Health Impact Assessment: Lancashire County Council - Case Study Example

Health Impact Assessment for Lancashire County Council’s Transport Strategy for 2011-2021 A Health Impact Assessment (HIA) is a combination of procedures or methods by which a policy, program or project may be judged as to the effects it may have on the health of a population. HIA is a structural method used for assessing and improving consequences related to health that arise from policies, projects and programs that do not necessarily have health as a primary objective. Lancashire Highway and Transport Masterplan is one such project that has no health as a primary objective but aims at expanding the highway system of Lancashire for more economic purposes. This gives the project a frontline in laying down a Health Impact Assessment. Lancashire County Council’s transport strategy for 2011-2021 has put forth a Masterplan; Central Lancashire Highways and Transport Masterplan to address problems associated with highway transport system in Lancashire County. The Masterplan sets out to overseeing the future of Central Lancashire Highway and transport networks. Among the options listed for the improvement of the future of Lancashire’s transport system include, improving on the available existing infrastructure to expand on the highway and transport system. The result will be fruitful, as it will significantly improve public transport in the country. Nevertheless, despite the improvement of public transport in the country, does the policy have any impact on the health of the community at Lancashire? Stages of HIA include screening as first step whereby possible health impacts of the project are identified, wide range of stakeholders and informants are met with, stakeholders examine project details. In Lancashire, the Masterplan has stakeholders who are the city dwellers and collaborating partners. It also has informants who are the ones who have come up with the idea of Highway expansion. Project details such as the budget, the timeframe, and labor force can be examined from the Masterplan. In addition, HIA must possess the characteristics of a project touching on the health of the public at large. Lancashire Highway and transportation Masterplan will greatly affect the health of the public in both a positive and negative way. 1. Key impacts of the plan on the health of the affected communities/ populations For instance, public health is affected by a range of factors, which may include housing, employment opportunities, security of the public and education, to mention but a few. The Lancashire Highway and Transportation Masterplan touches on all these aspects. To support this,all public realms for the Masterplan are designed with safety improvement at mind. In inner East Preston, there is a special focus on the need to improve Children’s safety along the bus corridors that runs through the Child Causality Priority Area (Lancashire County Council, info on bus). This focus aims to maximize some of the benefits behind the Masterplan on the health of the community in regards to security to children (Healthy Cities Network 3). The Masterplan will also offer solutions to decongestion of traffic on the roads by encouraging sustainable travel and reducing traffic in local centers. This reciprocates to less air pollution and maximizes air quality by maintaining its freshness. This results to fair equitable atmospheric conditions in the local centers as those of rural areas. There will be less hazardous traffic waste, less air pollution and clean air for inhalation by the public it touches on the health public. . In North-West Preston, currently housing development prospects being carried out leads to less free public space therefore forcing the residents to look out for new walking space and use narrow country lanes or go to the streets of Preston’s congested urban roads daily. The town network is already inaccessible due to the additional traffic. The development would see expansion to motorway network and creating footpaths for more walking space to be used by the residents, which is a positive impact of the project to health. In Preston City Centre, The proposed New Central Business District leaves Preston city Centre as one location, which will offer quality office developments in locations where there is demand. Consequently, employment will be on the rise. In Cuerden in South Ribble possible positive impact of the Masterplan could see 2,000 jobs created in the next five years. Central Lancashire will also be the focus of significant housing development with 22,200 homesplanned to develop by 2026 (Lancashire County Council, Transport plan). Negative impacts of Lancashire Highway Masterplan on the health of the public also do exist.With the development of better highway system, more traffic will flow to Preston Centre. The extra traffic will make it difficult for businesses in the City Centre, especially business entailing delivery of services to various destinations. There will be delayed service outcome affecting time as a factor. It will also make the streets and public places and parks to lose their attractiveness and beauty. It will mostly be because of urbanization upholding modern buildings and doing away with the town’s vegetation. It will destroy the natural beauty of streets. Preston city will be harder to manage and to get access to the City Centre. With high traffic to the City Centre, congestion will still be a problem and will pose danger to the public. Road safety for instance, more care will have to be enforced by road users so as to be safe on the road. The quality of air will still be affected in terms of pollution from automobile fumes. There will be a big hindrance to local movement since congestion will take the better part of the big roads. As a result, the public will be living in fear of cycling at freedom on the roads. The issue of skating and even walking on the city roads will also impose danger on the public (Lancashire County Council, District Cycling). Potential visitors of the town will also run away from fear of a hectic town. These are just some of the impacts that come along with the Masterplan therefore rising the need for a Health Impact Assessment (Lancashire County Council, Transport Masterplan). 