CHAPTER 10: Shopping and the Role of Centres

10.1

Introduction

Shopping is a vital part of people’s lives, enabling them to buy food to eat and clothes to wear and to fulfil a wide range of other requirements. Access to a range of shops with competitive prices, and the opportunity to shop in convenient and pleasant surroundings, is an important part of the quality of life. Restricted access to shops or a poor choice of shops is a form of deprivation, which can exacerbate other inequalities. Shopping also contributes to the local economy, providing jobs and income, particularly in a place like Wolverhampton, which serves a ‘sub-region’ extending well beyond the City boundary.

As part of the creation of a Wealth Creating City, a Healthy City and a City of Communities, the Wolverhampton Community Plan aims to:

• Create more jobs in the service sectors through providing opportunities to expand the role of the City Centre;
• Encourage the facilities that will enable the City to be marketed to visitors and investors;
• Ensure all local communities have good access to healthy food;
• Provide sites for an accessible hierarchy of health care facilities;
• Encourage the role of appropriate district and local centres as the focus of communities;
• Provide opportunities for retail and other services that meet the needs of culturally diverse communities

The key aims of the shopping and role of centres policies are therefore:

• to maintain a pattern of provision across the City that gives the best possible choice of shops and services in locations accessible to people in their everyday lives; and
• to support economic regeneration by sustaining and strengthening the sub-regional role of the City Centre.

Scope of the Policies

Shopping provides the primary raison d’être for centres and policies are therefore concerned principally with development falling within Class A1 Shops of the Town and Country Planning (Use Classes)(Amendment)(England) Order 2005 (the Use Classes Order). However there is a wide range of other activities and uses that require a high degree of accessibility to their users and/or generate a large number of trips, and whose location therefore needs to be considered in accordance with similar principles. The policies of this chapter are therefore relevant to all centre uses, as defined in Policy SH2, although in a number of cases policies elsewhere in the UDP also apply.

Supporting Documents

The Council has also produced a Retail and Centres Background Paper to support UDP policies and proposals, covering aspects where further technical work has been undertaken or where there was a particular need to further update or supplement the consultants’ findings. Each of these reports is available from the Council.

National and Regional Policy Context

The key national planning policy guidance for the policies and proposals contained in this Chapter is provided by PPS6 ‘Planning for Town Centres’ (2005). This guidance re-emphasises the Government’s commitment to promoting vital and viable town centres, and encourages development to be focussed in existing centres in order to strengthen and regenerate them. In order to deliver these objectives, local planning authorities should:

• Actively promote growth and manage change in town centres;
• Define a network and hierarchy of centres each performing their appropriate role to meet the needs of their catchments; and
• Adopt a proactive, plan led approach to planning for town centres.

The Regional Spatial Strategy for the West Midlands (RPG11, 2004) reiterates the national principles and sets out a development strategy for town centres and retail development in the region. Local development plans should ensure that centres remain the main foci for retail and office development. The guidance identifies Wolverhampton as one of a network of 25 “strategic town and city centres” serving the region, while Birmingham is to be further developed as “a major regional capital of European and international standing”.

Local Changes and Consultants’ Recommendations

The pattern of retailing in Wolverhampton has changed significantly since the 1993 UDP was prepared. Approximately 71,000 m² of new shopping has been developed (1988-2001) mostly in the form of food superstores and retail warehouse parks. The plan has had a fair measure of success in steering these developments towards in-centre or edge of centre locations and a number of out of centre schemes have been resisted. However existing centres have clearly lost trade and some have significantly changed their roles.

Improvement of the City Centre, and the centres of Bilston and Wednesfield, has in recent years become a key priority for the council. Consultants Donaldsons undertook an audit of the City Centre in 1994 and an action plan was adopted in 1995. There has been considerable success on the ground, for example enhancement of the entertainment quarter and progress with the scheme to improve the retail markets and create a new town square in the Salop Street / School Street area. A forum bringing together key stakeholders was established and its work is now being carried forward and expanded through a City Centre company. Major improvements have also been achieved in Bilston and Wednesfield centres, including full or partial pedestrianisation of their main shopping streets.

