FORMER GAS HOLDER STATION CAR PARK, LAND ...crawley.gov.uk/pub_livx/groups/operational/documents/p...Former Gas Holder Station Car Park, Land north-west of Crawley Avenue, Crawley

5 3 M a n o r W a y – G u i l d f o r d – S u r r e y – G U 2 7 R R

T e l : 0 1 4 8 3 3 0 0 7 1 5

E m a i l : a d m i n @ g a t e w a y - t s p . c o . u k

T r a n s p o r t P l a n n i n g

CONTENTS

Introduction and Background ............................................................................................................. 2

Site Location and Surrounding Highway Network .............................................................................. 2

Existing Site Operations ...................................................................................................................... 7

Traffic Generation and Impact ............................................................................................................ 9

Summary and Conclusions ................................................................................................................11

Figures

Figure 1: Location of the site

Figure 2: Site access

Figure 3: Access road junction with Crawley Avenue

Figure 4: Visibility to west along Crawley Avenue

Figure 5: Typical routes to and from the application site

Appendices

Appendix A: ATC survey results – Crawley Avenue

Appendix B: ATC survey results – site access road

Issue date: 9th

May 2013

Status: 1st

issue

Authorised by: SG

© Copyright Gateway TSP 2013

FORMER GAS HOLDER STATION CAR PARK, LAND NORTH-WEST OF

CRAWLEY AVENUE, CRAWLEY RH10 3PH

Application for Off-Site Airport Car Park

Technical Note

May 2013

Ref: SG/PC/13-0310 TN

Former Gas Holder Station Car Park, Land north-west of Crawley Avenue, Crawley RH10 3PH 2

Technical Note


May 2013

INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND

1. Gateway TSP is instructed by Ace Parking UK Ltd to provide transport planning advice

in relation to a retrospective planning application at the former gas holder site on

land north-west of Crawley Avenue, Crawley, West Sussex.

2. The application seeks to establish permission for the change of use of the existing car

park for long term airport parking for a temporary three year period.

3. This Technical Note considers the impact that the car park operations may have on

the local highway network.

SITE LOCATION AND SURROUNDING HIGHWAY NETWORK

4. The site lies to the north-west of the A2011 Crawley Avenue, consisting of a large

concrete former contracting yard and car park. The site is brownfield / previously

developed land and lies within the area of the proposed North East Crawley Sector

major redevelopment. Gatwick Airport is located 3km to the northwest and Crawley

Town Centre is 3km to the southwest.

5. The location of the site and the surrounding highway network is shown in Figure 1.


Technical Note


May 2013

Figure 1: Location of the site

6. The site is situated within a woodland surrounding and has two metre high palisade

fencing and native hedge screening around the site perimeter. Vehicular access

exists from the southern boundary of the site via a 150 metre long rural access road,

which leads to Crawley Avenue to the south.


Technical Note


May 2013

Figure 2: Site access

7. The access road varies in width between 3.7 metres and 5.0 metres, with a number

of speed humps in place along the access road to reduce traffic speeds. In addition to

the application site, the access road also serves agricultural uses to the east of the

application site and anglers use the two pathways that spur off to the left of the

access road to serve nearby fishing lakes.

8. At its junction with the A2011 Crawley Avenue, the access road is gated and forms a

left in / left out priority junction, with deceleration and acceleration lanes, onto the

eastbound carriageway of Crawley Avenue.


Technical Note


May 2013

Figure 3: Access road junction with Crawley Avenue

9. Visibility from the access road to the west along Crawley Avenue is provided as far as

to the crest of the bridge which passes over the Arun Valley and West Coastway

railway lines, which is a distance of some 370 metres.


Technical Note


May 2013

Figure 4: Visibility to west along Crawley Avenue

10. The A2011 Crawley Avenue is four lane dual carriageway and is derestricted, meaning

that the national speed limit of 70mph for dual carriageways applies. The visibility

splay requirements for a highway of this nature are based upon the stopping sight

distance (SSD) as calculated within TD 9/93 of the Design Manual for Roads and

Bridges (DMRB). For a highway with a design speed of 70mph (120kph), the desirable

minimum SSD is 295 metres. The existing visibility from the access road therefore

comfortably meets this design requirement.

