Circle Dental

Project Details

The owners of the dental practice wanted to expand their NHS dental surgery to provide an additional 2 treatment rooms. Prior to our involvement, they had spent 4 years liaising with the Trafford Council which was unsupportive of the proposals, on the basis that highway officers thought that the site lacked sufficient car parking. 

After another transport consultant failed to win support from highway officers, the dental practice brought us on board to help them expand their business. Our involvement took place during the pandemic, which made it hard to undertake meaningful transport surveys, and the planning application was refused on the grounds of a lack of parking. We took the application to appeal and the Planning Inspector agreed with our assessment and the proposals were approved in September 2021.

A couple of years later, we were retained to advise on a second planning application which sought permission for a further 2 treatment rooms. This time, we were not hindered by the pandemic and we were able to justify that the site offered adequate car parking using parking surveys. In fact, we agreed to reduce the amount of on-site  car parking and provided more cycle parking instead. We also helped Circle Dental to implement a Travel Plan which encourages staff to travel by sustainable travel modes.