STHC - LSTF

The Local Sustainable Transport Fund (LSTF)

After a 2 tranche bidding process that has just recently ended (September 2012), the Department for Transports Local Sustainable Transport Fund (LSTF) is now in the course of providing £600 million to successful local authorities in England to fund sustainable travel projects. In this section you find out more information on the:-

We would very much encourage local authorities to use some of their hard-won LSTF funding to commission the STHC (if they haven't done so already) to ensure they have a secure, spatial-analysis evidence base to monitor the impact of their projects going forward. It will be easier to source future funding to maintain projects if they have a proven and quantifiable record of success. (Working out at less than £0.16 per pupil for standard processing plus STHC School packs for every school in the authority, we think our costs are very reasonable and our transparent pricing formula means that clients can work out in advance how much a years STHC will cost them. Our flexible invoicing makes it easier for our clients to juggle their budgets too!)

Background to the LSTF

Click on the image to download the white paper as a pdf file.

The Local Transport White Paper "Creating growth, cutting carbon: making sustainable local transport happen", published in January 2011, placed localism at the heart of the transport agenda in order to cut carbon emissions and create local economic growth. The Local Sustainable Transport Fund (LSTF) established by the Department for Transport made available a total of £560 million to fund local authority sustainable travel projects in a 2 tranche bidding process. Funding was topped up with a further £40 million to £600 million in 2012 to accommodate approval for a greater number of bids, with match funding being provided by local authority partners. In total DfT awarded funding to 96 packages from 77 authorities to deliver their schemes between 2011 and 2015. Along with local contributions provided by all funded project teams, over £1 billion is now being invested in local sustainable travel. Click here to see the list of all LSTF projects, including the bids that were unsuccessful.

The funding announcements made were as follows:

11 September 2012, Ministers approved just under £5 million to Tyne and Wear ITA for a small project, based on the strongest elements of their Large Project proposal (which was turned down for funding in June 2012)
27 June 2012, Ministers awarded £225 million to 12 large projects (above £5 million), plus £41 million to 14 tranche 2 projects (small projects up to £5 million)
24 May 2012, Ministers awarded £113 million to 30 tranche 2 projects (small projects up to £5 million)
5 July 2011, Ministers awarded £155 million to 39 tranche 1 projects (small projects up to £5 million)

STHC / Dorset County Council LSTF Bid

Click on the link above or the image opposite to download a pdf file of the STHC / Dorset County Council LSTF bid submitted on the 15th April 2011.

Thanks to the 27 authorities that signed up to our LSTF bid with Dorset County Council. Had we been successful, funding to provide the full STHC analysis service with additional STHC School Packs to every school in the bid authorities on an annual basis until 2015 would have been secured.

Undaunted the STHC carries on under the existing funding model and we encourage local authorities to build the STHC into their projects from the start (if they haven't done so already). Please contact us for further information on the use of the STHC in LSTF funded projects.

STHC / Dorset County Council LSTF bid partner authorities:-

Bournemouth Borough Council
Brighton and Hove City Council
Buckinghamshire County Council
Cornwall Council
Essex County Council
Gloucestershire County Council
Hampshire County Council
Hertfordshire County Council
Kent County Council
Leicester City Council
Lincolnshire County Council
North Lincolnshire Council
Luton Borough Council
Northumberland County Council
Plymouth City Council
Poole Borough Council
Reading Borough Council
Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council
Suffolk County Council
Swindon Borough Council
Telford & Wrekin Council
Thurrock Council
Torbay Council
West Berkshire Council
Wiltshire County Council
Worcestershire County Council

“The School Travel Health Check is, in my opinion, an invaluable tool for all those interested in improving the health and wellbeing of children. It provides such crucial information that I don't see how we can do without it.”
Dr Gabriel Scally - Regional Director of Public Health for the South West

“This work is a rarity, a product from a small consultancy that is motivated by a desire to achieve change and not just to make money. The output is excellent and does help to achieve change. Better still it comes at a very modest price that we cannot match in-house.”,
Kevin Speakman - School Travel Plans and SMOTS North Somerset

“It was extremely informative to go through the range of analysis for the schools in South East Dorset. It provided a lot of food for thought for us in the development of the transport strategies for the South East Dorset area to 2026.”

“We have had to prepare the transport model from scratch and have therefore been involved in an extensive and expensive data collection programme in order to assemble a comprehensive picture of travel patterns and behaviour across South East Dorset. We were therefore delighted to learn about the journey to school data which provided a fully observed picture of travel to school by the variety of modes. The journey to school data was particularly useful in filling in gaps in the travel demand matrices for journeys by private car and public transport. The level of detail and the comprehensive nature of the data meant that it was an ideal basis to supplement the other sources of data.”

“The Journey to school data was vital for us to be able to fill in the gaps between the different roadside interview sites. In other studies we have had to make simplifying assumptions about travel between the interview sites; to be able to use the Journey to School database was a real bonus for us.”
Robert Thompson - Business Manager Policy and Plans, Atkins Transport Planning.
Abridged comments on the contribution the STHC has made to the South East Dorset multi modal study (underpins LTP3 and MAA).