TECHNICAL NOTE NO 2 Proposed Starter Units Land at Lloyd House, 390 – 400 Third Avenue, Trafford Park CT/200438/TN02 – 18 February 2021 Introduction / Background 1. SCP is instructed to review and report upon the proposal to develop 2 no starter units on land at Lloyd house, 390 – 400 Third Avenue, Trafford Park. 2. The principle of development on the application site has been established following the grant of two planning permissions (LPA Ref 98054/FUL/19 and 100204/FUL/20) for 2no. 112m2 starter units (B1(c)) with frontage onto Fourth Avenue and a service yard and parking area to the rear, accessed via the existing car park access. More recently, a third planning application (LPA Ref 101987/FUL/20), for 2no. 222m2 starter units (B1(c)) on the application site was approved on 7th January 2021. 3. The proposed development seeks access for the two starter units and a small car park to be taken directly off Fourth Avenue, as detailed later, and this Technical Note has been produced to support the planning application and demonstrate that safe and suitable access is achievable. Existing Conditions 4. The site is located within an existing employment site known as Trafford Park. Lloyd House fronts onto Third Avenue and there are 6 ground floor retail units (in separate ownership other than no. 392) with the first and second floors being office space. There is a total of five offices within Lloyd House which are served from four doors located at the back of the building onto the rear car park which houses 54 vehicles. The ground floor units each have a single parking space in addition to the 54 spaces. Access to the car park area is taken from Fourth Avenue. 5. The local planning policy identifies Trafford Park as the principal location for employment within Trafford Borough and the local area is identified as being suitable for small offices, light and general industrial firms. Directors: D Roberts IEng FIHE FCIHT J Budd MSc CMILT FCIHT S Carmody BSc CEng MICE FCIHT D Young IEng FIHE PGCert Technical Directors: P Todd BSc (Hons) MSc MCIHT MTPS P Turton BSc Eng IEng MICE Regional Director: T Wright CEng BEng (Hons) MCIHT Associate Directors: G Wheatley BA (Hons) DipTP MSc MCIHT M Devenish CEng MCIHT Eur Ing T F Boldea FEANI MSc BSc (Hons) J Browne IEng MICE BEng (Hons) T Harrigan AMCIHT B Roberts BSc (Hons) MICE IEng MIHT Consultant: W C P Booker BSc SCP is a trading name of Singleton Clamp & Partners Limited Registered in England No. 3728935 Offices in Manchester, Leeds and London 200438 / Proposed Starter Units, Land at Lloyd House, 390 – 400 Third Avenue, Trafford Park Technical Note no 2 February 2021 Road Safety Record 6. In order to identify critical locations on the network with a poor accident record, the personal injury accident data has been obtained from the online resource CrashMap for an extended 10-year period. The location and severity of any accidents within the study area during this period, are shown in Figure 1 below. Figure 1 – Road Safety Record Approx. Site Boundary Study Area Fourth Avenue 7. The analysis presented above demonstrates that there have been no accidents in the study area during the extended 10-year study period. 8. The evidence presented above and illustrated in Figure 1 suggests that the area in the vicinity of the site does not have any recurring highway safety problems that could be affected by the development proposals. The enviable accident record also demonstrates that the existing closely spaced accesses on Fourth Avenue operate safely for all users. Page 2 of 8 200438 / Proposed Starter Units, Land at Lloyd House, 390 – 400 Third Avenue, Trafford Park Technical Note no 2 February 2021 Accessibility – Cycling and Walking 9. The site is accessible to both Third Avenue and Fourth Avenue readily on foot and there are footways found to both sides of these roads. Indeed, there is a surfaced and lit footway link located immediately to the south of the application site which links Third and Fourth Avenues. 10. The application site is close to an array of local retail units and as well as the recently opened tram service between Manchester City Centre and the Trafford Centre. The works to facilitate the tram line has required major upgrade to the local infrastructure including the introduction of controlled crossing points for pedestrians and cyclists as well as upgraded facilities for cyclists alongside the major corridors within the area local to the tram line. 11. The upgraded facilities are available along Village Way which is within 200m of the site. Figure 2 illustrates the cycle facilities available around the application site and is an extract from TfGM’s assets map. Figure 2 – Cycle Facilities around the Application site 12. As can be seen there are a range of cycle facilities available within a short