Securing a travel plan

The travel plan should be agreed prior to planning consent being agreed as this is now an important consideration with regards to the transport assessment process.

Planning agreements and considerations

To secure a travel plan, the local planning authority is likely to either use planning conditions or a S106 agreement.

Planning conditions are a set of requirements given at the time of issuing a planning permission.
A S106 agreement is a legal agreement between the planning authority and the applicant/developer. This is a more flexible arrangement than planning conditions and allows for the specification of financial contributions and the appending of the final travel plan document.

The S106 route is the preferred method for securing travel plans but this is not always appropriate. As a rule of thumb, if a development requires a S106 agreement for other matters then the travel plan should be included in the S106. In other circumstances, planning conditions should be used.

Example planning conditions

For all development sites if a travel plan is not approved

For all developments sites, if a travel plan is not approved by the local highway authority prior to determination:

No development shall be occupied or brought into use until such time as a full, outline or framework travel plan has been submitted to and approved in writing by the local planning authority in consultation with the local highway authority.
Plus insert standard conditions listed below for either Framework or Outline Travel Plan (i.e. to secure the travel plan co-ordinator(s), travel plan monitoring) and core measures.

For framework travel plans

For framework travel plans (multi-occupation sites), if the framework travel plan has already been approved by the local highway authority prior to determination:

No development shall be occupied or be brought into use until the owners and/or occupiers of the site have appointed and thereafter continue to employ or engage a site-wide travel plan coordinator who shall be responsible for the implementation of the approved framework travel plan and whose details shall be provided and continue to be provided thereafter to the local planning authority unless otherwise agreed.
Prior to the occupation of any business, the owner and/or occupier of each business unit shall appoint and thereafter continue to employ or engage a unit travel plan coordinator and within three months of occupation the owner and/or occupier of the business unit shall commission a unit travel plan that sets out final targets with respect the number of vehicles using the site and the adoption of measures to reduce single occupancy car travel consistent with the Framework Travel Plan to be approved by the local planning authority in consultation with the local highway authority. The Unit Travel Plan shall be implemented in accordance with the approved timetable and be updated consistent with future Framework Travel Plan initiatives including implementation dates to the satisfaction of the local planning authority.
The site-wide travel plan coordinator shall commission travel surveys and update the TRICS database in accordance with the Standard Assessment Methodology (SAM) or similar method to be approved after the first, third, and fifth year of full occupation and produce monitoring reports at intervals as required by the Framework Travel Plan monitoring periods. The monitoring reports submitted to the local planning authority shall summarise the data collected over the monitoring period and propose revised initiatives and measures where travel plan targets are not being met including implementation dates to be approved in writing by the local planning authority and which shall inform individual travel plans.

For outline travel plans

For outline travel plans (e.g. single unknown occupier), if the outline travel plan has already been approved by the local highway authority prior to determination:

No development shall be occupied or be brought into use until the owners and/or occupiers of the site have appointed and thereafter continue to employ or engage a travel plan coordinator who shall be responsible for the implementation of the approved travel plan and whose details shall be provided and continue to be provided thereafter to the local planning authority unless otherwise agreed.
Within three months of occupation the owner and/or occupier shall commission a full travel plan that sets out final targets with respect the number of vehicles using the site and the adoption of measures to reduce single occupancy car travel consistent with the approved outline travel plan to be approved by the local planning authority in consultation with the local highway authority. The full travel plan shall be implemented in accordance with the approved timetable including implementation dates to the satisfaction of the local planning authority.
The travel plan coordinator shall commission travel surveys and update the TRICS database in accordance with the Standard Assessment Methodology (SAM) or similar method to be approved after the first, third, and fifth year of full occupation and produce monitoring reports at intervals as required by the travel plan monitoring period. The monitoring reports submitted to the local planning authority shall summarise the data collected over the monitoring period and propose revised initiatives and measures where travel plan targets are not being met including implementation dates to be approved in writing by the local planning authority.

