SC(3) CR-Plan 9

Sustainability Committee

Inquiry into Carbon Reduction in Wales: Carbon Reduction via Planning

Response from Sustrans

23 January 2009

1. Introduction

We are pleased to be able to submit a response to the inquiry into Carbon Reduction in Wales: The Role of the Planning System in Carbon Reduction. We have limited our response to questions directly relating to transport.  

Sustrans is the UK’s leading sustainable transport charity. Our vision is a world in which people choose to travel in ways that benefit their health and the environment. We work on practical, innovative solutions to the transport challenges facing us all. Our aim is to transform the UK’s transport system and culture, so that:

• The environmental impacts of transport, including its contribution to climate change and resource depletion, are significantly reduced

• People can choose more often to travel in ways that benefit their health

• People have access to essential local services without the need to use a car

• Local streets and public spaces become places for people to enjoy.

Sustrans is the charity behind the award winning National Cycle Network, Safe Routes to Schools, Bike It, TravelSmart, Active Travel, Connect2 and Liveable Neighbourhoods, all projects that are changing our world one mile at a time.

To find out more visit or call: www.sustrans.org.uk

Lee Waters, National Director
Sustrans Cymru
107 Bute Street
Cardiff
CF10 5AD
Phone : 029 2065 0602
Fax : 029 2065 0603
www.sustrans.org.uk

© Sustrans January 2009

Registered Charity No. 326550 (England and Wales) SCO39263 (Scotland)
VAT Registration No. 416740656

2. Answers to questions

• What particular actions do you think the Welsh Assembly Government should be taking to ensure that the land use planning system in Wales encourages greater progress towards the achievement of carbon reduction targets?

A review of continental best practice suggests that the development of a low-carbon transport system requires planning policies that achieve compact, mixed land-use patterns with most major local destinations within walking distance of residential areas.  

In order to achieve the 'One Wales’ commitment on emissions reduction we believe it is essential that all new developments are accessible mainly by sustainable transport.  

During the last half-century, our towns, suburbs and countryside have been re-shaped as a consequence of mass car ownership.  But for many people the present transport system fails to connect them to these basic necessities. For example the UK Government’s Social Exclusion Unit 2003 report, 'Making the Connections’, found that:

• Two out of five jobseekers say lack of transport is a barrier to getting a job.

• For young people, inaccessibility of work is cited as the most common obstacle to getting employment.

• Nearly half of 16-18 year olds struggle to afford the cost of transport to reach their education.

• Over one million people miss out on medical care each year because of transport problems.

Difficulties arise even for everyday food shopping. Within just one decade, superstores doubled in number and out-of-town shopping centres quadrupled but these are often not accessible to people on low incomes. Furthermore, some low-income areas do not have sufficient spending power to be attractive to major retailers. Over the same period the number of small local shops that provide food within easier reach dropped 40%.

These problems are widespread, with over a quarter of households not having access to a car.  However, they are not uniformly experienced by all sectors of society, and particularly affect those in low income and disadvantaged groups. Taking, for example, the poorest fifth of households, more than half do not have access to a car.  In Blaenau Gwent and Merthyr some 36% of households do not have access to a car.  And yet many of the services they depend upon are often planned on the assumption that they do.

The current pattern of land use planning therefore not only produces a cycle of car dependency, but in many communities compounds social exclusion.

Excessive dependence on cars is a major factor in the obesity epidemic. The recent analysis by the Government’s Foresight programme predicts that a majority of UK adults could be clinically obese by 2050, at an annual cost to society of £49.9 billion in today’s money.

In January 2008 NICE published the first ever evidence-based recommendations on how to improve the physical environment to encourage physical activity to improve health. The recommendations were not only for the NHS and local authorities, but for all those who have a role or responsibility for a built or natural environment; including planners, transport authorities, building managers, designers and architects.

After a comprehensive study of the evidence NICE called recommended the provision of a comprehensive network of routes for walking and cycling to offer everyone (including people whose mobility is impaired) convenient, safe and attractive access to workplaces, homes, schools and other public facilities.

NICE recommended that transport authorities:

• Ensure pedestrians, cyclists and users of other modes of transport that involve physical activity are given the highest priority when developing or maintaining streets and roads. (This includes people whose mobility is impaired.)

• Use one or more of the following methods:

• re-allocate road space to support physically active modes of transport (as an example, this could be achieved by widening pavements and introducing cycle lanes)

• restrict motor vehicle access (for example, by closing or narrowing roads to reduce capacity)

• introduce road-user charging schemes

• introduce traffic-calming schemes to restrict vehicle speeds (using signage and changes to highway design)

• create safe routes to schools (for example, by using traffic-calming measures near schools and by creating or improving walking and cycle routes to schools).

The Foresight report compared combating obesity has tackling climate change. The scientists noted that both need whole societal change with cross governmental action and long term commitment: The study concluded that "many climate change goals would also help prevent obesity, such as measures to reduce traffic congestion, increase cycling or design sustainable communities. Tackling them together would enhance the effectiveness of action”.

Sustrans Cymru believes that Planning Policy Wales needs to be immediately re-written to be take into account the evidence based recommendations of NICE, the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence.

