Transport statement outline for a change of use

A transport statement for a change of use is an argument about a difference, not about a total. The lawful existing use already generates trips, already needs servicing and already has whatever parking the site provides. What the highway authority wants to know is what changes, and a document organised around the net change is shorter, more persuasive and much harder to argue with than one that reports the proposed use in isolation.

That framing decides the structure. Establish the existing position, establish the proposed position, subtract, then deal with the consequences of the difference. Everything else is appendices.

Establishing the lawful existing use and its trips

Start with the lawful use, not the last occupier. These are different things, and officers will test the distinction where a unit has been empty for years.

Evidence to put in the statement:

• The use class of the lawful use, with the permission reference, a lawful development certificate or the planning history that establishes it.
• The floorspace by use, measured as gross internal area and net where relevant, with a plan.
• The parking and servicing arrangements as existing, including any spaces outside the demise that the unit has used in practice.
• Opening hours and staffing of the lawful use where that is known.

Where the unit has been vacant, say so and explain which use you are assessing against. A unit lawfully in Class E use that has been empty for two years is still assessed against the Class E baseline, because that is the use that could lawfully resume tomorrow. That point is worth stating explicitly, since it is the single largest influence on the net change figure.

Derive the existing trips from a recognised trip rate database using the lawful use and the actual floorspace, or from observed counts where the unit is occupied and representative. Say which you have done and why.

Proposed use, hours and intensity

Describe the proposal in operational terms, because the highway officer is assessing activity rather than planning labels. Hours of opening and of staffing. Number of staff on the busiest shift. Expected customer numbers and whether they arrive in a pattern or evenly. Delivery frequency and vehicle types. Any element that generates arrivals outside normal hours, such as early morning preparation or late collections.

Be specific about the intensity of the use within its class. Two Class E units of identical floorspace, one a quiet office and the other a busy clinic, generate very different patterns, and a statement that relies on the class alone invites a request for more information.

Where the proposal is a mixed use, split the floorspace and treat each element separately before combining.

Net change in vehicle and person trips

Present the comparison as a table, with the arithmetic visible:

Report person trips as well as vehicle trips, with the mode split stated and justified. On a town centre site the vehicle change can be close to zero while the person trip change is substantial, and that distinction matters for the walking and cycling provision rather than for junction capacity.

Two disciplines make this section credible. State the trip rate source, the selected survey sites and the filters used, so the officer can reproduce the run. And where the net change is negative, say so once and move on rather than labouring it, because an officer reading a document that oversells its own conclusion starts looking for the flaw.

Parking provision against the adopted standards

Set out the adopted standard, the provision proposed and the difference, separately for vehicles, cycles and accessible bays. Note whether the standard is expressed as a maximum or a minimum, since the policy consequence is opposite.

Where provision falls below a minimum, the argument runs through accessibility, the existing position and the available on-street or public capacity. That last point needs evidence, which means a parking survey carried out to the accepted overnight and daytime methodology rather than an observation made on one afternoon.

Deal with electric vehicle charging and cycle parking explicitly. Approved Document S sets charging requirements for certain new and renovated buildings, so check whether the works engage it, and quote the authority's cycle parking standard including the split between short and long stay.

Servicing, deliveries and refuse collection

This is the section most often too thin, and it is the one environmental health and waste officers read.

Cover the delivery vehicle types and frequency, where they will stand, how they will turn, and whether any part of the operation requires a vehicle to reverse onto or off the highway. Include a swept path drawing for the largest vehicle. State the refuse storage capacity, the container types, the drag distance from store to collection point and the collection arrangements, whether by the authority or by a private contractor.

Hours of servicing deserve a line of their own. A condition restricting deliveries to daytime hours is a routine and reasonable request, and offering it pre-emptively removes an objection.

Access geometry, visibility and collision history

Where the access is unchanged, say so and show it. Where it changes, give the geometry: width, radii, gradient, surfacing and the visibility splays achieved in both directions, with the design speed and the standard applied.

Ask the highway authority for the recorded collision data for the surrounding network, usually for the most recent five years, and summarise it. A statement that reports the data and finds no pattern related to the access is stronger than one that omits it, because the officer has the data anyway.

Where pedestrian movement increases, look at the crossing provision, footway widths and desire lines, and say whether anything is needed. Small interventions such as a dropped kerb, a tactile crossing or a footway widening can be funded through a highway works agreement and secured by condition.

Walking, cycling and public transport access

Give measured walking distances to the nearest bus stops with the services and frequencies, to the nearest rail station, and to the local centre. Use actual route distances rather than straight lines, because an officer with a mapping tool will check.

Describe the quality of the routes as well as their existence. A six hundred metre walk along a lit footway with a signalised crossing is not the same as the same distance along an unlit verge. Where London accessibility measures apply, quote the figure for the site and the date it was taken.

Travel plan measures offered by condition

Finish with what you are prepared to commit to. For a small change of use, a framework travel plan with a handful of measures is usually proportionate: cycle parking, a staff travel information pack, a named contact, and a monitoring survey at occupation and at a fixed interval afterwards.

Set the measures out with targets and a monitoring method rather than as aspirations, in the way a travel plan target table with monitoring does, and say whether you expect them to be secured by condition or by agreement. A travel plan offered in the statement and then conditioned is far quicker than one negotiated after a holding objection.

Before submission, run the document through the same checks you would apply to any submission, which an internal quality check on a planning submission sets out, and confirm the format expected with the highway authority. For most small commercial proposals a transport statement of fifteen to twenty pages with four appendices is the right weight.

This is general guidance, not legal advice. Check the position with your local planning authority, the highway authority or a qualified professional before relying on it. PlanScope provides AI-assisted draft reports for planning applications. Reports should be reviewed before submission. We do not guarantee planning approval.