Farnborough Town Centre Parking Study

Rushmoor Borough Council has an ambitious regeneration programme which seeks to build on existing assets and create distinctive, mixed-use town centres with a high-quality housing, retail, leisure and employment offer. The recently adopted Local Plan contains policies which support this programme in Farnborough town centre.

Farnborough has a rich heritage based around aviation and the town centre is focussed around a purpose-built pedestrianised shopping environment. The Local Plan is seeking to revitalise the town centre by encouraging a good mix of active uses and integrating it with new mixed-use development in the Civic Quarter, which includes proposals for high density residential development.

The Council adopted a Supplementary Planning Document (SPD) in 2017 on Car and Cycle Parking Standards which sets out a minimum parking standard for town centre residential development of 1 space per dwelling. Non-residential car parking standards are expressed as maximum standards to encourage minimisation of car use. Farnborough is well-served by public transport, with a mainline rail station connecting it to London Waterloo and priority bus services and infrastructure.

In light of this, the Council is seeking to understand:

• how current off-street and on-street car parking in and around Farnborough town centre is utilised; • how supply and demand is likely to change in the future, given planned regeneration and other development, the increasing use of sustainable alternative transport modes including new technologies, bus and train services and changes in car ownership and use.

The Council requires a consultant that has the ability to:

• understand the overall concept of supply and demand for parking in town centres both now and in the future; • accurately produce and present baseline data on current Farnborough town centre parking utilisation (both designated on-street and off-street); • identify and evaluate parking strategies in comparison town centres, including highlighting innovative practices which could be utilised in Farnborough in the future; • identify and evaluate emerging sustainable transport and demographic trends and technologies that could impact on future demand for car parking; • identify and evaluate the impact of planned development and forecasted public transport use on parking in the town centre, using information provided by the Council and its partners.