Sustrans recommendations:

• Make new developments more accessible and less car dependant by ensuring that all new developments are accessible mainly by sustainable transport.

• Invest in small-scale and 'smart’ measures, rather than roads, to improve non-car transport

• That Planning Policy Wales be immediately re-written to be take into account the evidence based recommendations of NICE, the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence.

• What particular actions do you think the Local Planning Authorities in Wales should be taking to ensure that the land use planning system in Wales encourages greater progress towards the achievement of carbon reduction targets?

Future decisions on new development and transport infrastructure need to be based on the principle of 'designing the world that we wish to create’. This implies not allowing new retail or office development which is located and designed for car use, and not increasing road capacity.

There are numerous international examples of best practice.  Vauban development in Freiburg, Germany, is one such example. Vauban will eventually create housing for 5000 people and 600 permanent jobs. Many of the private dwellings were built under innovative cooperative arrangements that have reduced build prices to within the range of people who would normally find it hard to afford to buy their own homes and there are also 200 social housing units. It has been planned to be a model of sustainable transport, aiming to 'reduce the use of cars in the entire district to everybody's benefit’.

This has been achieved by means of both carrots and sticks. Vauban is designed as a 'district of short distances’ with a school, nurseries, a shopping centre, a food co-op, a farmers’ market, recreation areas, and approximately 600 jobs all within walking and cycling distance for its residents.

Longer journeys to the city centre, recreational areas and mainline station are served by trams and buses running at 5 -15 minute intervals, and there are plans for a local train station. Much of the development is zoned so that parking spaces are not allowed on private property. Instead, cars are parked in one of the multi-storey car parks on the edge of the residential area, run by a council owned company. Residents who own a car must buy a parking space, the price of which was calculated to cover the cost of constructing the car park, and must also pay a monthly fee to cover its upkeep. This gives Vauban the claim to be Germany’s largest 'car-free’ development. In fact, cars are allowed onto the streets for setting down and picking up, but the streets are designed according to home zone principles to be 'a playground for kids and places for social interaction’, and cars must travel at a walking pace. For residents who do not own a car but need use of a vehicle, there is a car club fleet stationed in the communal car parks available on a pay-as-you-go basis.

Almost half of all residents (45%) belong to the car club. It is noteworthy that of the households that now do not own cars, 57% did own a car until they moved to Vauban. Even amongst the car owners, 61% choose to cycle to work, and 91% of the non-car householders commute by bike.

Vauban offers a blueprint for new housing development. It also points towards what can be done in existing residential suburbs to provide people with an attractive alternative to using a car. In comparison with many towns in North America or Australia, British towns and cities have a form that gives the potential to operate through sustainable modes of transport. Most town and city centres were built in an era before the private car and consequently are appropriately scaled for journeys on foot or bike, even if subsequent alterations to facilitate car access have tended to militate against ease and comfort of movement by pedestrians and cyclists. Suburban areas further from town and city centres, were in many cases planned around commuter travel hubs such as rail stations that still operate, even where these suburbs have become increasingly car-dependent. This inherited urban form means that most car journeys in British towns and cities are actually very short. Research by Sustrans and Socialdata in Darlington, Peterborough and Worcester found that between 60% and 86% of car trips within those towns were shorter than five kilometres - in other words, about a 20 minute cycle ride. Between 7% and 11% of car trips were less than a kilometre, or about a 10 minute walk.

Housebuilding is an opportunity to achieve higher standards of accessibility and less car dependency. Planning policy guidance should local authorities and developers to adopt the following masterplanning checklist for all new housing developments together with the setting of a modal shift target for all new developments.

• Non-car-dependent location (not close to motorway junctions or high speed roads)

• Good quality frequent public transport services

• High development densities

• Good range of local facilities available

• Street design to favour walking and cycling

• Limited car parking provision, and some car-free housing

• Implement 'smart’ programmes to change people’s travel behaviour

Sustrans recommendations:

• Reject new retail or office development that is located and designed solely for car use, and that as a result will increase road capacity and traffic volumes.

• That local authorities and developers adopt a masterplanning checklist for all new housing developments.

• What needs to be done to ensure better co-ordination between land-use planning and transport planning?  

Co-ordination between land-use planning and transport planning is vital to ensure that developments ensure access by sustainable transport and inhibit the growth of additional traffic volume.

Sustrans supports the sentiments expressed by the Sustainability Committee in their letter to the Welsh Assembly:

The Committee has heard evidence that out-of-town commercial, retail and sporting land use should be discouraged, where there is a lack of existing public transport.  Better integration of land-use and transport planning is required at a regional and local level.

Recommendation 7 of the Committee’s second report into transport carbon reduction in Wales was:

"The Committee recommends that the Welsh Assembly Government should urgently revise its statutory planning guidance for local authorities to ensure that proposals for development are not permitted where adequate public transport cannot be provided.”

Currently, too many residential and commercial developments are built with cars in mind, and as a result, access to these developments by sustainable modes of transport is difficult. This increases dependence on the car, resulting in more carbon emissions.

