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Policy S1: Retail and Town Centre Development Strategy

1. Proposals for retail development and other town centre uses must:

- Protect or enhance the vitality and viability of existing centres; and

- Be appropriate to the scale and role of each centre as defined below:

Kirkby, Huyton and Prescot town centres - the provision of shops and a range of other town centre uses, consistent with maintaining the position of these centres in the Merseyside shopping hierarchy, and reducing the need for Knowsley residents to have to travel to other centres outside of the Borough.

District centres - the provision of town centre uses but at a smaller scaleto meet the needs of the catchment area of the centre.

Local centres – the provision of small-scale town centre uses within Use Classes A1, A2, A3, A4, A5, B1, C3, D1 and other miscellaneous town centre uses (see appendix 7).

2. Where there is a clearly demonstrated need for new retail and town centre use development which cannot be met through re-use or development of existing buildings or land within an existing centre, the preferred location for the development will be on the edge of an existing centre, in preference to an out-of-centre location.

3. All proposals for major retail and town centre use development must be in locations which are, or which are capable of being made, easily accessible by public transport, walking and cycling.

4. All proposals for retail and town centre use development should be consistent with the Council’s urban regeneration objectives and with any approved regeneration strategy for the area concerned.

5. All proposals for development within town or other centres should be of high design quality which enhances the character of the centre and its attractiveness as a shopping and service location.

This is a part 1 policy

Explanation S1

The need for new shopping development in Knowsley

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The “Knowsley MBC Town Centre & Shopping Survey” 2002 identified the need for further shopping development as follows:

• A major development of up to 9,000 square metres gross floorspace for food retailing in Kirkby town centre; and

• Further comparison goods retailing (see glossary) within Kirkby, Prescot and Huyton. Due to increasing expenditure levels, a minimum of 7,000 square metres additional floorspace would need to be provided split between these three centres over the period to 2011 if they are to retain their current market share - more may be required if these centres are to “clawback” expenditure lost to other centres elsewhere.

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These needs will be kept under review to informdecisions on individual planning applications.

Location of new shopping development

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A key emphasis of this Plan is to sustain and strengthen the vitality and viability of the three town centres of Huyton, Kirkby and Prescot, together with the smaller district and local centres. Policy S1 therefore establishes that town and district centres should be the preferred locations for future retail development and leisure uses which attract a lot of people. New development should complement the role and be appropriate to the scale of each centre. This will mean that the catchment area for a proposed development should generally be not significantly larger than the centre within which it would be located.

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This approach to controlling location is in accordance with national and regional planning policy. Sites on the edge of existing centres will only be considered suitable where a need has been clearly demonstrated which cannot be met by developing a site or sites, or re-use of existing buildings, within an existing centre or centres within the same catchment. “Out of centre” sites should only be considered where there is no town centre or edge of centre site available. The terms “need”, “edge of centre” and “out of centre” are defined in the glossary.

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Retail and leisure uses can be major traffic generators. It is therefore important that they are located where they are accessible by a choice of means of transport, including walking, cycling and public transport, thereby reducing the need to travel by car.

Regeneration and design issues

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It is important that all shopping and leisure developments should be consistent with the Council’s other regeneration strategies. These include the town centre regeneration strategies and Development Briefs affecting each centre and also the Objective 1 and other regeneration strategies listed in chapter 2 “Key Issues and Influences”.

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All town and other centres are important focal points for local residents and visitors. It is therefore particularly important that new development is of a high standard of design and construction and compatible with the overall vision for each centre. The design requirements for new development are explained further in chapter 11 “Development Quality and the Built Environment”.

Policy Links
Policy S2 to S8
Policy T5	“Location of Major Traffic Generating New Development”
Policy T6	“Ensuring a choice of travel to serve new development”
Policy T10	“Access for the less mobile”
Policy DQ1	“Design Quality in New Development”
Policy DQ2	“Security in the built environment”