Sequential Approach to Retail, Key Town Centre and Leisure Developments
6.18 Government Policy as contained in PPS1, PPS6 and PPG13 together with RSS (2004) stress the importance of town centres and the desirability of locating new retail, leisure and other key developments within or adjacent to town centres, in order to encourage multi-purpose trips and provide greater opportunities for the use of public transport. The adoption of a sequential approach to site selection will assist in ensuring that the benefits of new forms of retailing are available to the greatest number of people and that locally generated retail expenditure is retained to support investment and jobs within the local economy and assist in the aim of reducing the need to travel. This sequential approach gives priority to town centre sites as development locations. Edge-of-centre sites, district and local centres and finally out-of-centre locations should be considered in turn in assessing suitable development locations. Out-of-centre sites should generally be regarded as an option of last resort. Within town centres, there may be Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas, which may have implications for considering whether sites or buildings are suitable for retail or other development. In some instances it may be necessary to consider edge-of-centre sites where the alternative central sites would have serious implications for a Conservation Area or Listed Buildings. The Council will therefore apply the sequential test as follows:-
Policy S 1
Sequential Approach for Retail and other Key Town Centre or Leisure Uses
Proposals for retailing or for other key town centre or leisure uses should be sited in accordance with the following preferred sequence of locations:-
FIRSTLY - within town centres as defined on the Proposals Map, where suitable, viable sites or buildings for conversion are available;
SECONDLY - in accessible edge-of-centre locations, having good links with the town centre or in district and local centres, where no suitable, viable central sites or buildings are available;
THIRDLY - in sustainable out-of-centre locations which are accessible by a choice of means of transport or at Other Retail Locations where no suitable, viable sites or buildings are available in any of the above areas higher in the sequential approach. Applications for proposals in edge-of-centre or out-of-centre locations will be expected to demonstrate that there are no reasonably available, suitable and viable alternative sites within locations higher in the preferred sequence, and that development of these sites will support sustainable development principles.
6.19 For the purposes of interpreting the shopping policies and to ensure certainty for developers where these apply, the Centres as identified on the Proposals Map and listed above in the shopping hierarchy (paragraph 6.13) are considered to be appropriate locations for retail development. ‘Other Retail Locations’ are not regarded as centres and therefore, should not be considered as part of the initial sequential approach except where they may be edge-of-centre locations. It is accepted that in some circumstances, the expansion or enhancement of an existing out-of-centre ‘Other Retail Location’ may be a more satisfactory solution than the creation of an entirely new out-of-centre retail park.