2021-22 local financial returns (LFRs) - guidance notes

9. LFR 05: Roads and Transport

All expenditure and income relating to roads and transport, regardless of which department provides the service, should be recorded in LFR 05. In particular, Local Authority Transport Undertakings, which is a subdivision of Trading Services within SeRCOP, should be recorded here. Exceptions to this are:

• normal street sweeping or cleansing which should be recorded in LFR 06;
• school transport costs which should be recorded in LFR 01.

Roads & Transport data is required using the discretionary subdivisions of service set out in CIPFA's SeRCOP guidance. Data should be allocated to the subservices within the LFR as follows:

• Roads, consisting of:
  • Construction
  • Winter maintenance
  • Other maintenance, including:
    • structural, environmental & safety maintenance;
    • routine repairs.
  • Lighting
• Network & Traffic Management, consisting of:
  • School crossing patrols
  • Other network & traffic management, including:
    • network and traffic management;
    • road safety education;
    • data collection;
    • accident investigations;
    • network, planning, policy and strategy.
• Parking Services, including on-street and off-street parking
• Non-Local Authority Public Transport, consisting of:
  • Concessionary fares
  • Support to operators & voluntary groups
  • Co-ordination
• Local Authority Transport Undertakings, including:
  • buses;
  • ferries;
  • other.

RTPs must complete LFR 05 and it is expected that this expenditure will be recorded against Non-LA Public Transport, with the majority being recorded against 'Co-ordination' (Column O). RTPs should record income received from their constituent councils against 'Requisitions from Constituent Councils' (Row 19).

All payments councils make to RTPs must be recorded against 'Third Party Payments: To RTPs and VJBs – Councils only' (Row 10) against the relevant Non-LA Public Transport subservices (Columns M to P) in line with RTP expenditure.

9.1 Additional Information

Revenue Contributions to Capital (RCC) (Row 36): Record any RCC relating to Total Maintenance in Column F only. This information collected specifically for use in the Local Government Benchmarking Framework (LGBF) and so is only required for subservices which are reflected in LGBF finance indicators.

Buses including annual bus subsidy for tendered mileage (Row 39): Record here gross expenditure on buses relating to:

• Non-LA Public Transport, Cell N39;
• Local Authority Transport Undertakings, Cell Q39.

The figure entered in cell N39 should include any annual bus subsidy for tendered mileage.

Ferries including loans and leasing charges (Row 40): Record here gross expenditure on non-LA public transport relating to ferries, including any loan and leasing charges.

Ferries excluding loans and leasing charges (Row 41): Record here gross expenditure on local authority transport undertakings relating to ferries, excluding any loan and leasing charges.

COVID-19 Specific Grants (Row 45): Record here the amount of COVID-19 specific grants that have been applied to each subservice. A full list of COVID-19 Specific grants is provided in Annex B.