Planning Issue
How Planning Applications Impact on Parking and Congestion in Tavistock
Planning applications received by West Devon Borough Council, the LPA (Local Planning Authority), have to take into consideration and negotiate the level of off-street parking provision provided by each new development application.
Tavistock Town Centre is where on-street parking and congestion is at worst. Therefore, it is imperative that that the LPA ensure that all new Town Centre development applications maximise off-street parking spaces so that the problem is not exacerbated.
For some considerable time now, the LPA has allowed planning applications which provide only 50% off-street parking. This has resulted in the remaining 50% of parking shortfall being forced to use the already overstretched on-street parking spaces, resulting in a serious displacement impact on other vehicles within the Town Centre residential areas and further compounding the general Town Centre parking congestion.
Devon County Council’s highway department is the statutory body which advises the LPA on highway issues. Advice is offered, but it is the Local Planning Authority (West Devon Borough Council) which decides whether or not the Highways Authority advice is accepted, and included within the planning documents.
Recently, the Planning Inspectorate, in reviewing an appeal
for the refusal of development for the site at the rear of Brook Street,
Tavistock, made a dubious response in his Appeal Report regarding traffic
issues. The Planning Inspector’s ruling confirmed that this particular Town
Centre application for flats had no provision for any off-street parking and
also agreed that this off-street parking shortfall would have a negative affect,
not only on the local residents parking in the area, but also on shoppers
parking and visitors to Tavistock. Having identified this negative affect on
parking, the Inspector then stated that the off-street parking shortfall would,
in the long term, be overcome by future provisions of adequate public transport.
This is a typical example of impractical Central Government urban based
transport policy being inflexibly applied to a rural area.
Latterly, when deliberating any Town Centre development applications which fail to provide adequate off-street parking, both the LPA and the County Highways Authority consistently refer back to the contradicting statements included in the Inspectorate’s Appeal Statement for the Brook Street appeal and appear reluctant to challenge the ruling. As a result, both the LPA and County Highways are seen to be supporting the inadequate provision of off-street car parking spaces associated with town centre residential developments and only contributing to the issue of parking difficulties and congestion in Tavistock Town Centre.
However, the LPA have made exceptions and the following example demonstrate their inconsistency. The planning application in Bannawell Street to build multiple flats originally included a low level of on-site parking spaces. Given the existing problems in that area with the lack of on street parking and continuous congestion, the highways authority challenged the poor parking provision included in the development. Resultantly, the application was then withdrawn and re-submitted, this time providing for 100% on-site parking in line with the County Highways Authority recommendation. Later, a further application submitted for the same site again included for the provision of 100% on-site parking.
We all recognise that in providing fewer on-site parking spaces allows developers to increase the number of residential units for the site and, therefore, provides them with a better financial return from their development. What LPA officers should recognise is that, by failing to robustly challenge the provision of more on-site parking spaces, they are ultimately contributing to the additional cost to the community which has to deal with the increased parking difficulties and congestion which is directly attributable to the decisions made by the LPA.
Councillor Roy Connelly
