Our vision for Tyne and Wear:
"To see Tyne and Wear continue to develop as an area where all residents have better access to a 
more prosperous, safer, healthier and more sustainable lifestyle in a more attractive environment".
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Latest News
The LTP Progress Report 2008 and updated Congestion Reduction Plan are now available.
April 2009
ActTravelwise Conference - Call For Papers
NewcastleGateshead will host the ActTravelwise Autumn Conference on 23rd and 24th November 2009. The conference theme will be 'A Healthy Approach to Travel Options: helping organisations and individuals to thrive'. The call for papers has now been announced and further information can be found here.
March 2009
More awards for Tyne and Wear!
Following the Tyne and Wear Freight Partnership’s success in winning two national awards last year, we are pleased to announce that Tyne and Wear has won two further national awards, this time for our rights of way network.
At the Natural England awards ceremony in Leicester on 19th March, awards were given out in eight categories to recognise the work done by local authorities to develop their rights of way network. The awards were presented by Nicholas Crane of the BBC’s “Coast” programme.
Tyne and Wear produces a joint Rights of Way Improvement Plan and the quality of the Plan and its delivery was shown by our region coming first in two categories:
The photo on the right shows John Bourn (Tyne and Wear LTP Team), Nicholas Crane (presenter), Neil Frier (Gateshead Council), Tim Ducker (Sunderland Council) and Paul Taylor (Nexus / LAF Chair) receiving the award.
Tyne and Wear was also shortlisted in the Best Cycling category. So out of eight categories, Tyne and Wear won two and was shortlisted in another.
Car Club for Newcastle
Newcastle City Council, working with Option C, will be the first council in the North East to launch a car club. More information on the car club can be found here.
February 2009
Newcastle City Council have announced that they will host the next ACT TravelWise National Autumn Conference, Gala Dinner and Awards Ceremony on 23rd and 24th November 2009 at the Sage Gateshead. Download the flyer for more information.
For previous news items, visit the LTP News Archive.
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BACKGROUND TO THE LOCAL TRANSPORT PLAN
The Local Transport Plan (LTP) is a five year statutory document prepared by all local authorities which sets out a strategy for the development of transport in a particular area. The plan indicates how money allocated by central government will be spent in order to meet local and national targets and objectives. More money may be available in a plan area depending upon the quality of its LTP.
In Tyne and Wear a joint plan has been prepared by the five local authorities; Gateshead, Newcastle, North Tyneside, South Tyneside, Sunderland and the Passenger Transport Executive; Nexus. There are other stakeholders in the plan- including bus and train companies, the ports and airport, haulage companies, taxi operators, cycling and pedestrian organisations and many more.
During the preparation of the plan Tyne and Wear residents were extensively consulted on their views of how the transport system should evolve. Therefore the Plan Partners are confident the LTP sets out a shared vision for the future. The plan addresses key transport problems affecting the area during the next 15 years and sets out appropriate, affordable and acceptable strategies to bring about improvements in local transport systems.
The first Local Transport Plan (LTP1) covered the period between 2001-2006. Progress on this plan was reported annually each July in an Annual Progress Report. The LTP Delivery Report was produced in July 2006 and described the key achievements of the first plan from 2001-2006.
The full Tyne and Wear Local Transport Plan 2006-11 (LTP2) was completed in March 2006.
The Department for Transport and Government Office North East have recently assessed the two reports. Details of their assessments can be found by looking at the page:
LTP2 / Delivery Report assessment
The first Delivery Report designed to describe the implementation of LTP2 was published in December 2008 and can be viewed in the 'Documents' section of this website.
Congestion Reduction Plan
The Congestion Reduction Plan is a delivery plan for Tyne and Wear outlining the strategies we are following to reduce congestion on key corridors and enable us to meet the PSA Urban Congestion Target. Further detail can be found in the 'Documents' section of the website.
The LTP is based around the 'Shared Priorities'. More information on these is available here: LTP Shared Priorities
Tyne and Wear was awarded Centre of Excellence status in 2003 for our work in accessibility planning: Centre of Excellence
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Local Transport Act 2008
The 2008 Local Transport Act is now in force, incorporating potentially far-reaching changes to the governance and delivery of transport in Tyne and Wear. For details of what these changes entail, please visit this site.
The 2008 Act is the most significant piece of legislation affecting transport since the 1968 Transport Act. Forty years on, the groundbreaking 1968 Act – and the politician who made it possible – were remembered in a ceremony at Manchester Oxford Road station on 22nd September 2008.
The then Transport Secretary Ruth Kelly joined the family of Barbara Castle to help name a Northern Rail train after the late Labour MP and first woman Transport Minister. Sonya Hinton, niece of Barbara Castle, and other family members were the guests of honour among an audience of more than 100 people at the ceremony.
The 1968 Transport Act was the largest non-financial piece of legislation since the War. It was promoted with great élan by the combative Castle, despite considerable opposition at the time. 
Britain in the 1960s was undergoing a transport revolution, as growing car use made cities more congested and weakened the financial position of bus and rail providers. The landscapes of many towns and cities were being re-shaped by the need to accommodate car traffic – for example, Newcastle’s Swan House roundabout and Gateshead’s multi-storey car park stem from this era.
Legislation and transport governance had not kept pace with these developments and Castle recognised the need for major changes – to improve co-ordination between bus and rail services in large conurbations, to stabilise the position of the railways, to rescue Britain’s ailing canal network and to improve road safety by establishing local road safety units and extending the requirement to wear seat belts.
The 1968 Transport Act was of great significance to Tyne and Wear’s transport system and to the local economy. British Rail, charged with making a profit, was at the time in the process of implementing a further round of closures, following the process started in the Beeching Report. This could have resulted in the closure of much of Tyneside’s local rail network and the withdrawal of local passenger services between Newcastle and Carlisle.
The Act recognised, for the first time, that much of the railway system could not make a profit but should be retained for its social importance and environmental role – more important than ever today – in keeping traffic off the roads. By accepting the principle of subsidy for the “social railway”, Barbara Castle stabilised the system and helped preserve the railway network we know today.
Even more important was the Act’s establishment of four local Passenger Transport Executives, charged with providing modern integrated public transport networks in major urban areas. One of those was the Tyneside Passenger Transport Executive (later to become the Tyne and Wear PTE, now Nexus) which took a leading role in developing and promoting the Tyne and Wear Metro system, today the backbone of our local public transport network.
The PTE Group, which represents England’s six Passenger Transport Executives, has produced a report on this event, which can be viewed here.
PTEG’s special commemorative brochure, which tells the full story of Barbara Castle and the 1968 Transport Act, can be downloaded here.
Neil Scales, Chair of pteg, said:
‘In many ways Barbara Castle was the most far-sighted Transport Minister that Britain has ever had. In the mid-Sixties she recognised that creating locally accountable strategic transport authorities for the conurbations would be essential if her wider aims for a planned and integrated national transport policy were to be achieved. In doing so she gave our cities a template which still guides us today.’
‘Forty years on and the new Local Transport Bill now offers the exciting prospect of building on Barbara Castle’s legacy by enhancing our powers and responsibilities so we can become the more fully empowered transport authorities that Barbara Castle originally envisaged.’
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