The Centre for Sustainable Road Freight recently responded to a ‘Call for Evidence’ from the UK Government, concerning the relationship between freight, logistics and the planning system. Our reply, which was led by Julian Allen of Westminster University, pulled-together information from a number of the Policy Briefings that Julian, Maja Piecyk and the SRF Policy team have written over the past few years.
If you are interested in the policy challenges surrounding urban logistics and the planning system, this document is an excellent resource. It dives into some of the big issues in a useful ‘Question and Answer’ format and sign-posts a large amount of supporting evidence.
The main questions addressed in the document are:
- The effectiveness of local plans at identifying development needs, and then allocating sites for freight and logistics
- The effectiveness of the policies in the national planning policy in supporting the needs of freight
- The effectiveness of engagement between industry and local authorities in the course of local plan making.
- How effectively does planning currently support more efficient use of established freight and logistics infrastructure and how could it better support existing infrastructure?
- How should freight and logistics be factored into statutory local transport plans and sub-national transport strategies?
- What aspects of the applications and decision taking process work well and what aspects do not work well
- How effective is the planning system at addressing the operational needs of the freight and logistics sector and how could this be improved?
- How could a national freight network be recognised in national planning policy?
- How can the planning system support our net zero ambition for freight and logistics?
- What more could local plans and decisions do to facilitate the supply of high-quality HGV parking and driver facilities?
- How can planning policy in England help to support the freight and logistics sector across the whole of the UK?
Open the full document here.
