Pre- Submission Draft Waste Local Plan

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Thank you for providing National Highways with the opportunity to provide comment on the pre-submission draft version of the waste plan for Nottinghamshire and Nottingham.
National Highways (formally Highways England) has been appointed by the Secretary of State for Transport as a strategic highway company under the provisions of the Infrastructure Act 2015 and is the highway authority, traffic authority and street authority for the Strategic Road Network (SRN). It is our role to maintain the safe and efficient operation of the SRN whilst acting as a delivery partner to national economic growth.
In responding to development plan consultations, we have regard to DfT Circular 01/2022: The Strategic Road Network and the Delivery of Sustainable Development (‘the Circular’). This sets out how interactions with the Strategic Road Network should be considered in the making of plans and development management considerations. In addition to the Circular, the response set out below is also in accordance with the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) and other relevant policies.
Within the Local Plan area, the SRN consists of the M1 motorway, A453, A52, A1, and A46 trunk roads. Other roads within the plan area are the responsibility of Nottinghamshire County Council and Nottingham City Council.
We have considered the contents of the pre-submission Plan and note that the Plan does not introduce any specific sites for development, only the types of location that are considered acceptable. The purpose of the Plan therefore is as a policy framework document, which introduces a set of strategic and development management policies to guide decision making.
National Highways is supportive of the policies set out in the Plan, and particularly welcomes Policy DM12 which seeks to address potential impacts on the surrounding highway network, and which we find to be in accordance with the NPPF and Circular 01/2022.
National Highways will continue to assess planning applications for new developments on a case-by-case basis in accordance with the above-mentioned policies and will only object to new developments if there would be an unacceptable impact on highway safety, or the residual cumulative impacts on the road network would be severe. This could refer to traffic impacts of proposed development, or potential boundary related impacts where the site is immediately adjacent to our network.
Notwithstanding the above, it should also be noted as per Circular 01/2022 that new accesses to/from the SRN are restricted. The principle of creating new connections on the SRN should be identified at the plan-making stage in circumstances where an assessment of the potential impacts on the SRN can be considered alongside whether such new infrastructure is essential for the delivery of strategic growth. Where this has not occurred, there will be no new connections on those sections of the network designed for high-speed traffic (i.e.: motorways, and dual carriageways with partially or comprehensively limited access).
National Highways has no further comments to make on the Plan at this time.
If I can be of any further assistance on this matter, please do not hesitate in contacting me.