1. Executive Summary
LTP4 Stage 2 Consultation Report
The Local Transport Plan 4 (LTP4) Stage 2 engagement and consultation focussed on seeking views on the development of the draft strategy, draft Investment Plan and supporting documents.
This was alongside a public consultation which was undertaken between Monday 27 November 2023 and Sunday 25 February 2024 via the East Sussex County Council Citizen Space (online consultation hub) with paper versions also available.
The consultation was informed by the lessons learnt following the Stage 1 consultation (Autumn 2022), which included exploring further opportunities with groups where these was a lower response rate (e.g. businesses and young people).
The purpose of the Stage 2 - Engagement was to:
- Develop a strategy with input from a range of stakeholder representatives.
- Establish stakeholder support for the vision, objectives and outcomes.
- Identify whether the schemes within the draft implementation plan would support the vision and objectives.
The draft strategy involved continuous engagement with over 100 representatives, through three key stakeholder groups including:
- an East Sussex County Council Member Reference Group, comprising of cross-party members of the Place Scrutiny Committee,
- internal East Sussex County Council officers and
- local stakeholders.
Regular workshops were held enabling input into the draft strategy, investment plan and supporting documents.
Stage 2 – Public consultation
The consultation was promoted to all key county wide stakeholders and was shared by East Sussex County Council Members and by officers involved in the development of LTP4 to their respective networks. The consultation was also promoted via the council’s social media and communication materials in all Council libraries and other council public facing offices.
Officers were available at drop-in sessions at all council libraries on weekdays, with the larger and busier libraries also visited on a Saturday. Over 200 conversations were had at the library drop-in sessions. In addition two workshops were held with young people who represent the Councils Youth Cabinet and Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) Ambassador groups to seek their views.
The public consultation received over 1,000 engagements and responses across the library drop-in sessions, online consultation, emailed submissions and postal responses and is broken down as follows:
- 755 online responses.
- 19 postal responses.
- 67 responses by email.
- 216 conversations at libraries.
Response to engagement and consultation
The engagement with the East Sussex County Council cross party Member Reference Group, internal officers and local stakeholders, resulted in the development of a draft LTP4 for consultation that was reflective of the range of views of all those participating and the groups that they were representing, culminating in agreement to the draft LTP4, prior to publication for consultation.
Where completed, the ‘about you’ analysis indicated that the type of respondents broadly matched the profile for East Sussex with a few exceptions (age, religion or belief, sexual orientation and geographical distribution).
The review of the survey questions responses demonstrate support for the LTP4, with suggestions and concerns raised in the open questions.
Feedback has been collated and this report provides a response to this and actions or recommendations that have been taken in further updates to LTP4.