Retailing

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Introduction

8.1. This Chapter sets out the strategy for retail development throughout the City and the policies which will apply to retail development within and outside the shopping centres apart from the Central Shopping Core which is dealt with in Chapter 4 ‘Special Policy Areas’ (Policies SPA01 – SPA04) and Chapter 2 ‘Plan Strategy’ (Policy PS04).

8.2. The term ‘retail development’ refers to developments within Class A1 (shops) of the Town and Country Planning (Use Classes) Order 1987 In the context of this chapter the term ‘non-retail’ uses is used generally to mean those uses falling within Classes A2, A3, A4 and A5 of the Order, for example, banks and building societies (Class A2), restaurants and cafés (Class A3), drinking establishments (Class A4), and hot food takeaways (Class A5).

Retail Policy Aims

8.3. The Local Plan retail policies have the following aims:

•  to sustain and enhance the vitality and viability of the City Centre, in particular its role for comparison goods shopping;

•  to sustain and enhance the vitality and viability of the town, district and local centres by concentrating new shopping and related facilities in them and to support the principle of a hierarchy and range of centres;

•  to ensure access by a choice of means of transport particularly the promotion of walking and cycling, to facilitate combined shopping trips and minimise the need to travel; and

•  to minimise the disturbance caused by retail development to nearby residential areas.

National Policy Context

8.4. Planning Policy Statement 6: ‘Planning for Town Centres’ (PPS6), issued in March 2005, continues the Central Government’s ‘town centres first’ policy which was hailed as a significant policy success when it was announced in March 2001 that for the first time in 20 years new shopping floorspace in major town centre schemes exceeded new floorspace in out-of-town locations and retail warehouse parks.

8.5. The Government’s key objective for town centres is to promote their vitality and viability. In both allocating sites and assessing proposals for retail and leisure developments in particular local planning authorities should assess the need for development principally in quantitative terms, identify the appropriate scale of development, apply the sequential approach to site selection, assess the impact of development on existing centres and ensure that locations are accessible and well served by a choice of means of transport.

Local Context

8.6. Investment has continued to be made in the City Centre and the town centres. The retail offer in Leicester is expected to be transformed by a substantail 60 000 m² retail and leisure development known as Shires West proposed in the city centre for completion by 2008.

8.7. Although retail development has been completed for some time in Hamilton Town Centre, the range of much needed community facilities that will make it a true town centre are now being brought forward. The Beaumont Shopping Centre in Beaumont Leys Town Centre has been improved and enlarged by the addition of nine new shop units and an extension to the food superstore. The catchment of the centre probably extends beyond that originally intended for it.

8.8. The future of the smaller local centres remains uncertain but some of the larger local and district centres have developed distinctive attractions that have brought in investment and improved their image. The number of new bars in the West End is proving to be an attraction for and stimulus to the housing market, which in turn is stimulating the market for new bars and restaurants. London Road has an attractive range of restaurants and latterly, branded pubs catering for a student population. Belgrave Road continues to offer a range of restaurants.

8.9. Outside the City boundaries, qualitative improvements to the substantial retail development at Fosse Park in the Motorways Retail Area, such as the completion of a large food court and evident development of a high street line up, means it will continue to be a strong competitor with the City Centre.

Studies of Retail Capacity

8.10. The Central Leicestershire Retail Study (CLRS) was completed in 2003. It found that there would be a need for substantial amounts of supportable new floorspace for comparison goods sales by 2006 and 2011 but very little supportable convenience floorspace in the same period.

8.11. A supplementary study jointly commissioned by the Leicester Regeneration Company (LRC) and the City Council concentrated on the city itself and drew detailed conclusions and recommendations relating to the city centre. The Study, published in August 2003, found that there would be ample expenditure capacity available to support the retail aspirations incorporated in the LRC Masterplan.

