2006-2011 LTP Annex 2

Introduction

The principle aim of the Land Use and Transportation Strategy is to encourage new development in Warwickshire to be sustainable. New development will therefore be considered within a framework that a) promotes patterns of development that make better use of land, particularly in the existing main settlements in the County; b) reduces the need to travel through the better integration of land use and transport.   

The integration of land use and transport can be achieved through the promotion of sustainable patterns of development which:

• Reduces the need to travel;  
• Promotes more sustainable patterns of development 
• Reduces reliance on the car by promoting improvements to public transport, walking and cycling;
• Directs new development into existing settlements and/or transport corridors; and
• Maintains, improves and utilises existing links and infrastructure.  

The recent policies of the West Midlands Regional Spatial Strategy (RSS11) (formerly Regional Planning Guidance for the West Midlands) focus development away from the Shire Counties towards the Major Urban Areas (MUAs); Birmingham and the Black Country, Coventry, Solihull and North Staffordshire.  A consequence of development being concentrated in the MUAs may be an increase in the numbers of people travelling to and from Warwickshire.  Furthermore, RSS11 also identifies Rugby as a potential growth area and demand for travel to new major developments, particularly employment, is likely to grow.

These pressures will need to be addressed and the future challenge will be to ensure that the County Council promotes sustainable development and transport links within Warwickshire.  The Land Use & Transportation Strategy will contribute to addressing those issues.  The remainder of this Strategy sets out:    

• The Objectives of the Strategy;
• National, Regional and Local policy context; and
• The Land Use & Transportation Strategy.

The starting point for the Land Use and Transportation Strategy is the overall transport objectives of the Local Transport Plan 2005 that have been developed to reflect national, regional and local policy.

The Land Use & Transportation Strategy will contribute to achieving the key objectives in the Local Transport Plan 2005 by promoting sustainable development which:

• Offers accessibility, both in terms of physical access to transport and its availability, to the widest cross section of the population; and
• Gives people (including those who do not have access to cars) more travel choices to access work, services and leisure activities.

Policy Overview

National Policy

Planning Policy Statement 1(PPS1) - Delivering Sustainable Development. -  Sustainable development is the core principle underpinning planning.  At the heart of sustainable development is the idea of ensuring a better quality of life for everyone now and for future generations. Planning should promote sustainable and inclusive patterns of urban and rural development by:

1. Making suitable land available for development in line with economic social and environmental objectives to improve people’s quality of life;

2. Contributing to sustainable economic development;      

3. Protecting and enhancing the natural and historic environment and the quality and character of the countryside;

4. Ensuring high quality development through good and inclusive design and the efficient use of resources and

5. Ensuring that development supports existing communities and contributes to the creation of safe, sustainable liveable and mixed communities with good access to jobs and services for all members of the community.   

The planning system should promote development that is accessible in terms of its location. It should reduce the need to travel and encourage accessible public transport provision, to secure more sustainable patterns of transport development.        

Planning Policy Statement 6 (PPS6) – Planning for Town Centres.  'Town centres' is a term that includes city centres, town centres, local centres and district centres.  They make an important contribution to the quality of life in our urban communities and play a key role in delivering sustainable development, which is the core principle underpinning planning. 

The Government’s key objective for town centres is to promote their vitality and viability by a) planning for the growth and development of existing centres and b) promoting and enhancing existing centres by focusing development in such centres and encouraging a wide range of services and uses in a good environment, accessible to all.       

Planning Policy Guidance Note 13 (PPG13) – Transport aimed to integrate planning and transport to promote more sustainable transport choices, promote accessibility to jobs and services by public transport, cycling and walking and reduce the need to travel.  

Changes to the Development Plan procedures

The government recently issued PPS12: Local Development Frameworks (LDFs), which sets out the changes to the plan-making process.  Its aim is to reduce the time taken to produce plans and to make plan making itself more flexible and responsive to changing demands.  Structure Plans and Local Plans are gradually being replaced by LDFs.  Instead of one plan, there will be a number of plans e.g. Core Strategy, Site Specific Allocations, Area Action Plans etc and these will all form a part of the LDF.

Regional Policy

Regional Spatial Strategy (RSS11) (formerly Regional Planning Guidance for the West Midlands) was published in 2004. Policy T2 states that “Local authorities, developers and other agencies should work together to reduce the need to travel especially by car and to reduce the length of the journeys through – encouraging those developments which generate significant travel demands to be located where their accessibility for public transport walking and cycling is maximised including close to rail and bus stations and Metro stops’’.

