BBC news reported this morning on Transport for New Homes’ (TfNH) report today (“Building car
dependency”) highlighting the continued practice of Developers of creating new housing that
builds in car dependency.
TfNH report that“Despite plans for vibrant communities with local shops, leisure facilities and
community services, the visions of developers have not materialised” and that“estates [described] as ‘walkable vibrant communities’ were dominated by parking, driveways and roads”.
Sadly this is still what we are seeing in parts of Devon.
“Every month we see planning applications that are dominated by roads and parking but have given
little thought to how people might walk or cycle. It’s not uncommon to see new housing developments
proposed with no pavements for people to walk on. The presumption that the car is the only way to
get about predominates”, says Mike Walton of the Exeter Cycling Campaign who have a team of
volunteers that review new planning applications in and around Exeter.
This isn’t the future we want to see. The Exeter Cycling Campaign has a vision for new homes
to be within a 15 minute safe walk or cycle from essential services like the doctors, schools and
shops. This is what helps create a vibrant community. Few of us want to be dependent on a car
to do simple things like pop to the shops or the post office. If we’re to decarbonise our
transport quickly we need to be making it more convenient to walk, metro/bus and cycle.
Exeter City Council are doing the right thing in the city. Through their Liveable Exeter initiative
they are using brownfield sites with plans for these new developments to be less car-based and
accessible by foot and bike. Sadly though too many new housing developments around Exeter
are being agreed with car-dependency built in and no thought for people walking or cycling.
This undermines the Secretary of State for Transport’s declared goal that “Public transport and
active travel (walking and cycling) will be the natural first choice for daily activities”.