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Knowsley Council KNOWSLEY LOCAL DEVELOPMENT FRAMEWORK: TOWN CENTRES AND SHOPPING STUDY VOLUME 1: CURRENT EXPENDITURE PATTERNS AND HEALTH CHECKS – MAIN TEXT Final Report November 2009 ROGER TYM & PARTNERS 61 Oxford Street Manchester M1 6EQ t 0161 245 8900 f 0161 245 8901 e [email protected] w www.tymconsult.com CONTENTS 1 INSTRUCTIONS, CONTEXTUAL BACKGROUND AND OUTLINE OF REPORT STRUCTURE .................................................................................................................. 1 Instructions 1 Contextual Background 2 Structure of the Remainder of the Report 3 2 THE REQUIREMENTS OF NATIONAL POLICY FOR TOWN CENTRES AND SUSTAINABLE ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT ................................................................ 5 Introduction 5 PPS6 – Planning for Town Centres (March 2005) 5 PPS1: Delivering Sustainable Development (February 2005) 11 Consultation Paper on a New Planning Policy Statement 4: Planning for Prosperous Communities 12 PPS12 – June 2008 19 3 THE REQUIREMENTS OF THE NORTH WEST OF ENGLAND PLAN – REGIONAL SPATIAL STRATEGY TO 2021 ..................................................................................... 22 The Regional Spatial Framework 22 Spatial Principles 23 Liverpool City Region 23 Policies for Achieving a Sustainable Economy 24 4 CURRENT PATTERNS OF RETAIL AND LEISURE SPENDING .................................. 26 Household Survey Methodology 26 The Overall Catchment Area 28 Comparison Goods Spending Patterns 29 Comparison Goods Market Shares 33 Overlapping Comparison Goods Catchments 34 Comparison Goods Sub-Sectors 35 Patterns of Convenience Goods Expenditure 41 Convenience Goods Market Shares 45 Pattern of Spending on Leisure Services 48 Conclusions in Relation to Retail and Leisure Spending Patterns 51 5 THE CURRENT PERFORMANCE OF KNOWSLEY’S TOWN, DISTRICT AND LOCAL CENTRES ..................................................................................................................... 54 Introduction 54 Huyton Town Centre 55 Kirkby Town Centre 59 Prescot Town Centre 64 Customer Views and Behaviour – The Key Findings and Survey of Pedestrians 68 Satisfaction Ratings 76 Conclusions in Relation to the Survey of Pedestrians 83 The District Centres 84 The Croft, Stockbridge Village 84 Ravenscourt, Halewood 85 Local Shopping Centres and Parades 86 6 CONCLUSIONS AND POTENTIAL IMPLICATIONS FOR THE ISSUES AND OPTIONS PAPER.......................................................................................................................... 96 National Policy Requirements 96 Conclusions in Relation to Retail and Leisure Spending Patterns 96 Current Performance of Knowsley’s Town, District and Local Centres 98 Potential Implications for the Issues and Options Paper 100 Glossary 102 To be read in conjunction with two separately bound volumes as follows: VOLUME 2: FIGURES, TABLES & SPREADSHEETS Figures Figure 4.1 Catchment Area Figure 4.2 Catchment Area with Buffer Figure 4.3 Liverpool City Council – Comparison Goods Market Share Figure 4.4 Study Area – Dominant and Subsidiary Centres Figure 5.1 Vacant Units – Huyton Figure 5.2 Vacant Units – Kirkby Figure 5.3 Vacant Units – Prescot Tables Table 1 MHE Retail Rankings Table 2.1 Diversity of Uses – Huyton Table 2.2 Diversity of Uses – Kirkby Table 2.3 Diversity of Uses – Prescot Table 3 Retailer Requirements Spreadsheets Spreadsheets 1 to 9j Comparison Spreadsheets Spreadsheets 11 to 18 Convenience Spreadsheets VOLUME 3: APPENDICES Appendix 1 – Study Brief Appendix 2 – Questionnaire Used In Survey of Households Appendix 3 – Extracts from Focus Reports Showing Retailer Requirements in Huyton, Kirkby and Prescot Knowsley LDF: Town Centre and Shopping Study 1 INSTRUCTIONS, CONTEXTUAL BACKGROUND AND OUTLINE OF REPORT STRUCTURE Instructions 1.1 Knowsley Council commissioned Roger Tym & Partners to undertake this study in April 2008, following a competitive tender process. The study brief, which is reproduced as Appendix 1 in Volume 3, explains that the study is to form part of the evidence base for the town centre and retail policy aspects of the Council’s emerging Local Development Framework (LDF). Thus, the study has to reflect the Government’s requirements, as set out in PPS6 and in PPS12, and the regional policy requirements set out in the North West of England Plan, Regional Spatial Strategy to 2021 (the RSS, approved in September 2008). However, the study has a forward timescale to 2026, which goes beyond the time horizon of the RSS; this is because Knowsley’s Core Strategy and Site Allocations Development Plan Documents are not expected to be adopted until 2011. 