Withdean Community Pool
Transport Statement
1. Introduction / Background
2. Existing Conditions
3. Parking Data and development proposals
4. Operations / Managing Car Demand
1. Introduction / Background
The proposed new swimming pool will be located at Withdean Sports Complex, Tongdean Lane, Withdean, as below.
The site is bounded by Tongdean Lane to the north, Withdean Road to the east, Withdean Woods Nature Reserve to the south, and a mix of residential development to the west and north. It sits within a green and suburban setting, with trees and parkland forming part of the surrounding landscape.
2. Existing Conditions
Existing Sports Complex Layout
Local Highway Network
The proposed new swimming pool facility will be accessed via the existing two access points to the sports complex on Tongdean Lane, as well as the pedestrian access point to the east from Withdean Road.
These established access points provide pedestrian, cycle and vehicular access to the local residential areas of Withdean, Westdene, Hove Park and Patcham via Withdean Road, Eldred Avenue, Colebrook Road and Dyke Road Avenue. The speed limit of Tongdean Lane at the location of the two existing access points is 30mph. These access points provide appropriate levels of intervisibility for safe access to and from the site. As confirmed later in this report there are no proposed changes to the geometric alignment or configuration of these access points onto Tongdean Lane.
The closest strategic routes to the Withdean Sports Complex are the A27 and A23 (London Road). The A23 runs north to south between Brighton and London and extends access to Withdean Sports Complex to residential areas south such as Preston Park, Prestonville and Round Hill.
The A27 is a further strategic highway c.1.6km to the north of the site. This corridor can be accessed via Tongdean Lane, Valley Drive and Dyke Road Avenue, connecting with the A27 via a grade separated “dumbbell” junction. This strategic route provides direct vehicular access to established residential areas to the west, such as Mile Oak and Hangleton. To the east this corridor provides vehicular access to areas such as Falmer, Coldean and Stanmer Heights.
Pedestrian Facilities and Accessibility
Tongdean Lane benefits from good quality footways, that are lit and in parts overlooked by residential development. Dropped kerbs and tactile paving is provided at defined crossing points.
In addition there is a pedestrian route on the eastern side of the site onto Withdean Road. This not only provides access to the 3G sports pitches to the south, but is also the most direct link from the leisure centre eastwards towards the A23 corridor, accessed via Tongdean Lane (under the railway bridge). Whilst the footway narrows under this bridge, guard railing is in place to segregate pedestrian and vehicular movements in this space.
Existing Pedestrian Access From Tongdean Lane
To demonstrate the sustainable location of the site, walking and cycling isochrone plans have been prepared.
The isochrone plan provided overleaf confirms the surrounding local area that falls within a 15-minute walk distance of Withdean Sports Complex. The plan confirms that the surrounding residential areas to the south of the A27 and to the west of the A23 fall within this area, stretching as far south as Preston Park rail station and also encompassing residential areas to the east of the A23 corridor.
As confirmed above the isochrone plan confirms that there are a number of sustainable travel links within a 15-minute walking distance of the sports complex. Commentary on these links is provided later in this report. This isochrone also includes a number of education facilities, including two primary schools and a number of children’s nurseries.
15 Minute Walk Pedestrian Isochrone Plan (Withdean Sports Complex)
Cycle Facilities and Cycling Accessibility
To demonstrate that the site is well located to encourage staff and visitors to travel sustainably to and from the sports complete a 20-minute cycle isochrone plan has been prepared. This is provided overleaf.
The isochrone plan confirms that the majority of Brighton is within a 20-minute cycle ride of Withdean Sports Complex and can be accessed by sections of the National Cycle Network (NCN), on-road cycle lanes, off-road cycle tracks, shared routes and cycle contraflows.
Additionally, the A23 Active Travel Scheme has introduced improved cycling infrastructure, enhancing safety and accessibility for non-motorised users along this strategic corridor.
