
The Leicestershire Highways Design Guide (LHDG) is a key reference point for the council’s policy, principles and technical guidance relating to the delivery and adoption of proposed highway and transportation assets that form part of the new development in the county.
It is also the foundation on which the council provides highway observations on planning applications in its role as Local Highway Authority (LHA).
Who it’s for
The LHDG is for:
• anyone who wants to create new highway, or alter existing highway as part of development work - developers primarily, but can be for any group or individual, including a private landowner or householder
• officers at the council during the assessment of proposed highway
• the district and borough council planning teams during the planning application process
When the old LHDG guidance might apply
Ultimately, all development must be designed and assessed under the latest published LHDG guidance. As a general principle during the transition period, where formal advice has not been issued by LCC either at the planning stage (highway observations) or as part of technical approval, then the new guidance will apply (whether or not a planning application has been submitted). However, LCC will adopt a reasonable approach to assessing whether the new LHDG guidance must be strictly adhered following the changeover, or development designed under old guidance (prior to publishing) is acceptable.
There may be circumstances where applying the new guidance is considered by the council to be unreasonable, unfeasible or not in the interest of Leicestershire communities (as might apply to any development at any time). Examples might be:
- Where LCC has agreed an access strategy that informs the internal layout of a development, where the old guidance has been applied.
- Where development is phased and the majority of phases have been delivered, it might be considered redundant in terms of benefits to demand that the final phase to meets new guidance.
It will be the responsibility of the developer to provide rationale for consideration at the point of submission to LCC.