New greenfield housing forcing people to use cars, report finds

The Guardian highlights research that shows new greenfield housing developments are locking residents into car dependency, making everyday journeys impossible without a vehicle. Meanwhile, pledges for walking, cycling and public transport are often left unfulfilled.

Our experience in the Derbyshire Dales confirms that this pattern is depressingly familiar.

The group Transport for New Homes (TfNH) visited 20 new housing developments in England, finding that while those on urban brownfield sites generally lived up to sustainable transport pledges, greenfield sites were often far from shops and amenities, without public transport, cycling links or even pavements, and the homes themselves were seemingly designed around car parking.

In Ashbourne, Derbyshire, a freedom of information request to see evidence of how effectively the 'Travel Plans' of one development were working out, produced no information and the admission that none of the annual reports had been submitted to either the District or County Council. This was in spite of what was required by the planning consent.

Another site, also in Ashbourne, and currently at the construction stage, has pavements on the estate but these stop as soon as you leave, requiring you to immediately cross a very busy main road if you are to visit schools or shops on foot. We reported on this lack of joined up thinking in a previous article.

As the report says, "We've found everything from developers planning applications, through to the local plans of local authorities, right up to the National Planning Policy Framework have incredibly warm words about walking, cycling, public transport, and 'creating vibrant walkable places', and what we have shown through our visits and our documentary evidence, hundreds of photographs, it simply isn't being delivered."