A Screening Health Impact Assessment for the provisional second County Durham Local Transport Plan
This report describes a screening Health Impact Assessment done on the the provisional second County Durham Local Transport Plan
Durham County Council is developing its second Local Transport Plan (LTP). It sets out the vision and plans for transport development across the county from 2006 to 2011 and beyond. Government guidance requires this round of plans to be developed around accessibility planning principles, and to be formulated in partnership with a range of other agencies and organisations. A summary of the LTP is given in Appendix 1. Members of the County Durham and Darlington Transport for Health Partnership and other interested individuals (see Appendix 2 for the full list of participants) screened the provisional plan for potential health and inequality impact in June 2005.
Most policies within the strategy have the potential to improve health and increase access to health services but more work needs to be carried out to ensure there is a positive impact on addressing inequalities, particularly for vulnerable groups.
The screening exercise reinforced three similar themes highlighted as a shared priority in the LTP, which have implications for health, inequalities and the NHS. These are:
- Security and Safety;
- Physical activity; and
- Access to the NHS.
Additionally there were three issues raised by participants which, they felt, had been omitted from the strategy. These were:
- Affordability;
- Tangible incentives for people and employers; and
- Investment in travel awareness in order to see changes in modal shift.
Without the investment in revenue programmes this could also have a negative impact on health, inequalities and access to NHS services.
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A Screening Health Impact Assessment for Durham Local Transport Plan .pdf
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