2. An identification of the key partners involved with the delivery of the plan Some of the key partners involved in delivery of the plan are the Preston City council. The plan is collaborating with Preston City Council to develop proposals, which are based on improving new bus facilities. This includes the construction of a new bus station in the City Centre. It mainly aims at improving the accessibility of the city as well as making a difference in interchanging between both railway and bus services in the City Centre (Lancashire County Council, Road Safety). Preston, Leyland, and Chorley Railway Stations: Network Rail has a made a step towards securing funds used to acquire new railway schemes in Leyland. The scheme will be able to provide accessibility to the railway station by various individuals of different capacity including the disabled and the toddlers. Possible routes for wheelchairs and prams too set aside. Chorley is already experiencing interchanging facilities in terms of railway facilities and buses. The main problem however facing Chorley is lack of enough space. There is limited space for residents to park their personal cars. A scheme is being established to work on possible areas of creating more parking spaces. At Preston, there will be development of a new railway line to act as gateway to Lancashire and also provide public transport within the city. In addition, the station will provide a modern attractive facility thus enhancing the beauty of the town. It will also lead to exploitation of the availability of electrification extension from Black Pool North to Manchester Line (Lancashire County Council, Transport). Housing Groups of the Cottam area are also associating with the plan so as to build a railway station at Cottam area. The railway will provide rail based park for service from Manchester/ Liverpool and Blackpool. Preston City Deal, which was submitted in January 2013 aiming at improving the infrastructure and transport Lancashire. It was a given a green light by the deputy prime minister. It will oversee the creation of 23,000 new jobs as well as 15,000 new homes. To the other side, 1 billion Euros in economic growth for the next ten years will be experienced. New road proposals and upgrading of existing routes will be set out in the plan. The City deal will last for ten years. Private/ public funding bodies: Funding for the Masterplan will come from many sources. Local Development Framework will employ taxation. Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) will be imposed in every upcoming infrastructure for raising funds. Charging schedule will set up what charge will be imposed depending on the size and use of infrastructure (South Ribble Borough Council 4). 3. An evaluation of the extent to which the transport plan addresses health inequalities present in the local area Transport plan will address the growth in traffic, which is at the rim of occurring very soon. It will soon cause rush hour and more traffic jams at peak hours and lots of congestion in the area this makes it clear that even efforts on trying to sustain transport improvements will not have a tangible impact. Experimental tools have assessed that there will be decline in car trips in town of not more than 5%. At critical views, 5% is little and cannot even represent traffic growth between now and 2026. The plan stresses on creating significant changes to make bus journey more available by increasing the number of possible trips they can make. However, this is not very possible since there is no capacity for making such changes. It will be impossible to reduce congestion in the city to an extent of making available walking paths and even space for cyclist to participate in. and also making sustainable travel to look attractive. The Masterplan concludes that additions to existing highway infrastructure will become handy in supporting the development aspirations of Central Lancashire in terms of building developments. Developers will also be expected to contribute to new public infrastructure of any type. This will apply in Central Lancashire since it is required for the housing developments such as offices and schools to continue (Lancasterdynamo). The new road capacity will as well give the opportunity of improving our use of existing network. Without the use of the existing network on infrastructure development, the roads will be too busy for public transport, and every individual will suffer the problems associated with congestion. They include slow journeys, poor air quality, and busy confused cruel streets. By creating extra capacity, the town occupants will be able to venture into new developments, make significant changes in the public transport to the better side, and manage highway network more efficiently than before. Walking and cycling modes of transport will become a choice to many. The master plan shows that there are ways to solve these problems. Although it will translate to new highway capacity, it is still upheld by the City Council’s strategic vision of a possible maintained future where transport is simplified. Walking, cycling, and public transport will be used after, but with earlier problems will still prevail. With a new Central Lancashire Core Strategy now in place and a new Economic Partnership to take forward economic development, the time is right to set in place a Masterplan for Highways and Transport that will both support Central Lancashire’s economic ambitions and maximize the benefits of a high quality integrated transport network for its residents. 4. Justification on the need of a HIA Finally, there is a need to continue with the Health Impact Assessment as it touches on the health of the public and also has collaborations with other stakeholders and informants. The project will affect the health life of many and so it is necessary to find a way of reducing negative impacts to the people. Comprehensive type of Health Impact Assessment should be used as the project goes deep to the community profiles, it requires a wide range of community participation to assess different views of the community on the matter, also requires detailed appraisals of the impacts caused by the project. The project also needs a wide background on literature review available. Works Cited Healthy Cities Network. Pan- Lancashire Health Impact Assessment Training. N.d. Web. 2014, Nov.23. Lancashire County Council. Information on Bus and Railway Services. N.d. Web. 2014, Nov. 23. Lancashire County Council. Lancashire Road Safety Strategy 2011 – 2020. January 2012. Web. 2014, Nov.23. Lancashire County Council. Lancaster District Cycling Strategy. November 2002. Web. 2014, Nov.23. Lancashire County Council. Local Transport Plan 2011 – 2021. A Strategy for Lancashire. May 2011. Web. 2014, Nov.23. Lancashire County Council. Local Transport Plan 2011-2021 Central Lancashire Highways and Transport Masterplan. March 2013. Web. 2014, Nov.23 Lancashire County Council. Transport. Web. 2014, Nov.23 < http://www.lancaster.gov.uk/planning/local-plan/evidence--monitoring-and- information/transport/> Lancasterdynamo. Lancashire Local Transport Plan 2011-2021. August 15, 2011. Web. 2014, Nov.23http://lancasterdynamo.wordpress.com/2011/08/15/lancashire-local-transport- plan-2011-2021/ Rowland. Potential Health Impacts of the Proposed Shale Gas Exploration Sites in Lancashire. Roseacre Awareness Group, October 29, 2014. Web. 2014, Nov.23 < http://www.ragfrack.co.uk/potential-health-impacts-proposed-shale-gas-exploration-sites- lancashire/> South Ribble Borough Council. Health Impact Assessment. November 2010. Web. 2014, Nov.23 Read More