Highways plans and strategies

​The Northamptonshire highway network continues to grow year-on-year and we constantly look to refine and improve how we manage the highway assets to develop maintenance strategies which balance the demand on the network, available maintenance funding and public expectation.

The importance of establishing and practising a sound approach to asset management is recognised by the Department for Transport.

The Highway Maintenance Efficiency Programme was established to assist local authorities with managing assets. More recently future highways funding allocations will reflect how well a local authority practices asset management.

The Highway Asset Management Policy and Strategy document is supplemented by other key documents including the Highway Network Management Plan and the Northamptonshire Transport Plan.

In 2017 Government published its Cycling and Walking Investment Strategy. The document sets out Government’s ambition to make walking and cycling the natural choices for shorter journeys, or as part of longer journeys. It supports the transformation of local areas to tackle congestion, improve physical and mental health and strengthen local economies.

This was followed in 2020 by the publication of Gear Change which sets outs Government's bold vision for cycling and walking, and the second Cycling and Walking Investment Strategy in 2022 reaffirming the Government’s commitment to making walking, wheeling and cycling the natural choices for millions more journeys.

Local Cycling and Walking Infrastructure Plans (LCWIPs) provide a new strategic approach to identifying cycling and walking improvements at a local level. They enable a long-term approach to developing local cycling and walking networks over the next ten years. They will also form a vital part of the Government’s strategy to increase the number of trips made on foot or by cycle.

The three key outputs of LCWIPs are a:

• network plan for walking and cycling which identifies preferred routes and core zones for future route development
• prioritised programme of infrastructure improvements for future investment
• technical report which sets out the underlying analysis carried out and provides a narrative which supports the identified improvements and network

It is not mandatory for local authorities to have LCWIPs, but the Department for Transport has advised that Councils who have plans will be well placed to make the case for future investment. The Department for Transport has also made it plain that any scheme funding bids submitted need to meet the design standards outlined in the latest cycling guidance Local Transport Note 1/20 (LTN 1/20).

LCWIPs in development

We have already started to develop LCWIPs in West Northamptonshire. We are following the six stage process set out by the Department for Transport in the LCWIP technical guidance.

All comments received as part of the Safer Streets Commonplace consultation are being used to inform the development of the LCWIPs.

We have also held workshops with stakeholders at key stages during the development of the LCWIPS for each town.

Brackley LCWIP

As part of High Speed Two Limited’s commitment to ensure there are high quality cycling links across High Speed Two, the Department for Transport commissioned a light-touch LCWIP for Brackley to identify suitable cycling routes. This Draft Interim Brackley LCWIP was published in 2021 at the request of the Department for Transport.

We have since developed the interim plan into a draft LCWIP for Brackley. The draft Brackley LCWIP was consulted on in February 2024 and the consultation documents can be found on our consultation hub. 

Following feedback, the document has been updated and is due to go to Cabinet for approval in April 2025.

Northampton LCWIP

A first draft of the Northampton LCWIP was consulted on in October 2020. We have since revisited the document in light of previous consultation comments and through stakeholder engagement. Consultation on the draft document is planned for early summer 2025.

Daventry LCWIP

A draft LCWIP for Daventry was consulted on February 2024 and the consultation documents can be found on our consultation hub.  Following feedback, the document has been updated and is due to go to Cabinet for approval in April 2025.

Towcester LCWIP

A draft LCWIP for Towcester was consulted on February 2024 and the consultation documents can be found on our consultation hub.  Following feedback, the document has been updated and is due to go to Cabinet for approval in April 2025.

Next steps

Once the LCWIPs have been approved by Cabinet, the next step will be to undertake feasibility design. Once we have more detailed plans we will be in a stronger position to apply for funding to build the schemes.

Due to the number of schemes and limited government funding available, there will be a need to prioritise which schemes are taken forward first based on feedback on local priorities from the consultation, as well as other factors.

Stakeholder engagement will be undertaken as part of the design process and again before the schemes are built to understand the local context. 

The Local Transport Plan sets West Northamptonshire's vision, objectives, transport policies and priorities for the next 5 years and beyond.

Production of a Local Transport Plan is a statutory requirement of the Transport Act 2000 and Local Transport Act 2008 which requires us to set out our plans and policies for transport as well as how we intend to implement them.

The Local Transport Plan covers 16 policy areas, grouped around three themes:

• connecting people better
• shaping healthier places
• mobility enabling prosperity 

West Northamptonshire Local Transport Plan 2025 to 2045

An Integrated Impact Assessment (IIA) has been undertaken as part of the Local Transport Plan, which combines several sustainability and appraisal processes.

An assessment of the carbon impacts of the policies and interventions within the Local Transport Plan and supporting strategies has been undertaken using the Sub-National Transport Body (STB) Carbon Assessment Playbook (CAP).

