TPS prepared a Transport Assessment and Travel Plan on behalf of Niven Family Estate in support of an outline planning application for 455 dwellings at Newhouse Farm, Carlisle. The site was allocated for up to 509 dwellings in the adopted Carlisle Local Plan; with vehicular access to the development to be provided via two simple priority junctions from Orton Road.
Our Transport Assessment successfully demonstrated the sustainability and accessibility of the site, identifying opportunities for walking, cycling and public transport. It outlined proposed enhancements to pedestrian infrastructure on Orton Road including new and extended footways and a dropped crossing, that will improve connectivity with the city centre.
When preparing the Transport Assessment, we worked closely with the County Council to utilise the outputs from its established SATURN model, developed to test the impact of the local plan proposals on the road network within Carlisle. The modelling outputs further assisted with the definition of the scope of the Transport Assessment and, particularly, those junctions that required more detailed operational assessment.
Assessments of the operation of the operation of the site access junctions were undertaken to ensure their operation at the opening of the development and in to the future. Equally, employing LINSIG and Junctions8 software we determined the likely impacts on junction capacity at a series of junctions within the city. Through assessment we demonstrated that the proposals would not result in an adverse or severe traffic impact. We could conclude, therefore, that there were no highways or transport related reasons why the residential development should not be granted planning approval.
The Travel Plan for the development provided a comprehensive package of measures aimed at encouraging sustainable modes of travel amongst future residents of the development. In preparing the Travel Plan, we drew upon our wide-ranging experiences of Travel Plan implementation (specifically in the local area) to ensure that the measures proposed, targets set and identified monitoring mechanisms were those most appropriate to the setting.