TIP03: Residential Car Parking

Community consultation revealed an average of 1.77 cars per household, which is believed to be an underestimate, and it is stated that 'For these reasons parking provision should be at least as generous as Policy DP19 of the CBC Development Policies'. Therefore only demanding parking provisions meet the minimum standard for residential areas of 1 car parking space for each 1-bedroom dwelling would likely be insufficient and increase the demand for street parking, of which there is already a lack in the residential areas of the village outskirts where these new housing sites are proposed.

This policy is supported, as it recognises the role private cars have in enabling access to employment and everyday services, and the subsequent need to ensure that sufficient off-street parking is provided in new developments.

We welcome the removal of the previous requirement for every space to be able to accommodate a ‘transit’ style van. However, our previous concerns about the policy requiring excessive parking requirements remain.

Essex County Council’s parking standards introduced in 2009 provide a well-tested approach across Essex and are used within Colchester and replicated in adopted policy. The NP seeks to deviate away from these, requiring a higher level of parking.

The evidence for this appears to be that within Tiptree there is an average of 1.77 cars per household, based on community consultation, which is higher than the average of 1.34 in the Department of Transport data from 2015/16, and higher than an average of 1.54 cars in Tiptree in the 2011 census.

However, there was only a 24% response rate to the community consultation referenced, which does not represent the majority of Tiptree. The average figure could, therefore, significantly vary from this. With the Department of Transport data quoted being from 2015/16, it is unclear whether Tiptree does actually have a higher level of car ownership per household than the East of England or not, so we do not consider that this represents sufficient evidence for increasing the parking provision.

Requiring a greater amount of parking could result in a very urban character to sites which are visually dominated by car parking and the associated hardstanding, contrary to the vision of the NP seeking to ‘retain an attractive village feel to Tiptree’ and objective 1. It would be likely to encourage the provision of parking on-street, in large parking courts and on large driveways which would reduce space for front gardens and planting.

Furthermore, the excess of parking could encourage future residents to own a greater number of cars, contrary to the promotion of sustainable development as required by the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF). There is a fine balance between providing appropriate parking spaces to manage the impact of cars on a scheme, but also not encouraging car usage so much so that it discourages residents from using the public transport, walking and cycling opportunities available to them. The above raises concerns that Policy TIP03 does not meet the basic conditions of contributing towards achieving sustainable development and being in general conformity with the strategic policies.

We also have concerns over Policy TIP03 discouraging the provision of garages. The evidence for this appears to be a statement that ‘they are often not used for car parking’, with no evidence to support this assertion.

Garages can provide a well-designed parking space and additional storage, including for bicycles. The Essex Parking Standards recognise that cars have typically become larger than they were historically and that people do also use garages for storage, with garages required to be a minimum of 7x3m to be counted as a parking space. This is considered sufficient to park a modern car and for some storage, including for bicycles.

The NP completely disregards this and simply discourages the provision of garages. This will lead to additional hardstanding being required, alongside further structures to store bicycles and so on, which could otherwise be within a garage. The Neighbourhood Plan should consider the implications of such restrictions given that it would likely encourage the introduction of excessive external storage and visually disruptive domestic paraphernalia that would in normal circumstances be stored within a garage. It may also discourage the ownership of bicycles if storage is not easily available.

Combined with the increased parking requirements, there are concerns that this will result in developments dominated by cars, rather than being well designed places that encourage sustainable transport measures, contrary to adopted strategic policies, the NPPF and the basic conditions.

To overcome these concerns, we recommend Policy TIP03 is revised to require parking in accordance with the Essex Parking Standards and to remove the discouragement of garages. These changes would result in a policy in accordance with strategic policies that would contribute towards the achievement of sustainable development.