Evidence Base

Retail needs study

The Retail Needs Study has been undertaken by White Young Green planning consultants, on behalf of the Council. The study is a key part of the evidence base to help inform preparation of the Local Development Framework. It is also a requirement of Planning Policy Statement 6 (PPS6): Planning for Town Centres.

As part of the study, the following original market research was undertaken:

a household telephone survey to identify shopping habits within, and outside of, the District;
an on-street survey of shoppers, focusing upon their perceptions of, and experiences of, each of Calderdale's town centres;
a postal survey of town centre commercial businesses to gather their perceptions of the relevant town centre, considering issues such as access, car parking, and town centre management.

Key outputs from the study include:

Projected shortfalls of both convenience and comparison shopping floorspace in town centres over the short (to 2014), medium (to 2019) and long-term (to 2026) periods. (Main Report)
Town centre health checks demonstrating the vitality and viability of town centres (at August 2009) including vacancy rates and range of retail provision. (Appendix 5)
Recommendations for the review of retail frontages in Halifax, Brighouse, Hebden Bridge and Todmorden. (Appendix 9).

The Retail Needs Study consists of a Main Report and 9 Appendices.

Please note: Some of these PDF files contain maps with a high degree of detail, hence the large file sizes. Consequently, they will take a while to download.

To assess how long they will take to download visit Filesize Download Speed Calculator |.

Retail Needs Study Main Report [PDF file 1408KB]|
Appendix 1: Map: Survey Zones [PDF file 3284KB]|
Appendix 2: Household Survey [PDF file 346KB]|
Appendix 3: In Street Survey [PDF file 250KB]|
Appendix 4: Business Survey [PDF file 329KB]|
Appendix 5 - Town Centre Vitality and Viability Assessments:

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