Framework travel plans for phased schemes

A framework travel plan is the document you submit with an outline or phased application when you cannot yet know who will occupy the development. It sets the objectives, the measures, the monitoring method and the governance, and it commits to producing a full travel plan for each phase once the occupier is identified. Councils accept the structure readily. What they argue about is the triggers, because a framework plan with no enforceable trigger is a statement of intent that expires the day the site is sold.

The three-document structure is standard practice and worth adopting even where the authority has not asked for it by name.

Framework, interim and full plans

Each document does a different job, and conflating them produces a plan that is too vague to approve and too specific to apply.

The framework plan is strategic. It states the objectives and the modal share targets for the development as a whole, describes the measures that will apply across every phase, sets the monitoring method, and defines the trigger points at which the later documents are produced.

An interim plan covers a phase where the occupier is still unknown at the point of occupation. It applies the framework measures, sets provisional targets, and commits to a full plan within a defined period of occupation. Speculative commercial floorspace is the classic case.

A full plan is site-specific and occupier-specific. It names the travel plan coordinator, sets the actual targets, lists the measures with delivery dates and costs, and sets out the survey programme. On a residential phase it is produced by the developer. On a let commercial unit it is often produced with the tenant.

What belongs in the framework and what does not

The framework plan should be short, specific about process and honest about what cannot yet be known.

Include the development description and the phasing plan, the objectives expressed in terms the authority can measure, the modal share baseline from the Transport Assessment, the suite of measures that will apply in every phase, the survey methodology including the minimum response rate, the governance arrangements, and the trigger schedule.

Leave out precise measure costs for phases years away, named suppliers, and bus service specifications that depend on an operator's commercial decisions. Those belong in the phase plans, where they can be set against the conditions actually prevailing.

The most common defect is a framework plan that lists aspirations without saying who does what by when. A council officer reading it should be able to point to a trigger, a document and a responsible party for every commitment.

Triggers tied to occupation

Triggers are the mechanism that makes the structure work, and they should be expressed in terms that can be verified from the development itself.

1. Framework travel plan approved before the first application for approval of reserved matters, or before work starts on site on a full application.
2. A travel plan coordinator appointed and notified to the authority before first occupation of the first phase.
3. A full or interim travel plan submitted and approved before first occupation of each phase.
4. A baseline survey carried out within a defined window after a stated level of occupation of that phase.
5. Monitoring surveys at stated intervals from the baseline, for a defined monitoring period per phase.
6. A review and, if targets are missed, an action plan within a stated period.

Define occupation precisely. First occupation of a residential phase is usually straightforward. On commercial floorspace, occupation of a shell unit by a fitting-out contractor is not occupation for travel plan purposes, and the agreement should say so.

Percentage occupation triggers need a mechanism for reporting. A simple obligation on the developer to notify the authority when a threshold is reached works better than leaving the council to find out.

Baseline surveys before and after first occupation

The baseline is the number everything else is measured against, and on a phased scheme there is no single baseline. Each phase needs its own, taken once travel patterns have settled.

Surveying too early produces a distorted figure. Residents who moved in three weeks ago have not established a commuting pattern, and a partly occupied phase has a different travel profile from a full one. The usual approach is to survey once a stated proportion of the phase is occupied, with a floor on elapsed time as well.

Seasonality matters as much as occupancy. A survey run in August at a residential phase or during school holidays at an employment phase will not represent normal conditions, and the obligation should require neutral periods in the same way a traffic count does. The validity question is covered in our note on traffic counts in neutral months.

Agree the survey instrument in advance. A household travel survey, a staff travel survey and an automatic traffic count measure different things, and comparing one year's household survey against the next year's traffic count tells you nothing useful.

Governance and the travel plan coordinator

The coordinator is the single most useful commitment in the whole package and the one most often reduced to a name on a letterhead.

The role needs defined time, a budget, authority to spend it on the measures, and continuity. On a long phased scheme the coordinator will change, so the obligation should require the post to be filled rather than requiring a named individual. A handover record matters: the measures delivered, the surveys carried out, the results and the actions outstanding.

A steering group including the local planning authority, the highway authority and, where relevant, the public transport operator and a residents' representative, meeting on a defined cycle, gives the plan somewhere to go when a target is missed. It also gives the developer a forum in which to make the case that a missed target reflects an undelivered public transport improvement rather than a failure of the plan.

Write the Travel Plan so the governance section can be read on its own by someone who inherits the scheme in year seven.

Securing the sequence in the obligation

Put the sequence in a schedule to the section 106 agreement rather than scattering it through conditions. A schedule lets you set out the documents, the triggers, the approval mechanism, the monitoring period and the fees in one place, and it survives changes of ownership better than a condition-by-condition approach.

Three drafting points matter on phased schemes. Allow for phases to be delivered out of sequence, because they usually are, and tie triggers to the phase rather than to a numbered order. Provide a deemed approval mechanism so a council that does not respond within a stated period cannot stall occupation indefinitely. And set the monitoring fee on a per-phase basis against the authority's published approach, as covered in our note on travel plan monitoring fees and review triggers.

Keeping targets credible across a long build

A scheme built over twelve years will see the surrounding transport network change in ways nobody predicted at outline stage. New services appear, others are withdrawn, parking controls arrive, cycle infrastructure is built or cancelled.

That argues for two things. Express targets as a change relative to a baseline for the phase rather than as absolute figures fixed at outline stage. And include a review clause allowing targets to be revisited on evidence at defined points, with the authority's agreement.

The honest difficulty with framework travel plans is that enforcement depends on institutional memory. Officers move on, developers sell phases, and a well-drafted schedule sitting unread in a legal file does nothing. The developers who get the best outcome are the ones who keep the steering group running, because a plan that is being discussed is a plan that still exists.

See PlanScope pricing: one free report, £50 per report, or Professional for unlimited reports if you prepare transport documents across several phases.

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