Road safety, cycling and bus priority schemes across England are under threat amid fears that the government is preparing to cut its £2.1bn local transport budget.
Local authorities are braced for transport funding cuts from 2011 onwards because of the squeeze on the public finances, the County Surveyors' Society (CSS), the leading body representing local transport officials, told the Guardian.
The president of the CSS, Brian Smith, said the Department for Transport's (DfT) spending priorities were Network Rail, the owner of Britain's rail infrastructure, and train operators. According to one source, cuts of 35% are being mooted in local transport grants. The Highways Agency, which maintains the motorways, is also expecting cuts in its £2bn trunk roads budget.
"When you recognise how much of the DfT budget is committed to supporting Network Rail and subsidies for train operators, it is clear that the hit is going to be on the Highways Agency and local transport spending," said Smith.
Local authorities receive government funding for transport from two sources: the regional funding allocation, which awards about £765m a year; and the local transport plan, which adds a further £1.35bn. Smith urged ministers to brief local authorities as soon as possible about the scale of the cuts.
Last week Gordon Brown dismissed a report by the Institute for Fiscal Studies claiming that public spending will be cut by more than 2% after the election. However, the chancellor, Alistair Darling, has stated that from 2011 public spending will rise by no more than 0.7% in order to pay down the national debt. In recent years the DfT has been used to a budget increase of up to 3% a year. According to one transport industry source, the DfT is increasingly concerned that it will have to impose cuts on local transport spending across the country. "The DfT officials are very worried about it," said the source.
Environmental campaigners said the expected reductions could cause "real damage" to local communities. "We are already seeing cuts in bus services and … without government support the kinds of improvements in local transport that authorities want to make will not happen," said Stephen Joseph, executive director of the Campaign for Better Transport.
Local transport funding was already struggling before the recession. In Manchester, local authorities are now seeking funds to pay for projects that would have been bankrolled by a pay-to-drive system that was rejected by voters.
A compromise arrangement thrashed out by Manchester authorities, part-funded by a top-slicing of local authority transport budgets, threatens road safety, cycling and walking schemes across Manchester, according to a report for the Association of Greater Manchester Authorities. The report admits that Greater Manchester's road safety strategy might be reviewed and that cutbacks on cycling and walking schemes "could potentially have a negative effect on health-based targets".
Individual Manchester authorities also raise concerns in the report, with Salford admitting that the number of local road safety schemes "would probably be halved" and Trafford stating that spending on important walking and cycling plans "would need to be reconsidered."
The Campaign For Better Transport said the cutbacks raised in the report could be repeated across the country as tighter public spending conditions filter down to local transport schemes.
The government's road pricing policy was supposed to help councils fund transport schemes by allowing them to pocket the proceeds from pay-as-you-drive systems, but public antipathy to the idea has left local authorities dependent on taxpayer funding.
A Department for Transport spokesperson said: "Reliable and efficient transport networks are essential to sustained economic growth, which is why this government is committed to making very substantial investments in every aspect of our transport system.
"Good local transport is vital, providing essential links to healthcare, employment, friends and family and other amenities. This is why we are currently spending over £1.3bn per annum, excluding London, on enabling local authorities to modernise and provide the best possible transport links in their area. Significant investment in all these areas will continue after 2011."