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The New Approach to Appraisal (NATA)

The 'New Approach To Appraisal' [gloss.] is the mechanism by which all new transport projects are assessed, and embodies the issues of sustainability. A new road built today will not just have to ease congestion, but also have a positive effect on the environment. The government introduced NATA in 1997, in order to look at road schemes under various criteria and to develop suitable solutions to particular capacity problems, but also to prioritise schemes. Each scheme would be vetted under cost-benefit analysis against the criteria. It should be noted that schemes that received approval generally received full funding: the government was not holding back funds if a scheme had fulfilled NATA objectives.

The NATA criteria are:

• Environment – protect and enhance both built and natural
• Safety – improve it!
• Economy – support sustainable economic growth and increase efficiency
• Accessibility – provide access for all
• Integration – between all transport networks and land use planning

Within road schemes, inspectors were looking for improved environmental design, better public transport facilities, cycle facilities and interchanges. For example, a new bypass would have to contain a cycle path and badger crossings if they were deemed necessary.

 The A34 Newbury bypass caused controversy as it ploughed through miles of countryside. You can see small trees planted in the verge.

Multi Modal Studies (MMS)

  Multi Modal Studies [gloss.] were commissioned in July 1998 following publication of 'A New Deal for Trunk Roads', a daughter document of the 1998 white paper. Their aim is to investigate problems relating to all modes of transport within a transport corridor, and to seek solutions. The government's policy was to find possible solutions to road congestion other than simply by providing extra road capacity. Thirty-three studies were commissioned, concentrating on the most congested areas of the country. These have now finished and the results have been presented to the Department for Transport. During the study period, they looked at all sorts of problems in transport corridors affecting all types of user, and recommended a preferred strategy for government approval, involving various options, such as reducing demand to travel, creating better public transport links, new or improved road infrastructure, and better provision of information. The Department for Transport (or DETR as it was then known) published guidance as to how the MMS should be undertaken, 'Guidance on the Methodology for Multi-modal Studies' (GOMMS) [gloss.].

The MMS approach to appraisal has the following 4 strands:

• Achieving the 5 NATA objectives
• Achieving local and regional objectives of the study
• Assessing how the problems identified can be ameliorated
• Supporting analyses of equity, sustainability and practicality.

 This sign is indicative of the fact that road building is not just what the Highways Agency are responsbile for.

In our local area, three such studies have taken place, and the final reports have been presented. These are the A453 from M1 J24 to Nottingham, the M1 North-South Movements in the East Midlands, and the A52 Clifton Bridge to Bingham - take a look at their web-sites and you will see that new road construction is not the only option considered.

However, the findings of the MMSs have been critisised by MPs and environmental groups. While the purpose of introducing these studies was to ensure that all forms of transport were carefully considered, so alternatives to road building could be found where possible, many of the studies have proposed large road building schemes to ease congestion, and make no mention of road user charging and other such methods of reducing car travel.

Does this mean the MMSs were a waste of time? Is road building really the only option? Check out these sites to get more details.

• Summary of most of the studies so far
• Transport Select Committee report on MMS
• Transport 2000's reaction to MMS proposals

How does the new approach work?

NATA was developed by the DETR for three purposes:

• Choosing between different options for solving the same problem
• Prioritising between proposals
• Assessing value for money

The Approach includes identification and assessment of problems, identification of options, and the assessment of those options. Throughout this process, the Approach works within the framework of the NATA criteria mentioned above.

An important element of NATA is the Appraisal Summary Table (AST) [gloss.]. The AST is a one page summary of the main economic, environmental and social impacts of a transport scheme option. ASTs were first used when evaluating road schemes, but have since developed as part of the MMS approach.

The AST is not intended to be sufficient for decision making, but aims to give the decision-makers a clearer and more transparent basis to take the necessary action. Indeed there are problems with the AST, as some of the main criteria have more sub-criteria than others, making them appear to have a larger weighting. Also there is the issue of assigning monetary value to criteria such as 'community severance' that would not traditionally be associated with money.

When evaluating transport schemes, the criteria a scheme is tested against are very important. They must allow a full picture of the effect the scheme will have to be built up. Hence, different schemes require different sets of criteria, as shown below.

The following table shows the 13 NATA sub-criteria used for evaluation of road schemes.

However, the number of GOMMS sub-criteria, used in the ASTs for MMSs, increases to 21, as shown below.

Appraisal of proposed solutions to transport problems is always difficult as schemes vary with regard to the relevence of criteria, and associated values. Therefore, how to evaluate these schemes is a much debated question, so arguably there is still a lot of research work left to be done in this area.

In this topic...

	topic overview
	introduction
	methods of appraisal: a brief history
	route selection for the channel tunnel rail link
	useful links
	exam-style questions

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