HILLINGDON UNITARY DEVELOPMENT PLAN - London Borough ...

(c)
Local Centres
8.23 Some shopping areas meet local shopping needs over and above just daily food shopping. These
are designated Local Centres in the Borough Shopping Hierarchy. Within each the Local Planning
Authority has defined a core area (shown in Figures 7A to 7G). This contains the minimum number and
range of shops to enable the centre to carry out its role of providing for the needs of people who do not live
close to a town centre, thus reducing the need to travel to such a centre for goods and services that could be
provided more locally. Local centres are generally much smaller than town centres and in order to ensure
that they retain a strong retail core with more than just the bare minimum number of shops, the policies
governing changes of use are more restrictive than those for town centres. Accordingly, the Local Planning
Authority will resist proposals that would result in the loss of a Class A1 shop use in core areas and will
examine very closely similar proposals for other parts of these centres. The considerations raised in
paragraphs 8.19, 8.20, 8.21, 8.22 and Policy S6 will be taken into account in assessing proposals against
policies S9 and S10.
S9 IN THE LOCAL CENTRES OF HAREFIELD, ICKENHAM, SOUTH RUISLIP, NORTH
HILLINGDON, HILLINGDON HEATH, HARLINGTON AND WILLOW TREE LANE,
YEADING, THE LOCAL PLANNING AUTHORITY WILL ONLY GRANT PERMISSION FOR
CHANGES OF USE FROM CLASS A1 SHOPS OUTSIDE THE CORE AREAS DEFINED IN
FIGURES 7A TO 7G.
S10 OUTSIDE CORE AREAS SUBJECT TO POLICY S9, THE LOCAL PLANNING
AUTHORITY WILL GRANT PERMISSION TO CHANGE THE USE OF SHOPS IN LOCAL
CENTRES FROM CLASS A1 IF:-
(i)
(ii)
THE CENTRE AS A WHOLE INCLUDES ESSENTIAL LOCAL SHOP USES
SUFFICIENT IN NUMBER, RANGE AND TYPE TO SERVE THE SURROUNDING
RESIDENTIAL AREA;
THE PROPOSED USE PROVIDES A LOCAL SERVICE; AND
(iii) THE PROPOSAL ACCORDS WITH POLICY S6.
(d)
Strategic, Major and Minor Town Centres
8.24 In order to emphasise the retail function of the Borough's town centres, the Local Planning
Authority has divided them into:-
Primary Areas which are the focus of retail activity in the centres and are either already generally
dominated by retail shops or are areas which the Local Planning Authority considers have prime retail
potential.
Secondary Areas, peripheral to the primary areas in which shopping and service uses are more mixed,
although Class A1 shops should still be the majority use.
Other Areas, outside the primary and secondary areas which are appropriate both for retail and for other
town centres uses.
The primary and secondary areas are defined in Figures 7H-7Q and in the Uxbridge Town Centre inset to
the Proposals Map.
8.25 Government guidance, research and local experience show that some service uses are particularly
appropriate, even necessary, in shopping centres to serve the needs of shopkeepers as well as of shoppers.
Banks, restaurants, food take-aways and building societies are the uses most frequently used by shoppers,
whereas uses such as estate agents, betting shops and places of entertainment tend not to be visited on
London Borough of Hillingdon Unitary Development Plan