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PAN 57 Planning for Transport

DEVELOPMENT PLANS AND STRATEGIES

Transport Strategies

5. The 4 regional transport partnerships across Scotland have all developed transport strategies covering their region. These are the product of voluntary joint working between local authorities (including SPT in the west of Scotland) and other stakeholders,. The Transport (Scotland) Act 2001 contains powers for Scottish Ministers to require local authorities to work together to produce a joint transport strategy, however this power has not needed to be used. Regional Transport Strategies will take a strategic approach to transport across the region, identifying problems and solutions. They should closely relate to local transport strategies and also to City Region strategic land use plans where these are to be prepared, and elsewhere give strategic transport guidance to local development plans.

6. Local Transport Strategies (LTSs) are not statutory, but all local authorities have chosen to produce one. They set out the local authority’s objectives, strategies and implementation plans for the transport in their area. They should be consistent with the latest guidance from the Scottish Executive Transport Group, SPP17 and up to date development plan policies. They should also closely relate to strategies produced by regional transport partnerships.

Development Plans

7. Development plan policy is an important means of implementing the transport strategy and planning policies for an area should take full account of the relevant Regional or Local Transport Strategy. As such, LTSs and development plan policies should be developed having regard to one another.

8. The strategic aims of policy need to be implemented through influencing the attitude and behaviour of every individual. Influence can be achieved by targeting the reasons why people travel, the mode by which they have the opportunity to travel and the preferences of how people like to travel.

9. A number of practical measures, both qualitative and quantitative, can be used to deliver this influence. This PAN provides examples of good practice guidance on these measures through publicising recent research.

Integration

10. The aim of Scottish Ministers is to create an accessible Scotland which has a safe, reliable and sustainable transport system¹. Integration is key to the delivery of this. The integration of land use planning with transport, taking account of environmental aims and policies, and policies on economic growth, education, health and the objective of a fairer, more inclusive society, is crucial.

11. One focus of SPP17 is to achieve better and earlier integration between transport and land use planning at national, regional and local level. By the two working together the need to travel will be reduced and more sustainable travel choices will be supported. To achieve sustainable development the objectives of SPP17 must be balanced with the objectives of all other planning policy and guidance topics.

12. The intention is for projects to be customer focused and for them to promote genuine choice, so that each mode contributes its full potential and people can move easily between different modes. This is of equal relevance to passenger and freight considerations.

13. Effective working practice involves different professionals being aware of and understanding the relevance of the tasks and tools of professionals in other areas, either within or outwith planning. Land use planners and transport professionals should work together in developing complementary polices and proposals which contribute to integration within and between different modes of transport.

14. Table 1 is a generalised demarcation of statutory and non-statutory responsibilities, which to be successful in practice will need advice and information from the other professionals listed.

Table 1. Generalised Statutory and Non-Statutory Responsibilities.

Co-operative Working

15. The early involvement of interested parties will positively inform development plans by building consensus and minimising potential future areas of objection. Consultation and the feeding back of results to those who have contributed is crucial. Initiation of this is the responsibility of ALL groups. In addition to those listed above, other groups may include:

• Other relevant internal and external local authority departments;
• Local authority consortia i.e. Regional Transport Partnerships;
• Hauliers;
• Strategic Rail Authority;
• Rail and bus operators;
• Transport user groups;
• British Waterways, port and airport operators;
• Special purpose implementation bodies e.g. Transport Initiatives Edinburgh (TIE).
• Local businesses and communities.

Transport Modelling

16. Modelling is usually undertaken by transport planners in the appraisal of policies and proposals. Modelling can assist decision making by basing projections on quantitative data and it can be used for different types of assessment, for example mode choice, trip generation and land use interactions.

17. Joint transport and land use models are being developed which dynamically represent the interaction between transport changes and land use patterns rather than simply accepting land use data as a model input. These models should be very useful in strategic land use planning. A number of Scottish transport models already exist. These range from large scale models covering large areas, such as Central Scotland Transport Model (CSTM3) and its successor Transport Model for Scotland (TMfS), to relatively small but detailed single junction simulation models.

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