From 'metropolitan' centres (like Central Ealing) to small local shopping parades, shopping centres are a vital part of everyday life, and provide an essential service for people living and working in the borough.  However shopping centres provide not only shopping, but also a range of civic, amenity, employment and leisure services, and their image and appearance is important to local community life and identity. As a result this chapter covers policies for a wide range of issues relating to town centre functions.

Within the Borough, different people require different kinds of shopping facilities, and different shopping centres pose different challenges to the planning process. Centres such as Ealing and Southall have attained a status that extends far beyond the borough, whereas smaller scale shopping parades and individual corner shops provide goods mainly for the benefit of local residents. Therefore the policies within this chapter attempt to meet the range of needs of the community as a whole, whilst maintaining and enhancing the vitality and viability of all the Borough's Centres.

Policies for Shopping and Town Centres

Within Ealing, as elsewhere, a hierarchy of shopping centres has evolved over a considerable period of time. These range from the Metropolitan Centre of Central Ealing, to small local shopping parades which provide purely a local service. In light of sub regional reconciliation of local and strategic assessments of need and capacity, these centres have been divided up within this hierarchy into metropolitan, major, district, neighbourhood and local parades, according to their size and the facilities that they provide (see Table 7A). This is in accordance with 'The London Plan', Annex 1, and regional planning guidance, although the Council recognises that this hierarchy is flexible, and centres will be monitored and their categorisation reviewed if appropriate. It is therefore important that development in one centre does not harm the vitality and viability of any existing town centre, or part of an existing centre.

All of these shopping centres, both large and small, contribute to the economic and social well-being of a community, and their success depends on their maintenance, regeneration, and creation of a centre that is attractive to shoppers.

Enhancement of shopping centres deals with improving the physical environment such as streetscape, the redevelopment and re-use of vacant properties/sites, and maintaining the current network of shopping provision around the borough and beyond. The Council also considers that main shopping centres should meet the requirement for essential ancillary facilities, such as accessible public conveniences, including provision for people with disabilities, places of refreshment, crèche, baby feeding and changing facilities.

The Council recognises the important role of providing Shopmobility schemes integrated within Shopping Centres. Therefore the Council will encourage Shopmobility and other "mobility enabling schemes" in new development, and in existing shopping and entertainment areas, in order to make these more useable by elderly people, people with disabilities, and others who have difficulty in getting to and from the shops with heavy bags.

Town Centres are vital to the prosperity of the Borough. The maintenance of the shopping hierarchy (as outlined above) will focus new investment, and thereby assist in achieving regeneration or consolidation as appropriate.

At the top of the list, Ealing Metropolitan and Southall Major centre, have attained a status that extends beyond the borough. They offer a wide range of activities that includes shopping, recreational and community facilities. Ealing Metropolitan Centre has achieved growth and the Council aims to maintain this success. Southall town centre is growing in significance. This major centre, with its diverse community and range of cultures, has a reputation as an excellent centre for Asian retailing. The Council aims to sustain the vitality of the existing shopping centre and to broaden the range of facilities available.

Acton and Greenford District Centres are shopping centres that also offer an important range of activities, and possess considerable potential to serve their areas. The Council is currently co-ordinating plans to regenerate Acton District Centre and aims to promote the smaller Greenford District Centre for the benefit of the north of the borough.

The Council recognises that each town centre is unique, with different strengths, weaknesses and functions. Therefore, the Council has formulated Town Centre strategies for those centres which require a clear statement of how competitiveness can be maintained, or in some cases, how the centre can be regenerated. These strategies, as well as setting out aims and objectives, also contain specific proposals; all within the framework set out in this Plan. Many of these are too detailed to include in the UDP (such as town centre management issues) but some will involve specific sites. Due to the detailed nature of the strategies, they have been subject to consultation, and where necessary, have included community involvement in their formulation.

Government Guidance stresses the importance of maintaining Town Centres as the focus for new investment. Shopping, offices and a wide variety of other uses can be most sustainably provided in a location well served by public transport. In this way, shopping facilities and other services can be conveniently located together, and one shopping trip can be combined with visits to other essential services.