20 Minute Walk Cycle Isochrone Plan (Withdean Sports Complex)
With regard to cycle infrastructure, there are currently 54 secure cycle parking spaces on site. These are made up of:
· 15 Sheffield loops at the main entrance (for 30 bikes)
· two bike shelters by the 3G pitches (which combined can accommodate another 24 bikes (2 x 6 Sheffield loops in each shelter)
The sports complex also benefits from providing a cycle “hub” as part of the Beryl Bikes scheme. This is the city’s bike sharing scheme which allows anyone over the age of 16 to hire a bike from one of the “hubs”.
A Beryl Bike “hub” is located outside the main entrance of Withdean Sports Complex. This provides seven secure spaces for non-electric and electric bikes, the latter being a useful addition for those needing additional cycling assistance as the surrounding residential areas and the route from the A23 to the sports complex is hilly.
In total there are 69 Beryl Bike “hubs” within a 20-minute cycling distance of the site, and the next nearest to the site is the hub located at Withdean Rise (approx. a 3minute walk)
Public Transport
The sports complex is well located for access by public transport, being located close to established bus and rail corridors. A summary of the nearest bus and rail stops is provided below.
Local Bus Services
As shown above, the nearest existing bus stop to the sports facility is ‘Withdean Sports Complex’ located on Tongdean Lane. This stop benefits from seating and shelters, and is accessed via a dedicated path from the site’s “lower” car park.
With regard to buses serving these stops, Brighton & Hove Bus services 27, 27B and 27C (Westdene to Saltdean) route via this stop and run every 15-20mins Mon-Sat and four times a day on Sundays. This stop, and the adjacent car park is also advertised as an informal park-and-ride for the city, capturing private car traffic from the A27 and A23 corridors heading towards the city centre.
There is an alternative bus stop on London Road which includes services 5, 5A, 77, 270 and 291, facilitating easy travel to and from the city centre and surrounding neighbourhoods. This stop and bus service routing is shown below.
Rail Services
The nearest railway station is Preston Park, located approximately 1.2km from the sports complex. The station provides regular train services to local destinations (including Brighton city centre) as well as more distant destinations, including Burgess Hill, Haywards Heath, East Croydon and London.
The station can be accessed from the site via established walking and cycling routes, either via Withdean Road/Tongdean Lane or via a Public Right of Way (PRoW) that runs parallel with the rail line south towards the station. The most attractive, overlooked route is shown below, which is a c.18 minute walk.
Existing Pedestrian and Cycle Route to Preston Park Station
3. Parking Conditions and Use
The sports complex benefits from a significant amount of “at grade” parking, provided across two parking areas. These parking areas are known as the “large/lower” car park, and the “small/upper” car park. There is a small amount of additional car parking provided adjacent to the 3G pitches, which has a separate access from Withdean Road.
The car parks sit at different levels due to the site’s topography. Both car parks are accessed via Tongdean Lane using two separate access points onto this corridor, as shown below.
These two parking areas currently serve multiple users, including visitors to the leisure centre and outdoor sports facilities, the Sportsman public house, and informal park-and-ride users accessing the local bus services. As well as standard parking spaces, accessible spaces and EV spaces, there are also spaces for larger vehicles such as minibuses within the large/lower car park and by the 3G pitches. There is also coach parking on Tongdean Lane. The existing parking provision across the Lower and Upper sports complex car parks is presented in the table below.
|
Large/Lower Car Park |
|
|
Accessible spaces |
10 |
|
Large vehicle/minibus spaces |
3 |
|
Parent & Child spaces |
7 |
|
Motorcycle/moped spaces |
6 |
|
Electric Vehicle (EV) spaces |
1 |
|
Regular spaces |
199 |
|
Small/Upper Car Park |
|
|
Accessible spaces |
5 |
|
Standard spaces |
110 |
|
3G Pitches Car Park |
|
|
Accessible spaces |
2 |
|
Minibus spaces |
2 |
|
TOTALS |
|
|
Total Regular Spaces |
309 |
|
Total Parent & Child Spaces |
7 |
|
Total Accessible Spaces |
17 |
|
Total Minibus Spaces |
5 |
|
Total Vehicle Parking Spaces
|
338 |
Existing Parking Demand
Parking data exists for both the Lower and Upper car parks, and this has been reviewed to understand the existing use of these car parking areas.
