The web-based application scores locations in England and Wales in terms of access to essential services such as schools and healthcare.
The UK Government’s Department for Transport wants to help planning teams make better informed decisions about the viability of development sites. Two of the home nations have been mapped, offering invaluable insights into their connections to educational and medical centres, alongside shopping, leisure and workplaces.
One of the core aims is to overcome what the organisation claims has been a major obstacle to sustained development – a lack of coherent and comprehensive measurement methods to determine which locations are best for projects, based on transport. This ‘blind spot’ is removed by combining transportation land-use data to produce a connectivity score for localised areas.
After launching as a trial in June 2024, the complete tool has now gone live for environment professionals and planners. Meanwhile, a second iteration of the lite version used in test is now available to the public, meaning communities can explore the connectivity of their location and understand how links relate to serves.
You can access the platform here.
‘Transport is central to unlocking growth. The connectivity tool gives planners and professionals the evidence they need to make better decisions about where development should happen, ensuring communities are well connected to jobs and services,’ said Lilian Greenwood, Minister for Local Transport. ‘By making the tool widely available, we are setting a new national standard for measuring connectivity and supporting sustainable growth across England and Wales.’
Image: Department for Transport
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