PPG 6 (para: 1.10) states "in drawing up their development plans, local planning authorities should, after considering the need for new development, adopt a sequential approach to selecting sites for new retail development. Both local planning authorities and developers selecting sites for development should be able to demonstrate that all potential town centre options have been thoroughly assessed before less central sites are considered for development for key town centre uses".

Within town centres, proposed development should be appropriate to the scale and function of the centre identified. Provided that it is, the Council will accept that it meets a demonstrable need. This understanding arises from the work undertaken during the Revised Unitary Development Plan process. Outside town centres, applicants must demonstrate that their proposal can be justified on the basis of retail need and that they have followed the sequential test.

The Sequential Test: the first preference should be to locate within existing town centres, and only when town centre sites are not available should edge of centre sites be considered. It is only after the consideration of these locations that out-of-centre locations should be considered, provided that these are readily accessible by a choice of means of transport, including public transport. In an assessment of public transport accessibility, part two (regarding future capacity) and part three (regarding existing capacity) of the policy should be read as having equal weight in the decision making process.

When developers put forward large development proposals, it is important that the design is of an appropriate format and scale. The successful integration of the development into the existing shopping centre is fundamental to providing a scheme that will not only maintain the existing character of the area, but also add to the vitality and viability of the centre.

The main function of a shopping centre is to provide for the retail needs of customers, however a proper balance is needed between shops and other services. The vitality of many shopping centres, particularly in smaller centres, would be threatened if prime shop-fronts were taken over by non-retail activities. By designating frontages it can be ensured that shopping centres retain a reasonable number of retail outlets.

All shopping centres consist of more than just shops, and their accessibility makes them particularly useful for a range of activities serving the community; for example restaurants, libraries and financial services. In non-designated shopping frontages the Council may also accept a change of use which generates employment, community, cultural, tourist and recreation uses.

However not all non-retail uses are complementary to the viability and vitality of the shopping centre. If the growth of non-retail uses leads to an over-concentration of such units, there will be a reduction in the variety of shops available to customers, and this can result in the decline of the diversity and thus convenience of the centre. Over-concentration of non-retail uses will normally be considered to exist where there are more than three non-A1 units adjacent to each other in a frontage. Similarly, where there is a general absence of window displays, this can lead to an overall reduction in attractiveness of the centre for shoppers.

Where necessary, conditions will be attached to planning consents for non-retail uses, in order to minimise the amount of 'dead frontage', and to ensure that premises cannot change without planning permission, to non-retail uses which are inappropriate in a shopping parade.

It is recognised that restaurants, cafes and pubs make a valuable contribution to the vitality of shopping centres, providing places for people to meet and enjoy themselves in the borough. Town Centres are considered to be the most appropriate location for this type of use, although the core area of retail uses (designated frontages) needs to be protected.

Whilst the provision of restaurants, cafes, takeaway, wine bars and public houses can add to the diversity and character of a centre, they can also cause a number of problems. The number of people, the amount of traffic generated, late opening hours, refuse and its collection, smells, noise (including that associated with patios and other outdoor licensed areas) and vibration (including from ventilation equipment), can disturb local residents and make the centre less attractive to other uses. It is therefore acknowledged from PPG6 that the cumulative effects of concentrations of particular uses, including impacts on residential amenity, is a factor that should be considered when making decisions.

Similarly when a change of use to A3 (restaurants, cafes, pubs or hot food takeaway) is being considered, not all premises in non-designated frontages are appropriate, especially where problems cannot be controlled by conditions. Where ventilation ducting to extract smells and fumes would cause harm to amenity, either visual or because the only equipment feasible does not cope adequately with the potential smells, they will be refused.

Within shopping centres there are some uses that whilst playing an important role, can cause particular environmental problems. It is therefore necessary to give careful consideration to where these uses should be located. Such uses include Laundrettes, Dry Cleaners and Veterinary Practices which whilst providing essential services, can cause problems including noise disturbance, odour and negative traffic impacts.

It is highlighted within PPG6 that amusement centres can give rise to particular planning concerns, especially regarding residential amenity, visual amenity and social matters.

Markets and street trading are an important part of retail services within the London Borough of Ealing. Their existence can add character, variety and economic diversity to a shopping centre, and may help to attract shoppers. Individual market stalls can provide a retail presence in areas of a centre that would otherwise be deficient of shops.