11. An automatic traffic count (ATC) survey was commissioned by Gateway TSP to

identify the existing levels of traffic flow along the eastbound carriageway of Crawley

Avenue. The ATC was located to the west of the application site access and collected

a week’s worth of data during mid-April 2013. The survey results are contained

within Appendix A.


Technical Note


May 2013

12. The Annual Average Daily Traffic (AADT) flow level along the eastbound carriageway

of Crawley Avenue was found to be 16,411 vehicles with the respective Annual

Average Weekday Traffic (AAWT) flow found to be 17,937 vehicles. The weekday

peak hour was found to occur between 17:00-18:00 with a 5-day average flow of

1,650 vehicles.

EXISTING SITE OPERATIONS

13. The existing concrete hardstanding and former gas holder car park is used in relation

to the airport car parking operations. The operations are run by Ace Parking UK Ltd

who currently utilise up to 28 staff.

14. To accord with Park Mark criteria for the safe parking of cars and, allowing for

manoeuvring and space between cars, the site is able to accommodate up to 200

cars. The existing access, parking and turning arrangements are suitable for the car

park operations and will remain unchanged as part of the application.

15. Ace Parking UK Ltd operates a “meet and greet” long term off-airport car parking

business which operates full time throughout the year. It involves the customer

making an advance booking through one of their five separate affiliated booking

agencies, or independently via the internet, before driving their car from their

home/business address direct to the respective departure terminal at London

Gatwick Airport.

16. Customers are required to telephone a duty office number twenty minutes before

arrival at the respective terminal, thereby ensuring that one of their chauffeurs is

present to meet them. A crew bus operated by Ace Parking UK Ltd is available to

ensure that there are sufficient chauffeurs present at the airport to serve customers,

particularly during busy periods.

17. The car parking chauffeur, having met the customer and inspected the vehicle,

provides the customer with a receipt for the car keys, along with details for collecting

their vehicle upon their return.


Technical Note


May 2013

18. The customer’s vehicle is then driven away by Ace Parking UK Ltd’s chauffeur to a

transit compound, which is located at City Place along Gatwick Road, where it is

temporarily parked for a period of approximately 12 hours. The customer’s car keys

are deposited in a “drop safe” at the transit compound, where they are retrieved by

one of the company’s car runners to transfer the vehicle to the secure storage

compound at the application site.

19. Approximately 12-24 hours prior to the customer’s return, their car is taken from the

secure compound at the application site to the transit yard at City Place. From City

Place, both the north and south terminals are within a five minute drive, meaning

that when the customer telephones to confirm their arrival, having cleared customs,

their car can be driven promptly to the appropriate terminal.

20. Of the total number of employees, there is an approximately even split between the

number of chauffeurs who transfer the customer cars between the airport and the

transit compound, and the number of car runners who transfer the customer cars

between the company’s transit compound and the application site.

21. The routes taken between the application site and the transit compound are shown

on Figure 5.


Technical Note


May 2013

Figure 5: Typical routes to and from the application site

22. The key objective associated with the organisation of the company’s business is to

avoid the transit compound from becoming congested with customer’s cars, whilst at

the same time making sure that cars are returned from the application site to the

interim compound approximately 12 to 24 hours in advance of the customer’s return.

TRAFFIC GENERATION AND IMPACT

23. The nature of the service provided from the application site is such that the timings

of vehicle movements are entirely under the control of the car park operator. As a

general rule, cars are driven between the application site and the transit compound

between 06:00hrs and 16:00hrs. It is clearly in the operator’s interest to move

customer vehicles efficiently and therefore network peak periods are generally

avoided. All movements are undertaken in customer cars and no employees are

required to drive their own vehicles to the application site.


Technical Note


May 2013

24. The operation of the application site is therefore quite different to that of the transit

compound, where the chauffeurs who collect or deliver cars to the airport from the

transit compound do so on a 24 hour basis, depending on the requirements of the

client.

