A65 Kirkstall Road Traffic Assessments

One item that will have to be considered for any planning application is the effects of traffic generated by any development and the capacity of the road network to accomodate that traffic.

In the last couple of years the Council have conducted at least two studies of traffic flows on the A65: the A65 Transport Assessment May 2005 and A65 A660 Traffic Flows Feb 2007.

The 2005 study
This comes to some pretty daming conclusions about the ability of the A65 to take more traffic, the additional demand on the road in this study DOES NOT include: The Kirkstall Forge Development; the BHS/Alders development; the Kirkstall District Centre or the Waste Transfer Site (the previous site had burnt down before the study):

5.0 Conclusion

• the A65 is at capacity, 1950 vehicles per hour at the cordon, 1000 elsewhere 

• there is evidence of peak spreading with more trips travelling outside the peak periods 

• public transport opportunities have been studied and are considered unlikely to result in a significant mode shift to either buses or trains. Potentially 590 trips have been identified 

• future growth at the Airport has been assessed and will worsen conditions on the A65 and surrounding network. An additional 1260 car trips per day have been identified. 

• developer generated trips have been assessed and these will worsen conditions on the A65 and surrounding network. 3310 additional 2 way peak hour trips have been identified from developments with traffic generations available 

• few opportunities to improve highway capacity have been identified. The possible improvements to the Outer Ring Road were not available to this study. There are plans for a quality bus corridor. One junction at Menston has been identified as providing additional capacity. 

• the A65 does not have the capacity to carry all the identified additional trips in the peak periods

 The 2007 study 
This shows week day 'peak spreading' with the hours between 07:00 to 10:00 and 16:00 to 19:00 now almost reaching the capacity of the road.  The weekend figures show significantly fewer traffic movements , however anyone that lives near or uses the A65 Kirkstall Road at a weekend knows that it is often at the point of gridlock, so not alot will move!


So where does this leave the Waste Transfer Site?
Any developer would have to demonstrate how their plans comply with Planning Policy Statement 10: Planning for Sustainable Waste Management (PPS10), including:

21. In deciding which sites and areas to identify for waste management facilities, waste planning authorities should:
    (i) assess their suitability for development against each of the following criteria:

• the extent to which they support the policies in this PPS; 

• the physical and environmental constraints on development, including existing and proposed neighbouring land uses (see Annex E); 

• the cumulative effect of previous waste disposal facilities on the well-being of the local community, including any significant adverse impacts on environmental quality, social cohesion and inclusion or economic potential; 

• the capacity of existing and potential transport infrastructure to support the sustainable movement of waste, and products arising from resource recovery, seeking when practicable and beneficial to use modes other than road transport.
  

We feel the last two are going to be a pretty tall order.