2 Mar 2026

Lessons from Mell Square, Solihull

‘Even in the brave new world of vision-led planning, there remains a clear need for suitable traffic evidence to understand the implications of even the most sustainable developments. This was the case for the recently approved Mell Square redevelopment in Solihull, where TMS provided transport modelling support to our colleagues at Cundall, as part of Muse’s wider project team.

The scheme was a town centre redevelopment project, removing existing car parking and delivering much-needed, highly sustainable new homes in a central location, in partnership with the local council.

Transport Modelling Solutions became involved at a later stage of the project, when a need was identified for modelling the impacts of the development using the existing town centre VISSIM microsimulation model. Initially our expertise in VISSIM led to our engagement supporting colleagues at Cundall, but it was our capability and experience in the wider development planning industry that ultimately helped secure the result.

Critical to the successful application of transport modelling in decision-making is a genuine understanding of the wider planning context. Maintaining continuity can be challenging, including when outsourcing specialist support. This detachment in knowledge can reduce the effectiveness of evidence, or worse, lead to inappropriate decisions being made – especially where understandable limitations of the technical evidence are not fully understood or explained.

The Mell Square project provides a clear example of how this gap can be bridged. TMS were able to combine detailed VISSIM modelling with extensive experience of the planning process. This included identifying the limitations of the modelling, suggesting complementary sources of evidence, and clearly communicating these points to all relevant parties – ultimately avoiding inappropriate conclusions being drawn.

It was critical that we were able to communicate this evidence clearly in the context of the prevailing policy context, engaging directly with both the local highway and planning authorities alongside our client.

Retaining continuity between technical modelling evidence and a wider understanding when outsourcing transport modelling is an area we feel TMS are uniquely well placed to offer our clients, particularly when specialist transport modelling expertise is required at critical stages of a project.’

John Wilde, Director, TMS