Objective 5: Increasing accessibility

Summary of Objective

This objective aims to improve local connections, making sure conditions are right for walking, cycling, wheeling and public transport. 

Progress in this theme has been really positive, with roll out of the Bus Service Improvement Plan and the delivery of new cycling and walking infrastructure.

Policies

• Policy 14: We'll  work in partnership with agencies in Norfolk to tackle accessibility problems, targeting those communities most in need. We'll seek to ensure that we plan in accessibility as part of service delivery.
• Policy 15: We'll identify routes important for sustainable and active transport and give priority - especially in urban areas - to those modes of transport.
• Policy 16: We commit to providing a transport and movement network all people can access, understand and use to the greatest extent possible. We recognise that people who live, work in and visit Norfolk access the network in different ways, depending on their individual circumstances and characteristics. We also recognise what enables good access for one person may act as a barrier to another. We'll therefore robustly assess all schemes and pay due regard to the Public Sector Equality Duty (along with our other duties and responsibilities).

Objective 5: delivery highlights

Safe Sustainable Development

The review of Safe Sustainable Development is complete. This contains aims and guidance notes intended to act as best practice and provide general advice about what is likely to be acceptable to NCC in development proposals.

Enhanced Partnership Scheme and Plan

We've completed our action to make an Enhanced Partnership Plan and Enhanced Partnership Scheme. 

In March 2022, the Department for Transport announced nearly £50m funding for Norfolk for the delivery of the Bus Service Improvement Plan. The Norfolk Enhanced Partnership formed between NCC and local bus operators enables us to deliver this Plan. The council is only one of 36 authorities to receive this initial funding and Norfolk received the largest allocation of any non-metropolitan authority.

Bus Service Improvement Plan

 In 2024 new and enhanced Bus Service Improvement Plan funded services have helped plug gaps where before little or no public transport existed. This has helped us successfully move towards the target to increase rural accessibility by 85% by 2027. In July 2024 rural accessibility had increased by 12.5% from the 2022-23 period.

We've implemented a range of interventions through the Bus Service Improvement Plan including:

• Bus stop upgrades, meaning 84% of bus stops across Norfolk are now fully DDA compliant. We have an obligation to ensure works meet the requirements of the Disability Discrimination Act 1999.
• Almost every bus stop with suitable infrastructure in Norfolk now has a QR board. These link to scheduled and real-time bus departure information. Bus users have already accessed this information more than 180,000 times.
• More than 40 bus services have been enhanced with increased frequencies, evening and weekend services and brand new services.
• Reduced fares of a £1.50 single journey fare cap is available in Thetford, King's Lynn and Great Yarmouth. A 25% discount on weekly, monthly and group tickets applies across Norfolk. We've simplified and discounted Norwich Park and Ride fares.
• We delivered the North Walsham travel hub
• We've designed and scoped bus priority schemes. And we've completed the bus priority scheme on Queens Road (access to Norwich bus station).

Beryl bikes scheme

The Beryl micromobility scheme, which includes standard bikes, e-bikes and e-scooters, continues to perform strongly across the Norwich area.  The geographical extent of the scheme has expanded to include Drayton, Wymondham and Hethersett. 

People travel more than 100,000km on Beryl bikes and e-scooters each month and there are more than 84,000 registered users. 

In the four years the Beryl scheme has run in Norwich, from March 2020 to July 2024, there have been more than 1,475,000 journeys.  The e-scooter fleet now sits at 500, as well as there being 300 standard bikes and 200 e-bikes.

Ginger e-scooter trial

The Ginger e-scooter trial in Great Yarmouth performed well. Some 26% of 18 to 29-year-olds in Great Yarmouth had an account with Ginger, and they rode more than 250,000 miles. However, the trial was paused in February 2024 when Ginger withdrew the service. This was due to uncertainties around timings for national legislation and continuation of the current trials. 

Great Yarmouth Borough Council is still looking to introduce a shared micromobility scheme to its residents.  Feasibility studies are being carried out by its officers.

Local Full Fibre Networks (LFFN) programme

We completed the LFFN programme in 2022/23, delivering FTTP (a type of fibre optic broadband) to 394 rural public buildings. 