cycle distance of the application site. 13. The local roads around the site are subject to parking controls which limit the amount of on-street parking available in the area, particularly on event days at the nearby Old Trafford Stadium. Page 3 of 8 200438 / Proposed Starter Units, Land at Lloyd House, 390 – 400 Third Avenue, Trafford Park Technical Note no 2 February 2021 Public Transport - Buses 14. The closest bus stop to the site is located on Fifth Avenue, approximately 180m (walk distance) west of the site, and there are additional bus stops located on both sides of Westinghouse Road within a reasonable walk distance of the application site. These bus stops are served by the number 18, 248 and 250 busses which provide regular services, seven days a week (in combination), to numerous locations including Wythenshawe, Eccles, Sale, Stretford, Urmston, Trafford Park, Manchester city centre and Manchester Airport, amongst others. 15. Having regard to the above, prospective employees of the site will have access to bus services stopping close to the site which provide access to key destinations at a high frequency. Public Transport - Trams 16. The Village tram stop is found around 230m to the north of the application site and offers services between the Trafford Centre and Cornbrook. Connections are available to the Manchester city centre, Bury, Altrincham, Oldham, Rochdale, Ashton, Didsbury, Manchester Airport and Eccles from this service together with links to heavy rail stations for destinations further afield. 17. The Manchester Metrolink Map is shown on Figure 3 below. Figure 3 – Manchester Metrolink Map Page 4 of 8 200438 / Proposed Starter Units, Land at Lloyd House, 390 – 400 Third Avenue, Trafford Park Technical Note no 2 February 2021 18. The current general frequency of services on all tram lines is listed below: 1) Mon to Fri - 0600 to 1900 - every 10 mins 1900 to 0000 - every 20 mins 2) Sat - 0600 to 0800 - every 20 mins - 0800 to 2000 - every 10 mins - 2000 to 0000 - every 20 mins 3) Sun - 0700 to 2300 - every 15 mins 19. In terms of rail services, Trafford Park Railway Station is located less than 1.7km (walk distance) to the south of the site and is therefore, well within an acceptable walking and cycling distance to encourage perspective employees to travel by train. Trafford Park Railway Station offers regular direct service to Manchester, Urmston, Warrington, Widnes and Liverpool, amongst others Accessibility Summary 20. It can be seen that there is therefore a good choice of mode of travel available for use by employees around the application site which would be available for employees to use to access work at the application site. Permitted Scheme 21. As detailed earlier, a recent planning application (LPA Ref 101987/FUL/20) for 2no. 222m2 starter units (B1(c)) with frontage onto Fourth Avenue and a service yard and parking area to the rear, accessed via the existing car park access, have been granted on the application site. Proposed Development 22. The proposed development allows for a significant reduction in the GFA of both starter units, from 444m2 to 284.8m2, as well as the relocation of the two units to the east to allow for direct access off Fourth Avenue, as detailed later. The proposed site layout plan is presented in Appendix A. 23. The scale of the proposed development is still relatively small and based upon the guidance from the superseded document Guidance on Transport Assessment produced by the DfT there is no need to provide any formal transport assessment associated with the proposals. (The threshold listed in Appendix B is 1500sqm before formal assessments become required). Page 5 of 8 200438 / Proposed Starter Units, Land at Lloyd House, 390 – 400 Third Avenue, Trafford Park Technical Note no 2 February 2021 24. On that basis this note concentrates upon 3 matters, namely access, on-site parking provision and servicing. Proposed Access Arrangement 25. Vehicular access to a 6-space car park and servicing area will be provided off Fourth Avenue to the west of the site via a formal priority-controlled access, as shown on drawing number SCP/200438/F01 Rev A, presented in Appendix B. The access has been designed to provide a 6m wide carriageway, which is sufficient for two cars to access/egress simultaneously, and access for larger servicing vehicles and to an additional parking area will continue to take place via the existing access. 26. The proposed access arrangement is considered acceptable for the following reasons: • Junction visibility from the site access has been calculated based on the visibility requirements set out in the MfS for a 30mph road, providing visibility splays that have an ‘x’ (minor arm setback distance) of 2.4m and a minimum ‘y’ (major road visibility) distance of 43m in both directions.