Highway Consultant

Are you experiencing any of the following Highway Planning problems?

• Inadequate highway information to validate your planning application - Need a Transport Assessment / Transport Statement / Travel Plan?
• Access/access visibility problems
• Traffic congestion/junction capacity issues
• Inadequate parking provision
• Problems for servicing and vehicle turning arrangements
• Poor sustainable transport opportunities (walking, cycling and public transport)
• Highway safety issues

These are all common highway and transport related reasons for refusing planning applications. A lack of highway and transport information submitted with a planning application may also result in the planning application not being validated by the Local Planning Authority. Sanderson Associates are specialist Highway Consultants and we professionally advise clients on all matters relating to highways and transport.

Highway Planning Considerations

Sanderson Associates provide impartial advice on highway and transport matters through consultancy services. The best way to resolve or find a solution to a highway planning problem is to first understand the issues involved and then to have the technical expertise and resources to advise clients appropriately. Sanderson’s have over 30 years’ experience providing highway and transport consultancy advice with technical staff and industry standard resources to meet client needs.

The most common hurdle at the point of planning submission is a lack of supporting information or a scheme which has been inadequately considered in highway and transport terms. It is therefore advisable to engage with a Highway Consultant at an early stage when considering a development or preparing a planning application.

Early highway and transport advice at the feasibility or the pre-planning stage of a scheme will assist with the scheme development and ensure that highway and transport matters have been appropriately considered. In turn this should assist developments through the planning process, saving clients time and money.

A lack of supporting documents when making a planning application, such as Transport Assessments, Travel Plans and Transport Statements, can often result a Planning Authority refusing to validate a planning application leading to possible costly delays in the determination process or at its worse where applications are validated then refused due to a “lack of information submitted”.

For specific problems, often the provision of empirical information such as vehicle speed surveys or traffic surveys linked to appropriate design standards can resolve highway planning issues. For example, junction visibility requirements are derived from standards based on vehicle speeds. For access and servicing, computer swept path analysis is used to simulate the turning requirements of vehicles associated with the development.

National Planning Policy sets out the governments planning strategy and provides a framework for Local Authorities to set regional planning policies and when determining planning applications. National policies vary between England, Wales, Scotland, Ireland and the Isle of Man. However a key requirement of development, which is consistent between all domestic Governments, is to consider accessibility by all users, with priority given to the needs of pedestrians, cyclists and public transport users. National Planning Policy sets out that planning decisions should apply a presumption in favour of sustainable development.

Within transport studies the development modal travel split can be predicted using a combination of Census data and from the use of a nationally accepted database of traffic surveys (TRICS). An audit of the existing highway infrastructure will determine any deficiencies for sustainable travel opportunities and will inform the ability to accommodate the additional demand from the development, with or without appropriate mitigation.

Travel Plans are used as a tool to encourage the use of sustainable modes of travel. The Travel Plan sets out measures designed to minimise car trips from the development and to maximise sustainable travel alternatives. Travel Plans form part of a package of measures to reduce the vehicular impact of developments on the highway network.

Whilst sustainable travel is a very important consideration for development, accessibility by vehicles continues to be highly material within transport studies. Vehicles effect congestion, air quality, noise, safety, and infrastructure requirements, including parking. Comparisons between existing, potential and proposed development traffic flows may provide data which indicates a balance of traffic flows within levels that may not materially affect the operation of existing junctions and link roads. Where the development traffic impact is significant, the computer modelling of priority junctions, traffic signals and roundabouts will determine the present operating capacity and any free capacity to accommodate any increase in demand. Often Local Authorities will seek a ‘nil detriment’ development impact on local traffic conditions and at junctions in congested locations. In these situations the Local Authority may require appropriate developer funded physical improvements to accommodate the development. Where physical improvements are not available (or desirable) to offset the adverse impacts of a development, Local Authorities may choose alternative contributions towards sustainable travel improvements as mitigation.

Current National Planning Policy considerations change the focus of the assessment of the traffic impact of developments and it states that:

'Development should only be prevented or refused on highways grounds if there would be an unacceptable impact on highway safety, or the residual cumulative impacts on the road network would be severe.'

This change in focus may well support a review of previously rejected proposals.