Institute for Retail Studies University of Stirling Publications on Retail Planning in 1999

A key document in the development of thinking concerning town planning strategy. Itbegins from the challenges of changing population and socio-economic shifts inpopulation, changing town centres and the impact of public policies. It concludes byoutlining proposals for a town centre focus involving town centre management,planning proposals, transport considerations and local business involvement. Boxedcase studies are used to illustrate the main findings. In many ways this document isthe reasoning behind the policies which were to become PPG6. Some aspects of thestudy were not followed up in the planning policy guidance. For example only morerecently have the issues concerning market towns been considered with reference toPPG6. The first section of the report sets out the challenges facing urban planners. This isfollowed by a section suggesting responses to these challenges. Here methods ofassessing vitality and viability are considered. In the appendices an outline is given ofmeasures of retail performance and some examples of health check methodologies.The concept of town centre strategies is then elaborated. An important dimension ofthe report is the allocation of town centres to different type categories – market towns,industrial towns, suburban centres, metropolitan cities and historic/resort towns. Thethird main section focuses on good practice in planning for town centres. This sectiontakes the classification by type of centre and suggests good practice strategies for eachtype. House of Commons Environment CommitteeFourth Report: Shopping CentresLondon: HMSO, 1997. The report is published in several volumes the Command Paper, the proceedings ofthe committee, the minutes of evidence and appendices.A Command Paper resulted from the government’s response to the Fourth Reportfrom the House of Commons Select Committee on the Environment. The mainsections are entitled: Keeping PPG6 under review, leisure developments, impactassessment, non-renewal of planning permissions, planning agreements, transport,town centre management and funding and development plans. A summary of the main recommendations and conclusions are published in theproceedings of the committee. These are organised under the following mainheadings; the new PPG6, site assembly and the use of compulsory purchase, existingpermissions, planning gain, car use and public transport, town centre management,research, local authority plans. The minutes of evidence for the inquiry into the future of shopping centres in Englandincluded evidence presented by a range of groups. These include the Department ofthe Environment, DTZ Debenham Thorpe, Norwich Union, W H Smith, British RetailConsortium, Consumers’ Association, Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council,Erdman Lewis, British Council of Shopping Centres, Boots the Chemist, John LewisPartnership, Marks & Spencer, Kingfisher, London Borough of Bromley, Capitalshopping Centres, British Property Federation, English Historic Towns Forum, CivicTrust, Council for the Protection of Rural England, Tesco, J Sainsbury, Cargo Club,BAA McArthur Glen, Royal Town Planning Institute, Royal Institution of CharteredSurveyors, Association of Town Centre Management. The Department of theEnvironment memorandum reviews Planning policy Guidance Notes 6 and 13 andthe role of the Planning Inspectorate Agency. Other submissions do include findingsfrom survey data, comments and opinions regarding PPG 6. Discussion of thememoranda is also reported. These submissions comprise an extremely wide rangingassessment of views on retail planning strategy. The appendices include further submissions of memoranda for the inquiry into thefuture of shopping centres in England. These were made by Argyll Group, CarterCommercial Developments, Gateway Foodmarkets, Healey&Baker;, Leicester CityCouncil, London Boroughs Association, Land Use Development Control and relatedPlanning Statistics, Plymouth City Council, Value Retail, west Midlands Planning andtransportation Sub-committee. The data presented include shopping centre yields,construction projects, shopping survey data and some local data. Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions,The impact of large foodstores on market towns and district centres,London: HMSO, 1998, 186p. This report is concerned with the viability of small market towns. The work wascommissioned by the Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions andcarried out by consultants from CB Hillier Parker. The impact of superstores on the viability and vitality of small market towns isinvestigated. A literature review is included. English local authority views follow.Retailer perspectives are also included. An organisational framework of market townsis proposed based on measures of floorspace, urban population, multiplerepresentation and large foodstores. It is concluded that local authorities did not haveadequate research on the topic or sets of consistent criteria on which to makedecisions. Up to a 50% impact on market town centres can occur from an out of townsuperstore. Discussion about more general effects such as clawback are included.Finally a common methodology entitled CREATE(Combined Retail, Economic andTransport Evaluation) is proposed. It is suggested that the development of out of townsites leaves market town centres particularly vulnerable. Siting of superstores is veryimportant to ensure the maximisation of linked trips. The case studies includeCirencester, Fakenham, Warminster, Ashby de la Zouch, Northfield, Ferndown andPortchester. The significance of this publication goes beyond the market town issues and theproposed CREATE framework. On publication the spin doctors hailed it as thedefinitive evidence that superstores had a negative effect. It has become a benchmarkdocument which is viewed as an endorsement of PPG6. Many different groups referto it to uphold their views on the impact of superstores in market towns withinterpretations of the results (not necessarily as originally presented) varying in theirdegree of antagonism towards superstores in district centres. It is widely quoted ingovernment publications and in the literature.