Land Use Planning

“An active involvement in planning and development control is
essential to achieving the vision of integrated transport
and sustainable use of the Highway network.”

An active involvement in planning and development control will be essential to achieving the vision of integrated transport and sustainable use of the Highway network.

Proactive involvement in planning decisions is at the heart of future transportation. This includes making best use of existing corridors and land use patterns. Sustainable, integrated land use - transport solutions will be the result of close involvement by the Network Operator in influencing the pattern of development over a long period of time.

Growing concerns about environmental impacts, congestion and highway fatalities will encourage planners to find better ways of utilising the existing highway corridors. By 2030 "Green Corridors" will be the way forward - multimodal "inter-city" and "community" corridors which give priority to smarter "environmentally correct" vehicles, collective and automated forms of transport, cyclists and pedestrians.

The opportunities to create the infrastructure with this standard of efficient, integrated, multi-modal transport may occur only on a piecemeal basis. The importance of development control casework and Network Operators input to regional planning policies cannot be under-estimated.

By being pro-active, the Network Operator can influence on future patterns of transport supply (e.g. protection of future strategic transport routes or sites) and transport demand (e.g. by promoting developments which reduce car dependency for commuting between home and work).
  

• Highway operations and performance locally are greatly influenced the location and type of land use development that takes place adjacent to the network. (e.g. shopping centres, business parks, airports, major housing developments).
  
  
• Change in transport patterns, economic and environmental impacts (both beneficial and adverse) are an inevitable feature of development activity (e.g. creation / reduction / displacement of travel at any one location).
  
  
• Land-use changes may take a long time to occur after investments in transport infrastructure, and vice versa. (e.g. Docklands Light Railway) - The Network Operator may need to “pump prime” integrated transport activities).
  
  
• Decisions taken during design, construction and operational phases will necessarily impact on network operations (e.g. temporal shifts in need and demand, stakeholder ‘buy in’, etc).
  

• The achievement of sustainable land-use / transportation solutions through a pro-active approach to land-use planning and development control.
  
  
• Diversion of planning gain towards the achievement of efficient, integrated, multi-modal transport
  Support for Government goals in facilitating economic regeneration and alleviating social exclusion in the UK’s most deprived wards and regions.
  
  
• Development of the Network Operator role as Highway System regulator - through development control casework and highways input to regional planning policies
  
  
• Standardisation of highway-related infrastructure (road geometry, capacity, speeds, signage, automation, interchange, co-operative vehicle-highway systems etc)
  

• Develop HA central planning capability, particularly looking at wider the strategic context (local, regional, European levels) and adopting a longer-term approach.
  
  
• Strengthen HA input to Government planning policy - responding to consultation White Papers and participation in Task Forces on Regional development issues.
  
  
• Maintain a Regional Planning capability to work pro-actively with Government offices and Regional Planning bodies to find ways of meeting strategic goals such as economic regeneration and social inclusion.
  
  
• Involvement in “Transport Development Areas” (TDAs) - areas of high density, mixed use development around transport hubs.
  
  
• Support trials of innovative land use/transport solutions: Freight Villages and Major freight interchanges, Multi-modal passenger interchange facilities, etc. and develop policies to favour developments which would utilise spare transport capacity
  
  
• Investigate the long-term impact of different development control strategies on network operations: intensification of development around existing infrastructure, or wider dispersal - particularly where there is spare capacity