The feedback received from consultation on the Local Transport Plan in summer 2024 and the changes made can be found in the consultation report. 

The Local Transport Plan will be complemented by a series of supporting strategies and action plans.

The Bus Service Improvement Plan outlines plans for improving bus services and the Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Strategy sets out how a network of charge points across West Northamptonshire will be developed.

The Air Quality Action Plan outlines the steps we take now and in the future to improve air quality in specific areas and reduce air pollution in general. 

The following strategies and action plans will be developed to replace existing thematic and town strategies:

• Northampton Transport and Parking Strategy
• Active Travel Strategy
• Rail Action Plan
• Mobility Hubs Action Plan
• Road Safety Strategy
• Freight Action Plan
• Asset Management Plan
• Network Management Plan
• Rights of Way Improvement Plan
• Highways Development Management Guidance for New Developments
• Parking Standards

Thematic transport strategies

Town transport strategies

With the current pressures being placed on local authority budgets the need to be effectively and efficiently managing the highway network has never been greater.

The objectives, policies and standards required to effectively deliver services and manage the county's highway network are detailed in the Network Management Plan.

The Northamptonshire Parking Standards document sets the parking standards we will use when assessing developments. The document was adopted on 6 September 2016.

The parking standards outlined in this document are set as a minimum, so encouraging well-designed parking as part of the development. The document also sets new dimensions for parking spaces as vehicles have become larger.

The approved Northamptonshire Rights of Way Improvement Plan was published in July 2020. It shows what we intend doing to improve the quantity and quality of access to the countryside over the next few years.

As well as a detailed action plan, the document explains how public rights of way and access routes fit in with other important strategies such as the local transport plan, growth strategies, the healthy lifestyle agenda and agri-environment schemes.

The Northamptonshire Strategic Traffic Model is our tool for testing major transport and development proposals.

It is a full 4-stage transport model covering:

• trip generation
• mode choice
• trip distribution
• assignment

The demand model (trip generation/mode choice/trip distribution) and the public transport model are created using EMME3 software. The highway model is created using a suite of software called SATURN (Simulation and Assignment of Traffic to Urban Road Networks) originally developed by the University of Leeds and since marketed and developed in association with Atkins.

The model:

• is created in accordance with guidance issued by the Department for Transport
• covers the whole of the county, with an increasingly less detailed coverage beyond the county borders

The basis of the model is a combination of Roadside Interview Surveys (being replaced in the current model update by mobile phone data) and traffic and bus or rail passenger counts. As the survey information cannot represent all trips, data from the census and National Travel Survey is used to infill the missing trips, so that the model should represent all trips beyond very short journeys in Northamptonshire. This model is known as the ‘base year’ model.

These trips are represented in the model in a matrix of movements between zones. The zones vary from quite small areas near town centres to some very large areas well away from the county.

The public transport model represents the various bus and rail routes which exist in the county, together with information on their frequency.

The highway model has a simplified computer model of the county’s road network, and of key routes to destinations further afield. The network does not include every single residential or minor rural road, but is sufficiently detailed for trip patterns to be modelled.

Each link in the network has a length and a free-flow speed, together with an equation by which speed reduces as traffic flow increases. In addition, in the more detailed areas of model coverage there are simplified junction models of the roundabout, traffic signals or give-way as appropriate to allow the delay at those junctions to be modelled.

The trips from the matrix are ‘assigned’ to the network. On each ‘run’ the model looks for best route between two points. This routeing is determined from something known as generalised cost, which is a combination of time and distance. As the route choice varies as flow increases, the model runs dozens of iterations until a degree of stability in the assignment is found. It then applies information from the last few model runs so that vehicles travelling between A and B can follow a number of different routes, representing the different choices people make.

An independent set of traffic counts (known as validation data) which has not been used in the production of the trip data is used to check that the base year assignment model is representing things correctly. There is a series of statistical tests set by the Department for Transport which the model is required to meet to demonstrate that it is a good model of what is happening.

Future year scenarios are created by making changes to either the network and/or the trips. Local planning authorities will ask us to test the level of development in their local plans, and identify what transport improvements are needed. We will look at what areas become congested with the additional traffic and propose appropriate solutions. We also test our own road schemes in the same way.

Developers also ask us to test their developments (at their cost) through the model to inform their planning application. This is done by our consultants, so that we have confidence the information is correct, and we check that the various inputs are correct.

The model has a graphical interface package within it. This is used to extract data from the model which is normally included in a report on the modelling undertaken.

The model has to be updated every few years to ensure that it is up to date. This mostly means re-surveying the trips, but the network is also checked for changes. For future year models, things like changes in Local Plan allocations and addition of any more development granted planning permission are updated on a much more regular basis.