Transport and connectivity

Vision

The updated NPPF (2021) specifies that transport issues should be considered at the earliest stages of plan-making to ensure that opportunities to achieve sustainable modes of travel are achieved and that developments be focused in locations which are/or can be made sustainable through limited the need to travel and offering a genuine choice of transport modes.

The Best City Ambition is our overall vision for the future of Leeds focussed on improving outcomes across the 3 pillars of health and wellbeing, inclusive growth and zero carbon. As part of this, LLP 2040 will need to focus on:

1. Health and Wellbeing: ensuring development is located in accessible locations that enable walking and cycling to be the first choice for shortest journeys, and helps reduce the negative impacts of transport on local communities
2. Inclusive Growth: to help break the link between poverty and inequality by ensuring everyone has good access to jobs, services and facilities, and that the benefits of economic growth are distributed fairly across the city, creating opportunities for all.,
3. Zero Carbon: to deliver a low carbon and affordable transport network which encourages people to be physically active and reduces reliance on the private car, helping people get around the city easily and safely.

Connecting Leeds is the council's Transport Strategy, and sets out a vision to create a city where you don't need a car and where everyone has access to an affordable and accessible choice in how they travel.

West Yorkshire Combined Authority Transport Strategy 2040 seeks to provide modern, world-class, well-connected transport that makes travel around West Yorkshire easy and reliable. This involves creating a transport network that supports inclusive growth, serves the needs of businesses and people and enhances prosperity, health and wellbeing for people and places across West Yorkshire.

Current policy and issues

Transport and accessibility are currently addressed through a range of policies within the Core Strategy and UDP. This includes Spatial Policies 11 and 12, which set strategic level requirements in relation to Transport Infrastructure Investment Priorities and Managing the Growth of Leeds Bradford Airport, and T1 and T2 which provide more detail in relation to transport management priorities and accessibility requirements.

The accessibility standards in the Core Strategy are based on requirements of the former Regional Spatial Strategy. There is a need to review these, particularly in light of any proposed amendments to the Spatial Strategy, to ensure that a consistent approach is taken to determining whether or not a development is suitably accessible.

The Local Plan Update proposes a new policy that provides strategic level support for the development of Mass Transit in Leeds. As the routes for the mass transit scheme haven't yet been decided, it wasn't possible to safeguard them as part of the Local Plan Update, thought it is recognised that additional planning policy will be needed to do this in the future.

The Core Strategy sets out Transport Infrastructure Investment Priorities. There may be a need to review these and consider whether they align with current local priorities and whether we need to explore any additional priorities to support growth over the period 2022-2040.

There have been previous commitments to review the policy approach to Leeds Bradford Airport, however, a number of factors affect the appropriateness of this being included in LPU1. Consideration will need to be made of whether this should form part of LLP 2040.

LLP 2040 will also need to grapple with the issues and opportunities that have emerged in recent years such as the Covid-19 pandemic and the Council's declaration of a climate emergency in March 2019, and the implications that this might have for planning policy on transport related matters. The Covid-19 pandemic changed the way we work and the way we travel and, as of yet, it is unsure whether these changes are temporary or permanent. Since the adoption of the Core Strategy there have been many updates to wider transport policy which many priorities for transport investment shifting towards a greater focus on decarbonisation. Some of the projects identified in policy have also been completed and/or no longer being progressed, while other projects or priorities have emerged.

What might new policy do to address this?

In developing any new policy relating to transport and connectivity, it will be important to recognise the limits to what the planning system is able to control and influence, and what measures can be taken through wider transport policy work (such as the Connecting Leeds Transport Strategy). Any other opportunities to support transport planning objectives through spatial planning (and specifically LLP 2040) will need to be explored as part of the plan preparation process.

There will be a need to consider how accessibility standards used to assess planning applications align with the accessibility sought through the Best Council Ambition and any revisions made through LLP 2040 to the spatial strategy. This may present an opportunity to review the definition of "accessibility" and how this relates to related concepts such as "connectivity", and how they relate to different mobility needs.

LLP 2040 could explore other ways that planning policy can be used to support patterns of land use to facilitate shorter, regular trips for active travel. Related to this, LLP 2040 could also explore ways to encourage more sustainable methods of travel by supporting local transport hubs served by public transport networks and connected to active travel paths. As part of this, consideration could also be made of whether the planning system has a role in enabling these hubs to support local 'last-mile' delivery services.

The Council wishes to reduce car dependency in Leeds. As part of this, LLP 2040 could explore the introduction of a road hierarchy into planning policy that would establish a precedent that private vehicle travel is at the bottom of the Council's priorities. Further, in order to measure an overall reduction in car travel and the success of this policy consideration could be made of whether it would be useful to include percentage targets linked to this.

Car parking standards are currently set out in the Transport SPD. One of the main aims of our transport initiatives is to reduce car dependency in Leeds and to reimagine the city as one that isn't dominated by cars. LLP 2040 could look again at parking standards, and consider if they need to be updated and/or the circumstances in which car-free development might be appropriate. The need for any additional park and ride facilities could also be reviewed, and addressed through planning policy where necessary.

LLP 2040 will need to review the transport infrastructure investment priorities over the 2022-2040 plan period. As part of this, ways to ensure that identified priorities are in the Plan remain up-to-date across the plan period could be explored. For example, could a policy be overarching and linked to a separate list of priorities with details of how will be delivered?

In relation to Mass Transit, there is potential that LLP 2040 could seek to safeguard specific routes for a mass transit network (building on the strategic level support provided by the proposed policy in LPU1). The opportunity to include this within LLP 2040 will depend on WYCAs timescales for progressing the Mass Transit proposals aligning with the LLP 2040 timetable. If the two do not align, route safeguarding may need to come through a later Local Plan Update (or separate, bespoke DPD). There is also potential that WYCA may look to coordinate a joint DPD on mass transit safeguarding across all of the relevant authorities, which would also mean that it would not need to be progressed as part of LLP 2040.

LLP 2040 could also look to introduce new policy relating to Leeds Bradford Airport. As noted above, a range of external forces affected the appropriateness of this being progressed as part of LPU1, including the withdrawal of the 2020 planning application, extant planning permission and discharge of conditions associated with the extant planning permission for the airport, a continued gap in national policy, and the efficacy of existing Policy SP12 and all other relevant material considerations to consider any future planning applications. If there was a significant change in circumstances this could potentially be addressed through LLP 2040.

What do we need to get there?

Significant new evidence on the accessibility of places within Leeds, and the extent to which they function as '20-minute neighbourhoods' has been developed. This has informed new policy proposed through LPU1, and further analysis of this work is needed to consider how it could potentially inform revised definitions of accessibility and connectivity through LLP 2040. This will need to be closely aligned to the review of the Spatial Strategy, and wider transport policy work.

Research on potential alternative approaches to assessing accessibility and connectivity through the planning process also needs to be undertaken. As part of this consideration will need to be made of how applicable any alternatives might be to the Leeds context, and any resource implications associated with getting any new tools required into place.

Have your say

The consultation runs for 6 weeks from Friday 10 February until Friday 24 March 2023.