Presentation to take place in the meeting.
Minutes:
Scott Tompkins informed the committee that pre-election, all members were sent a draft design guide for them to consult on. The consultation was done with members, planning officers, borough/district councils and developers cross-county. The design guide was best practice in the industry and sets out the standards that the council has for developers when designing infrastructure, they want the Council to adopt. The guide was done to make Warwickshire’s standards and expectations clearer for developers.
Chris Simpson (Section Manager (Delivery Lead) Business & Capital Programme) stated that the new design guide superseded the 2001 ‘Warwickshire Guide’. The new guide has been developed over the last two years and includes the latest standards and best practice for street design, traffic calming, highway green infrastructure and historic environment. The guide will help save time and money for developers giving them a better opportunity to submit design plans that meet the standards with less need for iterative changes and elongated technical approval processes. This will also improve the relationships between the council and developers to add future development and make ensure Warwickshire is seen as a good place to do development and the Council is a good development partner. The guide encouraged pre-application meetings and highlighted which standards to use depending on the development’s location. Unlike some authorities, Warwickshire County Council maintained an active interest in managing development works and required that S278 works are full technically approved and supervised by the Council. All required financial funding from developers to the local authority was also included to ensure that the authority did not take any financial risks. Stakeholders that were involved in the consultation stage praised the guide. Once the current draft is finalised it will go through an approvals process with Cabinet. Further work was done on commuted sums (cash payment to the council from developers) to maintain the assets of the development for 10 years after it is built.
In response to Councillor Jenny Fradgley, Chris Simpson confirmed that the design guide ensured that cycling provision was required for developments.
Councillor Chilvers expressed concerns that cycling provisions were not mentioned earlier in the design guide and suggested having evidence-based schemes to introduce a modal shift. Chris Simpson agreed to alter the wording so cycling provisions were mentioned earlier in the guide. Following a supplementary from Councillor Chilvers, Chris Simpson confirmed that the new guide contained LTN120 cycling infrastructure design.
Following a question from Councillor Sinclair, Chris Simpson stated that the new design guide policy included appendices for the flexibility of schemes. Chris Simpson agreed that the guide should be reviewed every few years as it could save money in long term. Scott Tompkins added that the Department for Transport (DfT) was going to review the guidelines for roads and bridges so national changes will update the council’s guidance.
In response to Councillor Humphreys, Chris Simpson said that design standards must be met to keep things safe and the design guide being a policy gave it more weight.
Scott Tompkins added that the enhanced material policy ensured that the council had enough money to deal with development material issues and encouraged conversation between the authority and developers to ensure materials could be replaced.
In response to the Chair, Scott Tompkins confirmed that the planning authorities were involved in the consultation and development of the guide as well as frequent developers in the county.
The Chair praised the work done on the development guide.