25. In order to determine the amount of traffic that the application site presently

generates, an ATC survey was undertaken along the site access road during late-April

and early May 2013 and collected a week’s worth of data. The survey results are

contained within Appendix B. The last day of the access survey fell on the Sunday

before a Bank Holiday Monday; however, the client has confirmed that this would

have had little or no effect on the number of car movements at the site.

26. As stated earlier, the access road also serves agricultural uses and the fishing lakes

which will generate some traffic movements in their own right. However, for a worst

case scenario, all traffic flows observed within the ATC are assumed to be in

association with the application use.

27. It can be seen from the results that the AAWT two-way flow level along the access

road was found to be 81 vehicles, i.e. approximately 40 arrivals and 40 departures

per weekday. Daily movements commence in the early hours of the morning

(however a proportion of these are likely to be in association with the agricultural

uses as described earlier) and finish by 16:00hrs.

28. During the typical morning network peak hour (08:00-09:00), 5-day average flow

levels on the access road decrease to just 2 arrivals and 2 departures. During the

afternoon network peak hour (17:00-18:00) there are clearly no movements

associated with the development. The 5-day average peak hour occurs between

09:00 and 10:00 when the two-way flow on the access road was found to be 11

vehicles, i.e. six arrivals and five departures.

29. In terms of daily flows along Crawley Avenue, the development related vehicular

traffic results in a percentage increase in AAWT flow of 0.2% which clearly has a

negligible effect on the operation of the local highway network.


Technical Note


May 2013

SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS

30. This Technical Note assesses the traffic movements and potential impacts associated

with the airport car parking operation on site.

31. The development results in a level of traffic generation that has a negligible effect on

the operation of the local highway network. All traffic movements to and from the

site may be undertaken outside of the network peak hours.

32. The existing site and access arrangements are appropriate for the type of operation

that is presently taking place on site.

33. In light of the foregoing, it is concluded that the proposal causes no material adverse

transport or highway impact and is therefore an entirely appropriate form of

development on these grounds.

Former Gas Holder Station Car Park, Land north-west of Crawley Avenue, Crawley RH10 3PH

