Core Strategy - Consultation Draft
CS11: Parking
Adequate parking must be provided and managed to meet the needs of anticipated users (residents, workers and visitors) in usable spaces. Overall parking provision must ensure a balance between good urban design, highway safety and residential amenity. New developments must seek to maximise off street provision, assess where on-street provision may be appropriate, demonstrate that buses, service and emergency vehicles are not restricted, and ensure that the road network is safe for all users. Detailed parking policy guidance for all forms of development will be provided as part of the Development Management Development Plan Document. This policy contributes towards achieving Priority Objective 10.
Background
The council is committed to ensuring the delivery of sustainable development, and an important element of this is to ensure that there are, wherever possible, realistic alternatives to using the car. However, it is also important to recognise that across much of the district cars are still essential for many journeys. National policy in the past has perhaps naively tended to assume that if less provision is made for the car, then less car use will take place. The North Somerset experience is that while much can be done to encourage travel by other modes, there will still be high car ownership, and people will need space to park. Where new estates have been designed so as to discourage casual car parking and fewer spaces are provided within property boundaries (often compounded by garages being used for storage), this can lead to significant problems of parked cars blocking pavements, restricting access for buses, refuse and emergency vehicles, and detracting from the character and appearance of the development and the community's pride in the local environment.
The Core Strategy approach
The intention is to take a pragmatic approach to parking provision on new developments. The council recognises that there will be a balance between good urban design, highway safety and residential amenity, but that the assessment of a development proposal must always start from the position of ensuring that adequate parking is provided. This is adequate in terms of providing enough provision for likely users, in practical spaces of an adequate size and shape.
The Core Strategy highlights the importance of the parking issue to the place making agenda, and the need for co-ordination between the formulation and interpretation of parking standards, urban design and transport policy. This is an area where further guidance will be required within the Development Management DPD.
How and where the policy will be delivered
Research is currently examining the impact of parking on new estates at Portishead and Weston, and the recommendations from this and other evidence will be used to reassess the approach to parking within the Development Management DPD. Delivery will also be through the production of masterplans and briefs where appropriate, and the assessment of planning applications as part of the development management process.
Alternative options and contingency planning
Policy could be incorporated as part of a more general transport policy, but it was felt that the importance of the issue to key objectives warranted a more specific approach.
Monitoring and review
The effectiveness of parking standards in new developments will be monitored.
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