Decision details

Following consideration of the officer report and appendices and discussion, the Executive agreed:

1.     To endorse and adopt the following set of guiding principles to inform the development of statutory policies and Somerset Council overall approach to transport planning and development planning challenges and opportunities: 

a.     Reducing carbon emissions will be the key priority for the transport and development plans including adoption of a transport decarbonisation pathway. 

b.     We will adopt a holistic approach to policy and strategy development, working beyond just transport.  We will ensure that all our policies are rural-proofed and will continue to build relationships with public health, education services, adults and children’s social care and others within the organisation to deliver co-benefits.

c.     We will adopt a vision-led 'decide and provide' or 'vision and validate' approach to new development whereby a strong vision for great places to live with a reduced need to travel is agreed. This will involve co-locating housing and other facilities to create neighbourhoods where the natural first choice is to walk or cycle to access work, education, learning and healthcare etc.

d.     We will endorse the vision led approach to street and highway design as part of wider high quality placemaking; and agree the vision and principles as set out in Appendix A for consultation with key stakeholders.  Having taken into account comments received authority is given to the Service Directors in conjunction with the Executive Lead Members to adopt the vision and principles as a material planning consideration for the preparation of masterplans, pre-application advice, assessing planning applications and any other development management purposes.

e.     Subject to detailed analysis, priority policy interventions will be related to reducing the need to travel and promoting sustainable travel (active travel for shorter distances, e-bikes and micro mobility for slightly longer distances, shared transport, bus, demand responsive transport, and rail for longer distances; and policy interventions such as parking management that aim to reduce demand for travel by private car). 

f.      We will expect developers to provide high quality active travel and public transport networks within and accessing new development areas, to ensure new development does not create significant additional congestion, rather than creating additional highway capacity for private car traffic. We will expect developers to implement high-quality sustainable travel plans which include a wide range of measures and incentives to enable active travel. 

g.     Increasing highway capacity will only be considered as a last resort and in exceptional circumstances. We will continue to complete highway capacity improvements that are already in the pipeline as funded schemes but it is likely that we will not be seeking Government funding for improvements that increase capacity for private car travel beyond the current pipeline. 

h.     We will build on the successful community -led approach to constructing rural multi-user paths between settlements and will co-develop a proposed network for community-based delivery. We will also consider how to create an improved environment for pedestrian movement in more semi-urban, rural locations where the environment can be dominated by high-speed traffic.

i.      We will aim to secure a devolved Government funding package to implement an ambitious sustainable transport programme, building on our current success with Bus Service Improvement Plan funding and Active Travel funding.

j.      We will oversee delivery of a comprehensive charging network for electric vehicles and will appoint a private sector delivery partner to ensure that public funding is only used where necessary to address market failure in a similar way to that adopted for Broadband rollout.  EV recommendations are set out in Appendix B. 

k.     The Council's own vehicles up to and including 3.1 tonnes GVW and those of our contractors will be electric vehicles as soon as this can be realistically, and cost effectively achieved; and we will consider alternative fuels for larger vehicles at the earliest opportunity in line with the evolution of emerging technology. 

l.      We will work with bus operators to agree the most appropriate alternative fuels pathway for public transport operations and support them in implementing this.

m.   We will develop a new policy seeking greater consistency in highway lighting, creating a default preference for part-night lighting, dimming and user activated lighting. 

n.     We will examine the implications of incorporating explicit requirements for carbon reduction and reduced travel across all the Council's services, including carbon reduction targets within our contracts with suppliers, with a view to implementing changes to our procedures at the earliest opportunity. 

2.     To consult key stakeholders on the Vison and Principles to Placemaking; 

3.     And taking all feedback received into account, the Executive agreed to delegate to the Service Directors for Infrastructure & Transport, and Economy, Employment & Planning in consultation with the Lead Members for Transport & Digital and Economic Development, Planning and Assets the adoption of the Vison and Principles to Placemaking as a material planning consideration.