School and housing developments tackling car dependency win Transport Planning Day Awards

• Sussex school initiative wins national Transport Planning Society’s People’s Award for giving new secondary school students the confidence to walk and cycle to school.
• Housing developments Bath Riverside in Somerset and Royal Arsenal Riverside in London win the first ever Transport for New Homes Award for efforts to avoid car dependency and promote walking, cycling and public transport.

Transport planning projects that help people live healthier and low carbon lifestyles have been recognised through two awards: The Transport Planning Society’s People’s Award and Transport for New Homes Award. 

The awards were given out on Transport Planning Day on 20 November, run by the Transport Planning Society, to highlight good practice in putting people at the heart of transport plans.

Seaford Head school in East Sussex won this year’s Transport Planning Society’s People’s Award.

The school involved Year 8 students, school governors and the walking charity Living Streets to develop maps of the easiest and safest routes to school.

Eleanor Togut, Project Coordinator, Living Streets, from the Seaford Active Travel Map project said:

“Often students starting secondary school have little experience of managing their own journeys. This contributes to a number of students getting dropped off by parents or carers as they go through secondary school. Older students, like those nominated for the People’s Award, can really help to build confidence in younger pupils to travel independently and sustainably.

“This group of enthusiastic pupils have worked really hard to produce this resource and I’m sure it’s going to help so many of their peers."

The People’s Award judges also praised as highly commended Plymouth’s Plymotion: Personalised Travel Planning scheme, which offers incentives and travel advice to encourage residents to try greener, cheaper and healthier ways of getting from A to B. ‘The Deepings Green Walk’ in Lincolnshire also received a highly commended award for their work, after being nominated by The Ramblers. The Green Walk aims to join up local facilities by providing safe, accessible and attractive footpaths.

Stephen Bennett, Chair of the Transport Planning Society, said:  
 
“Transport Planning Day is a great way for us to recognise that when good transport planning and strong community engagement combine, they deliver lasting benefits to society, including greener, cleaner and healthier places.

“Seaford Active Travel Maps has made a genuine contribution to improving children’s wellbeing on their journey to school and were a worthy winner of this year’s People’s Award.

Stephen Joseph OBE, transport policy expert and Chair of the judges of the People’s Award, said:

“We received entries from communities across the country, and each nomination demonstrated that their scheme had been developed with the community and had made a positive impact both to the local economy and to residents’ quality of life. This is incredibly important at a time when we must find practical ways to help people away from car dependency."

“We’re delighted to be able to recognise Seaford’s Active Travel Maps vision and all their hard work, from students, teachers and the charity Living Streets.” 

Chief Executive of the Royal Town Planning Institute, Victoria Hills, said:

“Planners play such an important early role in creating successful, sustainable places in urban and rural areas, linked to public transport and amenities.

“Transport planning day is an opportunity to celebrate their contributions across the country and I am delighted the People’s Award celebrates the important role that younger generations have to play in placemaking.”

The first ever Transport for New Homes Award was also announced on Transport Planning Day and jointly awarded to the Bath Riverside development in Somerset and Royal Arsenal Riverside development in Woolwich, London.

The award recognises recent housing developments that have been located and designed so that residents do not need cars to live a full life. From the submissions received it is clear that there are now a number of developments seeking to achieve this situation.

Bath Riverside, built by Crest Nicholson on the site of a disused gasworks in the centre of Bath, has contributed substantially to public transport improvements in the wider area and to new local pedestrian links. Every Bath Riverside household also receives a free one-month bus pass offer, as well as free car club membership and a £100 cycle voucher.

Royal Arsenal Riverside is a large regeneration project in Woolwich, south east London, being undertaken by Berkeley Homes (East Thames). Once completed it will have over 5,000 homes and the new Crossrail Woolwich station on site. The award recognises the efforts of the development to encourage walking and reduce the need to travel by car.

Judges also highly commended Poundbury, an urban extension to the Dorset county town of Dorchester, for creating a walkable and pleasant greenfield urban extension with a range of small and large shops, many community facilities and employment for over 2,000 people.

Lynda Addison OBE, a member of the Transport for New Homes Steering Group and a judge of the Award said:

"The housing we build today will determine our travel patterns for decades to come, impacting on climate change, air pollution, public health and social cohesion. 

“All too often we see new housing built around car use, but in Bath Riverside and Royal Arsenal Riverside real attention has been paid to walking, cycling and public transport, giving residents real travel choices and a good quality of life.

“All new developments should be located so that people have a choice as to how they travel, and provide good walking, cycling and public transport access to daily activities”

The winners were announced at the annual Transport Planning Day event, hosted by the Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE), which brought together transport planners and community groups for a discussion about good practice in community engagement in transport planning and sustainable transport initiatives.  

The Transport Planning Society run Transport Planning Day with support from Jacobs, AECOM, Mott MacDonald, Arup, WSP, Stantec and Steer.

ENDS.

Notes to editors:  
For further information about the Transport Planning Society and the People’s Award, please contact Jo Field at jo@jfgcomms.co.ukor 07788 131347. 

