Evaluation of support for NESTRANS: report to Scottish Enterprise Grampian

The North East Transport Partnership (NESTRANS) was the first of Scotland’s voluntary regional partnerships, formed to deliver transport improvements across the North East of Scotland. The evaluation aimed to assess the effectiveness of the financial and related support provided by Scottish Enterprise (SE) Grampian to NESTRANS over three years.

The methodology consisted of: a review of contextual documents and strategies; face-to-face consultations with key stakeholders; and telephone interviews with other stakeholders.

A consistently high flow of work has been sustained by the partnership. SE Grampian and the Chamber of Commerce representation of business and economic needs is well regarded and viewed as an important factor in the success and recognition which NESTRANS has achieved. The findings suggest that it is unlikely that the same level of success would have been achieved without SE Grampian’s involvement and that there would have been a loss to the SE Network in terms of knowledge sharing and potential to influence future transport policy across the Network.

The following recommendations were made against the background of the end of the voluntary partnership and the recent establishment of the statutory body the Regional Transport Partnership (RTP): continuing the support for NESTRANS in its original form is not an option; SE Grampian should maintain its close involvement with the North East’s transport agenda; it could sustain its presence and engagement by becoming a member of the RTP and joining its board; it should continue its discrete project based support for research and related activities; and care should be taken to ensure that the business community’s voice is heard within the RTP as well as outside it.