HERTFORDSHIRE COUNTY COUNCIL
HIGHWAYS AND TRANSPORT CABINET PANEL
TUESDAY 9 NOVEMBER 2010 AT 9.00 AM
REVIEW OF HIGHWAY DESIGN GUIDE ‘ROADS IN HERTFORDSHIRE’
Report of the Director of Environment & Commercial Services
Author: Nick Gough Tel: 01992 588431
Executive Member: Stuart Pile (Highways & Transport)
1. Purpose of Report
1.1 To inform the Panel about the review of the highway design guide, obtain any comments on its contents and layout and to seek their endorsement of the document to allow it to be published.
2. Summary
2.1 The current (second) edition of Roads in Hertfordshire – A Guide for New Developments (RiH) was published in June 2001. It gives advice on the transport aspects of residential and commercial developments. It is principally aimed at developers to ensure that new additions to the highway network are designed and constructed to appropriate standards. The guide has being reviewed to incorporate changes to government guidance and to increase its scope to explicitly cover highway improvements made by Hertfordshire Highways.
2.2 The review has been carried out largely in-house. The Highways & Transport Panel has been represented in the process by the 3 person Member Reference Group.
2.3 Following consultation with around 200 stakeholders the review is now complete subject to final endorsement from the Executive Member following advice from the Panel. Any comments made by the Panel will be considered and then the Executive Member will advise the Director of Environment & Commercial Services on the formal adoption of the new document.
2.4 Members can see the full document on hertsdirect with papers for this meeting of the Panel. A paper copy has been made available in the Members’ Room.
2.5 Policy support is given by references at appropriate places in Volume 2 Transport Policy Document of LTP 3 which is currently out for consultation. The design guide is cited in these polices:
· 3.1 Access to Services
· 3.4 Climate Change: Emissions Reduction and Climate Risk
· 3.8 Development Control
· 3.11 Highway Signing
· 3.14 New Roads and Highway Improvements
· 3.15 Parking
· 3.20 Road Hierarchy and Network Development
· 3.27 Transport Asset Management Plan
· 3.30 Walking
3. Background
3.1 The current (second) edition of Roads in Hertfordshire – A Guide for New Developments (RiH) was published in June 2001. It primarily provides detailed advice on the transport aspects of residential and commercial developments on local roads. It is principally aimed at developers to ensure that new additions to the highways network are designed and constructed to appropriate standards. The new edition has been written to describe all improvements to the highway network whether made as part of a development or by Hertfordshire Highways.
3.2 Since 2001 there have been numerous changes to government guidance. One of the most significant was the withdrawal of Design Bulletin 32 (DB32) Residential Roads and Footpaths when it was replaced by Manual for Streets (MfS) in 2007. The County Council has adopted a statement on its interpretation of the Manual. This has been incorporated in the text of the new edition.
3.3 At the meeting on 24 November 2009 the Highways & Transport Panel considered a report on adjustments to procedures relating to the adoption of new highway. These were reviewed as part of the scrutiny of highway adoption in February 2010 and have been incorporated in the new edition.
3.4 The design guide contributes to the following priorities in to the Corporate Plan 2009/ 12:
· Ensure a positive childhood - by supporting the design of streets which encourage walking in line with the Manual for Streets.
· Reduce carbon emissions - by continuing to promote schemes offering modal choice and by adding specific advice on links to climate change.
· Promote safe neighbourhoods - by encouraging the creation of liveable neighbourhoods and contributing towards the reduction of traffic-related injury and death.
· Be a leading council – by improving access to public transport and linking street design with maintenance by reference to the Transport Asset Management Plan.
4. Process and structure
4.1 The review has been largely carried out using existing resources within and under the control of HCC. During the latter stages WSP transport consultants have been employed to support the final editing, benchmarking and publication process.
4.2 The review has been led by the Transport Planning & Policy unit of the Environment Department with technical input from officers from Hertfordshire Highways. It is overseen by a Project Steering Group chaired by the Head of Transportation Planning & Policy with representatives from Hertfordshire Highways, the Passenger Transport unit and Rights of Way. The Local Planning Authorities are represented by the Borough of Broxbourne. The work has been carried out in consultation with the District and Borough Councils chiefly via the Development Control sub-committee of HCTOA (the Hertfordshire Chief Technical Officers’ Association).
4.3 The Panel considered a report on the review at its meeting on 11 February 2010 which introduced them to the process, gave them sight of an early draft of the policy section of the guide and sought their views on their involvement in the process. As a result a Member Reference Group was set up. This comprised
N Bell, M Cowan and T Heritage.
4.4 In agreement with the Member Reference Group the programme outlined to the Panel in February was extended to allow a full 6 weeks for the draft to be made available to 200 stakeholders to comment on.
4.5 Following liaison with the Project Steering Group and Member Reference Group an email was sent on 20 July seeking views on the draft of the third edition. It gave links to pages on the HCC website hertsdirect.org on which consultees could read the current document, the proposed one and gain access to a short questionnaire to record their overall views or create an email for detailed responses. In addition 6 members of the Disabled Person’s Access Group were contacted by letter.
4.6 The results of this consultation were very disappointing if measured by the numbers of responses. A small number of written representations were received and 2 questionnaires were completed. These are summarised at Appendix 1.
4.7 In order to check that the email was received and to gauge some of the reasons for this poor response, a selection of 27 were contacted by telephone on 10 September. This identified a further 6 consultees who acknowledge receiving the email on 20 July but not, for various reasons, choosing to reply. Messages were left for others to reply but pressure of work and conflicting priorities has meant that they have not done so.
4.8 Reassurance on the overall quality of the revised document is given by the benchmarking exercise carried out on the HCC guide set against equivalent documents from Cambridgeshire, Leicestershire and Oxfordshire. The results are summarised in the table at Appendix 3.