The 1998 DTZ-Pieda study, as updated by the 2003 CB Richard Ellis review examined the health of centres in Wolverhampton and made recommendations on future action. The principal findings of these studies were:

• The overall hierarchy of centres in the City as set out in Policy S1 of the 1993 UDP remains generally valid;
• Wolverhampton City Centre is an important catalyst for the regeneration of the City as a whole and in seeking to attract new investment and employment opportunities the focus should wherever possible be on the City Centre;
• The City Centre remains reasonably healthy. However there is a quantitative and qualitative deficiency in retail and leisure provision in Wolverhampton, resulting from a lack of investment in recent years and this is reflected in some increased dissatisfaction amongst shoppers.
• There is a quantitative need over the UDP period for new comparison shopping floorspace in the City Centre. This is supported by known demand from retailers and the growing investor confidence evident since the Secretary of State’s decision in 1997 to refuse a major expansion of Merry Hill. The 1998/2000 DTZ Study also identified a requirement for further retail warehousing and a new foodstore provision. The CB Richard Ellis review has confirmed that this retail warehouse and foodstore need will be satisfied by development proposals granted planning permission since 2000.
• The most appropriate direction for expansion of the City Centre retail core so as to enhance its overall appeal to shoppers is towards the south in the Victoria Street/School Street area.
• It is not feasible, or necessarily desirable, to accommodate all City Centre development pressures within the ring road. Some of the centre uses expected in a sub-regional centre, and other activities contributing to the role of the City Centre, could be located outside providing good links are created.

Retail Need

UDP policies and proposals seek to address the above issues, within the context of an assessment of quantitative need derived from DTZ-Pieda’s / CB Richard Ellis’ work. By assessing future changes in population and spending power within the catchment area the consultants were able to identify the additional expenditure likely to be available to shops in Wolverhampton over the review period. This, in turn enabled the need for additional floorspace to be predicted. Separate estimates were made for capacity associated with the city centre and retail warehouse comparison goods market and that associated with the foodstore market.

In using these figures the Council has been conscious that projections of this kind are subject to margins of error and are likely to be overtaken by events as particular developments come forward. Furthermore, estimates of expenditure capacity do not in themselves demonstrate need. Whilst such capacity is usually a necessary condition for development, qualitative considerations are often of importance in determining the scale and form of need.

Comparison Goods 

This analysis has not been extended to assess the capacity associated with Bilston and Wednesfield centres, and any such capacity associated with these centres would be over and above that identified. Given the size of these centres, this would be comparatively modest, and reflect their role in serving the south eastern and north eastern sector of the City respectively.

10.1.19The most significant retail warehousing commitment is at Raglan Street on the edge of Wolverhampton City Centre.

This assessment is made on the basis that the existing J Sainsbury store at St George’s Parade will cease to trade and not be replaced by another foodstore operator, following completion of the Raglan Street development. However, if the existing store continues to trade or is replaced by a smaller replacement store this level of residual spending would reduce substantially. The 2004 CB Richard Ellis Assessment indicates that if the J Sainsbury store at St George’s Parade is replaced by a smaller foodstore, the residual convenience need at 2011 would equate to approximately 700 sqm net. The Council understands that it is the current intention of J Sainsbury to remain trading from St George’s Parade and not to implement proposals for a new store at Raglan Street. This notwithstanding, the need for one large food store originally identified in the 1998 DTZ Pieda study will be satisfied by the approved proposal at Raglan Street.

10.2

Centres Strategy and the Sequential Approach

The strategy for centres forms part of the wider strategy of sustainable development. Centres are accessible by a choice of means of transport and are thereby available to all sectors of the community. The concentration of activities within them therefore helps to counteract social exclusion. It also allows a variety of needs to be met in a single trip, so reducing the overall need to travel. Centres also help to define local communities and to promote a sense of identity.

In applying this strategy the City Council does not seek to impose a rigid ‘hierarchy’ within which the relative status of all centres is permanently fixed. Nevertheless the recognition of broad categories of centre and the identification of types of development appropriate to each has important benefits, providing a framework of complementary roles within which retail and other services requiring widely different ‘support populations’ can be accommodated and accessibility optimised.

Wolverhampton City Centre is the most accessible location in the City and the hub of public transport services. It is the key focus of employment, shopping, commerce and leisure activity in the City and a surrounding ‘sub-region’ and its continued vitality is crucial to successful regeneration. Improvements to the centre’s infrastructure and the provision of opportunities for further development of a City-wide or sub-regional scale will therefore contribute to environmental, social and economic objectives (see Policy SH5).