Small/Upper Car Park
The January to June 2025 dataset indicates that in the small/upper car park, which is located nearest to the leisure centre, the peak times where car park occupancy is at its highest is between 10am and 2pm, and between 6pm and 8pm. There is evidence to suggest that the parking demand in the evening comes close to the 115 space parking provision in this area.
Mid-week usage of this car park is generally higher, although Saturday morning/lunchtime was the busiest time of the week with much lower levels on a Sunday. As expected these busier parking times in the small/upper car park correlate with the busier times/visits to the leisure centre.
The below graph is an example taken from the week commencing 2nd June.
Large/Lower Car Park
Over the same period, in the large/lower car park the parking trends were similar, although there was increased usage throughout the entire day on Saturdays and Sundays. This is to be expected, with greater demand for the range of existing sports facilities across the site.
Most importantly, the overall parking demand (in terms of number of vehicles) was lower than in the small/upper car park. This means there is more available parking capacity in this car park across the whole week.
The graph provided overleaf is taken from the same w/c 2nd June weeklong period, to allow a direct comparison with the data from the small/upper car park.
Existing Parking Summary
The parking data from the January to June 2025 period confirms that there were only 29 hours where there was over 85% occupancy in the large/lower car park, compared to 387 hours where there was over 85% occupancy in the smaller/upper car park. This confirms that the large/lower car park is less well used, and that there is parking capacity available for the vast majority of time.
Understandably existing leisure centre users would appear to be using the smaller/upper car park more as it’s closer to the main entrance.
Even with the introduction of a new Padel Tennis development on the site, which has planning permission but has yet to be delivered, the large/lower car park has ample spare capacity to accommodate the parking demands from this use.
Development Proposals and Effect on Parking Provision
The current designs and plans for the proposed new pool facility will result in a loss of 37 spaces from the small/upper car park. The project team have explored a variety of options to mitigate this loss by:
· identifying additional space on the wider site to create an overflow car park (25 additional spaces)
· delivering additional individual spaces on the western access road (5 additional spaces)
These amendments to the overall sports complex parking provision are shown on the site plan below.
As part of this parking assessment, it should be noted that the number of parked vehicles in the large/lower car park will be influenced by the promotion of the site by the Council as an informal ‘park-and-ride’ location. However, as there is a £3 daily charge for a motorist parking for three hours or more (a time period that allows visitors to the leisure centre to park for free, if visiting for less than three hours), the parking data indicates that some drivers may be choosing to park in nearby residential streets (including Colebrook Road) to avoid the £3 parking charge, as there are no parking restrictions.
This specific on-street parking matter will require ongoing monitoring by the Council in order to ensure there is no negative impact to residents living on these streets.
Should the Council introduce other park-and-ride facilities across the city as anticipated, it could be expected that a proportion of the longer distance parking would relocate to other park-and-ride car parks across the city.
Proposed Swimming Pool Scheme and Revised Small/Upper Car Park Proposals
The table overleaf shows the current parking provision, alongside the change resulting from this proposed new development. This shows an overall net reduction of 7 parking spaces.