4.9 Following this report to the Panel and consideration and incorporation of any resulting changes the results will be reported to the Executive Member for final ratification before publication.
5. Content of the new edition
5.1 The structure of the current document has been a cause for complaint from users. This has been revised by the removal of one tier of subdivision so that it now consists of a total of 5 separate sections. Further complication was caused by the volumes being subdivided into sections and then chapters. This intermediate level has been removed.
5.2 Members can see the full document on hertsdirect with papers for this meeting of the Panel. A paper copy has been made available in the Members’ Room. The contents of the new edition have been attached as Appendix 2 to this report in a form that sets the new against the old. This demonstrates the new structure as well as the new subjects covered.
5.3 Since 2001 there have been numerous changes to government guidance. One of the most significant was the withdrawal of Design Bulletin 32 (DB32) Residential Roads and Footpaths when it was replaced by Manual for Streets (MfS) in 2007. The County Council adopted a statement on its interpretation of the Manual which has been incorporated in the new edition of our design guide.
5.4 A number of areas have grown in prominence and have therefore received greater coverage in the new edition. The following topics have been covered in new chapters:
§ Climate change
§ Green Infrastructure
§ Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS)
5.5 In order to achieve greater consistency the new edition has been written to describe areas of work on the highways of the County, not just those improvements made by developers. New chapters have therefore been written to covers aspects of the work of Hertfordshire Highways not previously included in the guide. These include:
§ Casualty Reduction and Safety Cameras
§ Network Management
§ Safer Routes to School
5.6 Shortly after the publication of the current (2nd) edition of RIH Hertfordshire County Council (HCC) reorganised the delivery of the highway service through the formation of the Hertfordshire Highways (HH) strategic partnership with Amey Lafarge and Mouchel. It has also changed the way the development control function is exercised by bringing all engineers responsible for the planning aspects in-house and creating an implementation team in each HH area office. Meanwhile at district level 80% of the highway agency agreements referred to in the current edition were rescinded.
5.7 At the meeting on 24 November 2009 the Highways & Transport Panel considered a report on adjustments to procedures relating to the adoption of new highway. These were reviewed as part of the scrutiny of highway adoption in February 2010 and have been incorporated in the new edition.
5.8 The document will be accessed by the majority of users via the internet. As well as saving printing costs and making updating much easier, this enables electronic ‘hyperlinks’ to take readers to references automatically on screen. It will be stored there in chapters and as a whole. It will be electronicicaly searchable but also be provided with a full index as well as the usual supporting sections including references, glossary etc. These aspects have been developed with Andy Harris, Knowledge Manager at Hertfordshire Highways.
6. Issues for the future
6.1 Introduction of staff to the new edition will be critical to its success. The report Risk Aversion - Highway Risk and Liability Claims published in July 2009 by the ICE and UK Roads Boards reinforces the view that highway engineers have tended to be unnecessarily fearful of innovation. Perhaps the biggest challenge in embedding Manual for Streets into the design ethos in Hertfordshire will be providing training and support to encourage professionals to think creatively about their roles and to move away from standardised, prescriptive and risk-averse design.
6.2 The new edition of the design guide has been written with easier updating in mind. Review lead officers have been identified to monitor changes in each specialist area so that individual chapters can be updated as and when necessary. Subject to other operational constraints it is currently planned to do this on an 18-monthy cycle.
6.3 The companion to MfS entitled Manual for Streets 2 – Wider Application of the Principles was published at the end of September 2010. As the name suggests, this recommends the use of a more flexible approach to a wider range of highway types and locations. This is backed up with further research and the results of case studies. These include the outcomes of the Mixed Priority Route demonstration project which featured St Peters Street, St Albans. There are recommendations with regard to aspects such as the consideration of visibility at junctions and other safety-related aspects of design that will need to be understood by and discussed with Hertfordshire Highways before further changes are made to the County design guide. This dialogue will be promoted by the in-house training session that we are arranging with transport consultants WSP who have been active in the development of the new guidance.
6.4 Implementation of the first elements of The Flood & Water Management Act 2010 began in October. The County Council’s understanding of its role in respect of drainage is developing. Members on the Environment and Planning Cabinet Panel will have received reports from the Land Management Projects team in the Environment & Commercial Services department on this topic. It is likely that this will impact on our responsibilities towards and therefore coverage of drainage in the highway design guide.
7. Recommended Response
7.1 Panel members are asked to make any comments on the final draft 3rd edition of the design guide. Their advice is requested on their future involvement in the review and, following that, in the ongoing maintenance of this guidance.
8. Financial Implications
8.1 The cost of the review has been met within existing operational budgets allocated to the various units of the Environment & Commercial Services Department contributing to the review. Ongoing maintenance and updating of the design guide will be built into annual programmes and covered by future operational budgets.
Appendix 1 Formal Consultation Feedback
Written comments
Respondent / Format / Comment summaryCroudace Homes / Letter / · Question legality of commuted sums
· Criticism of road adoption process
Association of British Drivers / Email / · Drop the Hierarchy of Road Users
· Stop installing traffic calming
· Checking of safety audits
· Inflexible application of design standards
Environment Agency / Email / Suggested additions with regard to drainage and the environment
Sustrans / Email / Generally supportive. Comments in favour of pedestrians and cyclists. Detailed comments to be considered by appropriate technical sub-group
Hertsmere Borough Council / Email / Generally supportive. Detailed comments to be considered by appropriate technical sub-group
Appendix 2 – Contents of the new edition in comparison to existing guide
ROADS IN HERTFORDSHIRE – HIGHWAY DESIGN GUIDE
3rd EDITION FINAL DRAFT
CONTENTS
Section 1 - Information and General Guidance