Other sectors of the City do not have major centres like Bilston and Wednesfield. However there is an important network of district and local centres, often within walking distance of people’s homes, many of which include community uses as well as retail services. Plan policies aim to protect these centres and to steer appropriate development towards them. A sequential approach has been applied in preparing the Plan’s detailed policies in respect of centre uses and this approach will also be applied in assessing specific development proposals (Policy SH3).

10.3

Centre Uses

This Policy sets out the uses which the Council regards as town centre uses for the purpose of applying the sequential approach. The definition of centre uses is consistent with the definition of “town centre uses” set out in PPS6. Retailing which is associated with on-site manufacturing or distribution activities but which is on such a scale as to be more than subsidiary to these activities (see Policy B11) will be subject to this Policy.

10.4

Need and the Sequential Approach

The Council’s strategy is to concentrate new retail and other activities used regularly by large numbers of people in centres. In allocating sites for centre uses in the UDP, the Council has carried out assessments of need, and has adopted a sequential approach to identifying sites to meet such need. The continuing application of these tests to future development proposals is the primary means by which the plan will sustain the network of centres defined in Policy SH1 and ensure that shopping and other activities that attract large numbers of people are accessible by a choice of means of transport.

All relevant significant proposals for centre uses outside defined centres will have to establish a need. The Council’s definition of need refers to meeting the requirements of all sections of the population for a good choice of shopping and other services in accessible locations close to where they live. These needs are not necessarily the same as predicted growth in and availability of expenditure, although in the case of retailing this will usually be a necessary condition. The promotion of regeneration or social inclusion will not be regarded as indicators of retail need but may be material considerations in the selection of sites.

If need can be demonstrated, a sequential approach to site selection must then be followed. If no sites within a defined centre of appropriate scale and role are suitable, viable or likely to become available within a reasonable time, edge of centre sites are next to be considered because, if appropriately located, these can also provide for joint shopping trips. If there are no edge of centre sites, out of centre sites will be a last resort.

Where the above criteria lead to proposals for edge of centre or out of centre sites, a more detailed assessment will be made on the basis of the second group of criteria. If there is a question of potentially significant retail impact on a defined centre, a retail impact assessment in accordance with PPS6 will be required. For an edge of centre location the proposition that the development would support the role of the centre through joint shopping trips will need to be considered. Edge of centre sites are often already accessible by a choice of means of transport although convenient, barrier-free pedestrian and cycle routes to and from the existing main shopping area of the centre will need to be demonstrated (see Policy SH4). Consideration of wider travel patterns and the impact upon car use will need to be demonstrated in a suitable statement. Consideration of compatibility with nearby uses will ensure the protection of residential amenity. Consideration of compatibility with other UDP policies will ensure a suitable design and layout. If the site is allocated for some other use in the UDP (for example as a housing or business development allocation), this will take precedence.

For any edge of centre or out of centre site it will need to be demonstrated that this is accessible by a choice of means of transport or can be made so. Public transport accessibility must be, or be capable of becoming, extensive. It must provide the opportunity of reaching the site from a wide range of places and for a diverse range of people, with particular reference to those without access to private transport.

The imposition of a minimum unit size and restrictions on the range of goods to be sold from retail warehouse developments will ensure that the retail impact of a proposal upon a defined centre will be controlled. Comparison goods that could be expected to be found within the defined centres will be excluded. As a minimum, conditions will usually prevent the sale of clothing and footwear, books, electrical and audio-visual goods, pharmaceutical goods, jewellery, silverware, watches and clocks and sports and recreational goods.

The definition of centre uses for the purposes of this Policy is consistent with the definition of “town centre uses” set out in PPS6. Retailing which is associated with on-site manufacturing or distribution activites but which is on such a scale as to be more than subsidiary to these activities (see Policy B11) will be subject to this Policy. In the case of warehouse clubs, they will be treated as retail uses and centre uses for the purpose of this Policy.

It is important that all developments within centres are carefully integrated into the existing urban fabric, both visually and functionally, so that they function properly as part of the centre as a whole and contribute positively to the local townscape. Policy SH4 sets out some general principles that will help to ensure that this is achieved. The policy will be applied at every level of the centre hierarchy, including local centres.

10.5

City and Town Centres

Wolverhampton’s role as a major sub-regional centre, providing shopping, leisure, business, higher education and other services, is a key element in the local economy. Notwithstanding competing developments, the City Centre continues to serve a substantial catchment area extending well beyond the City boundary. It accounts for some 33,000 jobs (one third of the City total) a significant proportion of which are attributable to the sub-regional role. In addition, the quality and range of services available in the City Centre is a key element in the quality of life and experience of residents and visitors to the City.

