Policy information sourced from the Barking & Dagenham Local Plan

DMT 1 Making better connected neighbourhoods

1.

Strategic and major development proposals should be located where employment, housing and supporting facilities and services are within easy reach of each other by sustainable modes, reducing the need to travel and ensuring people are connected to places by, and with, high-quality, safe and attractive cycling and walking routes, both new and existing.

2.

Active travel routes, which support walking and cycling, should connect to areas of Green and Blue Infrastructure as well as transport hubs around the borough, where possible. Walking routes must be suitable for wheelchairs, pushchairs and other users with limited mobility and must include places to stop and rest, with suitable and sufficient safe crossing points, where required, to reduce severance.

3.

All proposals for new walking and cycling measures should be developed with an explicit under standing of how they promote use by women, children, elderly people, families, people from different ethnic backgrounds, and other people with protected characteristics as set out in the Equality Act.

4.

Cycle routes should, where possible, be fully protected from road transport and walkways, following the best current design guidance (currently LTN 1/20 and LCDS). Routes should be attractive for users of all ages, and be designed for both leisure and commuter travel.

5.

Active travel infrastructure proposals should demonstrate how they meet the Mayor’s Healthy Streets approach in line with TfL’s guidance 59. Emerging schemes in the borough include: the Heathway Regeneration and Valence Avenue Healthy Streets, High Road Proposals, and Thames Road Regeneration.

6.

Expanding the School Streets Programme will be considered in areas with low active travel to school mode shares.

Assessing Development Proposals

7.

Development proposals should seek to reduce the dominance of vehicles on London’s streets whether stationary or moving, in line with the Mayor’s Transport Strategy.

8.

Any development which is likely to have a significant impact on the borough’s transport network will be required to submit a robust Transport Assessment (TA) or Transport Statement (TS) and a Travel Plan 60, in accordance with Policy T4 of the London Plan 2021: assessing and mitigating transport impacts.

9.

TA/TSs should be submitted with the development proposals outlined and ensure that any potential capacity effects on the transport network (including the walking and cycling network, public transport and road network) are fully assessed, in line with available best practice guidance for London. TAs / TSs should demonstrate how they accord with the Mayor’s ‘Healthy Streets’ approach.

10.

Developments likely to generate significant amounts of movement should be supported by a Travel Plan (TP) as part of a planning application so that it can be considered in parallel to development proposals and readily integrated into the design and occupation of the new site, rather than retrofitted after occupation. TPs should include clear, measurable targets with a key focus on ongoing monitoring and evaluation of its effectiveness.

11.

Applicants should also ensure they engage early with relevant stakeholders, including the borough, in order to establish the likely transport impacts and agree the assessment parameters and appropriate mitigation measures.

12.

All developments will be required to demonstrate how they contribute to promoting sustainable modes of travel and limiting car use, particularly for short, local journeys.

13.

Any development that will have an adverse impact on the highway and transpor tation network (for example, demonstrable disbenefits on congestion, safety, air quality and noise), as well as the operation of public transport (including crowding levels and journey times) will be required to contribute and deliver appropriate transport infrastructure or effective mitigation measures, including a reduction in vehicular parking spaces (in line with the London Plan 2021).

14.

Where appropriate, conditions will be imposed or planning obligations secured through a Section 106 or S278 agreement. CIL contributions will also be expected, where appropriate, to fund larger schemes of a wider benefit such as improving the A13.

15.

Developments in transformation areas as denoted by the Local Plan will be expected to contribute towards delivering the spatial strategies developed for that specific area, for instance the Barking Town Centre Movement Strategy.

16.

Strategic developments should provide bus access and safeguard the land required for bus standing, which is vital for ensuring new services are operable. Developments should also design and implement new junctions and road connections to allow buses to travel through the site. The borough will also seek cycle facilities and local cycle routes to be provided within individual development sites to form a series of routes which would integrate locally into the borough and National Cycle Network (NCN). This will improve the borough’s permeability, removing severance by connecting people with places and helping to create one cohesive transport network through sustainable movement.

17.

Development proposals will be required to include the installation of electric vehicle charging points and supporting infrastructure, in line with the London Plan 2021 Policy T6: car parking, Policy T6.1: residential parking, T6.2: office parking, T6.3: retail parking and T6.4 hotel and leisure parking.