2 – How to use this code

This Design Code sets out Lincolnshire County Council's expectations for the planning, design and delivery of better streets and connected places. It establishes a shared vision for how streets should function, feel and perform, and provides clear principles to guide development from the earliest masterplanning stages through to detailed design.

The Code brings together highway, placemaking and masterplanning considerations to help ensure that new development delivers safe, accessible and legible streets that respond positively to their context and can be efficiently maintained over time. It is intended to support consistent decision‑making, reduce abortive design work, and give confidence to developers, designers and communities about what is expected.

The Design Code applies to all development that creates or alters streets, routes and the public realm, whether these are intended to be adopted by the Highway Authority or remain private. It should be used at pre‑application stage wherever possible and throughout the planning and design process.

The code is split into three parts, each containing individual chapters:

• Part A: Planning Better Streets – Setting out the high-level vision, context, the 'golden rules' for masterplanning and detailed design rules for planning. This part should be used at the earliest stages of design.
• Part B: Designing Better Streets – This part contains the detailed code content required for latter design stages – including full planning and adoption.
• Part C: Delivering Better Streets – This part sets out processes including adoption and planning, plus the current technical specification.

The diagram below sets out the structure of the code. The highlighted chapters contain design rules that any proposals will be reviewed against, other chapters contain useful context and background. The technical specification chapter sets out detailed requirements for construction.

This Design Code uses the following hierarchy of requirements:

MUST requirements set minimum standards. Where they relate to the structure of streets, movement networks, highway safety or accessibility, failure to comply is likely to result in objection or a recommendation for refusal where compliance cannot reasonably be achieved.

SHOULD requirements represent best practice and will normally be addressed through design evolution, planning conditions, reserved matters or technical approval.

CAN requirements are optional and provide best practice guidance only.

The way in which requirements are applied reflects the structure of the Code:

• In Part A, MUST requirements relate primarily to masterplanning principles, connectivity and street hierarchy. These will be used to assess whether development is acceptable in principle and whether proposals respond appropriately to their context.
• In Part B, MUST requirements set minimum performance standards for different street typologies and will inform highway authority responses to planning applications on safety, accessibility and flood risk.
• In Part C, MUST requirements are aligned with Lincolnshire County Council's published detailed design guidance and will normally be secured through planning conditions, reserved matters or highway technical approval processes, unless non-compliance would result in unacceptable highway safety or accessibility impacts.