Categories:  Transport Assessment, Travel Plan, Highway Design
Client:  Deeley Freed Estates/Abacus
Project Date: 2016 - 2021
Contact:  Roger Key
Location:  Brixham Road, Paignton, Torbay

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***Update***

KTC is delighted to have assisted Abacus Projects Ltd/Deeley Freed Ltd with the successful appeal decision for up to 373 dwellings and associated uses.

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A site known as Inglewood, lying west of Paignton is being promoted for mainly residential development. The site has a long frontage to the A3022 Brixham Road and has capacity for 400 dwellings, along with a primary school and extensive public open space.

The A3022 is part of the Torbay Western Corridor, which serves Brixham by passing to the west of Torquay and Paignton.  It had been suggested that this section of the A3022 required upgrading to a dual carriageway but early investigation of dual-carriageway scheme options revealed the high environmental impact and cost of this option. Meanwhile, parallel investigations by Key Transport Consultants demonstrated that modest improvement of the existing road would be sufficient to mitigate the local development traffic impact with, in comparison with the dual-carriageway, minimal environmental consequences. The improvement scheme included widening of a bend to the north of the site, to improve visibility, safety and capacity, by lowering the crest of a hill and verge widening. This option to improve the existing road was agreed with the Council.

Building from this position, several options for access to the site were considered and a four-arm roundabout, with two arms serving the development was identified as a preferred solution, in part because the introduction of a single new junction would minimise the effect on through traffic.

Investigation of existing amenities lying to the east of Brixham Road determined the need for crossings of Brixham Road for pedestrians and cyclists both to the north and south of the development frontage.  To meet the demand for walking and cycling between the existing residential area to the east of Brixham Road and the new school, a signal controlled Toucan crossing was proposed.  The new crossings will also enhance the accessibility of the nearby countryside for existing residents living east of Brixham Road.

The site is not especially well served by public transport. Discussions with the leading local operator, Stagecoach, identified options for extension or re-routing of existing services and new bus stops are included in the masterplan to cater for new services passing in both directions along Brixham Road.   

Since traffic surveys were last conducted on Brixham Road the South Devon Link Road has been opened, releasing a bottleneck north of Torquay. This is believed to have led to an increase of traffic on the Torbay Western Corridor.  To understand the then current traffic conditions, extensive traffic counts were commissioned at junctions in the vicinity of the site. At the request of Torbay Council, and demonstrating the good level of collaboration achieved on the project, the scope of the surveys was expanded to gather information required by the Council in connection with other projects. 

Impacts at the local junctions were assessed within a Transport Assessment that was submitted in support of a planning application for the development.  The assessment identified that development traffic impacts at single junctions to the north and south of the site on Brixham Road required mitigation. Improvement schemes were proposed at both locations that would increase the capacity of the junctions sufficient to mitigate the development traffic impacts. The scope of these improvements was agreed with officers in the Transport Development department of Torbay Council, overcoming potential traffic grounds for objection to the scheme in mid-2018. 

Other, non-transport related aspects of the application took more time to resolve and by the summer of 2019, further highway improvements had been implemented by Torbay Council in the vicinity that may release further bottlenecks on the Western Corridor, affecting traffic flows on the section of relevance for the Inglewood application.  For this reason, at the time of writing, the traffic counts were being repeated, in order to inform a reassessment of the impact on the development on current traffic conditions.  The new analysis will be submitted in support of the planning application within an addendum to the Transport Assessment.