Transport, Highways and Parking – Page 5

Servicing and deliveries in mixed use schemes

One loading bay, two waste streams and a 06:00 delivery peak. What highway officers expect to see in servicing evidence for a mixed use scheme.

When a development needs a traffic regulation order

A traffic regulation order is the slowest item on most highway programmes, and only the authority can make one. Plan for it at pre-application stage, not after permission.

Relocating or adding a bus stop for a development

A new bus stop is rarely a drawing exercise. It is a negotiation with the transport authority and the operator, plus a traffic order that can take longer than the planning application.

The section 278 process and its effect on programme

Section 278 delays are rarely about construction. They are about design cycles, legal drafting and utility lead times that could have run alongside the application.

Car free development and controlled parking zones

The permit exclusion is what makes car free housing enforceable, and it depends on a controlled parking zone. Here is how the mechanism works and where it fails.

Fire service vehicle access in a residential layout

Fire access is a building regulations requirement, but it is decided by the site layout. Getting it wrong after permission means redesigning the street, not the house.

Choosing the design vehicle for swept path analysis

Swept path drawings fail when the vehicle is chosen from a software library rather than from the site. Separate regular vehicles from occasional ones and justify both.

Deriving visibility splays from a measured speed survey

Highway officers derive stopping sight distance from observed speeds rather than from the speed limit sign. A frontage survey often produces a shorter, deliverable splay.

Powered two wheeler parking and where standards require it

Powered two wheeler provision is set locally, not nationally. Without a ground anchor fixed into the slab and an overlooked position, the bays go unused.

Coach and minibus provision for schools and attractions

Coach provision fails on geometry rather than policy. Agree the design vehicle, separate drop-off from parking, and commit the management measures in writing.

Disabled parking provision and the route to the entrance

Schemes lose on the route rather than the bay count. Dimensions, transfer and safety zones, ratios by land use, and the gradients and surfaces that decide usability.

Transport, Highways and Parking8 min read

Rural accesses: hedgerows, sight lines and land control

A field access refused on visibility usually has three problems at once: the splay length, who owns the frontage it crosses, and the protected hedgerow in the way.

Speed surveys and the 85th percentile in access design

The y distance for an access comes from the measured 85th percentile speed, by direction, at a representative location. Commission the survey before the access position is fixed.

Trunk road accesses and when National Highways objects

On a site fronting a trunk road, National Highways can require refusal, require conditions or hold the application. Here is what it assesses and how to manage the response.

Car-free development and how the restriction is secured

A condition cannot stop an occupier parking on the street, so permit-free development is secured by obligation. How the mechanism works and what evidence supports it.

Section 278 works: process, bond and realistic timescales

A section 278 agreement usually takes longer than the planning application that required it. Here is the sequence, the costs beyond the works, and where programmes slip.

Net trip generation on a change of use application

The number that matters on a change of use is the net trip figure, not the gross one. Here is how to establish the lawful baseline, use the Class E fallback and present a comparison a highway officer will accept.

Electric vehicle charge point requirements in new development

Charge point provision comes from Approved Document S, not planning policy. The planning questions are the parking layout, the management arrangement and the supply capacity.

What LTN 1/20 requires at a site access

LTN 1/20 expects tight radii, a continuous footway across the access and a driver who yields. Here is how that plays out against local adoption standards.

Cycle parking: long stay, short stay and stand spacing

Schemes fail on cycle parking dimensions more often than on totals. Stand spacing, aisle widths, two tier headroom, larger cycle footprints and what the drawings need to show.

Selecting TRICS sites and the filters councils challenge

Trip rates derived from TRICS are only as strong as the filters behind them. Here is how to select and present sites so a highway authority can audit the selection rather than challenge it.

Evidence for access from a single track rural lane

Access from a single track lane is decided on passing place intervisibility, measured speeds and vehicle tracking. Here is the evidence a highway authority expects to see with the application.

School travel plans and the application that needs one

School travel plans are judged on how they handle two fifteen minute peaks, not on annual mode share. Here is the survey work, the alternatives to a drop-off loop, and the conditions that secure delivery.

Transport, Highways and Parking8 min read

Highway objections at appeal and what inspectors accept

Refusal on transport grounds needs an unacceptable safety impact or a severe residual cumulative impact. Here is how each limb is evidenced at appeal, and which objections a condition can cure.