Borough Council To Invite Bids For Traffic Study

Published on: 21 May, 2013
Updated on: 24 May, 2013

The Guildford Borough Council website entry publicising the forthcoming ‘Invitation to Tender’

Guildford Borough Council (GBC) is about to publish the Invitation to Tender for the Guildford Town and Approaches Movement Study (G-TAMS).

It will be published tomorrow on Wednesday, May 22 on the GBC website at www.guildford.gov.uk/tendersandcontracts. It is understood that funds of £100,000 have bee authorised for the study.

The deadline for receipt of tenders will be 12 noon on Wednesday 12 June 2013. The consultant is expected to complete the study by the end of February 2014.

According to the website entry: “Guildford Borough Council is seeking to appoint a consultant to undertake a study to develop a long term movement strategy to 2050 for the town of Guildford. This will inform the development of a new Local Plan for the borough for the period to 2031.

“The study area is the entire urban area of Guildford, plus the immediate approaches to the urban area. The area includes the town centre where the transport networks converge, and also the A3 trunk road. All modes of transport, and their networks, are within scope.

“The consultant will establish baseline metrics and will prepare a business-as-usual forecast to 2050, based on the extrapolation of trends into the future.”

Working closely with decision-makers, partners and interested parties, the consultant will is expected to develop and employ a, “scenario analysis approach involving backcasting to establish desirable transport futures”.

The key output of the study will be a strategy report, setting out the preferred transport future scenario and its benefits. The strategy will also identify funding constraints and opportunities.

The council says it is: “committed to ensuring that engagement with interested parties, including with amenity and special interest groups and others, takes place and informs every stage of this project. The consultant will make specific provision for this.”

GBC is supported by Surrey County Council in this project. There will be senior officer and councillor representation on the project’s Steering Group.

Cllr James Palmer

Cllr James Palmer (Con, Shalford), the lead councillor for the town centre and transport said: “This is the start of an exciting new project which will look at the future transport needs of our town and inform the development of the new Local Plan for the borough. As part of this new movement study, we will talk to local people and groups to help shape the strategy.

“We are working closely with Surrey County Council to improve the transport infrastructure in Guildford, including the Guildford gyratory. The movement study will look more broadly still at the entire urban area of Guildford, plus the immediate approaches. This includes the town centre and the A3 trunk road.

“The study is due to start in August and be completed by the end of next February.”

Cllr Caroline Reeves (Lib Dem, Friary & St Nicolas) speaking on behalf of the GBC Lib Dem group said: “We are very pleased that the work done to date on our transport situation is moving forward to cover the whole network and all modes of transport. The extensive consultation outlined in the brief will be essential given the willingness of residents and experts to comment on our current, and very real, problems.”

Responses to Borough Council To Invite Bids For Traffic Study

Gerald Bland Reply

June 2, 2013 at 3:22 pm

The Guildford Dragon NEWS was first to publish the welcome news that the Council’s Executive have at last, seemingly, bought into a long term vision for our town.

How does that fit with the decision to spend £100,000 of community funds on a long term Movement Study?

The Introduction to the Invitation to Tender for G-TAMS includes the following:

‘2.6 The key output of the Study will be a strategy report,setting out the preferred transport future scenario and its benefits,the pathway back to the present,and the recommended package of costed interventions and timelines for critical decisions for that pathway. The strategy will also identify funding constraints and opportunities and identify the potential scope for further development.

2.7 The consultant will complete this study by 28 February 2014.’

Although the Invitation to Tender contemplates community views being sought on the strategy report the timetable suggests that the council have already decided the size and location of development in the borough over the plan period. How else can a transport engineer make a start on a strategy this August as the tender documents require him/her to do?

And if the strategy is to be conceived without knowing whether 2500 homes are to be built in Ash or in Burpham or along the river corridor in the town centre it will perpetuate a pattern of road building, like the A3 and the gyratory, which has no regard for people or places.

Surely what is urgently needed is an innovative and inspired masterplan which gives clarity to the roles and responsibilities of the various organisations involved in development and regeneration and which is an authoritative demonstration of the political leadership which the council leader’s recent pronouncements hint at?