Retail Study 08
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FOREST OF DEAN DISTRICT COUNCIL Forest of Dean District Retail Study October 2008 GVA Grimley Ltd University Gate Park Row Bristol BS1 5UB 0870 900 8990 www.gvagrimley.co.uk Forest of Dean District Council Retail Study CONTENTS Page No. 1 Introduction 1 2 Policy Overview 4 3 Retail Trends 14 4 Assessment of Town Centres 27 5 Assessment of Need for Additional Retail Floorspace 49 in Forest of Dean District 6 Broad Policy Options for Retailing in Forest of Dean District 109 7 Summary and Conclusions: A Retail Strategy for Forest of Dean 145 District APPENDICES Appendix A Study Area Plan Appendix B Household Survey Tabulations Appendix C Pedestrian Flow Analysis Appendix D Quantitative Need Assessment Tables October 2008 Forest of Dean District Council Retail Study 1. INTRODUCTION Overview 1.1 This report has been prepared by GVA Grimley Ltd in response to an instruction by Forest of Dean District Council (FODDC), dated October 2007, to prepare a Retail Study for the Forest of Dean administrative area. This study will provide essential background information to assist FODDC in the production of a Local Development Framework (LDF). 1.2 National planning policy guidance requires that local planning authorities’ policies and proposals in a LDF should be founded on a thorough, clear and up-to-date understanding of the needs of their area and the opportunities and constraints which operate within that area. PPS12 (2008) requires local planning authorities to prepare and maintain an up-to-date evidence base and this retail study will form an integral part of FODDC’s information library. It is intended that this study will meet these requirements by providing comprehensive survey material, in response to guidance within the ODPM publication ‘Local Development Framework Monitoring: A Good Practice Guide’ (March 2005). This guidance requires local planning authorities to examine: the availability and use of existing centres, the accessibility of centres, retail expenditure patterns and proposals in adjacent areas. These actions will assist the Council to move forwards in the preparation of its LDF. Objectives of the Study 1.3 The key issues for the study, identified by FODDC’s study brief in September 2007, are as follows: • The need for additional retail space in the town centres. • The adequacy of the existing space (in terms of size, type and quality of units). • The physical quality of the centres (public spaces, parking, fabric generally). • Pedestrian environment and linkages (access and attractiveness) • Review of current allocated retail sites. • Review of the appropriateness of the existing defined boundary of each of the town centres • The allocation of some of the core/peripheral areas within the boundaries (appropriate uses and mix of uses). • Out-of-centre retailing. 1.4 In order to address all of the above issues, FODDC requires a comprehensive analysis of retailing in the Forest of Dean that addresses both quantitative and qualitative issues. FODDC requires that October 2008 1 Forest of Dean District Council Retail Study this study considers retail issues in a holistic manner, taking account of underlying patterns of sustainability, social inclusion and technological change. Accordingly, this study includes the following key components: • Provision of a policy analysis, based on the contents of Planning Policy Statement 6: Planning for Town Centres (2005) plus policies at the regional and local level. At the local level, the Gloucestershire Structure Plan provides current strategic context for retailing in the Forest of Dean, supplemented by policies set out in the recently adopted Forest of Dean Local Plan Review. This study will facilitate a review of the robustness of shopping policies and proposals in the Local Plan, to inform the policy formulation in the LDF and other Council policy documents. • Overview of the retail hierarchy in the Forest of Dean, focusing on a review of the vitality and viability of the four town centres (Coleford, Cinderford, Lydney and Newent). The assessment examines the retail performance of each centre. • Following the assessment of town centre health and future retail floorspace capacity, this study also provides a review of potential shopping development opportunities in each of the four town centres. This work will examine existing allocations/opportunities identified in the adopted Local Plan, plus new potential opportunities which have been identified through the course of completing this study. • Following the completion of each of the above tasks, a set of concise conclusions and a retail strategy for the Forest of Dean District is provided. This will focus on the retail hierarchy and the likely future role of each main centre, town centre improvements and retail development/investment/regeneration opportunities. 1.5 A key contributor to all of the above tasks has been empirical research in the form of a household telephone survey originally commissioned by FODDC and GVA Grimley for the assessment of a Tesco proposal for Cinderford, although the survey was structured to inform District-wide Local Development Framework work (such as this retail study). The survey interviewed 800 people across a wide geographic area, based on postcode sector areas, within the Forest of Dean District administrative area plus adjoining local authority boundaries. A plan of the survey area is contained at Appendix A of this report. The survey, the parameters of which are explained in greater detail in Sections 4 and 5 of this report, has established shopping habits of households for different types of food and non-food goods and has, in turn, contributed towards the detailed assessment of need for additional retail floorspace. The survey has also been structured to ascertain customer profiles, mode of travel to shopping destinations, plus a number of attitudinal questions determining what users think about the various town centres, and potential improvements to these centres. A full copy of the household survey tabulations is contained at Appendix B. October 2008 2 Forest of Dean District Council Retail Study Structure of the Report 1.6 The remainder of this report is structured as follows: • Section 2 of this report provides a brief review of current national planning policy guidance, plus retail policies contained within Regional Planning Guidance for the South West (RPG10), the draft Regional Spatial Strategy and the Gloucestershire Structure Plan. This section also summarises the current local planning policy context outlined in the adopted Forest of Dean Local Plan Review. • Section 3 of this report analyses national retail trends. This includes a look back at recent historic trends, plus examination of likely future trends at the national level. • Section 4 provides an assessment of the retail hierarchy within the Forest of Dean and the surrounding area, concentrating on the health of the four key centres in the District (Lydney, Coleford, Cinderford and Newent), monitoring the performance of relevant indicators as set out in national planning policy guidance. This section also provides an overview of out-of-centre retail provision within the District and retail provision in the sub- region. • Section 5 sets out an assessment of future need for additional retail floorspace provision in the Forest of Dean over the lifetime of the Local Development Framework (up to 2026). It examines both quantitative and qualitative considerations of retail need and expresses estimates of need for each of the key towns. • Drawing upon the findings of preceding chapters, Section 6 outlines the broad policy options for the Forest of Dean Local Development Framework, examining future trends for floorspace capacity and an assessment of potential town centre development sites. • Section 7 provides a summary of the main findings of the study and provides an outline of the retail strategy for the Forest of Dean District. 1.7 All plans, statistical tables and other documents referred to in the text of this study are contained in appendices at the rear of this document. October 2008 3 Forest of Dean District Council Retail Study 2. POLICY OVERVIEW Overview 2.1 This chapter outlines the salient planning policy context for retailing and town centres at the national, regional, strategic and local level. In particular, it outlines national planning policy in Planning Policy Statement 6: Planning for Town Centres (2005) and its approach to protecting and enhancing town centres, plus the assessment of the need for additional retail provision. At the regional level, we summarise the contents of Regional Planning Policy Guidance for the South West (RPG10) and the emerging South West Regional Spatial Strategy. The retailing and town centres policies in the Gloucestershire Structure Plan are also summarised, along with a review of the policies within the shopping chapter of the adopted Forest of Dean Local Plan Review. National Retail Planning Policy 2.2 In March 2005, the Government published Planning Policy Statement 6: Planning for Town Centres, which supersedes PPG6 originally published in 1996. Many of the policies in PPS6 reproduce, or are closely based on, existing policies in PPG6, as clarified by a series of Ministerial statements between 1999 and 2003. Having regard to the main purpose of this report, Section 2 of PPS6, dealing with the plan-led approach, is of most relevance. It notes that local planning authorities should actively promote growth and manage change in town centres, define a network and hierarchy of centres