Examples of Approaches to Infrastructure Standards
The PAS Steps Approach highlights the importance in the identification of standards and deficits. Standards represent what public sector organisations are attempting to achieve for their communities and users. To aid good infrastructure planning, the PAS guidance stressses the identification and adoption of Infrastructure Delivery Standards to enable identification of gaps in infrastructure provision for current and future communities.
This page provides a couple of examples from the South West Regional Planning Body and the Urban Task Force of standards that can be applied for different infrastructure sectors.
South West Regional Assembly Infrastructure Advice Note:
The South West Infrastructure Advice Note argues that once the level of growth that an Local Planning Authority is planning for is agreed, it is necessary to convert numbers of households and jobs into metrics suitable for establishing the scale and nature of the infrastructure needed to support these figures.
The Note also emphasises that social and community provision would normally require household targets to be converted to a form that would allow providers to understand the type of person expected to occupy new development in terms of their demographic characteristics. The age profile will determine the type of social services; education; health and general community services needed. These factors will be dependent upon the characteristics of the new housing proposed in a community (reflecting social mix and other factors).
The Table below is taken from the South West Advice Note and suggests standards that can be applied for different infrastructure sectors:
| Health | • 95 sqm space per General Practitioner; • 2.1 acute beds per 1,000 population; • 0.7 mental health, maternity and other beds per 1,000 population; • 1 GP per 1,000 residents; • 50m2 per ambulance plus 50% mezzanine; • 0.5 Swimming Pools per 10,000 (25 metres long, 4 lanes). |
| Community Facilities |
• 600 sqm library space per 1000 persons; |
| Education | • Child yield per household for education; • 1500 space secondary school serving an additional 6,000 dwellings; • 360 space primary school serving an additional 1,500 dwellings. |
| Recreation and Culture |
• 1 Neighbourhood Equipped Area for Play per 10,000 (National Playing Fields Association); |
| Social Care |
• Elderly persons per 1000 persons; |
| Other | • 24 graves per 1000 dwellings derived from a death rate of 9.9 persons per 1000; • 1 Recycling Station of 45 sqm per 5,000 dwellings. |
Click here to download your copy of the table above.
The full Advice Note is available to download from the South West Councils website.
Urban Task Force
The Urban Task Force suggest in Towards an Urban Renaissance (1999) what the key components are that make a Sustainable City. Also suggested are important neighbourhood facilities and their reasonable support population (see Table below).
| Primary School | 2500-4000 |
| Doctor | 2500-3000 |
| Corner Shop | 2000-5000 |
| Public House | 5000-7000 |
| Group of Shops | 5000-10000 |
| Post Office | 5000-10000 |
Click here to download your copy of the Table above.
EU 2020 Going Local Newsletter April 2012. Available here.
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