Scottish Government

THE EFFECT OF MAXIMUM CAR PARKING STANDARDS INCLUDING INWARD INVESTMENT IMPLICATIONS

2 BACKGROUND CONTEXT

2.1 BACKGROUND

2.1.1 Guidance on transport and planning emphasises the importance of maximising access to new developments by means other than the private car, including walking and cycling. Part of this involves development plans allocating sites for significant travel generating development in locations which support a range of sustainable transport opportunities. Other elements include:

• the requirement for transport assessments which consider and plan for access to developments by all modes, rather than considering car access alone;
• maximum parking standards both to encourage developers to provide for alternative means of access, and to discourage excessive car use to developments; and
• travel plans, tied into the development control system by either Section 75 agreements or planning conditions.

2.1.2 In practice, these elements are required to operate together in order to provide a comprehensive framework for sustainable development.

2.1.3 Draft National Parking Standards have been proposed by the Scottish Executive for significant travel generating developments. The standards, if implemented, will assist local authorities to implement their own maximum parking standards policies, by encouraging "a level playing field" across the country.

2.1.4 The Scottish Executive Enterprise and Lifelong Learning Department and Locate in Scotland (now Scottish Development International) have as a primary objective the provision of a portfolio of potential development sites and their marketing to inward investors. Although there are many factors that account for the attractiveness of such sites to potential investors, their accessibility to employees, customers and suppliers is a significant factor. There is some concern that the proposed national maximum parking standards could act to depress development activity, deter inward investors and may put Scotland at an international competitive disadvantage.

2.2 EXISTING SCOTTISH SITUATION

2.2.1 Within Scotland, it has been found that the majority of local authorities are still implementing parking standards based on those developed by the former regional councils. These standards are almost exclusively based on minimum standards and are being implemented either as minimum standards, or "with flexibility." There are however some councils which have started to develop and implement maximum parking standards. Appendix A provides a list of Scottish Local Authorities and the parking standards they currently use.

2.2.2 Edinburgh City Council has had a set of maximum parking standards since 1999. Glasgow City Council has proposed a set of draft maximum parking standards, which have been published within the finalised draft Local Plan, having been based on a public transport accessibility analysis.

2.2.3 A review has recently been carried out to assess Aberdeenshire Council's parking standards and to establish the most practical maximum standards for this area. Aberdeen City Council has also been using maximum standards that are broadly set at the same value as their previous minimum standards.

2.3 Parking Provision Elsewhere

2.3.1 Within England, maximum parking standards were published in March 2001 within the revised Planning Policy Guidance 13 (PPG 13) for a range of specified uses. These are similar in scope and purpose to the proposed Scottish standards, providing maximum standards for broad ranges of specified major travel generating developments.

2.3.2 As well as the standards provided in PPG 13, regional transport strategies are required to set out a consistent approach to parking, in order to avoid unsustainable competition between areas in terms of either parking supply or cost. Within this context, local authorities are encouraged to set out their own maximum parking standards within their development plans.

2.3.3 Discussions with English local authorities, revealed that outwith South East England, a number of County Councils have drawn up parking guidelines based on maxima, rather than minima. However, discussions with the District Councils covered by such guidance revealed that in practice such guidance was rarely applied as strict maxima, and that a degree of flexibility was invariably applied.

2.3.4 Parking levels used in PPG 13 are shown below. It can be seen from these figures that the proposed Scottish standard are broadly the same as those being used in England

Table 2.1 - PPG 13 Standards compared to Proposed Scottish Standards

2.3.5 Within South East England, it was found that there were more instances of County Councils developing maximum parking standards, and these being implemented by the relevant planning authority.

2.3.6 Countries such as Ireland have been very successful in recent years in attracting investment, often in direct competition with Scotland. With the ongoing breakdown of barriers to trade, employment and movement within the European Union, the trend for companies to locate equally as easily anywhere within the EU is likely to increase.

