6: Design and Quality of the Environment

Principle 4

Car parking in residential and non-residential development should be well designed to integrate successfully within a development, should not be an over dominant feature on the street scene and ensure land is used efficiently.

Parking areas should be designed to include the use of sustainable drainage systems (SuDS) to minimise surface water run-off unless there are technical reasons why this cannot be done. Permeable surface materials should also be used wherever possible to reduce surface water runoff.

6.1 The impacts of both designated parking spaces and of parking activity wherever it occurs are central to the success or failure of the wider environment. The overall design of parking areas will need to reflect current national guidance, including the National Design Guide and the National Model Design Code, which make clear that how parking is arranged has a fundamental effect on the quality of a place or development.

6.2 As part of the comprehensive design-led approach, communal car parking areas in both residential and non-residential development should be suitably designed in order to minimise negative impacts on the streetscape.

On street parking

6.3 Parking provision on a development should meet the standards set out in this SPD or where reduced levels are justified and agreed in sustainable locations well served by public transport and the active modes of walking and cycling travel.

6.4 Where exceptionally it is agreed that on-street parking is relied upon in whole or part, streets on the development should either be designed to accommodate likely demand, or it should first be demonstrated that existing on-street parking capacity is sufficient to meet likely current and future needs. This includes, but not limited to, the following factors:

Impacts on highway safety, including pedestrian and cyclist safety.
Physical widths of the road carriageways close to the site and whether they are capable of accommodating parking and the flow of traffic.
Where there is likelihood of an increase in verge parking based on road and pavement widths.
Take into account loss of existing on-street parking due to the creation of new accesses
Consider whether the introduction of on-street parking controls are required.

6.5 Where measures such as parking controls are proposed for a development, it will need to be agreed with the relevant Highways Authority and set out in detail in any required Design and Access Statement, Transport Assessment or Transport Statement. The proposals must have a reasonable prospect of implementation so the views of the local community and other key stakeholders of the proposed measures such as parking control need to be established by the developer prior to the submission of the assessment.