FAQ

We work across the UK and have worked on projects from Aberdeen to Devon, so are familiar with the varying local policies/guidance and requirements, as well as the national variants. We have offices in Yorkshire (Beverley) and Manchester, so naturally we pick up a lot of work across the North and East Midlands, but we have undertaken numerous projects across all regions of the UK, including numerous schemes across London, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.

The assessments and any mitigation required will depend on the nature of the development and characteristics of the site and local highway networks. 

We have a team of experienced transport planners at LTP, and the primary aim of our development planning projects is to obtain approval from highways officers at the local Council (Local Highway Authority), but also other key transport stakeholders such as Highways England (motorways and trunk roads), TfL (Transport for London) and TfGM (Transport for Greater Manchester).

We will always review every potential new project as part of putting a quotation together to determine what work is likely to be needed to achieve approval from highways officers, based on our experience and knowledge of varying local and national requirements (all of our bids are looked at by transport planning professionals). 

Different projects require different approaches, as some clients prefer to minimise upfront costs and then undertake any extra work requested by officers during the determination of a planning application, whereas others prefer to undertake more work upfront to minimise the likelihood of any delays further down the line. We can work to the preferred strategy and strike the right balance between minimising costs and minimising delays.

• Transport Statement (TS) or Travel Plan (TP) = typically circa 2-3 weeks
• Transport Assessment (TA) of a medium-scale = typically circa 3-5 weeks (longer for large developments requiring several stages of surveying and assessment)
• Road Safety Audit (RSA) = typically circa 2-3 weeks
• Preliminary highway design = typically circa 2 weeks
• Detailed highway design = very bespoke to each design and often detailed 3rd party information is required before we can start our design, but typically at least 2 weeks

As part of every fee quotation, we will undertake a brief desktop review of each scheme, and if it appears that there are likely to be insurmountable highways issues, then we will tell you… although we often work with difficult and constrained sites, so can usually find a solution!

With our specialist team of highway engineers working alongside our transport planners/modellers, we are well placed to assist in agreeing preliminary highway designs of any off-site works through the planning process, with a focus on minimising the development costs at both the planning stage (i.e. required supporting work to achieve approval) and the post-planning stage (e.g. designs that look to minimise construction costs as much as possible).

Yes certainly, there are often planning conditions that relate to transport matters that we can help with, including Travel Plans (TPs), the Travel Plan Coordinator (TPC) roles to implement TPs, Construction Traffic Management Plans (CTMPs), car parking management, as well as producing detailed designs for access junctions and off-site highway schemes.

We work across the UK and have established contacts at most Local Highway Authorities. As well as providing support on planning applications, we are active in the transport planning industry and also deliver training to highways officers across the country, so have an extensive network of contacts. 

Even in locations where we haven’t worked before, we have a good understanding of dealing with different highways departments, so can work collaboratively with key officers to achieve highways approval.

We appreciate that transport requirements are just one part of a planning application, with the terminology, policies and requirements constantly evolving, so we are more than happy to help provide layman’s explanations of what stands between your scheme and highways approval, cutting through the technical complexities to ensure your strategic decisions for a scheme are based on a clear understanding of the issues.

As part of all commissions, we look to provide general advice on highways issues throughout the course of the project, as part of the quoted fee. We know from experience that this can help resolve issues that occur throughout the planning processes, and can save our clients time and money.

Yes, our traffic projections can be converted for the purposes of other non-traffic assessments (such as air quality and noise). These industries often need to account for the traffic impact of a development, measured in terms of daily traffic, and we can convert our peak hour traffic predictions to help other disciplines in your team of professionals.

We have a number of registered and accredited road safety auditors, and therefore we can undertake audits that are independent and fully compliant with the relevant requirements (GG 119). On projects where LTP have undertaken the design work, we will always have registered auditors who have not  been involved in the design who can provide the required impartial and independent audit, for Stage 1, 2, 3 and 4 Road Safety Audits.

It may not be a requirement of every project, but as transport specialists and experienced professionals, we are well placed to be able to present information and answer questions on our field of expertise, with a number of our transport planners practised at attending these types of event in support of a development.

We always look to avoid charging for additional work, such as meetings, wherever possible. Depending on the scale of the project and our commission, we should be able to attend at least one meeting as part of our quoted fee.

Part of the LTP Guarantee is to invest in our staff, and so you can be sure that those working on the project will be competent and qualified to carry out each task. All of our staff are members of relevant professional bodies, and many of our staff are professionally qualified  and registered with the Engineering Council.