Planning to beat the traffic jams

National and local government are still giving the go-ahead to housing, shopping centres and business parks in locations which can only be reached by car. They are creating a future of traffic jams and suburban sprawl.

That was the message delivered in a major new report published by Council for the Protection of Rural England (CPRE).

Planning More to Travel Less claims to expose the failure of Government planning policies to stop the growth in car-based development and sets out a range of actions for the future.

CPRE's Head of Transport, Lilli Matson, said: "National planning policies increasingly endorse the need to protect the countryside from over-development and to reduce our reliance on the car. But this often counts for little in the cut and thrust of daily decision-making.

"Out-of-town business parks, cinemas, housing and shopping centres continue to get planning permission, while opportunities to regenerate the heart of our towns and cites and to support public transport systems go begging.

"As a result, an area the size of Bristol is urbanised each year and over 80 per cent of the distance we now travel is done by car. We are locking ourselves into a future of car dependency which will limit opportunities for people without a car and has environmental implications reaching from the local to the global level.'

Planning More to Travel Less claims to demonstrate the need for concerted action at all levels to deliver the changes now required by Government policies for planning and transport.