Budget transfer Property Holdings to Transport and Technical Services: 2014 Fiscal Stimulus and Parish Projects

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A decision made 24 March 2014:

Decision Reference: MD-TR-2014-0023
Decision Summary Title:	Transfer of capital budget from T&R to TTS for fiscal stimulus and Parish projects		Date of Decision Summary:	17th March 2014
Decision Summary Author:	Finance Manager - JPH		Decision Summary: Public or Exempt?	Public
Type of Report: Oral or Written?	Written		Person Giving Oral Report:	N/A
Written Report Title:	Transfer of capital budget from T&R to TTS for fiscal stimulus and Parish projects		Date of Written Report:	17th March 2014
Written Report Author:	Director of Transport TTS		Written Report : Public or Exempt?	Public
Subject: Transfer of 2014 capital budget for fiscal stimulus and Parish projects from Treasury and Resources – Jersey Property Holdings (T&R - JPH) to Transport and Technical Services (TTS).
Decision(s): The Minister approved a capital budget transfer in 2014 of £1,252,000 from T&R - JPH capital head of expenditure to TTS capital head of expenditure for fiscal stimulus and Parish projects schemes. The creation of a new capital head of expenditure in TTS has also been approved.
Reason(s) for Decision: Article 18(1)(c) of the Public Finances (Jersey) 2005 states that all or any part of the amount appropriated by a head of expenditure may, with the approval of the Minister for Treasury and Resources, be used for the purposes of another head of expenditure. This funding will allow TTS to proceed with planned road safety and parish village improvement schemes to provide fiscal stimulus, namely: Public realm and pedestrian crossing safety improvements in St Helier, specifically improvements to Bath St adjacent to the Town Park and West Centre; Accelerate the delivery programme for St Mary, St John and St Lawrence village improvements; Road safety improvements at Grouville School.
Resource Implications: The T&R (JPH) capital head of expenditure to decrease by £1,252,000 with the TTS capital head of expenditure to increase by an identical amount in 2014. This decision does not change the total amount of expenditure approved by the States in the 2014 Budget Statement.
Action required: Business Manager to inform the Financial Performance Reporting Manager, the Finance Manager for JPH and the TTS Finance Manager that this decision has been approved.
Signature:		Position: Senator P.F.C. Ozouf, Minister for Treasury and Resources
Date Signed:		Date of Decision:

Budget transfer Property Holdings to Transport and Technical Services: 2014 Fiscal Stimulus and Parish Projects

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Treasury and Resources Department

Ministerial Decision Report

Transfer of capital budget from T&R to TTS for fiscal stimulus and Parish projects

Purpose of Report

To enable the Minister for Treasury and Resources to approve a 2014 request for a capital budget transfer of £1,252,000 from Treasury and Resources – Jersey Property Holdings (T&R) to Transport and Technical Services (TTS) for fiscal stimulus and Parish projects.

Background

Overview of projects to be funded:

Project Construction

Budget Allocation

Details & Business Case

St Helier

2 No. Bath St Road Safety and Public Realm Improvement Schemes (Pedestrian Crossings to Town Park and West Centre).

Design start Q1 2014

Start on site Q2 2014

£100,000

Bath St has suffered from a high pedestrian accident rate. The high pedestrian numbers at the Town Park and West Centre conflict with significant volumes of traffic.

The works will address this by improving pedestrian crossing facilities and the quality of the street scape using a shared space approach similar to that applied to Broad St, with high quality surfacing’s and street furniture.

An improvement to the Bath Street crossing at West Centre has had States approval through amendment brought to the 2010 Sustainable Transport Policy.

Appendix A

Grouville

Grouville School Safety Scheme.

Design start Q1 2014

Start on site Q2 2014

£130,000

Convert track at the back of Grouville School to chevron parking and improve surface.

The works would prevent the need for parents picking up from the school to park on Rue de la Ville es Renaud, often illegally, disrupting and obstructing traffic, upsetting residents and making pedestrian journeys difficult and more dangerous.

See Appendix B

Parish Centre improvements - St Mary, St John & St Lawrence

Parish road safety schemes.

St Mary design site Q2 2014

St Mary start on site Q3 2014

St John consultation Q2 2014

St Lawrence consultation Q3 2014

£1,022,000

Works to improve roads through parish villages in a way that enhances the character of the village and provides safer walking and cycling access to important local amenities such as the school, shops and Parish Hall.