Centre Hierarchy

8.12. The shopping centres are identified on the Proposals Map and the status of individual centres is identified in the document “Maps of the Shopping Centres” supplementing the Local Plan. The terms city, town, district and local are defined in the Glossary:

•  City Centre: the Central Shopping Core;

•  Town Centres: Beaumont Leys and the developing town centre of Hamilton;

•  District Centres: Uppingham Road, Evington Road, Belgrave Road and Narborough Road have been identified as District Centres;

•  Local Centres: Only the local centres or groups of shops retaining at least the range of basic shops described in PPS6, or those that are allied to other community facilities are shown on the Proposals Map.

8.13. It is not intended that the Town Centres should compete with the Central Shopping Core. Their primary role is to provide facilities for the growing districts of Beaumont Leys and Hamilton. A distinction is, therefore, drawn between major retail development that serves a citywide or sub-regional catchment and that which serves the Beaumont Leys and Hamilton catchment areas. In the former case it will be necessary for developers to show that there are no opportunities for locating in the Central Shopping Core or on its edge before Town Centre sites are considered.

MAJOR RETAIL DEVELOPMENT

8.14. The general approach to proposals for out-of-centre retail development will be restrictive. Policy R01 will apply to all types and formats of retail development including retail warehouses, supermarkets and superstores, factory outlets and warehouse clubs. It will apply to new proposals, to changes of use to retail, to extensions to existing retail buildings, and to proposals to vary restrictive planning conditions to allow a wider range of goods to be sold.

8.15. Whilst a quantitative or qualitative need for new large foodstores, either supermarkets or superstores, has not been identified in the studies, proposals for new supermarkets within existing town or district centres may be acceptable providing they do not harm the vitality and viability of the centres. They should be of a scale appropriate to the size of the centre and in some cases a retail impact assessment will be sought. The vitality and viability of a centre can be dependent on an existing supermarket to provide the main anchor and its loss could lead to the centre’s decline.

8.16. It is important that a balance is maintained in the type and location of supermarkets and superstores so that customers have access to the shops that suit them most. The development of too many superstores could lead to a coarser grain of food retail provision entailing more travel to the detriment of those without private transport, including the elderly, young and disabled people.

8.17. In applying the sequential approach set out in policy R01, the relevant centres in which to search for sites will depend on the nature and scale of the proposed development and catchment it seeks to serve. The authors of ‘The Impact of Large Foodstores on Market Towns and District Centres’ (DETR 1998), suggested that, in the context of these centres and the provision of convenience floorspace, any proposal over 1000 m² of net floorspace should be accompanied by a retail impact assessment. This is a reasonable definition of major retail development (both convenience and comparison) for the purpose of the Development Plan, where development of this size can have an economic impact on district centres.

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8.18. In applying the sequential approach developers and operators should be flexible about their proposed business model in order to enable a development to fit onto more central sites. In the rare instance that out-of-centre retail development is permitted PPS6 advises the use of planning conditions to prevent a change in the character of the development to one that the local planning authority would originally have refused.

8.19. The imposition of planning conditions will, therefore, be considered amongst others to limit the range of goods sold, to prevent the development from being subdivided into smaller units and to prevent the future addition of mezzanine floors.

8.20. Similar concerns apply to supermarkets and superstores, which sell comparison goods and provide a range of services. The type of comparison goods sold and the amount of space devoted to their sale, can potentially threaten nearby centres. Even within centres the amount of comparison floorspace could represent a significant proportion of a centre’s overall comparison floorspace.

8.21. PPS6 stresses the importance of easily accessible shopping to meet people’s day-to-day needs. Existing facilities which meet these needs should be protected retaining, wherever possible, opportunities for vital services such as post offices and pharmacies. Careful consideration will also be given to the retention of financial services for the reasons set out in paragraph 8.24, although the inclusion of financial services in supermarkets and superstores may present an opportunity to restore banking facilities in areas where they are deficient.

