brentwood.gov.uk

Whilst from a sustainable transport perspective it is a positive to see the reduction of car parking spaces through development of the car parks, ECC seek clarification on the balance to be achieved between providing residential development in the town centres, on sites currently providing car parking facilities, and the need to ensure local retail and leisure sector businesses continue to thrive and are provided with suitable facilities.

Many of the sites are reasonably well located and accessible, however it will still be important to ensure that additional passenger transport facilities and service funding is secured to enable the existing routes to be enhanced, in terms of frequency, quality and coverage/connectivity. Some of the more important ones are listed below. 

The Draft Plan is light with regard to the specification of improved infrastructure to facilitate sustainable modes of accessibility throughout the Borough. There should be stated aspirations of infrastructure needs specified in the Draft Plan, to be addressed as and when opportunities arise.

There should also be enhanced arrangements to facilitate bus access at Brentwood Station (The Parade) and Shenfield Station.

Paragraph 67 - It is good to note the stated intention of the Council is to 'see an integrated and comprehensive approach to development' - this stance will certainly be beneficial when the LPA is considering the potential sustainable transport solutions necessary to serve its planned developments. It is likely that the Council will need to consider the cumulative impacts of adjacent / aligned developments, in order to ensure that through the pooling of contributions from sites, assurances can be obtained that sufficient pump priming funding can be provided to enable bus services at a suitably attractive level of frequency and quality can be procured for a sufficiently long bedding in period - thus containing the impact of developments on the local highway network.