Housing Development Oppostion - need to know minimum road width

LTA

Hi,

I've posted previously about a proposal for a housing development near me.

(approximately 100 houses that will be accessed via an existing cul de sac.
The main concern of the residents is the amount of traffic that will be directed through the cul de sac.)

I'm currently trying to find out what the minimum road widths should be for access? This is a 40/50 year old estate and the road is less than 5m and this is the one that will lead to the new estate.

Any ideas where to find some official figures?

Thanks!

ormus

for between 50-300 dwellings the approved width of access road is 5.5m
(but there does not seem to be a definite regulation).

LTA

Perfect that's not enough then.

Don't suppose you have a link to a reference do you?

spmc

Until March 2007 the recommendation was 5.5m wide for more than 50 dwellings and guidance was contained in Design Bulletin 32. DB32 was a national guide and many local highway authorities had their own guidance but these were generally based on DB32 but you could check to see if there is local guidance.

In March 2009 Manual for Streets superseded DB32 - you can get a pdf via google. It is now more subjective and flexible. Is your road width 4.8m wide by any chance? this is just sufficient for 1 car to pass an hgv on a straight section of road but not two hgv's. Whether 4.8m width is sufficient to serve 150 houses depends on the length of 4.8m road over which all vehicles have to travel, the alignment of the road and the extent of on-street parking.

I've been meaning to give a more detailed response to your other thread for a few days now. I don't know enough of your particular circumstances to know whether you have a valid reason to object and to be honest I don't agree with objections to development simply on the basis of proximity. However I can offer some general advice. Any application will be considered on the basis of planning policy and I can provide some general areas to research.

What is the current status of the land in the Local Plan or Local Development Framework? Unfortunately regional and local planning policy is in a state of flux and depending on where you are things will be different. In recent times regional policy has been set down in Structure Plans and local policy set down in Local Plans (adopted by each local planning authority). This is being replaced by Regional Spatial Strategies at regional level and local development frameworks at the local level. The current position of your local planning authority should be set out on its website - there could be a significant amount of reading material in the planning policy section of the website.

Assuming that local policy is still set out in a local plan you need to look at this. It will normally comprise 2 parts a written statement and a plan. The plan will be coloured to identify the designation of the land. If the land in question is allocated for residential development you will have little chance of preventing any residential development but you may be able to prevent the proposed scale.

If it is not allocated for development - what is the designation and what policies apply to the designation. Is the development contrary to those policies.

There should be a transport or movement section within the local plan and within this there will be a number of policies relating to new development - what must happen what mustn't happen - when the application is submitted you need to consider whether the development complies with policy.

You should also read Planning Policy Guidance 13 on Transport and Planning Policy Statement 3 on housing - should be found via google. Does the development comply with policy set out in PPG13 and PPS3?

You should check the status of the land on the environment agency's website - is it a site with a flood risk? If there is a risk of flood you should read Planning Policy Statement 25 development and Flood Risk and determine whether the development complies with PPS25.

Hope this is of some help.

spmc

I've edited my post above

yellowmonkey

I have not got a clue myself but have to say what a great informative post spmc.

LTA

spmc thanks so much for taking the time to write that, it's much appreciated.

The section relating to traffic mentions that they have looked at the principles set out in Manual for Streets.

I have already downloaded it but it's taking a while to find the relevant section about road length (found road width diagram), it is quite hefty and I need to read it properly.

The road width is pretty much 4.8m, there is alot of on street parking. The estate as it is is only small, about 0.2 miles in a loop by a very rough google measurement.

The status at the moment is that it's greenfield but it has been deemed as suitable four housing in the Spatial Policy document.

This might seem a bizarre question but can greenbelt land be changed to greenfield? Some residents are sure when they moved in they were told it was greenbelt and couldn't be built on.

Will check flooding.

Many many thanks again.

anotherbigspender

LTA wrote: »

This might seem a bizarre question but can greenbelt land be changed to greenfield? Some residents are sure when they moved in they were told it was greenbelt and couldn't be built on

Yes it can. Greenbelt land is increasingly coming under pressure to meet higher housing targets. If Council's can't find suitable options for accommodating new housing on other sites, they are able to review their Greenbelt designations and take land out of the Greenbelt (the reverse is also true). In which case, it would be referred to greenfield (unless it had been built on before) and not Greenbelt.

Given that this site is allocated for residential development, there is little you can do to oppose the principle of the development, but you can still go through the detail.

mr_taffy_2

Where i live there is an application in now to build 336 houses and the road they want to use as accses is 4.8 meters wide and they are saying it is capable of taking the 1000 estimated cars that will eventualy usr the estate a day.
if a 4x4 and a car pass on the road there are a couple of inches to spare an arttic lorry would never pass if a car was parked on the road

ormus

like all these so called rules, they are very flexible. every local council will take a differing view. and depending on the site, year, developer, houses etc etc.

anyone who tells you the "regs" are written in stone, is a fool or lying.

spmc

LTA wrote: »

spmc thanks so much for taking the time to write that, it's much appreciated.

The section relating to traffic mentions that they have looked at the principles set out in Manual for Streets.

I have already downloaded it but it's taking a while to find the relevant section about road length (found road width diagram), it is quite hefty and I need to read it properly.

The road width is pretty much 4.8m, there is alot of on street parking. The estate as it is is only small, about 0.2 miles in a loop by a very rough google measurement.

The status at the moment is that it's greenfield but it has been deemed as suitable four housing in the Spatial Policy document.

This might seem a bizarre question but can greenbelt land be changed to greenfield? Some residents are sure when they moved in they were told it was greenbelt and couldn't be built on.

Will check flooding.

Many many thanks again.

LTA there is not a set distance over which say 4.8m is acceptable, it is subjective. If you have a road 4.8m wide that is fully parked up even on one side you will not get two cars passing which means that if two cars meet someone is going to have to reverse to find a location to pass. Reversing on the highway is to be discouraged for safety reasons but of course you will always get a level of reversing. Even with no parking two hgv's will not be able to pass so you then need to weigh up the liklihood of two hgv's meeting. The more houses the more likely it is.

On the other hand some roads that are generally 4.8m wide will have opportunities for vehicles to pass - such as at junctions - and as long as oncoming drivers can see each others vehicles and sensibly wait in passing places it is not necessarily a proble.

Manual for Streets seeks to avoid prescriptive road width requirements saying instead that designers need to demonstrate that safe vehicle movement is possible. You often now see roads of varying widths and the designers will have produced vehicle swept path plots (google autotrack) to demonstrate that safe vehicle movement is possible.

From the start of your post where you refer to traffic section am I right in thinking that the an application has now been submitted?

Has the Spatial Strategy been adopted yet or is it still being progressed?