• For further information about Transport for New Homes Award, please contact Jess Fitch at info@transportfornewhomes.org.uk or 07761 263260.
• Images of Transport Planning Day and the winning and highly commended schemes are available on request. 
• The Transport Planning Society was launched in 1997 as the professional body for transport planners in the UK. With over 1,400 members and 34 corporate members, the Society promotes best practice in transport planning and gives guidance, training and support to the profession.  For further information is available at: org.uk

Background: Transport Planning Society’s People’s Award

• The Transport Planning Society’s People’s Award highlights good practice in sustainable and people-focused transport planning. It invited communities to nominate an initiative that has made a difference to their lives – an opportunity for people to tell the professionals what good looks like.
• The People’s Award judging panel was chaired by Stephen Joseph, former Chief Executive of Campaign for Better Transport. Other members of the judging panel included: Steve Quartermain CBE, Chief Planner at Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government; Tricia Hayes OBE, Director General for Roads, Places and Environment in the Department of Transport; and Mary Parsons, Group Director – Placemaking and Regeneration at Places for People.

Winner of People’s Award: Seaford Active Travel Maps

• Seaford Head School noticed year six students from their feeder schools lacked confidence or knowledge about their new journey to their secondary school, and about how to travel actively and independently.
• Conducting workshops with Living Streets, school governors and students, they developed maps of the easiest and safest routes to school – including safe places to cross roads and safer walking and cycling routes.
• A year eight group of students formed the ‘Travel Group’ and added significant milestones and markers to help younger students interpret the maps. Now in its second year a new travel group has been formed who gave tips and guidance to year six pupils for travelling to what would become their new school. This helps them to become safe, independent and active on their new school journey.

Highly commended for the People’s Award: The Deepings Green Walk (Market Deeping and Deepings St James, Lincolnshire)

• Through the neighbourhood plan the two Parish Councils – Market Deeping Town and Deeping St. James – have adopted the ‘Deepings Green Walk standard’ for all new developments. This means new footpaths are required to be ‘safe, accessible, attractive, and rationally linked to existing routes’.
• They also plan to create The Deepings Green Walk – a 15km circuit which aims to join up local facilities, housing and green spaces. Already having planted trees and completed a new footbridge over the river Welland and introduced traffic calming, the community are putting feet first in growing the town, supporting residents to leave the car at home.

Highly commended for the People’s Award: Plymotion (Plymouth)

• Plymotion offers incentives and travel advice to encourage Plymouth’s residents to try greener, cheaper and healthier ways of getting from A to B.
• Knocking on 2,943 doors in 2019, Plymotion’s travel advisors targeted residents of new builds – likely to be residents new to the city and not yet having formed their travel habits. Among the people they reached they saw an increase of cycling (13 per cent) and bus use (22 per cent).
• They also engaged 2,300 employees in 44 workplaces since 2017, offering advice, guidance and incentives for sustainable travel. In addition, working with job centres, they provided daily bus tickets to job seekers, helping 50 people to land jobs using the free bus pass.

Background: Transport for New Homes Award

• The first ever Transport for New Homes Award invited members of the public, professionals and developers to nominate recent UK developments of more than 500 homes that buck the trend of car-dependency. Projects nominated need to have the right location for sustainable transport links, attractive public transport, good walking and cycling routes in and out of the development, a pleasant public realm that isn’t dominated by car parking and shops and services close to hand.

Transport for New Homes Award winner: Bath Riverside

Architect: Masterplanning architect, Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios. Five other firms of architects designed individual phases

Planning Consultant: Savills

Transport Planning Consultant: WSP

Local Planning Authority: Bath and North East Somerset Council

• Bath Riverside is a development of apartments and some town houses built by Crest Nicholson on the site of a disused gasworks in the centre of Bath. Planned to comprise 2000+ homes, its density is sufficient to support local facilities and public transport. In fact, the development has contributed substantially to public transport improvements in the wider area and to new local pedestrian links. Located on the banks of the River Avon, it is well situated for walking to shops, entertainment, the railway station, bus station and bus stops.
• Car parking is limited, and the public realm is shaped around walking; good quality and direct pedestrian routes are located across the development.
• The development is also highly accessible via public transport, with local bus stops a few minutes’ walk away.
• A free one-month bus pass is on offer to every Bath Riverside household, as well as free car club membership and a £100 cycle voucher.

Transport for New Homes Award winner: Royal Arsenal Riverside

Architects: Allies and Morrison

Planning Consultants: Barton Willmore

Transport Planning Consultants: URS

Local Planning Authority: Royal Borough of Greenwich

• Royal Arsenal Riverside is a large regeneration project in Woolwich, south east London, being undertaken by Berkeley Homes (East Thames). It currently comprises 3,200 homes; once completed it will have over 5,000. The new Crossrail Woolwich station is being delivered on site.
• Woolwich Arsenal station is also nearby, as well as more than 10 different bus routes, and there is a Thames Clipper Pier at the centre of the site for a boat service into central London. There is a cycle route into central London along the riverfront and all homes have secure cycle parking.
• The central parts of the site are pedestrianised and all roads open to vehicles have safe pedestrian paths. Walking is encouraged by the peaceful public realm, which includes benches and green spaces. Car parking is hidden away in the basements of the buildings; there is no on-street parking with the exception of some disabled bays and car club spaces.

There are a number of electric car charging points publicly available on site.

The site includes many amenities such as cafes, pubs, food shops and sports and leisure facilities, and there are light industrial units to the east of the site which accommodate larger employers and local start-ups, all of which reduce the need to travel.