The Mayor's West Yorkshire Local Transport Plan: Vision and Objectives

Read the Local Transport Plan Engagement Outcome Report here.

From 15 July to 30 September 2024, the West Yorkshire Combined Authority asked the public and stakeholders for their views on the proposed vision, objectives and principles for our renewed Local Transport Plan.

This is a plan that all Transport Authorities must develop and regularly renew for their area to assess our transport needs and challenges. The plan then sets out different ways to tackle those challenges. It matters because it guides decision making on transport policy and investment across all types of transport in the region.

The report on the outcomes of the engagement has now been published on this webpage.

Key outcomes

648 questionnaire and freeform responses were received to the engagement, of which 567 were from individuals, with the remaining 81 from organisations.

Overall, there was broad support for the draft Local Transport Plan vision, objectives and network principles.

Vision: 79% of individuals and 92% of organisations who responded to the engagement strongly agreed or agreed with the vision, compared to 10% of individuals and 8% of organisations who disagreed or strongly disagreed.

Objectives: Individuals who responded demonstrated agreement or strong agreement with each of the four proposed objectives, ranging from 84% to 75% support. Organisations who responded demonstrated agreement or strong agreement with each of the four proposed objectives, ranging from 94% to 93% support.

Principles: Individuals who responded demonstrated agreement or strong agreement with the six network principles ranging from 92% to 75% support. Organisations who responded demonstrated agreement or strong agreement ranging from 100% to 93% support.

The following key themes were highlighted in the feedback respondents gave us:

• Improvements are needed to the current public transport network, particularly regarding reliability and the lack of services / integration which is limiting opportunities, quality of life, and embedding car dependency across West Yorkshire.
• There are mixed views around policies and measures relating to achievement of net-zero, particularly in terms of demand management of car traffic, and some scepticism in terms of the impact electrification and alternative fuels, including private electric vehicles, will have on contributing to meeting the Mayor’s net-zero targets.
• Individuals and organisations regard improving priority for public transport and active travel on our streets and reducing harmful driver behaviours as important.

What else is in the report

In the full report, you can find:

• Executive summary.
• Overview: background to the Local Transport Plan, the aims of the engagement, the Local Transport Plan proposals and timeline.
• Engagement activity: details of how we how we communicated about the engagement, engaged with people and stakeholders - including how we made our engagement inclusive and accessible, and the numbers and demographics of respondents.
• Engagement response methodology: explanation of how responses were handled, analysed and interpreted.
• Engagement findings: detailed analysis of responses to each question in the engagement feedback questionnaire, including key themes from written feedback. The questions asked for views and opinions on the following areas:
  • Levels of agreement/disagreement with the proposed vision, objectives and principles
  • The potential benefits of a leading integrated transport network, and how important they are to respondents
  • The transport challenges being faced by our communities
  • Perceptions of what is important in the ways our streets are used in the future
  • The potential improvements that could make travel more sustainable across our network
  • We also asked some questions about respondents’ current travel habits and some optional questions to help us understand who we are hearing from.
• Equity, diversity and inclusion informed analysis: highlights of key themes in responses from people with a protected characteristic who could be impacted by the Local Transport Plan.
• Freeform responses: an analysis of key themes in freeform responses (for example, letters, emails and corporate documents).
• Next steps: timeline of what will happen next in the development of the Local Transport Plan.

What happens next?

Our Transport Policy team will consider the feedback from this engagement in developing detailed proposals for the Local Transport Plan.

We will hold a statutory consultation on the full proposed Local Transport Plan later this year (2025).

The information below was presented during the public engagement from 15 July to 30 September 2024.

We (the West Yorkshire Combined Authority) are working with the five West Yorkshire local authorities (Bradford, Calderdale, Kirklees, Leeds and Wakefield) to renew the Mayor’s West Yorkshire Local Transport Plan.  We recently held a public engagement asking for your views on the vision and objectives that will be at the heart of the renewed plan. This engagement closed at 11:59pm on Monday 30 September.

Since then, a lot has changed: 

Next steps

Following this engagement, we will use what we learn from it to help us develop the full content of the Local Transport Plan, and will carry out a statutory consultation on this in 2025. 

Contact us  

• Ask the project team a question using the Q&A tool on this page
• Email us at localtransportplan@westyorks-ca.gov.uk(External link) 
• Phone MetroLine on 0113 245 7676   
• Write to Freepost CONSULTATION TEAM WYCA (no stamp needed)