. This project that is now largely completed was based in the Science Park area of Cambridge - much of it in SCDC. This project successfully established a major travel plan network covering over 7,500 commuters. In its first 7 months the 14 organisations that took part in both the 2009 & 2010 travel surveys saw a reduction of 5% in drive alone commuting and an increase of 4% in cycling. This is a significant effect in such a short space of time most travel plans take between 12-months to show any sort of effect. If TfW did not exist this project would not have happened. The success of the Travel Plan Plus project was instrumental in the subsequent securing of 3 years of major support from TfW from the Local Sustainable Transport Fund (LSTF) to extend this approach into the A10 and A14 corridors frequent routes of extreme and damaging congestion to the South Cambs local economy: In May 2012 Cambridgeshire County Council was awarded 5 million by Government (from the Department for Transport s Local Sustainable Transport Fund) to spend over three years. The funding award will unlock further funding of 4.2 million to be spent on transport improvements. Funding will be used for a programme of measures aimed at Getting Cambridgeshire to work and should help to maximise the county s potential for growing and attracting business, and ensuring that Cambridgeshire continues to make a significant contribution to UK PLC. The programme will enhance linkage and journey reliability and choice in two critically important economic areas in Cambridgeshire. The first area (A14) covers the Enterprise Zone at Alconbury, Huntingdon, St Ives, Northstowe and the Science Park area and Cambridge, The second area (A10) covers Ely, the Science Park area and Cambridge where there are plans for improved bus links to Ely and upgrades to cycle routes 3
The programme will support us in creating the right conditions for driving economic growth in Cambridgeshire. Funding will help us to deliver enhanced access and links for commuters to Cambridge and key employment sites in South Cambridgeshire. This will include improving access and links to bus and rail stations in Cambridge, the Busway and ultimately linking to the new town at Northstowe, and Alconbury Enterprise Zone and to the new Cambridge Science Park Station at Chesterton, due to be completed in 2015. 4
Additional information: TfW Background/History - Travel for Work Partnership (TfW) was established in 1997/8. SCDC was one of five founding partners. Initially, funding provided for one person to support SCDC, City, County Council, Addenbrooke s, Health Authority and University with establishing their own travel plans. All these organisations now have functioning travel plans. They continue to fund TfW to support these travel plans and to support their wider environmental, transport health and economic objectives. - Additional Steering Group members have joined: o Cambridge Cycling Campaign o Cambridgeshire Chambers of Commerce o Council for Protection of Rural England o HDC - The old Cambridgeshire Health Authority hosted the partnership in its early years. In 2001 the County took on this role and TfW has remained at the County since that time. A Memorandum of Understanding exists between the Steering Group itself and with its host partner. TfW Employer Benefits (Services and Tools) Understanding that employers cannot be expected to have the time to become travel plan experts TfW has developed an internationally recognised set of services and tools, or example - Free on line travel surveys which clearly show the effect of TfW support when compared with other statistics. - Mapping service to map employee home locations (incl. plotting onto cycle routes and bus maps) - CamShare online car & cycle journey share scheme. TfW runs several CamShare promotions e.g. Prize Draws to stimulate activity on the site. This means that employers don t have to manage their own promotions though many do with our help - Annual Travel Plan Awards (now in 9 th year) - Discounts at Cycle Shops Take A Stand Scheme Using money from LTP we provide funding for employers to support new cycle parking in the workplace. - Cambridge Cycle Challenge- TfW worked closely with Cycle Cambridge to promote this to employers. As a result around half of the 90 employer teams taking part were TfW employers many of them based in SCDC - Discounts with Train Companies - Network Breakfast meetings (2-3 a year) - TP Essentials Workshops training for TfW employers - Monthly E-newsletters - Template travel plans & guidance - Travel Plan Plus Project (see above) - TfW Website (www.tfw.org.uk) 5