Knowsley Replacement Unitary Development Plan - Knowsley Council

TOWN CENTRES AND SHOPPING
TOWN CENTRES AND SHOPPING
EXPLANATION S1
THE NEED FOR NEW SHOPPING DEVELOPMENT
IN KNOWSLEY
7.12
The “Knowsley MBC Town Centre & Shopping Survey”
2002 identified the need for further shopping
development as follows:
• A major development of up to 9,000 square
metres gross floorspace for food retailing in
Kirkby town centre; and
• Further comparison goods retailing (see glossary)
within Kirkby, Prescot and Huyton. Due to
increasing expenditure levels, a minimum of
7,000 square metres additional floorspace would
need to be provided, split between these three
centres over the period to 2011, if they are to
retain their current market share - more may be
required if these centres are to “clawback”
expenditure lost to other centres elsewhere.
7.13
These needs will be kept under review to inform
decisions on individual planning applications.
LOCATION OF NEW SHOPPING DEVELOPMENT
7.14
A key emphasis of this Plan is to sustain and
strengthen the vitality and viability of the three town
centres of Huyton, Kirkby and Prescot, together with
the smaller district and local centres. Policy S1
therefore establishes that town and district centres
should be the preferred locations for future retail
development and leisure uses which attract a lot of
people. New development should complement the
role and be appropriate to the scale of each centre.
This will mean that the catchment area for a
proposed development should generally be not
significantly larger than the centre within which it
would be located.
7.15
This approach to controlling location is in accordance
with national and regional planning policy. Sites on
the edge of existing centres will only be considered
suitable where a need has been clearly demonstrated
which cannot be met by developing a site or sites, or
re-use of existing buildings, within an existing centre
or centres within the same catchment. “Out of
centre” sites should only be considered where there
is no town centre or edge of centre site available.
The terms “need”, “edge of centre” and “out of
centre” are defined in the glossary.
7.16
Retail and leisure uses can be major traffic
generators. It is therefore important that they are
located where they are accessible by a choice of
means of transport, including walking, cycling and
public transport, thereby reducing the need to
travel by car.
REGENERATION AND DESIGN ISSUES
7.17
It is important that all shopping and leisure
developments should be consistent with the Council’s
other regeneration strategies. These include the town
centre regeneration strategies, Development Briefs
affecting each centre and also the Objective 1 and
other regeneration strategies listed in chapter 2
“Key Issues and Influences”.
7.18
All town and other centres are important focal points
for local residents and visitors. It is therefore
particularly important that new development is of a
high standard of design and construction and
compatible with the overall vision for each centre.
The design requirements for new development are
explained further in chapter 11 “Development Quality
and the Built Environment”.
POLICY LINKS
Policies S2 to S8
Policy T5
“Location of Major Traffic Generating New
Development”
Policy T6
“Ensuring a choice of travel to serve new
development”
Policy T10
“Access for the less mobile”
Policy DQ1
“Design Quality in New Development”
Policy DQ2
“Security in the built environment”
POLICY S2:
DIVERSIFICATION OF USES WITHIN
EXISTING CENTRES
1. Proposals for new buildings, or for the change
of use or alteration of existing buildings, to
provide town centre uses (as defined in
Appendix 7) within existing town and district
centres will be permitted provided that the
following criteria are met:
a) The proposal would be compatible with the
scale and role of the centre and would not
have a detrimental impact on the retail
function of the centre;
b) The proposal would not result in a
grouping of uses which would have a
negative impact on the character of
the centre;
c) The use would not (by reason of smells,
noise, visual intrusion or general
disturbance) have a detrimental impact on
the environment of the surrounding area;
or on the amenity of any neighbouring
residents; and
d) The proposal would not cause or
exacerbate on-street parking, traffic or
amenity problems.
Food and drink uses
2. Proposals for new buildings, or for the change
of use or alteration of existing buildings, to
provide food and/or drink uses (use classes A3,
A4 and A5) within existing centres will be
expected to meet the criteria listed above in
relation to other non-retail uses and the
following additional criteria:
a) Any external ventilation and extractor
systems which are necessary would be
provided without causing harm to the
external appearance of the building or
street scene and would not harm the
amenity of neighbouring properties
through noise or odour; and
b) The proposal will not be permitted in a
local centre or in any property (either
within or outside an existing centre) that is
close to existing or proposed residential
uses unless the applicant has submitted
convincing evidence that the impact on
residential amenity would be acceptable.
Residential uses
3. In the case of proposals for residential use, the
applicant must demonstrate that existing uses
in properties near to, above or below the
application property would not cause
significant problems of noise, smells or
general disturbances to future occupiers.
EXPLANATION S2
THE NEED TO DIVERSIFY
KNOWSLEY’S CENTRES
7.19
In Knowsley’s town and district centres generally
there is inactivity after 6.00pm when the majority of
shops, banks and offices are closed. Some of the
centres include significant amounts of vacant or
under-used floorspace. In Prescot, the problem is
complicated by the ageing nature of some of the
buildings, and the need to preserve the historic fabric
of the town centre.
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KNOWSLEY REPLACEMENT UNITARY DEVELOPMENT PLAN: Adopted June 2006
KNOWSLEY REPLACEMENT UNITARY DEVELOPMENT PLAN: Adopted June 2006
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