Berwick Neighbourhood Plan Berwick Sustainable Transport Plan Transport November 2016 Working Group Preface I was asked to lead a Transport Working Group as part of the development of the Berwick Neighbourhood Plan. Keith Smith, Erica Bamford, Hilary O’Shea and Nick Box joined the Group and I am grateful for their help and support in bringing this report together. Joe Lang and John Webster also joined the Group for a period and I thank them for their contribution. The main objective of the Transport Working Group was to ensure that the transport infrastructure of Berwick was up to standard to support the emerging vision underpinning the Neighbourhood Plan. There was no transport plan for Berwick in existence. However, as part of the Berwick’s Future Project run by the Regional Development Agency, One North East, a report was commissioned from Colin Buchanan and Partners in 2009 and this provided a basis for a transport action plan. Regrettably this excellent report was not adopted by Northumberland County Council and their interventions since then have been ad hoc and in some cases counterproductive. It was decided that we needed to bring the Buchanan report up to date as the basis for an investment plan for Northumberland County Council and as an input to the Neighbourhood Plan. Fortunately, between 1967 and 1971 I was employed by Cheshire County Council Planning Department as a traffic engineer working on the traffic implications of the Town Plans being prepared for the towns in Cheshire. I therefore had the necessary expertise to pull together this report supported as I was by the other members of the Transport Working Group. Tony Houghton November 2016 Summary This Plan has been drawn up as an integral part of the Berwick Neighbourhood Plan. It aims to support the Neighbourhood Plan vision for Berwick by proposing policies to secure appropriate and sustainable transport infrastructure. Our vision for Berwick in 15 years’ time is that most residents will be doing their journeys on foot, by bicycle or by bus. Visitors to Berwick will arrive in large numbers by train. Those visitors arriving by car will be directed to out-of-town shopping centres on routes that do not pass through the town centre, or they will make use of a free Park and Walk/Ride facility. The town centre will be thronged with people walking through streets. Berwick will have become a hub for cycle tourism. This vision will be realised by supporting the Neighbourhood Plan vision for Berwick, reducing car journeys made within Berwick and encouraging the use of more sustainable transport modes, increasing the footfall in the town centre whilst reducing the level of traffic, encouraging growth in visitor numbers by making the town more accessible via a range of transport options, and enhancing Berwick’s potential for attracting cycle tourism by developing high-quality traffic-free, well-signed cycle routes. The majority of journeys within Berwick are made by car. This is not sustainable and is seriously impacting on economic growth. The limited road and parking capacity must be managed to give priority to people visiting Berwick who bring revenue to the town’s businesses. Cycling will be encouraged by providing a network of safe, high-quality cycle routes within Berwick. The extension of this network through Berwick will promote cycle tourism. Walking will be encouraged by providing safe walking routes from the periphery of Berwick to the town centre. Accessing the supermarkets, shopping centres and schools along the main road will be made easier by providing crossing places. People will be encouraged to spend time in Berwick town centre by making it a safe and pleasant place to walk around. Buses and taxis have an important role in transporting people around Berwick and coaches are a possible way of bringing visitors to Berwick. The town centre will be transformed from an area dominated by cars to an area where pedestrians take ownership. Car parking will be managed to deter short-distance commuters and frequent low-spend shoppers, while encouraging visitors and higher- spending shoppers. The town centre will be an area that is a delight to wander around. This excellent connectivity provided by the Railway Station will be exploited to make Berwick, with its excellent range of services and cultural events and easy access to Newcastle, Edinburgh and London by train, an attractive place to live for the growing number of people who would like to do without a car. Berwick makes an attractive destination for day trips, short breaks and longer holidays for those people from big cities in the UK and abroad who would like to leave their car at home Contents 1. Introduction 1 2. Vision and Objectives 3 Vision 3 Objectives 3 Policies 4 3. Car Drivers 5 Objectives 5 Issues 5 Analysis 6 Policies 6 4. Cyclists 8 