2.3.7 Information has been gained from the Republic of Ireland on the parking standards currently being applied by local authorities in the Dublin Area.

2.3.8 The standards applied in the area surrounding Dublin are broadly similar to those proposed for the draft amendment to NPPG 17. The following list provides a breakdown of the range of standards in this Dublin county area:

Table 2.2 - Dublin County Standards compared to Proposed Scottish Standards

2.3.9 Within the City of Dublin the parking standards are more restrictive, for example offices are allowed one space per 250 square metres in the centre of Dublin. This is similar for the central areas in Scotland, for example Glasgow City Centre or Edinburgh City.

2.3.10 Northern Ireland does not currently have publicly available parking standards. Local authorities have standards that they use for developments and generally developers are aware of the level of parking they will be able to / required to provide. The standards that are used are minima although in the central urban area of Belfast there will be limited parking available.

2.3.11 Northern Ireland has produced a policy document, which is currently undergoing internal consultation and will be available for public consultation in March 2002. This document recognises the changed emphasis on land use and covers accessibility, movement and parking.

2.3.12 In Wales the "Technical Advice Note (Wales) - Transport" is still in its consultation phase. There are no national standards, parking is decided at a local level. The technical advice note states that parking must be considered and encourages neighbouring authorities to cooperate and develop a parking strategy to maintain competitive position between centres.

2.3.13 It is recommended within the Technical Advice Note (Wales) that these partnerships include maximum parking standards.

2.3.14 Within Germany, another key competitor for inward investment, the regime differs greatly from that proposed for Scotland. Here, a company is legally obliged to provide sufficient parking for all employees. If a company wishes to reduce the number of spaces it must supply evidence that employees are not actually commuting by car, but using buses or trains.

2.3.15 The Netherlands has a location policy with "A", "B" and "C" locations depending on the position of businesses relative to public transport provision. Based on this location businesses are allowed to provide a set number of spaces per 100 employees (approximately 10 per 100 employees for a band A and 20 per 100 employees for a band B). This is for urban areas, in rural areas businesses are allowed to provide twice as many spaces.

2.3.16 Shopping centres are classified differently, covered by guidelines from 1996. parking provision is based on the size of the shopping centre and the city characteristics. A small main shopping centre will provide at least 1:22m ² floor area; an average main shopping centre will provide at least 1:25m ² sales surface and a large shopping centre in an inner city area will provide at least 1:28m ². This can decrease to 1:33m ² when good public transport is available. Therefore the Netherlands use minimum parking standards, albeit with similar ratios to the proposed Scottish Executive standards and account is taken of public transport provision.

2.3.17 In America the Federal Transport Authority are at the top level and then the state transport authorities such as MODOT for Missouri and then the local councils such as St Louis County are at the bottom of the tree. The local councils appear to determine the parking provision, which is not dissimilar to Scotland. The main difference is that in the state of Missouri alone there are close to 100 councils all with potentially different standards for parking. An example set of standards has been included in the table below from St. Louis. It is interesting to note that retail, both food and non food and offices have similar standards to those proposed by the Scottish Executive. These standards operate as minimum standards

Table 2.3 - St Louis, America standards compared to Proposed Scottish Standards

2.4 LITERATURE REVIEW

Business Parking Standards: The Effect of PPG 13

2.4.1 Symonds Travers Morgan produced a report "Business Parking Standards: The Effect of PPG 13" for the British Property Federation in 1998 ¹. This report aimed to examine the linkage between growth in business use, employment accessibility and car parking standards in order to illustrate the impact of reduced standards on locational decisions of developers and occupiers in an English context.

2.4.2 The information obtained from business interviews carried out as part of this research is not quantitative due to the small number interviewed, however, the authors have tried to extract the common themes running through most or all of the responses. It was noted that no-one felt transport sustainable considerations to be essential.

