OSWESTRY BOROUGH COUNCIL RETAIL STUDY UPDATE March 2007 Amended December 2008 MA40259 Nathaniel Lichfield & Partners Ltd 1st Floor, Westville House Fitzalan Court Cardiff CF24 0EL Offices also in: T 029 2043 5880 Manchester F 029 2049 4081 London E [email protected] Newcastle-upon-Tyne www.nlpplanning.com CONTENTS 1.0 INTRODUCTION.......................................................................................................... 3 The Study..................................................................................................................... 3 Content of the Report................................................................................................... 4 2.0 PLANNING POLICY CONTEXT.................................................................................. 5 National Policy ............................................................................................................. 5 Regional Planning Context .......................................................................................... 7 Local Planning Context ................................................................................................ 7 3.0 THE SHOPPING HEIRARCHY AND RETAIL TRENDS ............................................. 9 Shopping Centres in the Borough................................................................................ 9 New Forms of Retailing................................................................................................ 9 4.0 HOUSEHOLD SURVEY ............................................................................................ 12 Food and Grocery Shopping...................................................................................... 13 Non-Food Shopping................................................................................................... 14 5.0 OSWESTRY TOWN CENTRE HEALTHCHECK ...................................................... 19 Mix of Uses and Occupier Representation................................................................. 19 Retailer Representation ............................................................................................. 20 Service Uses.............................................................................................................. 21 Commercial Indicators ............................................................................................... 22 Accessibility ............................................................................................................... 22 Summary.................................................................................................................... 23 6.0 QUALITATIVE NEED ................................................................................................ 24 Introduction ................................................................................................................ 24 Food and Grocery Shopping...................................................................................... 24 Comparison Shopping ............................................................................................... 25 Retail Warehouses..................................................................................................... 25 Local Shops and Services ......................................................................................... 25 7.0 QUANTITATIVE SCOPE FOR RETAIL DEVELOPMENT ........................................ 28 Introduction ................................................................................................................ 28 Methodology and Data............................................................................................... 28 Population and Spending........................................................................................... 30 Existing Retail Floorspace ......................................................................................... 30 Existing and Future Convenience Spending Patterns................................................ 31 Existing and Future Comparison Goods Spending Patterns...................................... 32 8.0 RECOMMENDATIONS.............................................................................................. 35 Quantitative Capacity for Additional Convenience Floorspace .................................. 35 Quantitative Capacity for Additional Comparison Floorspace.................................... 36 The Strategy for Oswestry ......................................................................................... 38 Accommodating Future Growth ................................................................................. 39 Potential Development Opportunities ........................................................................ 39 Planning Policy Review.............................................................................................. 42 Defining Centre Boundaries and Retail Frontages..................................................... 42 LDF Policies............................................................................................................... 42 Future Strategy Implementation and Monitoring........................................................ 44 MA2006\R40259-005final Update Dec 08.doc - 1 GLOSSARY OF TERMS Class A1 Commercial units classed as retail or shop uses within the Use Classes Order. Class A1 Services Non-retail uses classed as A1 within the Use Classes Order, such as hairdressers, travel agents and dry cleaners. Class A2 Commercial units classed as financial or professional services, for example banks and building societies, within the Use Classes Order. Class A3 Commercial units classed as restaurants or takeaways, within the Use Classes Order. Class A4 Commercial units classed as drinking establishments, for example public houses or wine bars, within the Use Classes Order. Class A5 Commercial units classed as hot food take-aways within the Use Classes Order. Convenience Goods Consumer goods purchased on a regular basis, including food and groceries and cleaning materials. Comparison Goods Durable goods such as clothing, household goods, furniture, DIY and electrical goods. Higher order Durable goods which tend to be high value, bought on an occasional basis comparison goods and/or where customers are most likely to shop around and compare products in different shops e.g. adult fashion items, high value electrical goods, jewellery, furniture etc. Customers are usually prepared to / tend to travel further to purchase these items. Lower order Durable goods which tend to be lower value, bought on a regular basis comparison goods and/or where customers are less likely to shop around e.g. small household goods, books, pharmaceuticals and toiletries. Customers are less likely to travel long distances to purchase these items. Net floorspace Retail floorspace devoted to the sale of goods, excluding storage space. Gross floorspace Total external floorspace. Multiple traders National or regional ‘chain store’ retailers. Experian A data consultancy who are widely used for retail planning information. Goad Plans Town centre plans prepared by Experian, which are based on occupier surveys of over 1,200 town centres across the country. Zone A Rent The annual rental charge per square foot for the first 20 foot depth of a shop unit, which is the most suitable measure for standardising and comparing rental levels. Market share The proportion of total consumer expenditure within a given area taken Penetration rate by a particular town centre or shopping facility. Focus Retail A published source of information providing known retail and leisure operators space requirements in towns across the country. MA2006\R40259-005final Update Dec 08.doc - 2 1.0 INTRODUCTION The Study 1.1 Nathaniel Lichfield and Partners have been commissioned by Oswestry Borough Council to prepare an assessment of the retail needs of the Borough. The study involves five main parts, as follows: Stage 1 – Data collection including household surveys Stage 2 – Oswestry town centre audit Stage 3 – Retail capacity assessment (convenience and comparison) Stage 4 – A review of potential retail development sites Stage 5 – Policy Review and recommendations 1.2 The main study objectives are to: Establish the comparison and convenience retail floorspace requirements up to 2021 for the Borough; Assess the vitality and viability of Oswestry town centre based on the criteria provided in Planning Policy Statement 6; and Identify the capacity of Oswestry to accommodate retail growth. 1.3 This study updates and supersedes the 2003 Oswestry Retail Study undertaken by Chesterton. 1.4 Since the original NLP Study was published in 2007, a small correction has been made to the comparison goods market shares which has resulted in a small increase in the future requirement for comparison goods than that previously forecast. This 2008 amendment therefore supersedes the 2007 edition. Convenience goods floorspace requirements remain unaffected by this amendment. MA2006\R40259-005final Update Dec 08.doc - 3 Content of the Report 1.5 Section 2.0 provides an overview of the national and local planning policy context. Section 3.0 provides a description of the shopping hierarchy in Oswestry and the surrounding area and a commentary on retail trends. 1.6 Section 4.0 summarises the results of the household surveys on shopping patterns. Section 5.0 provides the town centre health check for Oswestry. 1.7 Sections 6.0 and 7.0 set out an analysis