It is essential that all new planning developments take account of people's transport habits and adopt a transport plan within the development that could, among other things, ensure that there is adequate scope for accessible public transport provision, appropriate parking provision only and integrated high quality cycling links as well as ensuring that the development is easily accessible by foot.

Sustrans would support the Assembly getting extra powers to introduce a requirement that all new, major land use developments over a certain size publish and implement a travel plan with clear, measurable targets for high levels of walking, cycling and use of public transport as a condition of planning permission. The plan must also set out the remedial steps to be taken if those levels are not achieved

Sustrans recommendations:

• The Welsh Assembly Government should act of the recommendation of the Sustainability Committee and urgently revise its statutory planning guidance for local authorities to ensure that proposals for development are not permitted where adequate public transport cannot be provided.

• Legislate to require major land use developments to implement a travel plan with targets for sustainable transport as a condition of planning permission. 

• Does the Welsh Assembly Government’s new transport strategy, One Wales: Connecting the Nation give sufficient emphasis to this issue?

One Wales: Connecting the Nation, the Assembly Government’s transport strategy, is a considerable improvement on its predecessor, the draft Wales Transport Strategy.

Sustrans believes there is much to praise in the new strategy and welcomes the fact that it:

• Sets as a priority the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions in transport

• Identifies our over-dependence on the private car

• Recognises the need to change travel behaviour

• Seeks to reverse the downward trend in the number of people choosing to walk and cycle for short journeys

However, despite these welcome high level commitments the detail of the strategy suggests that policy delivery could still be characterised by a 'business as usual’ approach.  

Road building remains central to the Assembly Government approach.  Though the strategy acknowledges the contribution car dependency makes to carbon emissions, it makes clear that it is not abandoning the 'predict and provide’ approach to road building - even though it has been almost 15 years since the Government’s advisory board made clear that new roads result in more car journeys (Standing Advisory Committee for Trunk Road Assessment, 1994, Trunk Roads and the Generation of Traffic).

Connecting the Nation commits to:

• Improving the reliability of the road system especially between key settlements (p49)

• Improving the capacity of the M4  which has 'traffic levels way above its capacity’ (p50)

• Preparing a 'surface access strategy’ for Cardiff Airport (p51)

The section on freight commits to make "Improvements to the existing road network ensuring free flowing, safe movement of freight traffic” (p38).  In practice this means a continued emphasis on road building; the strategy euphemistically states that roads "must be equipped to handle the flow of traffic” - this is code for adapting hard shoulders for traffic use and a programme of road widening.

The section on air pollution acknowledges the detrimental effects traffic has on air quality and health but places the responsibility on Local Authorities to take action.  For its part, the WAG states "there may be exceptional circumstances where actions may temporarily increase air pollution in order to reduce it in the long term - for example building a bypass” (p.48).  Therefore, to reduce the impact of traffic pollution the Strategy advocates building more roads.

The strategy stresses that where new roads are favoured an assessment will be made to weigh its contribution to greenhouse gasses against social and economic benefits using WelTAG (p45).

Analysis by both Sustrans and the Campaign for Better Transport (formerly known as Transport 2000) found that the Government’s appraisal tool disadvantages schemes that cut carbon emissions.   WelTAG marks down schemes that reduce car journeys because it would result in less revenue from fuel tax for the Treasury.  It also assigns a greater economic value to car drivers than bus or train passengers which in-turn gives sustainable transport schemes a disadvantage in cost / benefit analysis assessments.

The Assembly’s Sustainability Committee recommended that WAG review the use of WelTAG as "a matter of urgency” to ensure that carbon reduction is the main objective when assessing projects.  This has yet to happen.

Without a priority being set on schemes that cut carbon we are concerned that the contribution of the transport sector to our emissions will continue to rise.

Sustrans would like to see the forthcoming Welsh Transport Plan commit to ambitious targets for growth in walking and cycling - and ensure they are met.  10% of transport budgets should be targeted on increasing levels of walking and cycling immediately, and future transport funding should be tied to ambitious targets.  For example we’d like to see 75% of journeys in urban areas taken by public transport, on foot or by bicycle, and we think that three quarters of transport funding should be set aside for sustainable forms transport.

Sustrans recommendations:

• That the forthcoming Welsh Transport Plan commit to ambitious targets for growth in walking and cycling - and ensure they are met.

• That 10% of transport budgets should be targeted on increasing levels of walking and cycling immediately, and future transport funding should be tied to ambitious targets.

Summary of recommendations

1. Make new developments more accessible and less car dependant by ensuring that all new developments are accessible mainly by sustainable transport.

2. Invest in small-scale and 'smart’ measures, rather than roads, to improve non-car transport

3. That Planning Policy Wales be immediately re-written to be take into account the evidence based recommendations of NICE, the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence.

4. Reject new retail or office development that is located and designed solely for car use, and as a result will increase road capacity and traffic volumes.

5. That local authorities and developers adopt a masterplanning checklist for all new housing developments.

6. That the forthcoming Welsh Transport Plan commit to ambitious targets for growth in walking and cycling - and ensure they are met.

7. That 10% of transport budgets should be targeted on increasing levels of walking and cycling immediately, and future transport funding should be tied to ambitious targets.