ODPM letter to local planning authorities

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Planning Letter

Chief Planning Officers
Local Planning Authorities in England

Joan Bailey
Divisional Manager
Planning Policies Division
Zone 4/H5
Eland House
Bressenden Place
LONDON
SW1E 5DU

15 September 2004

Accessibility Planning

I am writing to draw your attention to draft guidance issued on 30 July by the Department for Transport on a new process, accessibility planning, which local transport authorities are expected to incorporate within their second round of local transport plans. Further details can be found on the accessibility planning website (www.accessibilityplanning.gov.uk). Local transport plans are expected to be drawn up primarily by transport planners working together with colleagues in other disciplines. The ODPM will in due course revise national planning policy guidance to ensure that social exclusion and accessibility considerations are integrated into future planning policy. The purpose of this letter is to encourage land use planners to take the opportunity to work with transport planners in this key process.

Improving public services, creating access to new opportunities and enabling individuals and communities to realise their potential are at the heart of this Government's ambitions. This includes making sure everyone in society can get to work, enjoy good schools, access quality health care and affordable healthy food, and live in a safe environment.

The Social Exclusion Unit's report Making the Connections, published in February 2003, laid out the relationship between transport, social exclusion and the location of jobs and key services. It also formed a cross-Government strategy for reducing social exclusion by improving access to jobs and services. Further information about the report is attached.

Accessibility planning, the cornerstone of the SEU report, aims to ensure that there is a clearer and more systematic approach for identifying and tackling barriers that people, particularly those from disadvantaged groups and areas, face in accessing jobs and key services (health care, education and food shops). It is not just about improving transport but also about ensuring that jobs and services are delivered where and when they are needed.

As highlighted in Planning Policy Guidance note 13, local planning authorities have an important role to play in promoting accessibility as the location of jobs and services have as significant an impact on accessibility as transport provision. By shaping the pattern of development and influencing the location, scale, density, design and mix of land uses, planning can help to reduce the need to travel, reduce the length of journeys and make it safer and easier for people to access jobs, shopping, leisure facilities and services by public transport, walking, and cycling.

At a local level, the local development frameworks will play a key role in highlighting where there are gaps in local service provision, identifying sites that are highly accessible by public transport and directing development to these areas.

Planning Policy Statement 12 (issued 7 September 2004) emphasises that the integration of transport and spatial planning is central to the development and delivery of effective local development frameworks. Local transport policies need to reflect and support the aims of the core strategy development plan document. Land use planning, in turn, needs to take account of the existing transport network and plans for its development. Accessibility planning is no exception, and I would therefore encourage you to work with your colleagues in the local transport authorities to develop clear policies and strategies on accessibility planning for your area.

Mrs J M Bailey

SEU Report: Making the Connections

The problems connected with poor accessibility represent huge costs for individuals, communities and the state. These are highlighted in the headline statistics from "Making the Connections" -

  • 40% of job seekers say transport is a problem.
  • ½ of 16-18 year olds in education find their transport costs hard to meet.
  • During the course of a year 1.4 million people will either miss, turn down or not even seek hospital appointments because of problems with transport.
  • Children from the lowest social group are five times more likely to die in road accidents than those in the highest.

For all too many people, problems like these are still part and parcel of everyday life. Solving them has the potential to open up enormous opportunities. If we don't do more, people and whole communities can be trapped in a spiral of social exclusion.

There are a number of factors that limit people's accessibility but one of the most significant is the location of services.

Services and activities located in inaccessible places: Developments including housing, hospitals, business and retail are often located in areas not easily accessible to people without a car. Between 1986 and 1997, the number of out-of-town shopping centres increased four-fold. (Extract from 'Making the Connections').

The cornerstone of the report, Accessibility Planning, combined with the other cross-government policy changes set out in the report will go some way to help address these inequalities.

Overview of the Process

Accessibility planning aims to ensure that there is a clearer, more systematic approach to identifying and tackling the barriers that prevent people, especially those from disadvantaged areas, accessing the jobs and key services that they need. By being based on a partnership approach, with partners active at all stages of the process, accessibility planning will be able to consider a wider range of solutions to accessibility problems than just transport, and so be more effective.

Accessibility planning is likely to be made up of a five-stage process, comprising:

  • A strategic accessibility assessment at the unitary, county or metropolitan level;
  • Local accessibility assessments, focussed on priority areas, groups and issues identified in the strategic assessment;
  • Appraisal of options to address these priorities;
  • The development of joint-accessibility action plans; and
  • The monitoring and evaluation of those action plans.

Accessibility planning is designed to improve the development of policies and service delivery to meet the needs of local communities. Making the Connections makes it clear that poor accessibility has significant impacts on the life opportunities of those in disadvantaged groups and areas, and that improving accessibility can help to contribute to meeting a range of sectors aims and objectives. Improving accessibility is not just about transport as the location, design and delivery of services have a significant impact on people's ability to access services. Siting key services such as schools, hospitals and employment areas on the outskirts of towns away from public transport links can hamper people's ability to access them. Furthermore, the timing of services can also affect whether people are able to make use of them even when there is adequate public transport.

The strategic assessment

Local transport authorities will undertake a strategic accessibility assessment of their Local Transport Plan area. This assessment should include a strategic mapping audit and its consideration alongside existing information that local transport authorities and partners might have.

Local transport authorities are likely to produce theme-specific accessibility maps i.e. maps of accessibility for the destinations identified as having the greatest impacts on life opportunities in the SEU report (work, healthcare, learning and food shops) as well as other destinations that are of particular local significance (e.g. places of worship, leisure facilities etc).

A theme-specific accessibility meeting to consider the results of the accessibility mapping and how accessibility impacts upon the various sectors will then follow. These will consider strategically where action is needed to improve accessibility and to meet the needs, aims and objectives of each sector.

Accessibility planning seeks to utilise existing partnership arrangements so if there is an existing body that would be appropriate for the consideration of these theme specific accessibility issues this should be used.

These maps are likely to take the form of:

  • maps showing bus routes and other transport infrastructure;
  • maps showing the geographical distribution of accessibility to various services, e.g. local hospital, schools etc;
  • core or local accessibility indicators ranked by wards.

The local transport authorities will provide these maps but mapping exercises have their limitations and do not necessarily give a complete picture of accessibility. It is important that they receive as much information as possible to ensure that resulting strategies will meet key local planning policies. This information is likely to include:

  • What are the main accessibility challenges in the field?
  • What are the problems and opportunities related to accessibility from current policies, projects and initiatives?
  • Where are areas of uncertainty where new work is needed?

Using these maps and information will enable authorities and to identify and prioritise the issues and areas that will be addressed in the accessibility strategy. It is likely that this prioritisation will target action where deprivation is substantial, or target groups are located, and accessibility to particular services and locations is poor.