Developer Contributions Supplementary Guidance

Overview

1. City Plan’s mobility infrastructure policies as well as the principles within the ‘place-based approach’ require development to have better active travel and public transport infrastructure at its heart.  

2. The identified infrastructure required to support the Plan’s aims and mixed-use housing proposals is set out in Part 4, Tables 3 – 10. For the most part, these will be delivered within development layouts, by development as it is constructed. Some of these proposals are attributable to the needs of a single development site only and the intervention is in the immediate vicinity of the site on Council controlled land. These are also expected to be delivered directly by development. 

3. These requirements to deliver connectivity for walking and wheeling, and good accessibility by public transport, are put in place to reduce the reliance on private car use, reduce private car trip generation and therefore directly relates to mitigating the impact of development on the road network. The direct relation of impact with mitigation, and apportioning the delivery, is shown in Appendix 2. 

4. These accord with the transport hierarchy and the aim of the plan for ‘a city where you don’t need to own a car to move around’, contributing to the delivery of a net zero city by 2030, cleaner air and supporting our physical and mental well-being.  

Policy Context 

5. NPF4 Policy 13, Sustainable Transport seeks proposals to improve, enhance or provide active travel infrastructure, public transport infrastructure or multi-modal hubs.  

6. NPF4 Policy 18, Infrastructure First, seeks to encourage, promote and facilitate an infrastructure first approach to land use planning, which puts infrastructure considerations at the heart of placemaking. 

7. NPF4 Policy 14 Design, quality and place supports development proposals that consistent with the six qualities of successful places, including Connected: Supporting well connected networks that make moving around easy and reduce car dependency.  

8. City Plan 2030 has a commitment to an infrastructure first approach. The following policies set the expectations for ensuring infrastructure capacity is available and cumulative assessment applied to understanding the impacts of development:   

Policy Inf 3 Infrastructure Delivery and Developer Contributions:  

Where, by the nature of the infrastructure, it cannot be delivered by the developer directly, developer contributions will be sought. Proposals will be required to deliver or contribute to the following infrastructure provision where relevant and necessary to mitigate any negative impact (either on an individual or cumulative basis) and to ensure the proposal can meet the Council’s sustainable transport targets (mode share targets) and where commensurate to the scale of the proposed development:  

a. transport proposals and safeguards from Part 4, tables 3-10 and/ or interventions identified in transport assessments and/or transport consultations in accordance with Policy Inf 4 Provision of Transport Infrastructure. 

Policy Inf 4 Provision of Transport Infrastructure:  

Development proposals relating to housing or other development sites which would generate a significant amount of trips, shall demonstrate through an appropriate transport assessment or statement, and proposed mitigation (including development layout, form, design and other measures) that:  

a. local, city-wide and cross boundary individual and cumulative transport identified in the City Plan Transport Appraisal modelling and analysis can be timeously addressed where this is relevant and necessary for the proposal; and  

b. the required transport infrastructure, as set out in Part 4 Tables 3-10, place policies/ development principles or forthcoming guidance in Place Briefs/Masterplans has been addressed where relevant to the proposal.  

This policy requires that proposals carry out further assessment at the planning application stage to further inform any local impacts. This should take into account the impact of any windfall sites. Cross-boundary impacts may need to be considered for any unallocated proposals near or at the local authority boundary. A similar approach would be expected for the assessment of the impact of any new allocations or windfall proposals in adjacent local authority areas. A proportionate approach to the scope of the assessment will be applied at the application stage. 

Evidence base  

9. The transport appraisals that have informed the spatial strategy, understanding the impacts of proposed growth on the transport network and identified interventions to mitigate the impacts include:  

• City Plan 2030 Transport Assessment (Jacobs, September 2021),  

• Edinburgh Strategic Sustainable Transport Study (Steer/Jacobs, October 2019) 

• LDP Transport Appraisal (2013, 2014) 

• West Edinburgh Transport Assessment (WETA) Refresh 2016 

• North Edinburgh Transport Action Plan (NETAP) (2008)  

10. Some of these earlier appraisals provide the reference case for the City Plan appraisal – the understanding that the proposed mitigation in LDP 1, including the interventions in WETA, would be implemented.