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Shopping and Service Provision in Local and District Centres

8.22. Local and district shopping centres perform important functions in providing goods, services and a focus for local communities through the location of shops, healthcare facilities, libraries, financial services and social venues including pubs, cafes and takeaways. Their contribution to sustainable development and to social inclusion by retaining and improving access to shops is inestimable. Therefore, the policy towards new retail development outside the Central Shopping Core supports existing and proposed centres by:

•  ensuring that new retail businesses take space in them rather than setting up elsewhere;

•  concentrating retail development in centres making mixed shopping trips easier for the public, particularly for those who rely on walking and public transport and for people with disabilities or restricted mobility; and thereby:

i)   encouraging reduced travel by car;

ii)  reducing disturbance to residential areas that may be caused by a more diverse distribution of retail facilities.

8.23. The aims are also relevant to uses within Classes A2, A3, A4 and A5 which also provide services to visiting members of the public. These will need to be in shopping centre locations where they are easily accessible by foot, cycle, public transport and car.

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Offices

8.24. Financial and professional services (Use Class A2) will be permitted in centres. Financial services, banks and building societies, are increasingly withdrawing from local centres which are undermined further if potential shoppers are diverted to other centres offering these facilities. The losses have serious social exclusion implications.

8.25. Some business and financial offices falling within Use Class B1 also serve a local need. Such offices may, in exceptional circumstances, be acceptable within district and local shopping centres. The consideration of any proposal for a B1 use will be subject to the criteria below; acceptability will be enhanced if it is small scale. Where other B1 uses, that is, ‘light industrial’ and ‘research and development’ would have an adverse effect on the character of the street and shopping centre, it may be necessary to impose conditions restricting the use to office purposes only (within Class B1(a)).

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Food and Drink

8.26. Uses falling within Classes A3, A4 and A5 are appropriate in shopping centres and will be permitted subject to the criteria in policy R05. The character and particularly the retail function of a shopping centre continue to be critical, and where this function is likely to be significantly affected by the predominance of uses within these Classes, planning permission will be refused for any new use within these Classes.

8.27. Many of the local centres are small, less than ten shops, and are interspersed with or are very close to houses. Uses within Classes A3, A4 and A5in these centres are often of concern to people who live close by and indeed of those living over a wider area when noise and disturbance is also generated by increased pedestrian and vehicular traffic drawn into an area. The pattern of activity associated with, for instance, hot food takeaways, a typical use within Class A5, found in local centres, is late night use at unsociable hours and the frequent use of cars to visit facilities. The disregard for traffic and parking restrictions when making typically short stay visits are also features. Evenings and Sundays can be particularly sensitive times because of a lower background noise.

8.28. In any location where residential properties are nearby, such uses will only be acceptable if planning conditions restricting the hours of opening can reasonably be imposed and when they cannot planning permission may not be granted at all. Opening outside the hours of 0730 - 2300 on Mondays to Saturdays or at any time on a Sunday, will be unacceptable if significant detriment is likely to be caused to the amenity of local residents by the operation of an A3, A4 or A5 business.

8.29. A3, A4 and A5 uses present particular problems with regard to using upper floors. Acoustic insulation is not always fully effective in protecting the amenities of residents in adjoining buildings and this can inhibit the use of adjacent upper floors for residential purposes. In addition, to be consistent with policies elsewhere in the local plan, which seek to prevent loss of housing, the use of upper floors for A3, A4 or A5 purposes will be restricted.

8.30. Supplementary Planning Guidance has been adopted to provide guidance on a range of issues including hours of use, street frontages, concentrations of A3, A4 and A5 uses, and the suspension of the presumption in favour of granting planning permission for A3, A4 and A5 uses in the smallest defined shopping centres.

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Local Shopping Outside the Defined Shopping Centres

8.31. Where deficiencies in local shopping facilities are identified planning permission will normally be granted for new retail development to meet that local need provided the proposal is of an appropriate scale, it is readily accessible by a choice of means of transport, and is unlikely to have adverse implications for residential amenities and for traffic and parking conditions.

