Active Travel England (ATE) became a statutory consultee on the 1st June 2023 on all major planning applications that include 150 dwellings or more, building(s) (not exclusively residential) of 7,500m2 internal floor space or more and sites where the overall development area is 5ha or more.

We’ve been engaging with our clients and partners to provide answers to the most frequently asked questions about the new guidelines and the Active Travel England Planning Application Assessment tool.

Some of the most popular Active Travel England Statutory Consultee FAQs are set out below. For the full list, don’t hesitate to get in touch.

Will ATE have powers of direction? Will this result in risks of referral to the Secretary of State/PINS?
Unlike National Highways (which is a highway authority responsible for the Strategic Road Network) ATE has no powers of direction, nor can it refer decisions to the Secretary of State or PINS.

On planning applications, what is ATE’s relationship to the Local Highway Authority (LHA) which will be considering active travel aspects of developments? Who has the final say and how will conflicting views be managed?

Both ATE and the LHA are Statutory Consultees and the views of both bodies will need to be considered by the LPA.

The LHA will be considering all transport aspects of developments while ATE will focus on walking and cycling provision.

ATE has expertise in this area and so it is likely its views will carry significant weight, but this is a matter for the LPA who will need to balance all representations.

ATE will also be periodically reviewing the responses of LHAs to planning applications to determine the ambition and consistency .

Will there be a requirement for more surveys of cycle and pedestrian flows?
ATE are mainly concerned to ensure that sites can be accessed conveniently and safely by walking and cycling and so enable new active travel journeys to be made. Existing cycling and walking levels may be suppressed if conditions aren’t suitable and so often aren’t a good guide for the future. However, where schemes affect important existing routes, it may be useful to gather cycle and pedestrian flows to inform ATE’s assessment.

What tools/criteria do ATE use to assess a scheme/development?
ATE has developed a number of tools to check the quality of provision for active travel. These include:

• The Link Check tool
• The Junction Assessment Tool
• Planning Assessment Tool

How can PJA help?
We are perfectly placed to assist our clients and partners to navigate these new requirements while continuing to achieve their wider aims.

PJA can help by:

• Providing advice on the intricacies of the ATE guidelines, the expectations of ATE and comparing your project to our wide project experience in active travel,
• Providing independent reviews of masterplans,
• Running of the ATE toolkits to highlight design failures,
• Early engagement to understand impact on NDA,
• Educating Local Authorities on projects,
  Unlocked development through active travel infrastructure and modal shift.

For the full list of FAQs or, for any further information on how the new guidelines might impact on your project, get in touch.

Find out more about our active travel services here

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