In addition, Regional Spatial Strategy seeks to promote patterns of development, which reduce the need for travel (UR4) including a more balanced provision of different uses in larger settlements including the sub-regional foci.

The specific provisions in RSS11 require the development of more sustainable patterns of development to provide a better balance between jobs, houses and other services.  These developments are to be integrated with a choice of transport including public transport. Priority will be given to the improvement of services and interchanges within urban areas and the development of links with catchment areas.  In rural areas, priority should be given to the development of community and public transport services, particularly those providing links from rural hinterlands to key local service centres (Policy T5D).

The Regional Spatial Strategy aims to focus development on the Major Urban Areas (MUAs) in the West Midlands, particularly Coventry, Solihull and Birmingham. The main county towns of Warwick/Leamington Spa will continue to act as a centre for investment and assist in meeting the economic, social and cultural needs of the surrounding rural areas. The towns will also build on their traditional strengths as centres of historic heritage and tourism. In addition Rugby will act as a potential growth area for local regeneration and is a sub regional foci for development outside the MUAs. 

Local Policy

The policies in the Warwickshire Structure Plan 1996-2011 are summarised in the following paragraphs.  The government has carried out its intention to reform the Structure Plans and Local Plans process.  However, Structure Plan policies that are in conformity with the Regional Spatial Strategy will be ‘saved’ for a period of at least 3 years (i.e. up to 2007).

The Regional Planning Body will need to decide whether sub-regional strategies need to be produced, which will provide further detailed policy to bridge the gap between the Regional Spatial Strategy and Local Development Frameworks.  In the event that these sub-regional policies do not emerge, there is scope for the Structure Plan policies to be carried beyond 2007.

Policy GD1(b) - The principal purpose of the Structure Plan is to provide for a pattern of development which promotes the greater use of public transport, walking and cycling, to avoid restricting future generations of Warwickshire residents to a style of living which depends on use of car to get to work, school, shop or for leisure.

Policy GD3 - New development will be directed towards towns of over 8000 people (at 1991) because they offer the best prospect of expanding public transport and job opportunities across the community.  Living in towns should be made more attractive and new housing and industry should be located within easy reach of public transport serving the main town centres in the County along with Coventry and Birmingham.

Policy T1 - Where travel is necessary, through the Local Transport Plan and in considering transport related development proposals, the County Council will:

• Promote affordable transport for people on low incomes;
• Increase accessibility for disabled people and others with mobility problems; and
• Provide alternatives to using cars, giving the highest priority to improving public transport, the integration of transport and improving facilities for walking and cycling.

Policy T2 - Within the context of minimising private car usage across the County, measures will be implemented to achieve the following targets:

• Restrict the predicted growth in peak period vehicular traffic to a maximum 20% of 1999 levels by 2011 (half the forecast of 40%) in the north-south transport corridor, between Nuneaton and Leamington and the major urban areas of Warwick/Leamington, Nuneaton/Bedworth, Rugby, and Stratford upon Avon (this target has been superseded - details of the revised target can be found in the Congestion Strategy (see Part 2 of the main LTP document)); and
• Significantly increase public transport patronage in the major urban areas and inter urban areas between 1999 and 2011.

Policy T7 - To provide a genuine alternative to the private car local plans should, within the context of the objectives in T1 and the targets set out in T2, ensure that the needs of public transport services and facilities, to serve both new and existing developments, are fully addressed through land use allocations and the determination of planning applications. Where appropriate, Local Plans should safeguard land necessary for identified public transport facilities. Proposals will be supported where they contribute to meeting the demand for travel to Birmingham and Coventry, as well as local and longer distance movements.

Policy T10 - The County Council will seek developer contributions to be provided for public transport, pedestrian and cycling facilities to serve development and regeneration.  The County Council will also require developer funding of highway and traffic management schemes that provide access to or support development and regeneration.  

Policy CA4 within the Countryside Access and Rights of Way Improvement Plan states: "We will seek improvements, both within a development site and in the surrounding area, where the development is likely to lead to an increase in use of the local path network or where the development impacts on the existing path network."

