Embedding physical activity into the planning service
How Calderdale is creating more active places
When people think about increasing physical activity, they often think of gyms, sports clubs or exercise programmes. But one of the biggest opportunities to improve health lies somewhere less obvious: the places we live, work and travel in every day.
As Calderdale continues to grow, the Local Plan will shape thousands of homes, streets and neighbourhoods for generations to come. This presented an important question: if development is happening anyway, how can we make sure it helps people lead more active lives?
The answer was to embed physical activity into the planning system itself.
Starting with conversations
Rather than arriving with a ready-made solution, Public Health colleagues spent time getting to know planners, development management officers and other partners.
Over several months, they explored questions such as:
How is health currently considered in planning decisions?
What pressures do planners face?
What makes it harder to create healthier places?
What support would help improve development outcomes?
These conversations revealed strong support for creating healthier communities, but also highlighted several practical barriers that were getting in the way.
Understanding the challenge
There was no single issue to fix. Instead, a number of challenges existed across the system.
Planning officers lacked access to specialist urban design expertise, there were no consistent standards for active-place design, and developers often submitted schemes that were already well advanced before entering the planning process.
Without a clear design framework, many developments followed standard housing layouts that prioritised cars over walking, cycling and everyday movement.
It became clear that meaningful change would require more than a single policy or project. It would need a long-term shift in how planning decisions were made.
Testing a new approach
To explore what difference specialist support could make, a short-term pilot introduced urban design expertise into the planning process.
An urban designer worked alongside planning officers to review major planning applications, focusing on:
Walkability
Active travel
Street connectivity
Public spaces
Inclusive movement
Healthy placemaking
Seven developments were reviewed during the pilot. Every scheme secured improvements, including better walking and cycling connections, stronger street networks and higher-quality public spaces.
The results showed that even a relatively small amount of specialist input could make a significant difference.
Creating lasting change
Following the success of the pilot, Calderdale invested in a dedicated two-year Urban Design post.
The role had two clear aims: improve development outcomes and build long-term capability within the planning service.
Working directly with developers and planning officers, the urban designer helped shape major housing schemes by:
Improving walking and cycling routes
Reducing vehicle dominance
Creating safer, more attractive streets
Strengthening public spaces
Supporting more walkable neighbourhoods
Improvements were secured across developments including Cock Hill Lane, Soaper Lane and Toothill Bank.
Original plan Revised plan
Just as importantly, the role focused on building skills and confidence across the wider planning service. This included supporting live applications, delivering training, developing tools and templates, and strengthening collaboration between planning, housing, transport and public health teams.
A stronger planning system
The impact has gone well beyond individual developments.
Today, planning officers have clearer design expectations, stronger guidance for applicants and greater confidence to challenge poor design.
New tools and frameworks have also been introduced, including:
An Urban Design Consultation Template
A Strategic Sites Protocol
The Streetscape+ Design Guide
Design audits and place reviews
Enhanced implementation of the Placemaking and Design SPD
Together, these changes have helped make health, walkability and place quality a routine part of planning conversations rather than an optional extra.
Making health a core consideration
Although it is still too early to measure long-term changes in physical activity levels, there is clear evidence that planning decisions are now being influenced by health considerations.
Developments are increasingly assessed through the lens of:
Walkability
Connectivity
Active travel
Public realm quality
Inclusion
Opportunities for everyday movement
The work has also strengthened partnerships across services and improved understanding of how planning can support better health outcomes.
Perhaps the clearest sign of success is that the Urban Design post became a permanent part of the planning service after just twelve months.
What started as a Public Health-funded pilot is now recognised as a core planning function.
Key lessons learned
Calderdale's experience highlights three important lessons.
Start with relationships, not solutions. Taking time to understand the challenges faced by planners allowed practical and realistic solutions to emerge.
Focus on system change. Improving individual developments matters, but long-term impact comes from changing the processes, skills and culture that influence every development.
Build capability, not dependency. Success came from helping planning teams develop the knowledge and confidence to embed health considerations into their everyday work.
Looking ahead
The next phase of work will focus on embedding active environment principles even earlier in the planning process, influencing future Local Plan development, strengthening design standards and continuing the rollout of Streetscape+.
The ambition remains simple: to ensure every new development helps create a Calderdale where being active is easy, accessible and part of everyday life.
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