1.2 The study brief envisaged that the work would cover: i) a health check of Knowsley’s three town centres – Huyton, Prescot and Kirkby – using PPS6 indicators, through consultations with key stakeholders such as retailers, landowners and local town centre trading organisations, and through surveys of visitors to the town centres; ii) an assessment of need for retailing and other town centre uses over the lifetime of the LDF, taking account of projected change in population and per capita expenditure, and using a survey of households to establish current expenditure patterns, the existing catchment areas of each town centre and how these relate to other centres in the Liverpool City Region ; and; iii) an assessment of the Borough’s three district centres and its 35 local parades/centres (as listed in Appendix 6 of the Knowsley Replacement Unitary Development Plan, KRUDP), so as to: o provide an assessment of their health; o assess the pattern of provision against local needs; o identify any gaps or surpluses in provision; o make recommendations for action to address weaknesses in the quality and quantity of local shopping provision; and o to assess the scope for diversification of uses. Roger Tym & Partners 1 M9261, November 2009 Knowsley LDF: Town Centre and Shopping Study Contextual Background 1.3 In August 2008, the Secretary of State called in a major mixed use planning application by Tesco Stores Limited in respect of the comprehensive redevelopment of Kirkby town centre and land to its south. The application was subsequently the subject of a public inquiry which commenced in November 2008 and closed in February 2009. The application comprised: a major new stadium for Everton Football Club, with a capacity for 50,000 spectators; retail development of 50,000 sq. m gross internal area (GIA); leisure and hotel facilities; new office and civic uses; food and drink facilities; 72 residential units; and new bus and coach parks, car parking and improvements to the public realm. 1.4 The Council appeared at the call-in inquiry in support of the Tesco application on the basis that it would assist in meeting a coincidence of needs, as follows: i) the need to transform the entirely unacceptable social and economic conditions that prevail in the northern part of the Borough; ii) the need for some kind of radical intervention in the market so as to transform the profile of a dysfunctioning Kirkby town centre which, in turn, is adding to the difficulties being faced by the Council in retaining talented young people and in attracting new residents to the Kirkby area; and iii) the need for Everton Football Club to relocate to a new stadium so as to secure its long term future and enhance the role that it plays in the community it serves. 1.5 Thus, given the Council’s support for the Tesco application and the resources involved in preparing for the Inquiry, it was agreed that there would need to be a delay in progressing this LDF study. However, by February 2009 when the Inquiry closed, it had become clear that the UK was in the midst of one of the most serious recessions faced since the Second World War. Indeed, in February 2009 and in March 2009 the two leading providers of retail spending forecasts – Experian and Pitney Bowes/MapInfo/Oxford Economics – published new forecasts for growth in per capita retail spending up to 2016, which were substantially below the levels anticipated in their Autumn 2008 forecasts. Roger Tym & Partners 2 M9261, November 2009 Knowsley LDF: Town Centre and Shopping Study 1.6 Thus, following discussion with the client, we agreed that it was best to proceed on a staged basis whereby this first report would cover our health checks of the Borough’s various town, district and local centres, together with the analysis of current patterns of retail and leisure spending, the catchment areas of existing centres and our analysis of how the Borough’s centres relate to the wider hierarchy of centres in the city-region. 1.7 This first report will be used as part of the evidence base for the LDF ‘Issues and Options’ paper, for which work is now well advanced. 1.8 A second report will be published in early 2010, when we should have a better assessment of the likely depth and duration of the current recession. The second report will provide an assessment of the quantitative and qualitative need for retail and other town centres uses over the lifetime of the LDF and an appraisal of alternative strategies for meeting these needs. Thus, the second report will feed into the Council’s preparation of its ‘Preferred Options’ for the LDF. Structure of the Remainder of the Report 1.9 The remainder of this first report is structured as follows: Section 2 provides a résumé of the requirements of national policy insofar as they relate to town centres and the location of town centre uses, planning for sustainable development, and the nature of Core Strategy

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