Hostile Vehicle Mitigation | Reardon Smith Landscape

Introduction

The Centre for the Protection of National Infrastructure (CPNI) is the UK government’s National Technical Authority for physical and personnel protective security with a role to protect national security by helping to reduce the vulnerability of the national infrastructure to terrorism and other threats.

In recent years, more terrorist attacks have occurred in the public realm, with some involving the use of vehicles. A significant number of these attacks have directly targeted people. Consequently, the design of the public realm is an important factor in protecting both people and assets by stopping or delaying attacks.

Challenge
Introducing HVM into the public realm is a significant challenge and must fulfil numerous requirements in order to integrate successfully, such as: Aesthetics, Public Access, Traffic, Management, Physical Constraints, Health & Safety, Cost, Maintenance. Every place is unique and requires an informed and considered approach.

There is no “one size fits all” response to providing protection against hostile vehicles and there is a need to innovate and design integrated solutions that meet the functionality and aesthetic brief, and also protect sites vulnerable to vehicle attack.

Purpose

It is important that our surroundings remain open and inclusive and that the addition of physical security measures designed to protect us are integrated and proportionate to the identified threat. The purpose of this guide is to assist the public realm design process and to encourage a positive and creative response to the challenges of counter-terrorism and protective security.

Collaboration

The 3rd edition of this design guide is a step-change, achieving multiple endorsement from key organisations consented via the consultation and stakeholder engagement employed during the development of the design guide. Consultation within a focussed Steering Group has been used to gain insight, experience, and ideas to inform the development of the guidance.

The Guide

New threats and evolving terrorist techniques required an update to the guide, and to also consider risk management as addressed in UK’s emerging Protect Duty (to be known as ‘Martyn’s Law’) which places greater responsibility on owners and operators of Publicly Accessible Locations (PALs).

This update also presented the opportunity to refresh the graphic design, improve accessibility, and coordinate with other updated guidance and information sources including the RIBA Plan of Work 2020 and the forthcoming update of DfT ‘Manual for Streets’.

An updated section on people movement was informed by specialist movement consultants, who assimilated the latest thinking on crowd science and conducted innovative field observations to widen understanding.

This design guide provides the design community with a background to HVM, how to include it in the project process, key aspects such as stakeholder engagement and risk management, and blending protection into sites. It has been designed to be used within the whole of the UK, but does not exclude application in other countries.

Impact
The guide is endorsed by Department for Transport, Mayor of London, National Counter Terrorism Security Office, Transport for London, Landscape Institute, Royal Institute of British Architects, Royal Town Planning Institute, British Property Federation, The Crown Estate.

View the Public Realm Design Guide for Hostile Vehicle Mitigation