Technical Note


May 2013

APPENDIX A

ATC survey results – Crawley Avenue

Site No: 02190001 Site Reference: 02190001

A2011 CRAWLEY AVE CRAWLEY

From 16/04/2013 To 24/04/2013 Channel: EASTBOUND

Time Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat Sun 5-Day 7-Day

Begin Av Av

00:00 83 101 124 120 115 186 152 109 126

01:00 58 70 80 81 74 102 124 73 84

02:00 55 72 70 56 78 125 82 66 77

03:00 71 75 75 73 97 85 85 78 80

04:00 146 133 150 157 163 131 97 150 140

05:00 329 356 322 343 326 193 132 335 286

06:00 783 841 812 844 781 380 210 812 664

07:00 915 1006 948 987 940 470 272 959 791

08:00 889 914 838 932 902 635 353 895 780

09:00 900 946 874 905 943 758 500 914 832

10:00 871 922 898 880 984 907 651 911 873

11:00 984 1038 909 973 1075 1096 888 996 995

12:00 1075 1132 1116 1104 1237 1104 1047 1133 1116

13:00 1074 1118 1059 1093 1307 1115 956 1130 1103

14:00 1068 1153 1173 1151 1340 1019 824 1177 1104

15:00 1238 889 1365 1389 1419 1058 886 1260 1178

16:00 1689 991 1732 1754 1575 988 842 1548 1367

17:00 1930 1086 1731 1833 1671 1001 669 1650 1417

18:00 1354 1105 1417 1449 1218 790 591 1309 1132

19:00 791 858 865 908 828 619 489 850 765

20:00 544 616 534 596 535 448 415 565 527

21:00 394 487 449 489 416 384 302 447 417

22:00 305 344 341 413 381 358 239 357 340

23:00 218 184 204 218 244 276 158 214 215

12H,7-19 13987 12299 14060 14450 14611 10941 8479 13881 12689

16H,6-22 16499 15101 16720 17287 17171 12772 9895 16556 15063

18H,6-24 17022 15629 17265 17918 17796 13406 10292 17126 15618

24H,0-24 17764 16436 18086 18748 18649 14228 10964 17937 16411

Am 11:00 11:00 07:00 07:15 11:00 11:00 11:00 - -

Peak 984 1038 948 992 1075 1096 888 1007 1003

Pm 17:00 14:15 16:15 16:45 17:00 12:45 12:30 - -

Peak 1930 1192 1776 1837 1671 1137 1050 1681 1513

Collated from 15 minute interval data

Created at 07:59:38 on 25 Apr 2013

Former Gas Holder Station Car Park, Land north-west of Crawley Avenue, Crawley RH10 3PH

Technical Note


May 2013

APPENDIX B

ATC survey results – site access road


ACCESS OF A2011 CRAWLEY AVENUE CRAWLEY

From 28/04/2013 To 06/05/2013 Channel: IN


Begin Av Av

00:00 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

01:00 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

02:00 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

03:00 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

04:00 0 1 0 4 3 0 0 2 1

05:00 3 4 0 9 5 0 0 4 3

06:00 2 1 0 4 9 2 0 3 3

07:00 3 1 4 5 4 1 0 3 3

08:00 1 0 4 1 5 3 0 2 2

09:00 6 6 13 4 1 1 0 6 4

10:00 4 0 10 1 2 1 6 3 3

11:00 6 0 11 2 3 7 8 4 5

12:00 2 0 11 2 1 3 6 3 4

13:00 5 0 6 3 0 5 3 3 3

14:00 8 0 9 2 0 12 1 4 5

15:00 2 0 3 2 0 4 0 1 2

16:00 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

17:00 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

18:00 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

19:00 0 0 0 0 0 3 0 0 0

20:00 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0

21:00 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

22:00 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

23:00 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

12H,7-19 37 7 71 22 16 37 24 31 31

16H,6-22 39 8 71 26 25 43 24 34 34

18H,6-24 39 8 71 26 25 43 24 34 34

24H,0-24 42 13 71 39 33 43 24 40 38

Am 11:00 09:15 09:45 05:15 06:00 11:00 11:00 - -

Peak 6 6 14 9 9 7 8 9 8

Pm 14:00 23:00 12:00 14:15 12:15 14:00 12:00 - -

Peak 8 0 11 4 1 12 6 5 7


Created at 12:30:49 on 6 May 2013


ACCESS OF A2011 CRAWLEY AVENUE CRAWLEY

From 28/04/2013 To 06/05/2013 Channel: OUT


Begin Av Av

00:00 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

01:00 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

02:00 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

03:00 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

04:00 0 4 0 3 4 0 0 2 2

05:00 3 4 0 10 12 0 0 6 4

06:00 1 1 0 4 8 0 0 3 2

07:00 5 1 4 7 5 3 0 4 4

08:00 1 0 4 1 5 3 0 2 2

09:00 5 2 14 3 1 0 0 5 4

10:00 4 1 17 2 0 3 6 5 5

11:00 7 0 12 2 3 6 10 5 6

12:00 1 0 8 2 3 5 10 3 4

13:00 2 0 8 2 0 11 5 2 4

14:00 2 0 8 2 0 7 0 2 3

15:00 2 0 5 1 0 11 0 2 4

16:00 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

17:00 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0

18:00 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

19:00 0 0 0 0 0 3 0 0 0

20:00 0 0 0 0 0 4 0 0 1

21:00 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

22:00 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

23:00 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

12H,7-19 29 4 80 22 17 50 31 30 33

16H,6-22 30 5 80 26 25 57 31 33 36

18H,6-24 30 5 80 26 25 57 31 33 36

24H,0-24 33 13 80 39 41 57 31 41 42

Am 11:00 04:45 09:15 05:00 04:30 11:00 11:00 - -

Peak 7 8 22 10 15 6 10 12 11

Pm 13:45 23:00 14:30 13:30 12:15 14:30 12:00 - -

Peak 3 0 9 3 3 14 10 4 7


Created at 12:30:49 on 6 May 2013

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