Transport schemes

The Transport Partnership

A lack of funding is holding up significant progress in delivering Cardiff’s transport strategy. This has been the case for almost a decade. The delivery of Cardiff’s core infrastructure improvements will cost an estimated £500 million and finding a way to pay for these improvements is a key issue.

Funding of this scale is unlikely to be obtained through traditional means such as the Welsh Assembly Government Transport Grant system or Council funding. It is the Council’s view that doing nothing is not an option. We need a new approach to fund the delivery of Cardiff’s transport vision.

An innovative public private partnership is being pursued as one option to generate the investment needed to solve Cardiff’s transport problems and oversee the modernisation of Cardiff’s transport system. The partnership could take the form of ‘special purpose company’ charged with generating investment and managing the transport infrastructure over the next 25 years or so.

Consultation with stakeholders has been undertaken. This took the form of the Green Paper “A Change of Gear” (December 2002) and the subsequent White Paper “Keeping Cardiff Moving” (May 2003). The majority of responses to this consultation concluded that ‘doing nothing is not an option’ and that a new innovative approach to the delivery of transport infrastructure is required.

It is recognised that any private sector partner would expect a fair return on their investment in the partnership. The methods of funding the partnership will, therefore, be critical. Potential funding sources include road user charging, Transport Grant, revenue and potential planning benefits from developers and landowners.