Nathan Hanks promoted to Associate Director

We are pleased to announce that Nathan Hanks has been promoted to Associate Director with immediate effect.

We hope that you will join us in congratulating Nathan on his well deserved promotion and wish him every success in his new role.

Transport Planning Associates are a partner sponsor for the GovToday Carbon Reduction Conference

This prestigious conference was held on 29^th June in Westminster and was attended by over 400 delegates. Of particular interest amongst a good line-up of speakers was Graham Pendelbury from the Department for Transport who hinted at the new Coalition Government’s transport priorities; commitment to the electrification of road transport, pursuing sustainable biofuels and reducing the need to travel through use of technology. There is going to be a new aviation strategy and a focus on sustainable local travel from what the Prime Minister has said will be the "Greenest Government ever". Four key tests have been identified for future transport solutions; they need to deliver economic growth, increase choice for business and consumers, but avoid new regulation and public funding. Bob Ledsome from DCLG said that there would be some continuity of policies from the old Governement but the focus would be on ‘local communities taking ownership’ and incentivising local councils. Ledsome also noted that the Infrastructure Planning Commission was being abolished and RDAs are to be replaced by Local Enterprise Partnerships.

For further details please go to www.govtoday.co.uk

Transport Planning Associates is the new name for Pinnacle Transportation

31 March 2010 – FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Rupert Lyons, Director
Tel: 01707 385201
email:  rupert.lyons@tpa.uk.com

Pinnacle Transportation is pleased to announce that it will be changing its name to Transport Planning Associates on Thursday, 1 April 2010. 

The rebranding – complete with new logo and new website (http://www.tpa.uk.com) – represents a significant step in the development of the company, which was established in 1997 by company directors Rupert Lyons and David Tighe.

“Changing our name to something that better defines our core business is central to our strategy for taking the company forward in these challenging economic times,” explains Rupert Lyons. “We have built a good reputation in development transport planning and this marks an exciting moment on our journey.”

Transport Planning Associates now operates throughout the United Kingdom from offices in Bristol, Cardiff, Cambridge and Welwyn Garden City.

“I can’t quite believe that it was more than twelve years ago that Dave and I met in The Beehive pub in Bristol and decided to form our own practice,” says Rupert Lyons. “We’ve come a long way and exceeded all our early ambitions. We have assembled a great team of talented people with broad skill-sets, and secured a wide variety of challenging projects.”

Transport Planning Associates will continue to invest heavily in its technical and analytical capabilities, responding to changing political and socio-economic drivers in order to deliver innovative and cost-effective solutions in its core areas of transport planning, traffic engineering and highway design. 

“At a time of increasing activity throughout our client base, we believe that changing our name and investing in our website will help to broaden our exposure in both the private sector development community and the public sector transport planning community” says Lyons. “I have enjoyed enormously the challenges of a growing business and I look forward to facing the challenges of the future.”

For more information about Transport Planning Associates, please call 01707 385200, email info@tpa.uk.com or visit the new website http://www.tpa.uk.com

Appeal allowed with full award of costs, Siston Court, South Gloucestershire

April 2010.  Appeal allowed with full award of costs.  TPA has provided evidence for an appeal by written representations for B1 and B8 uses at a site in Siston Court in South Gloucestershire.  We successfully demonstrated that the traffic would have no material impact on the local highway infrastructure and that there was no substance to the Council’s claims that traffic induced vibrations would cause structural damage to a nearby Grade 1 listed building or its curtilage walls.

Please contact Craig Rawlinson for more details craig.rawlinson@tpa.uk.com

Matthew Doudican gains his Masters in Transport Planning & Engineering

Transport Planning Associates is pleased to announce that Matthew Doudican has been awarded a Master of Science degree in Transport Planning & Engineering from the University of Southampton.

Matthew, who joined Transport Planning Associates in March 2006, had this to say:

"The course consisted of exams, presentations and course work which required lone working and working in groups. It was very challenging at times and many weekends, evenings and sunny bank holidays were sacrificed. The travelling down to Southampton every week for 2 years was a struggle (I live in north London), especially having to negotiate the M25 at peak times but I was lucky in that I had friends to stay with in Southampton which meant I could stay over the night before lectures and any weekends for group work."

"My dissertation, a research paper entitled ‘Signalised Roundabouts: How Small Can They Be?” was the hardest piece of work I've had to do and involved a lot of time in the office during the evenings and at weekends. There is little guidance published on how small signalised roundabouts can be and my dissertation focused on the existing literature available and provided LinSig and ARCADY analysis based on real life junctions trying to ascertain a definitive size. The main findings of my research being that it depends on how many approach arms are on the roundabout and how rigidly you adhere to the DMRB standards for geometric design that determine how small a signalised roundabout can be"

"I was extremely lucky in gaining sponsorship for the course by Transport Planning Associates and was also given day release to attend the course. Not all of my fellow students were in the same position as me, and struggled with making time up and using holiday up. I am very grateful to all the directors at Transport Planning Associates for their support during the Masters course"

The directors of Transport Planning Associates would like to take this opportunity to congratulate Matthew on his achievement.