These projects are community led and the design approach takes inspiration from the French ‘Vorie pour Tous’ (roads for all). This focuses on softer visual cues to change drivers’ behaviour to create a self-regulating environment, rather than relying solely hard traffic engineering measures, and can be seen successfully applied in many rural Breton villages, modified for the Jersey context.

See Appendix C

Road safety and speeding are very high on the general public’s agenda and TTS is continually asked for road safety measures that will slow down traffic and improve areas for pedestrians, especially in the more rural areas where roads are narrow and traffic speeds are perceived to be high.

In order to address these long standing traffic issues and enhance the village environments at the centre of each parish, the Medium Term Financial Plan (MTFP) 2013 - 2015 provided the following funding for ‘Parish Centre Improvements’:

Year	2013	2014	2015
MTFP Funding	£450,000	£500,000	£500,000

In doing so, the MTFP recognised that the initiative supports the strategic priority to “Get People Back into Work” by providing work for the construction industry, and the Sustainable Transport Policy by encouraging people to make local journeys within their villages without needing to use their car.

Subject to continued funding, the outline design and construction programme for Parish Centre Improvements as it stands in the MTFP is as follows:

Year	2013		2014				2015				2016				2017				2018				2019				2020
Quarter	3	4	1	2	3	4	1	2	3	4	1	2	3	4	1	2	3	4	1	2	3	4	1	2	3	4	1	2

St Aubin
St Mary
St John
St Lawrence

This programme reflects typical costs for a village road safety scheme range between £500,000 and £1,000,000 and so will need to be phased over more than one year’s budgets. A consequence of this is that the economic stimulus effect is disjointed, reducing its effectiveness.

The States of Jersey’s Budget Statement for 2014 has now provided £1,252,000 with the capital programme for ‘Fiscal Stimulus and Parish Projects’ within T&R’s budget. These funds are intended for use to support TTS’s programme of parish centre road safety improvements and provide additional fiscal stimulus.

This additional funding will allow the programme to be accelerated as follows, smoothing out the economic stimulus effect by providing a continuous stream of works:

Year	2013		2014				2015				2016				2017				2018				2019				2020
Quarter	3	4	1	2	3	4	1	2	3	4	1	2	3	4	1	2	3	4	1	2	3	4	1	2	3	4	1	2

Bath St
Grouville Sch
St Aubin
St Mary
St John
St Lawrence

To allow TTS to proceed with these projects, in accordance with Financial Direction 3.6 ‘Variations to Heads of Expenditure’ the Director of Estates, Jersey Property Holdings must seek approval from the Minister for Treasury and Resources for the transfer of £1.252m capital budget for Fiscal Stimulus and Parish Projects from T&R to TTS.

Recommendation

The Minister is recommended to approve a capital budget transfer in 2014 of £1,252,000 from T&R capital head of expenditure to TTS capital head of expenditure for fiscal stimulus and Parish projects schemes. The Minister is also recommended to approve the creation of a new capital head of expenditure in TTS.

Reason for Decision

Article 18(1)(c) of the Public Finances (Jersey) 2005 states that all or any part of the amount appropriated by a head of expenditure may, with the approval of the Minister for Treasury and Resources, be used for the purposes of another head of expenditure.

This funding will allow TTS to proceed with planned road safety and parish village improvement schemes to provide fiscal stimulus, namely:

Public realm and pedestrian crossing safety improvements in St Helier, specifically improvements to Bath St adjacent to the Town Park and West Centre;
Accelerate the delivery programme for St Mary, St John and St Lawrence village improvements;
Road safety improvements at Grouville School.

6. Resource Implications

The T&R capital head of expenditure to decrease by £1,252,000 with the TTS capital head of expenditure to increase by an identical amount in 2014. This decision does not change the total amount of expenditure approved by the States in the 2014 Budget Statement.

Report author : Finance Director, TTS	Document date : 11th February 2014
Quality Assurance / Review : Head of Decision Support	File name and path: L:\Treasury\Sections\Corporate Finance\Ministerial Decisions\DSs, WRs and SDs\2014-000x - Capital budget tfr from T&R JPH to TTS for Fiscal Stimulus & Parish Projects\WR - Transfer 2014 Capital from T&R to TTS.docx