HILLINGDON UNITARY DEVELOPMENT PLAN - London Borough ...

Role of Town Centres
8.12 Town Centres have a special role to play in many aspects of life in Hillingdon. They are distinct
in terms of their townscape and in the variety and concentration of activities they contain, and they will
continue to act as the foci for shopping, employment, leisure and related activities. Concentration of
facilities at these central locations has many advantages. Because town centres are transport nodes, they
are traditionally places where many activities can be carried out without the need to travel by car. Town
centres are places where people meet for leisure and recreation, to exchange ideas and trade in goods and
services. Their townscape and the design, density and disposition of their buildings and open spaces can
help enhance their functions, particularly by encouraging people to walk along their streets and through
their open spaces to stimulate passing trade for shops.
8.13 Their boundaries include the main concentrations of town centre activities and in some cases
vacant or underused sites suitable for development. The boundaries are intended to concentrate town
centre uses and to prevent them expanding into the surrounding areas of housing, open space or lower
density industrial and business areas. To allow town centre uses to spread beyond their boundaries, or to
allow any one land use to dominate a centre, would radically change their character, seriously disadvantage
people without their own transport and be a waste of past investment in buildings and transport facilities. It
could also contribute to the imbalance in the distribution of town centre activities between east and west
and inner and outer London, leading to further congestion in this part of outer west London. For these
reasons the Council wishes to safeguard the role and character of the town centres as mixed-use, high
density service and employment centres for their surrounding areas. Change, in the form of acceptable
redevelopment, will be welcomed and will be guided in such a way as to strengthen the roles of town
centres and to enhance their vitality and attractiveness.
8.14 Support for existing town centres is consistent with Strategic Planning Guidance which states that
they "should continue to be the main focus for the provision of shopping facilities. Planning policies can
help to promote the modernisation and refurbishment of town centres ..... in ways that improve the
environment and enhance the attractiveness of the centre. For example, consideration should be given to
the possibility of pedestrianisation, to the provision of additional car parking and traffic management
measures and to the importance of public transport" (SPG, para 72). RPG3 seeks to maintain the vitality
and viability of town and local centres and to resist out of centre developments that are dependent on the
car.
8.15 From the 1950s, Hillingdon's town centres suffered increasingly severe problems for pedestrians
and deteriorating shopping environments as a result of traffic congestion and on-street parking. The
Council's response has been to implement pedestrianisation and pedestrian priority schemes where possible,
taking into account servicing needs. Experience in this Borough and elsewhere has shown that such
schemes benefit both traders and shoppers, make a valuable contribution to the commercial vitality of town
centres and dramatically reduce pedestrian accidents.
8.16 Uxbridge has long been established as the Borough's most important shopping centre and
consultants' studies have identified it as a centre with a very high unrealised potential. Proposals for a
major new retail development included in Chapter 15 should increase the range of higher order goods and
so provide for local demand which currently is satisfied outside the Borough. On completion of shop and
office development schemes currently in the pipeline Uxbridge will have achieved the scale of
development needed to fulfil its role as a Strategic Centre. Any further increases in retail and office
floorspace would probably require an expanded catchment area to attract sufficient custom or suitably
qualified staff and so conflict with other objectives of the Plan. It is desirable that any further changes are
qualitative improvements to consolidate its role. The Council, in partnership with major retailers and
landowners, has appointed a town centre manager for Uxbridge to develop and co-ordinate initiatives for
improving all aspects of the town centre. There are opportunities for major developments in other town
centres, particularly Hayes and Yiewsley/West Drayton which, being well served by existing and proposed
rail and bus public transport would be more likely to serve and draw upon a more compact, urban
catchment area than Uxbridge. Specific proposals are included in Chapter 15.
London Borough of Hillingdon Unitary Development Plan