Objectives 8 Issues 8 Action Plan 8 5. Pedestrians 11 Objectives 11 Issues 11 Action Plan 11 6. Buses, Taxis and Coaches 13 Buses 13 Taxis 13 Coaches 13 7. Town Centre 16 Objectives 16 Issues 16 Action Plan 17 8. Railway Station 20 Issues 20 Policies 21 Appendix 1. Extracts from the Buchanan Report 22 Baseline Data Gathering 22 Action Plan 24 Appendix 2. Journey to Work 29 MAPS Map 1: Existing Transport Infrastructure 2 Map 2: Proposed Cycling Infrastructure 10 Map 3: Town Bus Routes 15 Map 4: Potential Urban Realm Improvements 19 1. Introduction This plan has been drawn up as an integral and significant part of the Berwick Neighbourhood Plan, which is being prepared by local people in response to the Localism Act of 2011. To quote the government website, a neighbourhood plan gives communities ‘the power to develop a shared vision for their neighbourhood and shape the development and growth of the local area’. Various working groups have been set up to propose policies that, together, will make the town work better for residents, workers and visitors, at the same time growing the local economy and providing employment. The Transport Working Group aims to support the Neighbourhood Plan vision for Berwick by proposing policies to secure appropriate and sustainable transport infrastructure. These will be designed to ensure that the town is both attractive and accessible to residents, workers, commuters and visitors. These policies will bring economic and health benefits to a historic walled town that has enormous potential as a tourist destination, situated as it is near the border between England and Scotland, easily reached via the A1 and the East Coast Mainline. Map 1 shows the existing transport infrastructure. All main traffic generators including schools are strung out along the main roads and a large proportion of the journeys within Berwick are made by car. The main roads and the car parks in the town centre have insufficient capacity to meet the demands put upon them. Berwick is a compact town. Half the population is within easy walking distance of the town centre and the town centre is less than twenty minutes away by cycle for everyone living in the town. However, heavily trafficked main roads act as a barrier to pedestrians and cyclists. The lack of separation of the cycling infrastructure from the main roads through the town centre creates a disincentive to cycle. The one-way system on the Old Bridge means cyclists from the south of the river have difficulty accessing the town centre. Traffic circulating in the town centre creates a hostile environment for pedestrians and this in turn discourages visitors to the historic walled town. All these problems were addressed in a study carried out by Colin Buchanan and Partners in 2009. The report on the data gathering carried out by this study and the recommended action plan are reproduced in Appendix 1. Regrettably little of the action plan has been implemented and indeed some actions have been taken that are counterproductive (e.g. the removal of parking charges). This Sustainable Transport Plan will build on the work done by Colin Buchanan and Partners to produce an up-to-date action plan that can be presented, consulted upon and agreed by both Berwick Town Council and Northumberland County Council. The Neighbourhood Plan and this Sustainable Transport Plan must conform to the Core Strategy produced by NCC. Unfortunately NCC has not produced a sustainable transport plan, and in particular there is no plan for bringing the National Cycle Network (NCN) in Northumberland up to standard and developing it into a resource to bring significant economic benefits to Northumberland in the form of cycle tourism. Berwick is particularly affected by this omission as the cycle route into Berwick from the south along the coast is possibly the worst section of the NCN in the UK. This seriously inhibits Berwick’s ability to promote its key situation in the national and international cycle network. The policies set out in our plan will therefore extend beyond the boundaries of the Town to address these issues. 1 2 2. Vision and Objectives Vision In 15 years’ time, at the end of the plan period most Berwick residents will be doing their journeys by sustainable means - walking, cycling or travelling by bus. Berwick will have become a destination of national or even international importance and visitors will arrive in large numbers by train to be directed into the town centre by a well-signed walking route or on a frequent shuttle bus service. Those visitors arriving by car will be directed to out-of-town shopping centres on routes that do not pass through the town centre, or they will make use of a free Park and Walk/Ride facility. Limited numbers of cars will be allowed to access the town centre to use chargeable parking spaces.