For full travel plans

For full travel plans (e.g. single known occupier), if the full travel plan has already been approved prior to determination:

No development shall be occupied or be brought into use until the owners and/or occupier of the site have appointed and thereafter continue to employ or engage a travel plan coordinator who shall be responsible for the implementation of the approved travel plan and whose details shall be provided and continue to be provided thereafter to the local planning authority.
The travel plan coordinator shall commission travel surveys and update the TRICS database in accordance with the Standard Assessment Methodology (SAM) or similar method to be approved after the first, third, and fifth year of full occupation and produce monitoring reports at intervals as required by the travel plan monitoring period. The monitoring reports submitted to the local planning authority shall summarise the data collected over the monitoring period and propose revised initiatives and measures where travel plan targets are not being met including implementation dates to be approved in writing by the local planning authority.

For all of the above

Planning Conditions should also be used to secure ‘core measures’ with examples as follows:

No part of the development hereby permitted shall be brought into use unless or until the details of a travel information pack to residents/employees of the development upon occupation are submitted and approved by the local planning authority.
No part of the development hereby permitted shall be brought into use unless or until the details of a scheme for provision of free bus passes to residents/employees of the development upon occupation are submitted and approved by the local planning authority. The scheme should include details of the bus pass(es) including period of validity or equivalent, the area of coverage, arrangements for promoting the passes, application and monitoring arrangements.

Example S106 agreement

Schedule X - travel plan

Unless otherwise agreed the Owner hereby covenants as follows:
- Prior to occupation of the development to submit the travel plan to the LPA for its written approval
- To implement the approved travel plan (as may be amended) in accordance with the proposals, the targets, measures and programme of implementation set out within it.
- To appoint a travel plan co-ordinator who shall be employed or engaged to be responsible for the implementation delivery monitoring and promotion of the sustainable transport initiatives set out in the travel plan for a period of five years or build out and occupation plus one year, whichever is the latter. Contact details of the travel plan coordinator shall be provided and shall continue to be provided thereafter to the LPA to promote sustainable travel.
- To submit in accordance with the approved travel plan monitoring periods reports for the approval of the LPA that summarise the data collected over the monitoring period, and which propose revised initiatives and measures where travel plan targets are not being met. This should include implementation dates, and updates to the TRICS database in accordance with the Standard Assessment Methodology (SAM) or similar national land use trip rate database to be approved to the satisfaction of the council. The revised initiatives and measures shall be implanted in accordance with the approved reports in order to promote sustainable travel.
Unless otherwise agreed the Owner hereby further covenants that, prior to Commencement of Development they shall pay the Travel Plan Implementation Review Fee to the County Council.

Monitoring fees and further information

Monitoring fees may be charged as part of the travel plan process to support ongoing review and compliance. For more detailed information, please download:

Alternatively contact the relevant council directly via their transport and planning teams.

Remedial actions/fallback measures

It is important that the targets set for each travel plan are met, especially if travel plans and sustainable transport forms an important element of site facilitation via the vision led approach. As such, travel plans should consider how they would respond if monitoring procedures identified that a development was not achieving their agreed targets via the development of an appropriate strategy (i.e. through Monitor and Manage).

In such cases, remedial/fallback measures may be required. The scope of these measures would be related to the location of the site, findings of the monitoring reports and the context of the initial transport assessment. For instance, where a development is taking place in a particularly sensitive location in transport terms (to be advised by the highway authority) then more robust remedial/fallback measures may be required than in other locations.

If targets are not met then, as a minimum, the period in post of the travel plan co-ordinator and monitoring period should be extended to allow a fresh round of promotion and its monitoring.

Compensatory payment

Calculating a development’s potential trip generation is important in identifying network capacity improvements required as part of the transport assessment process. As such, failing to meet trip generation estimates/travel plan targets may lead to issues on the local highway network requiring mitigation. Where this could occur, compensatory payment or additional works (i.e. additional contributions towards sustainable transport and highway infrastructure) should be offered and secured via the S106 mechanism.

It is emphasised that any payments by way of impact charges are not a penalty and simply represent a suitable means of addressing any shortcomings in delivery.