Policy information sourced from Lambeth Local Plan 2020-2035.

T7: Servicing

The council will apply London Plan policy T7 to promote sustainable freight and servicing.

New development, and in particular non-residential and mixed-use development, will only be permitted where adequate provision is made for servicing appropriate to the scale, form and location of the proposed development, including provision for commercial vehicles, ensuring that it is appropriate and acceptable in terms of impact on amenity of adjacent properties and road and traffic conditions of the location. Off-site consolidation to reduce the number of deliveries should be considered for larger developments or where access to the site is constrained, while smaller developments should also include consolidation strategies such as common and local procurement. Innovative local delivery and last mile logistics approaches should also be considered to further reduce traffic impacts and emissions, and minimise potential conflict with vulnerable road users.

Servicing should take place off-street within the development site. Where evidence is presented that this is not possible and it is demonstrated that servicing can take place from the public highway the council will seek planning obligations in the form of a commuted sum, considering both the cost of implementation and maintenance of any loading bay, as well as the opportunity cost of lost kerbside space, for example in terms of parking revenues. The approach to calculating commuted sums is set out in Annex 9.

Planning applications for developments where the delivery/servicing requirements are of a nature where the type or number of trips generated is considered to be likely to have a significant impact on the adjoining public highway should be supported by a delivery and servicing plan.

Planning applications for major development, and other development where construction related activities may lead to a significant impact on the surrounding public highway, should include a construction logistics plan or a construction management plan that is appropriate to the scale of the development demonstrating arrangements for construction traffic and how environmental, traffic and amenity impacts will be minimised.

Developers and their contractors will be expected to adhere to the Construction Logistics and Community Safety (CLOCS) standard and be registered through the Fleet Operator Recognition Scheme (FORS) or equivalent. They will be required to demonstrate in a construction logistics plan that they have considered the impacts of other construction activities in the vicinity of the site and where appropriate have coordinated construction activities with the developers and/or contractors of adjoining sites.

24-hour servicing operations should be considered where appropriate to encourage and support out-of-peak deliveries in order to reduce motor traffic and road danger, minimising the impact of servicing at the busiest times, particularly in areas of high footfall. In these cases quiet delivery agreements should be considered.

New development should make use of existing consolidation and distribution facilities in order to minimise the number of trips required to service the site. Smart or joint procurement measures should be considered to reduce the numbers of deliveries and servicing trips as should the use of micro-consolidation centres. New micro-consolidation centres should be provided within developments where appropriate. The council will also support applications for new standalone micro-consolidation centres within the borough.

Zero emissions vehicles should be used for servicing wherever possible and consolidated deliveries are expected to be of this type. Servicing by cycle and other non-motor vehicular modes should be used wherever possible. Any on-street loading bay required for a development should be supplied with an electric vehicle rapid charge point to allow zero emissions vehicles to operate from the bay.

Planning obligations will be used to help secure and enforce appropriate arrangements.

For more information please see the Local Plan