Some of the most important transport schemes in the West Midlands are at risk of being axed in favour of flagship projects.
Councillors who sit on regional transport body Centro have been issued with an ultimatum after its leaders said it could not afford to fund all the region’s ambitions for the next five years amid ruthless government cuts.
They now face a dilemma of whether they continue to fund projects like park and ride schemes and real time information screens at bus stops.
Members were told that doing so could mean sacrificing more expensive priorities which will help the West Midlands to recover from the recession including multi-million pound improvements to the Metro system, extending Birmingham Airport’s runway and helping to pave the way for high-speed rail.
Chief executive Geoff Inskip set out the choice as he unveiled a cost-cutting plan to cope with proposals to reduce the national deficit.
The Government will announce its comprehensive spending review next Wednesday.
Centro has to decide on its spending strategy so it can send its Local Transport Plan (LTP) out to consultation just five days later.
“When times are tough, and believe me they are tough, we have got to look at how to fund major schemes,” Mr Inskip warned.
“The priorities are well known and they have been set by this authority.If we just fall back on the minor schemes, are we going to grow?”
Mr Inskip said that in order to pay for larger schemes, money could be taken from the Integrated Transport Block (ITB) allocation, which is used to fund schemes costing between £1 million and £5 million.
A proposal contained in the draft LTP to “top slice” the ITB by 50 per cent would see the total amount paid to councils such as Birmingham cut in half.
The annual West Midlands ITB has already been slashed by 25 per cent from £53.7 million to £40 million by the Government.
Local councils use it to pay for schemes like overhead information matrixes on the Aston Expressway and would be used to fund a proposed coach and lorry park planned for the city centre.
Mr Inskip said it was impossible to anticipate the spending review but said it was likely that difficult choices would have to be made.
“We are assuming that we have to find a way of funding these things through our own money and many of the answers will only be revealed on October 20,” he said.
Mr Inskip said that the ITB could fall as far as £32 million.
“We can allocate that to major schemes, which will have a big impact,” he added. “We need members to come back and tell us whether these are the type of schemes that they want to see.”
The major schemes at risk set out in the report are the extension of the Midland Metro to Merry Hill in the Black Country and New Street Station in Birmingham; improvements for freight trains on the Coventry to Nuneaton rail line; Wolverhampton Interchange; a runway extension at Birmingham Airport and improvements to the A45 corridor and Darlaston Strategic Development Area, which promises 4,500 jobs.
Many schemes which have already begun, including the rebuilding of Birmingham New Street and Selly Oak New Road, are thought to be safe, said Mr Inskip.
Network Rail is committed to several projects to improve rail infrastructure across the region until 2016 but some are under review.
No money had been allocated for the following period of rail projects from 2016, said Mr Inskip, but he hoped the Government’s deficit would be reduced sufficiently by then to allow them to begin spending on schemes like the reopening the Camp Hill rail line which would link Kings Heath and Moseley to the city by rail.
Coun Tim Huxtable, Centro’s lead member for Birmingham and the city council’s cabinet member for transport, said there were tough choices to be made.
“We have a choice of funding projects which are important to regional growth or to local communities,” he said. ‘‘Leaving either one out is never going to be palatable. At the end of the day, we have been left in a financial mess and this is one way to reduce the deficit.”