Openreach have now exploited the investment in this infrastructure to deliver new FTTP services. This delivers social and economic benefits. It improves access to public services across rural Norfolk, such as schools and libraries, and ensures people are connected. It also allows people to make a choice about whether they need to travel.

Better Broadband for Norfolk (BBfN)

We also continued to work with Openreach to deliver the Better Broadband for Norfolk (BBfN) project. We've secured additional funding from Building Digital UK (BDUK) with a one quarter extension to deliver the hardest to reach premises. All BBfN build works are now complete, with 7,776 premises now benefiting from gigabit-capable broadband.

Project Gigabit

We worked with the Department for Culture, Media and Sport on the procurement phase of Project Gigabit, which is aiming to provide Gigabit capable broadband to rural premises. 

We're actively seeking to increase the initial contracted scope of 86,200 premises. An extra 5,800 premises have already been approved for phase one of this project, with other increases being investigated, particularly for the west and north west of the county. 

The build to properties in phase one to the north of Norwich is now under way, with the planning of phase two expecting imminent approval. This is one of the ways we work in partnership with agencies in Norfolk to tackle accessibility problems where the need is greatest.

Norfolk County Council has deployed fixed wireless access to 10 rural village halls across Norfolk. This solution uses a Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite solution to provide fast internet access into the village hall, and a local wireless network solution to provide free-to-use public Wi-Fi for the village hall, the local community and immediately surrounding premises. In future there is potential to support further fixed wireless connections into nearby extremely hard to reach properties.

Local Cycling and Walking Infrastructure Plans (LCWIPs) 

We've developed LCWIPs, with separate plans created for King's Lynn, Great Yarmouth and Greater Norwich in Spring 2022. 

A countywide LCWIP was adopted in April 2024. These were created in close partnership with the relevant district councils to ensure LCWIPs play an integral part in the delivery of the overall transport strategy for Norfolk. They also support our ambition to make Norfolk a walking and cycling county.

Norfolk Walking, Wheeling and Cycling Strategy

The Norfolk Walking, Wheeling and Cycling Strategy was adopted in April 2024. Its vision is to create a healthier and greener Norfolk by enabling people to walk, wheel and cycle more often and make cycling the natural choice for shorter journeys .

Active Travel

An Active Travel 4 Extension bid in autumn 2023 was successful. We received the full amount requested (£1.045m).

Revenue funding from Active Travel England is being used to:

• Conduct active travel route feasibility studies
• Deliver local authority officer and councillor training
• Deliver behaviour change projects which encourage people to choose to walk, wheel or cycle more for short journeys

Behaviour change projects work with schools, workplaces and communities across Norfolk and includes the funding of:

• Activity clubs for children in the school holidays
• Grants for schools to improve active travel planning and capability
• Community active travel events 
• Active travel workplace engagement with large employers

Norfolk Investment Framework (NIF) Rural EV pilot project

The project is progressing well and we've agreed sites in Sheringham and Martham. Using satellite technology, the Rural Strategy Steering Group helped to identify sites in need and the project looks to be a great success. 

Work for next period

We'll continue to deliver the Bus Service Improvement Plan (BSIP) and represent NCC on the Board of Community Rail Norfolk. 

Delivery will continue to achieve the target indicator to grow annual bus patronage in Norfolk, building on the positive impact the BSIP has already made. Bus patronage increased by 16% from April 2023 to March 2024. In the first quarter of 2024/25, bus numbers had increased a further 12% compared to the same period last year.

Work is under way to develop solutions for the remaining pockets of properties that will still have poor service following Project Gigabit, or will have poor service for an extended period until Project Gigabit or commercial builds can reach them.

We'll continue to produce proportionate assessments of proposals to make sure they're suitable for all users, including people with disabilities or restricted mobility, as part of work on individual project/scheme development. We're committed to making sure assessments done on projects are not 'box-ticking' exercises. 

In January 2024 NCC announced the extension of free bus travel for people with disabilities as a result of the updated equality impact assessment of the scheme.

We'll deliver schemes from the adopted LCWIPs and Norfolk Walking, Wheeling and Cycling Strategy and pursue funding to plug gaps in delivery.