The 24/7 operating Waitrose HQ site in Bracknell needed to house over 200 extra staff relocating from London. A new office building was required and the only option was to build on land already used as a car park. This meant losing 75 parking spaces whilst having to accommodate an extra 200+ staff, over and above the 2,000 already on site.

We were appointed by the Waitrose Facilities Director to research, design and produce a workplace travel plan to help overcome the inevitable parking and traffic problems that would arise – both on and around the site as well as on the already very heavily congested roads in the area.

At the outset we carried out extensive staff surveys to establish a clear picture of where staff and visitors travelled from, how they travelled and what alternative travel options they might consider. The surveys were carried out within the offices, warehouses, garages and distribution areas of the 72 acre site as well as at the entrances and exits of the car parking areas – the latter involving being in the car parks from 04.00 to catch shift workers arriving for work!

Using post coding GIS technology, digitised mapping and SPSS software to analyse the survey results we devised and incorporated a range of initiatives for the plan. These included:

• Car sharing – within 3 months 75 fewer cars were arriving on site
• Shuttle buses from the train station
• Improved cycling facilities on site
• Home teleworking trials and initiatives
• Staggered and more flexible working hours (in collaboration with neighbouring employers)

Results:

• Our travel plan for Waitrose proved very successful as well as being popular with staff and visitors
• The plan won the Thames Valley Economic Partnership 'Green Travel Plan of the Year' – beating off competition from British Airways and Vodafone
• It was commended by Bracknell Borough Council as being "the best we've seen"
• Other Southern Area Business Park employers became very interested (and we subsequently designed workplace travel plans for Panasonic and Siemens)
• In order to increase the benefits for employers and further reduce congestion in the area we suggested setting up a 'Bracknell Business Travel Forum' (see below)

Bracknell Business Travel Forum (BBTF)
Borrowing from our experience of the successful local and regional Traffic Management Associations in the US and Holland we recommended trying to set up a similar organisation in the Bracknell area, under the banner of the Bracknell Business Travel Forum (BBTF).

Together with Waitrose we canvassed opinion from the local employers and the Borough Council and, encouraged by their responses, arranged an open meeting to talk through the concept to try to gauge the level of support this initiative might expect to receive.