Travel Plan structure for a small workplace
A small workplace travel plan fails for one of two reasons: targets nobody can measure, or measures nobody owns. Both are fixed at drafting stage.
A workplace travel plan for a small site should run to about fifteen pages and answer five questions: how people travel to the site now, what you want to change, what you are going to do about it, who is responsible, and how anyone will know whether it worked. Everything else is context. Highway officers read these documents quickly and look first at the target section, because that is where they can tell whether the plan is real.
The structure below follows the order those officers read in, and it works for an office, a workshop, a nursery or a small warehouse.
When a travel plan is asked for at this scale
National guidance treats travel plans as long-term management strategies for delivering sustainable transport objectives, applied proportionately. It does not set a size threshold, so the trigger comes from the local highway authority and the council's validation checklist.
Most authorities use staff numbers, floorspace or expected trip generation, and many apply a lower threshold in air quality management areas or where the local network is constrained. Below the trigger, you may still be asked for a travel plan statement, which is a shorter document covering the same ground without formal monitoring.
Where the site is large enough to need a Transport Statement or a fuller assessment, the travel plan sits alongside it and should use the same trip generation figures. Two documents that disagree about how many people arrive by car invite a holding objection.
The baseline survey and how to run one
Nothing in the plan works without a baseline, and the baseline is a survey of how staff actually travel.
Keep the questionnaire to a single side: home postcode district, usual main mode, journey time, arrival and departure times, whether they would consider an alternative and what would have to change. Run it in a neutral month, avoiding August, December and school holidays, because term-time travel patterns are the ones that load the network.
Report four things: the date, the number of staff invited, the number who responded, and the resulting mode split with the numbers as well as the percentages. Small workplaces often have 12 respondents, and a mode share expressed only as a percentage hides that.
For a new site with no staff yet, the baseline has to be projected. Use comparable data from the occupier's existing premises where they have one, or an accepted trip rate database, and say plainly that the figure is a projection to be replaced by a survey within the first year of occupation.
Targets that can actually be measured
A target needs a baseline value, a direction, a size and a date. "Encourage sustainable travel" is not a target. "Reduce the single occupancy car driver mode share from the surveyed baseline by five percentage points by the end of monitoring year three" is.
Set two or three, no more. Typical forms that work on small sites:
- A reduction in single occupancy car driver mode share by a stated number of percentage points
- An increase in the proportion of staff cycling or walking at least one day a week
- A cap on the number of staff parking spaces occupied at a stated time of day
The third is worth considering where parking is the actual concern, because it is directly observable and it links to what the highway officer is worried about. If overspill parking on neighbouring streets is the issue, a parking survey gives the baseline for that target rather than a staff questionnaire.
Percentage point changes are easier to defend than percentage changes. And with a workforce of 20, one target should be expressed in people rather than percentages, because a single new starter moves the numbers.
Measures proportionate to a small site
The measures section is where plans get padded with things the business will never do. Cut anything the occupier cannot actually deliver.
What works at this scale, roughly in order of usefulness:
- Secure, covered cycle parking at the number the local standard requires, positioned nearer the door than the car parking.
- Somewhere to change and lock up clothing, which need not be a full shower block for a workforce of 20.
- A travel information pack given to every new starter, with local bus times, cycle routes and the car share arrangement.
- An interest-free season ticket or cycle purchase loan, which costs the employer little and shifts behaviour.
- A car share matching list for the site, kept by the coordinator.
- Electric vehicle charging where the parking layout and supply allow it.
- Flexible start times where the operation permits, since staff who can arrive at 9.30 have more public transport options.
Say what each measure costs, when it will be in place, and who pays. A measure with no date is a statement of intent, and officers have read enough of those.
The coordinator and what the role involves
Name a post, not a person. On a small site the travel plan coordinator is usually the office manager, the practice manager or the site supervisor, and the plan should say which.
The duties are short and specific: maintain the car share list, issue the information pack, run the annual survey, prepare the monitoring report, and act as the contact point for the council. Half a day a month is a realistic estimate for most small workplaces, and saying so in the plan is more credible than silence.
Give the coordinator a budget line, even a small one. A plan that requires the coordinator to ask for money every time something is needed will quietly stop.
Monitoring years and reporting
Standard practice is to monitor in years one, three and five after occupation, with a repeat of the baseline survey each time and a short report to the council.
Each monitoring report should contain the repeated survey results against the baseline, progress on each measure, the position against each target, and either confirmation that the plan is on track or a remedial action proposed from the agreed list. Two or three pages is enough.
An illustrative example. A 25-person design studio moved to a converted mill with eight parking spaces. Its baseline survey showed 60 per cent driving alone. Cycle parking, a shower and a season ticket loan scheme were in place within three months, and the year one survey showed the shift, though most of it came from three people who moved house rather than from the measures themselves. The monitoring report said so. The highway authority accepted it.
Securing the plan by condition or obligation
The final section of the plan should state how it is to be secured, because that is the question the officer is answering when writing the report.
A condition requiring the approved travel plan to be implemented and monitored works for most small sites. A section 106 obligation is used where the authority charges a monitoring fee, where remedial measures need to be enforceable against future occupiers, or where a contribution towards off-site infrastructure is involved. Monitoring fees vary between authorities and are published in their fee schedules, so check the current figure rather than assuming last year's.
Submit the Travel Plan with the application rather than offering it as a condition to be discharged later. It gives the highway officer something to comment on, and it lets the Planning Statement point at a document that already exists.
This is general guidance, not legal advice; check the position with your local planning authority or a qualified professional before relying on it.
To see which transport documents your site is likely to need, enter your postcode on PlanScope and work through the guided questions.
PlanScope provides AI-assisted draft reports for planning applications. Reports should be reviewed before submission. We do not guarantee planning approval.
Frequently asked questions
At what size does a workplace need a travel plan?
There is no single national threshold. Highway authorities set their own triggers, commonly based on staff numbers or floorspace, and the local validation checklist will say which applies. Below the trigger a council may still ask for a short travel plan statement where the site has poor access, constrained parking or a sensitive road network nearby.
How many staff need to respond to the baseline survey?
Aim high and report honestly. A small workplace has few enough staff that a response rate above two thirds is achievable if the survey is short and the manager asks people to complete it during work time. Report the number invited, the number who responded and the date, so the highway officer can judge how much weight the baseline carries.
Who can be the travel plan coordinator?
On a small site it is usually an existing member of staff with an operational role, such as an office manager, rather than a specialist appointment. Name the post rather than the person, so the duty survives staff turnover. The plan should set out roughly how much time the role takes and who the coordinator reports to.
How is a travel plan secured by the council?
Either by planning condition requiring the plan to be approved and implemented, or through a section 106 agreement, which is more common where a monitoring fee is charged or where remedial measures need to be enforceable. Check which route the authority uses before submission, because a section 106 adds weeks to the determination period.
What happens if the targets are missed?
A well drafted plan sets out a remedial process rather than a penalty. The coordinator reports the shortfall, identifies the reason and proposes additional measures from an agreed list, which are then implemented before the next monitoring year. Authorities are generally more concerned with an absent monitoring report than with a target that has been missed and explained.
Sources and further reading
This article is general guidance about the planning system in England and, where stated, the rest of the UK. It is not legal or professional advice. Check your local planning authority’s validation requirements and take professional advice for your specific site.