5. Transport

(1) Vision

Short Term

• Transport schemes have been initiated to help reduce congestion on the District’s roads, such as online road improvements and the implementation of travel plans.

• Improvements have led to a more frequent, reliable and comprehensive public transport system with better linkages between bus and rail.

• Work will be undertaken with the County Council as highway authority to look at potential solutions to congestion issues across the District to ensure the highway infrastructure becomes ‘fit for purpose’.

• The Rochford District Council Transport Strategy Supplementary Planning Document has been adopted and will help to ease transport issues across the District.

Medium Term

• A walking cycling and bridleway network has been implemented across the District. There is improved public access to the District’s rivers.

• Residential development will have considered community facilities provision and access to these will be easy and sustainable.

• Appropriate infrastructure will have been put into place to secure access to the wharfage at Baltic Wharf, thus helping to secure its future as an employment area.

• The South Essex Rapid Transit System (SERT) has been implemented giving people a genuine sustainable alternative to the private car.

Long Term

• Developer contributions have ensured that new developments are well integrated with public transport. Cycle and pedestrian networks have been developed linking important areas.

• New employment parks are accompanied by travel plans and are accessible to workers by a range of transport options.

• Road infrastructure through the District will have been secure and improved with easier access to the A127 and A130.

• Wallasea Island will be accessible by secure and improved road access.

• The employment park in the west of the District will have easy access on to the main transport networks.

Objectives

1. Deliver developments that will reduce reliance on the private car, and that are well related to the public transport network.

2. Deliver online improvements on the east to west road networks in partnership with the Highways Authority, Essex County Council.

3. Identify and assess locations in the District that currently suffer from poor highway connectivity and congestion, and work with the Highways Authority to identify solutions.

4. Work alongside Essex County Council and other Thames Gateway authorities to support the implementation of the South Essex Rapid Transit system, in particular ensuring that SERT connects the residential areas with the employment areas within Rochford District.

5. Ensure that all new developments including residential, employment, education and leisure, implement travel plans to reduce the reliance on the private car.

6. Work with Essex County Council and other organisations, such as Sustrans, to ensure that a safe, accessible and convenient network of cycle and pedestrian routes is implemented across the District.

7. Aid the delivery of greenways identified in the Thames Gateway Green Grid Strategy, alongside Essex County Council and neighbouring authorities.

8. Ensure appropriate car parking provisions accompanies development at a level which strikes a balance between meeting the needs of motorists, ensuring that parking does not take up excessive amounts of developable land, and encouraging alternatives to car use.

Introduction

5.1 The District is predominantly rural with poor accessibility, particularly to the east, which, coupled with a lack of public transport provision, has resulted in high levels of private vehicle ownership, and associated congestion and pollution. Reducing dependency on private vehicles is an aspiration for future sustainability, through planning and promoting alternative forms of transport to the car, such as public transport, walking and cycling.

5.2 Essex County Council, the local highway authority, has produced development management policies²² for highways and other transport related aspects of development. The County, as a statutory consultee, is consulted on all planning applications and would have regard to their development management policies in any response. That being the case, it is advisable that regard is had to these policies in the development of proposals.

5.3 The Core Strategy considers a variety of important transport issues across the District, relating to:

• improvements to the current highways network, where appropriate;

• ensuring new developments are suitably located in proximity to public transport;

• supporting the development of South Essex Rapid Transit System (SERT)

• requiring the provision of travel plans for both residential and non-residential development;

• working with other organisations to provide additional walking and cycling opportunities throughout the District;

• supporting the delivery of greenways, along with partners, as part of the Green Grid Strategy; and

• stipulating the general approach to parking standards within the District.

5.4 This chapter elaborates on the implementation of appropriate parking standards and seeks to require improvements to traffic management alongside development.

Transport Issues

Parking Standards

5.5 The Council will apply maximum car parking standards for key trip destinations to discourage private vehicle use for these destinations, ease congestion and encourage the use of more sustainable transport modes. Such development will still be required to include adequate parking provision. Seeking to restrict the numbers of parking spaces at trip origins does not limit car use, particularly within a rural area such as Rochford District where levels of car usage are relatively high. As such, minimum parking standards will be applied to residential development, including visitor parking, to ensure that sufficient parking spaces are provided within new developments. However the minimum parking standards may be relaxed for residential development proposed within an urban area (including town centre locations) with good links to public transport.

5.6 It is important to have regard to countywide standards to ensure the consistency between approaches and the viability of developments through the area. The Council adopted ‘Parking Standards Design and Good Practice’ as a Supplementary Planning Document in December 2010, replacing the previous supplementary advice and guidance. This document was prepared by a working group of representatives from Essex County Council and District Councils and conforms to the approach the Council want to apply throughout the District, as outlined in the Core Strategy. Aside from guidance relating to private cars, this document also contains guidance for 'Blue Badge' users, cyclists, motorcyclists and commercial vehicles.

Traffic Management

5.7 New development may have an impact on the District’s highways network, and where this is the case effective traffic management is essential to create thriving sustainable communities, to improve road safety and reduce air pollution, noise, severance and visual impacts caused by transport and transport infrastructure. This is important in both the highly populated west of the District, and the sparsely populated, comparatively inaccessible east. Developers must have regard to the management and mitigation of additional traffic generation which may be a consequence of development. Opportunities will be sought to reduce the impact of traffic in sensitive areas including those which suffer from through traffic. Proposals should also take into consideration the potential impact on the natural, built and historic environment.

5.8 Proposed major developments should be accompanied by a Transport Impact Assessment (including appropriate mitigation measures) as set out in the Core Strategy. The guidance produced by the Department for Transport (2007) ²³ ‘Guidance on Transport Assessment’ should be taken into consideration in the development of these assessments. The guidance produced by the Department for Transport (2011) ²⁴ ‘Design Manual for Roads and Bridges’ should also be taken into account in the design of traffic management measures.

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²² Essex County Council’s Development Management Policies available from
www.essex.gov.uk/Environment%20Planning/Planning/Transport-planning/Infomation-for-developers/Documents/Development%20Management%20Policies%20Feb%202011.pdf ²³ Department for Transport (2007) ‘Guidance on Transport Assessment’ available from www2.dft.gov.uk/pgr/regional/transportassessments/ ²⁴ Department for Transport (2011) ‘Design Manual for Roads and Bridges’ available from www.dft.gov.uk/ha/standards/dmrb/index.htm