Problems and Opportunities

There are problems in integrating land use and transport to promote sustainability, accessibility and a strong economy. The lack of employment opportunities in the rural areas of the County combined with limited public transport services leads to reliance on car use and disadvantages those without access to a car. In addition the growth of employment, housing, retail and leisure development on the edges of the towns has led to increased car use and the exclusion of those without access to a car.

Regional Spatial Strategy supports development within the Major Urban Areas (MUAs), particularly, Birmingham, Coventry and Solihull, which have an effect on the County. In addition, the main towns of Warwick/Leamington, Nuneaton and Rugby will continue to play an important part in acting as a focus for new investment and supporting regeneration.

These towns offer the best opportunity to maximise the re-use of previously developed land or buildings; promote alternative modes of transport to the car and reduce the need to travel. Outside the MUAs, Rugby is a focus of new investment and regeneration particularly on the former Radio Mast site. This will bring opportunities for mixed use development including employment and housing and raise the profile of the area, and increase economic activity. 

These opportunities will also bring their own challenges, such as, increased demand for travel. The proposed regeneration within the Rugby area will impact on the transport network. The scale of vehicular traffic currently adversely affects many parts of Rugby and particularly the town centre.  The Land Use & Transportation Strategy recognises these matters/issues and new development in Rugby, will be provided with a choice of transport including public transport, cycling and walking facilities.

Focusing development in these Warwickshire towns offers the opportunity to use the existing transport networks and the potential to a) expand the use of public transport including bus and rail; b) increase its attractiveness and c) open new stations e.g. Kenilworth; and d) encourage walking and cycling facilities. The aim of this approach is to optimise the existing concentrations of population, employment and services including public transport. By concentrating new development in the towns, this will help to achieve shorter journey distances and reverse the trend towards out of centre developments that are often difficult to reach without reliance on the car.

The Strategy

The vision of Warwickshire County Council’s Land Use & Transportation Strategy is:

'To encourage new development, which is accessible, safe, sustainable and integrated with the transport network, including modes other than the car.' 

The aim of the Land Use & Transportation Strategy is to make new development especially those with significant traffic movements as sustainable as possible through the integration of land use and transport.  This can be achieved by:

• Actively promoting accessibility for all sections of the community, based on the most sustainable modes; and
• Seeking to optimise the location of land uses/developments with the transport networks including locating major trip attractors and generators in close proximity to suitable public transport services.  

The four key themes of the Strategy are:

• To encourage patterns of sustainable development;
• To promote a choice of transport by public transport cycling and walking;
• To promote accessibility to jobs, shopping, leisure facilities; and
• To reduce the need to travel by car.

The Policies of the Land Use & Transportation Strategy

The County Council in partnership with District Councils, Parish Councils and others will work together towards the objectives of encouraging sustainable development through the use of national, regional and local planning guidance, including the Regional Spatial Strategy and Local Development Frameworks.  The Land Use & Transportation Strategy will form the basis for the County Council and its partners, to secure funding for transport and accessibility improvements from new developments.

Delivering The Strategy  

This section sets out the main actions that will be required to deliver the policies of the Land Use & Transportation Strategy. Delivery involves a wide range of public and private stakeholders and partners. In some instances, delivery will be dependent on strategic decisions that are taken at national level. 

The main part of the delivery will be undertaken before or at the planning application stage where new developments will be assessed in terms of their accessibility to determine the degree of sustainability, see below.

Partnership

Partnership will play a key part in promoting new developments which are sustainable and which accord with the Land Use and Transportation Strategy.  The County Council recognises there are a range of partners and stakeholders in both the public and private sectors, which it will engage with in this process. These include:

• National level: Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (ODPM); Department for Transport (DfT); Department for Environment Food Rural Affairs (DEFRA); Network Rail and the Highways Agency;
• Regional Level: Government Office of West Midlands (GOWM); Advantage West Midlands (AWM) and West Midlands Regional Assembly (WMRA) and Centro;
• Local level: North Warwickshire Borough Council; Nuneaton and Bedworth Borough Council; Rugby Borough Council; Stratford-on-Avon District Council and Warwick District Council; and
• Neighbouring Authorities: Coventry City Council; Solihull Metropolitan Council; Staffordshire County Council; Leicestershire County Council; Northamptonshire County Council; Oxfordshire County Council; Gloucestershire County Council and Worcestershire County Council.