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Many of the priorities defined throughout this strategy will require effective co-ordination and hands on day to day management. This should be the responsibility of the area's two Access Officers. However, access is a multi-sectoral issue, with many departments and external agencies having an important role to play. The local access forum should go some way towards helping to ensure that the strategy is implemented in an integrated way. It is also important that it is linked to wider local authority activities, particularly in terms of the development planning system and the area's transport strategy.
Planning for access provision can be undertaken in two key ways. Firstly, development plans should provide policy support for access. There has recently been extensive debate on the extent to which local and structure plans can deal with access. There has also been support for the development of a Subject Local Plan for access. It is not yet clear which option the Scottish Executive will opt for, but in the meantime it is worth considering how the local planning system can address access more effectively. All of the Local Plans within North Lanarkshire take access into account at the moment, but the types of policy used vary between the areas.
The Glasgow and Clyde Valley Structure Plan makes a clear commitment to promoting walking and cycling as sustainable alternatives to the private car. Through its hierarchical approach to transport management, the plan sets a strong context within which the strategy can be development. At the local level, access is treated as a different subject area by different plans. For example, the Cumbernauld Local Plan focuses on links with transport, whilst the Kilsyth Local Plan relates more to access in terms of countryside recreation.
However, coverage of access in the area's development plans varies, and in a number of cases there is scope for extending it to provide a more proactive and comprehensive framework. In particular, policies should recognise the role of this strategy and seek to support it through provision of broad policies supporting its general principles. The following should be considered for local plans in North Lanarkshire, as they are reviewed:
- inclusion of a policy making reference to the access strategy and the existing path network;
- policies linking access provision, with housing areas and other community based developments;
- more proactive policies, which note the scope for seeking assistance for, and community involvement in, access provision;
- iclusion of policies with a wider range of topic areas (i.e. better integration of access issues).
As most of this can only be achieved in the medium to long term, given the nature of the planning process, in the meantime this srategy should be taken into account in planning decision making, despite its non statutory status. Development planners should be made aware of the proposals and progress on an ongoing basis, to ensure that access becomes an integral part of planning policy as plans are replaced or amended.
The statutory planning system also has an important role to play in terms of development control. The consultation highlighted some local concerns about new developments not taking into account connections with nearby path networks. Some examples of good practice in development control have already emerged in the area where planners have worked with developers to secure a commitment to providing new footpath links.
The access officers should play an active role in liaising directly with planners to make more of opportunities for access provision linked with development through the use of conditions on planning consents, or planning agreements. Opportunities might include provision of cycle racks, signage or information boards in either housing or commercial developments, or employers could be encouraged to provide staff showers and lockers to allow users to change and store clothes. In larger scale regeneration schemes, key agencies and developers should be encouraged to participate in local access forum discussions from the outset of project planning. Specific examples of where such links might be useful are also highlighted within the Action Area plans.
North Lanarkshire's Transport Strategy also provides an opportunity for developing access in an integrated way. The Transport Strategy makes reference to access and healthy transport, and this access strategy has been developed to complement its aims. Given that consultation on the Transport Strategy has only recently been completed, this is a good time to also be finalising the access strategy. Many local authorities have not been able to establish integration between access planning and transportation. We would therefore recommend that the Public Access Strategy be approved and promoted alongside the Transport Strategy, their aims being mutually supportive.
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