2.4.3 The main findings were that developers' main concern is accessibility for their workforce whether it be by car or other method. However it was acknowledged that due to other locational decision making factors they do often locate in areas where the car is most practical. Quality of building was the next concern and parking only became an issue when two or more properties were being compared with each other.

2.4.4 Conclusions from the study were as follows:

• Occupiers' perception of good public transport is such that it is unlikely there are many sites which can provide a suitable level of flexibility and service.
• Occupiers' prime concern regarding location is the proximity to employees and although the occupiers are not wedded to car use they tend to locate in areas where car use is the only practical transport method to achieve a sufficient catchment area for employees.
• Developers were happy with sites that had excellent public transport provision or excellent car provision but were less happy with a mixture of the two - this was due to complications and resentment which could arise from only allowing some people to drive to work.
• The main benefit assessed in this report was that the tightening of parking standards has caused businesses to consider transport matters more when deciding on location. However, the outcome has not generally been that they are prepared to accept lower standards. They have instead chosen alternative locations or not moved at all.
• The overall message from developers was the need to have good public transport links in place before parking standards are reduced.

Scottish Executive Planning and Transport Research

2.4.5 Following the publication of NPPG 17 in April 1999, a series of research projects were commissioned in order to inform the implementation of the proposed integrated transport and planning policy. Firstly, the Scottish Executive commissioned a report "An Integrated Approach to the Transport and Land Use Planning Aspect of Development Applications ²." This considered the key issues for implementing maximum parking standards and suggested threshold values and parking values for future policy development. This report was produced in 2000, and has informed the proposed draft National Maximum Parking Standards.

2.4.6 A report was also produced looking at mode share targets for new developments ³, which considered the current methods for producing mode share targets and suggested a policy framework for these targets. It suggested that mode share targets should be set at a strategic / local level and that they should be linked to accessibility. The report also recommends that mode share is monitored at periods of no less than two years.

2.4.7 Setting mode share targets at a strategic / local level enables local transport plans / strategies to establish workable maximum parking standards and a monitoring programme could be carried out in conjunction with the other measures associated with maximum parking developments.

2.4.8 Planning Agreements were the subject of another Scottish Executive report published in 2001 ⁴, which focussed on the role of Section 75 agreements as a means of delivering wider environmental, planning and transportation benefits. This report found that planning agreements often involved a long drawn out planning process and it was felt that this should be addressed with clearer guidance on the use and scope of these agreements. It found that the preferred implementation of a planning agreement was in the form of conditions and only when it was necessary would legal agreements be used to enforce these agreements. This would suggest that partnerships between Councils and developers have much to offer in helping encourage sustainable transport choices.

2.5 SUMMARY

2.5.1 Despite national planning guidance in 1999, the majority of Scottish Local Authorities have been found to be still using minimum parking standards, although there is evidence of these minimum parking standards being applied as maximum or at least with due regard to recent policy guidance.

2.5.2 City of Edinburgh Council and Aberdeen City Council have produced maximum parking standards, and these have been applied to a number of recent developments. Other authorities, such as Glasgow City Council and Aberdeenshire Council are at the final stages of preparation.

2.5.3 The majority are published as guidance documents referred to within the statutory planning documents and Local Transport Plans. However Glasgow City Council have published within the finalised draft local plan.

2.5.4 Within England, the final publication of the Revised PPG 13 has established the formal framework for the adoption of maximum parking standards both by Regional Planning bodies, and by all tiers of local authorities. Historically, it has been found that despite maximum parking guidance being developed by the roads authority, these have not necessarily been adopted/implemented by the planning authority.

2.5.5 A series of recent projects undertaken since publication of NPPG 17 has informed the development of a national set of maximum parking standards. This has included research into maximum parking standards, best practice in adopting mode share targets and best practice with the role of planning agreements. This research has informed the development of a proposed addendum to NPPG 17 relating to a set of National Maximum Parking Standards. The next section outlines the methodology used in the current research.