|
Current Parking Provision |
Updated Parking Provision Due to new Pool Development |
||
|
Large/Lower Car Park |
|
Large/Lower Car Park |
|
|
Accessible spaces |
10 |
Accessible spaces |
10 |
|
Large vehicle/minibus spaces |
3 |
Large vehicle/minibus spaces |
3 |
|
Parent & Child spaces |
7 |
Parent & Child spaces |
7 |
|
Motorcycle/moped spaces |
6 |
Motorcycle/moped spaces |
6 |
|
Electric Vehicle (EV) spaces |
1 |
Electric Vehicle (EV) spaces |
1 |
|
Regular spaces |
199 |
Regular spaces |
199 |
|
Smaller/Upper Car Park |
|
Smaller/Upper Car Park |
|
|
Accessible spaces |
5 |
Accessible spaces |
5 |
|
Standard spaces |
110 |
Standard spaces (with the addition of new overflow car park) |
103 |
|
3G Pitches Car Park |
|
3G Pitches Car Park |
|
|
Accessible spaces |
2 |
Accessible spaces |
2 |
|
Minibus spaces |
2 |
Minibus spaces |
2 |
|
TOTALS |
|
TOTALS |
|
|
Total Regular Spaces |
309 |
Total Regular Spaces |
302 |
|
Total Parent & Child Spaces |
7 |
Total Parent & Child Spaces |
7 |
|
Total Accessible Spaces |
17 |
Total Accessible Spaces |
17 |
|
Total Minibus Spaces |
5 |
Total Minibus Spaces |
5 |
|
Total Vehicle Parking Spaces
|
338 |
Total Vehicle Parking Spaces |
331 |
4. Operations / Managing Demand
In order to be able to estimate the number of additional person trips that could be generated from the addition of this new pool, the project team has drawn up an indicative pool programme, applied estimate usage numbers (based on overall bather load), and have also looked at the online travel survey data, which indicates the travel modes people would use when travelling to the sports complex to use the new swimming pool facilities.
Below is an indicative pool programme for the new facility, with operational hours and anticipated/maximum capacity numbers. It is unlikely that all of the sessions above would be at 100% capacity so it should be noted that capacity numbers provided are a worst-case scenario.
Indicative Withdean Swimming Pool Schedule – June 2025
The most recent sports complex travel survey (collated in June 2025) indicates that from those respondents who said they would likely use the new pool, 57% of them would travel to the site by car. The below shows the percentage of responses which indicated that they would travel by the following sustainable travel modes (note respondents could select one or more travel modes):
· 42% - walking
· 21% - cycling
· 13% - bus
· 3% - other
The travel survey data confirmed that 46% of the responses were from existing members to the leisure centre, so it would be reasonable to expect that a proportion of the trips to the swimming pool will be linked trips, when existing members/visitors are using the other existing facilities on-site and will then use the swimming pool. Only a proportion of visitors will make a new trip to the swimming pool, to visit this facility in isolation. This trip would be classed as a new trip to the site.
In summary, it is not possible to be specific as to the number of additional vehicle movements or parking demand that the swimming pool will generate, as the crossover between the use of the proposed swimming pool and existing leisure facilities will vary depending on the timing of the various sports sessions.
What can be concluded from the parking data recently sourced and analysed for the two car parks, is that there is a significant amount of spare capacity from the on-site parking provision, even with the loss of seven parking spaces in the small/upper car park once the swimming pool is delivered.
It is also noted from the survey data that at the times when the swimming pool is likely to see a greater number of bathers, the existing parking demand across the site is lower than at the busiest periods.
For example, between 15:30 and 18:00 hours , when higher swimming visitor numbers will be expected (through attendance at childrens swimming lessons) the parking data shows that the smaller/upper car park is only at 60% occupancy and the main/lower car park is only at 50% occupancy. This confirms that there will be sufficient parking capacity to accommodate the existing parking demands of the Withdean Sports Complex, as well as the additional parking demands generated by the proposed new swimming pool on the site.
Notwithstanding the above, the leisure centre site management team are conscious of the need to manage car-based trips and promote the adoption of sustainable travel measures for all staff and visitors. In this regard, the following travel plan measures and travel information will be incorporated into the existing Travel Plan in place at the site.
Copies of the updated Travel Plan will be provided in the main reception area and a link provided via the online-booking system associated with all the sports activities that take place across the site, including the proposed swimming pool.
The updated Travel Plan measures will include:
· promote car sharing / shared travel arrangements
· include a drop-off / pick-up location in a convenient and safe location within the site
· promote active travel including walking, cycling and the use of public transport modes
· consider expanding the provision of on-site cycle parking and Bikeshare scheme
· provide and display local bus route information
· expand onsite signage for improved wayfinding
· pool programme to include appropriate start times / changeover times to further minimise any traffic congestion on-site
The combination of a positive approach to encouraging sustainable travel, coupled with the development of the swimming pool scheme that minimises the loss of car parking across the site is seen to be an appropriate approach in this sustainable location.