8.32. Policies PS09 and E06 set out the priorities for Potential Development Areas (PDA) and Primarily Office Areas respectively. The former envisages a role for shops in some PDAs and both envisage roles for A3, A4 and A5 uses asa desirable complement to offices, new residential development and regeneration. The LRC Masterplan also identifies a need for small scale retailing as part of mixed use schemes or waterside development. The location of new shops, bars and restaurants will be determined by detailed assessment of each PDA and for parts of the LRC Masterplan area and then set out in Supplementary Planning Guidance and Documents. Individual proposals in these areas will be assessed on their merits and against the relevant policies and Supplementary Planning Guidance and Documents.

8.33. Corner shops and other isolated shops still provide a local service. Sometimes they are located in areas that are not well served by the defined centres. Limited extensions to existing shops to aid their viability and to retain a local, accessible facility will be acceptable subject to the criteria in policy R06. This is consistent with the themes of accessibility and reducing the need to travel.

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8.34. New local shopping centres are proposed at North Hamilton and Ashton Green, where substantial residential development is planned, and at Caversham Road to replace obsolete shopping provision.

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Petrol Filling Stations and Shops

8.35. The market in forecourt retailing has led to the selective redevelopment of existing petrol filling stations incorporating a small, but not insignificant, convenience store typically of 200 - 300 m² of retail floorspace. Whilst in some cases this will lead to improved local shopping at least in qualitative terms, their size and location makes them effective competitors with the smaller supermarkets in shopping centres.

8.36. Where a proposal is within a defined shopping centre, it will be considered against policy R03. Outside the defined centres the new shopping provision will be judged against the criteria of policy R06 in particular criterion a). If necessary a reduction in the floorspace will be sought in order to protect nearby centres.

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Other Related Uses and Ancillary and Complementary Retail Development

8.37. Other uses not falling within the definition of shop, Class A1, can have locational needs and characteristics similar to conventional retailing and are commonly found both within and outside defined centres. Factory shops, car showrooms and hire businesses are covered respectively by policiesE09, E11 and E12 in the Employment Chapter.

8.38. Cash and carry warehouses are covered by policy E10. Wholesaling uses within existing shopping centres harm their character and viability. However, the City Council has accepted that wholesale uses may be permitted as an exception within the Narborough Road District Centre situated between 3 to 75 Narborough Road, following an appeal decision.

8.39. Warehouse clubs are a more recent phenomenon stipulating membership a proportion of which are individuals unconnected with businesses. Warehouse clubs can generate substantial turnover, therefore, they will be treated as though they are retail businesses depending on the degree to which they share the characteristics of large retail outlets.

8.40. Sauna and massage parlours use a variety of premises including those located in residential areas. They can give rise to complaint though not always on environmental and amenity grounds. Such uses can be discreet but potentially problems of parking and noise and general disturbance caused by visitors can arise. The opening times are typically late into the evening.

8.41. Where new sauna and massage parlours are proposed in residential and employment areas identified on the Proposals Map, they will be judged against the policy criteria relevant in those areas. In the shopping centres such uses will be permitted subject to the criteria in Policy R03. The use of conditions to restrict the hours of opening will also be considered in order to protect the amenities of nearby residents.

8.42. Shops that are ancillary or complementary to a main non-retail development or use, for example, in hospital premises, in sports stadia, and, subject to these conditions, on farms will normally be permitted providing they are small scale and the direct ancillary link to the main use is maintained. It is suggested that such shops are contained within and are only accessible from the main building or, if appropriate, the site. Such shops may or may not require planning permission.

Belgrave Shopping Centre

8.43.The importance of the Belgrave Road as a shopping centre of international, national and regional renown is recognised. New and replacement shops, services and other facilities will be encouraged. The Belgrave Corridor Project, a transport led scheme, is now underway bringing qualitative improvements to the centre. Improving access by public transport, reducing pollution and accidents, improving parking for residents, shoppers and visitors will maintain and enhance the role of Belgrave Road.

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