The Travel Plan
The below data is compiled from the Royal Mail's survey of employee transport modes available in the Travel Plan on the Planning Portal.
It is worth noting that the survey was undertaken in March 2022 and it is now more than 2 years out of date. All the traffic modelling is based on the staff postcodes at this time. Royal Mail's own redundancy plans included shedding 10,000 staff that year and there will have been many changes since then.
Royal Mail notes "this staff travel survey was shared with all staff from the Brighton and Hove offices. In total, 180 responses were received across the two offices, representing a response rate of 49.7% from a total of 362 staff."
A response of 49.7% means Royal Mail have no idea how the other 180+ employees intend to travel to Patcham. This means that the travel plan and proposals is a wish and cannot be deemed to be accurate.
The results of the staff travel survey indicate that the most popular choice of travel to Patcham is likely to be car (driver), with 46% of staff selecting this.
- | Current Sites | Patcham Site | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
Car (driver) | 70 | 82 | +12 |
Car (share) | 3 | 8 | +5 |
Royal Mail Vehicle | 4 | 3 | -1 |
Motorcycle | 10 | 12 | -2 |
Bus | 21 | 33 | +12 |
Train | 5 | 2 | -3 |
Cycle | 30 | 22 | -8 |
Walk | 34 | 7 | -27 |
Multi-Modal | 3 | 6 | +3 |
Other / Don't Know | 0 | 5 | +5 |
TOTAL | 180 | 180 |
TAKEN FROM RM REPORT - For the purpose of generating the modal split, those that use multi-modal journeys have been classified as ‘multi-modal’. Some of the ‘other’ responses include:
-
‘I don’t know yet, none are particularly feasible’
-
‘Will RM provide crew buses?’
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‘Maybe Royal Mail can offer Transportation’
The Royal Mail travel survey shows that moving to this site will result in an increase in car and motorcycle travel, and a decrease in walking and cycling.
The National Planning Practice Guidance advises that travel plans can positively contribute by encouraging sustainable travel, lessening traffic generation and its detriment and impacts, and reducing carbon emissions and climate impacts. As can be seen above in the shift in intended behaviour this is not the outcome of the move to the site for employees.
The Brighton & Hove Council Workplace Sustainable Travel web page also lists their preferred methods of travel to create a more sustainable future and reduce the carbon footprint of the organisation.
Their preferred order of travel is digital communication (remote working), walking and wheeling to work, cycling, public and shared transport, electric passenger vehicles and car sharing, regular passenger vehicles and car sharing, and air travel.
It is clear from the change above that a move to Patcham Court Farm from existing Hove and Brighton sorting offices will result in more journeys that use less favourable methods of transport - i.e. more regular passenger vehicles and less walking and cycling.