Developers are to follow a revised set of guidelines when considering parking provisions for new developments.
On Tuesday, 18 October, the cabinet at Oxfordshire County Council approved an updated guide for parking standards for new developments.
It means developers will need to work collaboratively with the council to help achieve the targets set in the Local Transport and Connectivity Plan (LTCP), which was adopted earlier this year.
The LTCP aims to create a net zero transport system in Oxfordshire by 2040, improving health and wellbeing, tackling the climate emergency, reducing private vehicle use, and prioritising walking, cycling, and public transport.
The new parking standards document will be used to help determine the level of parking at new developments and provides the basis for the council’s advice to local planning authorities on the soundness of their policies.
It can also be a mechanism for improving the levels of cycle parking in areas that will benefit from the popularity of cycling for leisure and commuting purposes.
Councillor Duncan Enright, Oxfordshire County Council’s Cabinet Member for Travel and Development Strategy, said: “We know that in the future, people are going to use cars less frequently. Our new standards place much more emphasis on cycles, shared car clubs, and public transport than on multiple cars per household.
“Striking the right balance by providing an appropriate level and type of parking while also protecting highway safety for all users and promoting active and sustainable transport modes is essential. We also need to be aware of the viability of new developments for developers and people who will live there.”
Councillor Enright, alongside Councillor Andrew Gant, Cabinet Member for Highways management, and Councillor Pete Sudbury, Cabinet Member for Climate Change and Environment, will review issues raised by the scrutiny committee and bring an update back to cabinet before the end of the year.
The LTCP is a wide-ranging document with 54 policies and aims to provide the backbone for the council’s commitment to invest in an inclusive, integrated and sustainable transport network for the county.
It looks at ways of reducing the need to travel and discouraging unnecessary individual private vehicle use by making walking, cycling, public and shared transport the natural first choice. Its aims include reducing the number of car journeys in the county by more than half by 2040.
Last month, the council’s cabinet approved new requirements for transport planning based on the principle of ‘decide and provide’ rather than ‘predict and provide’, which will also help achieve the aims of the LTCP.