The Shopping and Town Centres Study also indicated a need for an additional large foodstore and further non-food shopping of the ‘retail warehouse’ type during the period to 2011. The CB Richard Ellis review confirmed that these needs can be accommodated principally by the approved major mixed-use redevelopment in the Raglan Street area to the west of the ring road and other small scale developments. Convenience shopping is a significant component of the City Centre generally, including the prime-shopping core. It complements comparison-shopping and provides regular food shopping opportunities, particularly for public transport users and people employed in the City Centre. The Council will seek to retain and where possible enhance these facilities, including supermarket facilities and the existing retail markets.

Accessibility is crucial to the role of the City Centre. Major enhancement will be achieved by implementation of the Access and Interchange scheme, which has now been accepted for LTP funding. This development will create a major public transport hub by integration of the rail station with a remodelled and extended bus station and potentially with Midland Metro, extended in the form of an extension along the Wednesfield corridor. The high accessibility of the interchange will promote opportunities for intensive forms of land use in its vicinity. The eastern side of the City Centre generally provides opportunities for regeneration, in part associated with the transport interchange. This area is defined as the Canalside Quarter and is the subject of proposals, particularly for new business and leisure uses, which are set out in detail in Chapter 15.

The presence of a large university is a positive factor in the educational, economic, social and cultural life of the City generally. The main campus of the University is a key land user in the northern sector of the City Centre. There are major interactions between the University and the other functions of the City Centre and the presence of a large staff and student population is an important contributor to the overall vitality and viability of the centre. The UDP makes provision for the continued consolidation and expansion of the campus area.

A major success of recent years in diversifying the role of the City Centre has been the consolidation of a strong cultural and entertainment quarter, focussed in particular in the Lichfield Street area, and the associated expansion of the ‘night-time economy’. This potential will be further developed, in particular through the creation of an ‘artists quarter’.

The hierarchy of centres in Wolverhampton differs substantially between the east of the City and the other sectors. In the east, Bilston and Wednesfield have a role as town centres, which is not paralleled in any of the more local centres that serve other parts of the City. Although Wednesfield is a substantially smaller centre than Bilston, both centres have a long history as the focus of areas with a strong sense of local identity. Both retain a significant range of services and of business and community facilities in addition to their retail role and both act as significant nodes in the public transport network.

The UDP recognises and seeks to reinforce the distinctive roles of Bilston and Wednesfield. The main emphasis over the UDP period will be consolidating the major changes which have taken place in both centres over the past five to ten years and ensuring that both continue to act as a focus for regeneration in their respective areas. Proposals, which are set out in detail in Chapters 16 and 17, aim to ensure that the future development of both centres is fully integrated with, and benefits from, the major changes which will be taking place in their immediate localities.

Unfortunately in neither centre has new food and non food retail development been as fully integrated with the town centre as was intended in the plan and improvements in this situation are a major emphasis of the review proposals. The Morrison foodstore at Bilston, is separated from the Primary Shopping Area by the Black Country Route, but has complemented the existing town centre to some degree. Surveys in Wednesfield, suggest that the Sainsbury’s (ex. Coop) store tends to act as a free-standing attraction, little used in association with the village centre proper. In both cases action is required to secure better integration and to overcome the barriers to pedestrian movement. In Bilston these linkages will be associated with measures to link the centre with the proposed Bilston urban village mixed-use development to the south. In Wednesfield some remodelling of land use is required to enhance the links between the centre and the new foodstore.

Retail and leisure development has taken place or is committed in proximity to both Bilston and Wednesfield - at Springvale and Bentley Bridge respectively. In both cases the sites are too distant be regarded as edge of centre.

10.6

District and Local Centres

The four centres listed in Policy SH6 were all identified as local centres in the 1993 UDP. However the UDP now recognises a further tier of smaller, more strictly local centres (Policy SH7). Most of these district centres have between 25 and 50 shops and approximately 2,500 sqm to 5,000 sqm gross of retail floor space.

These centres, by virtue of their range of shopping (generally including at least one supermarket) and other services, and an element of off-street car parking, have a particularly significant role distinguishing them from the newly recognised local centres now covered by Policy SH8. Some of the district centres, such as Tettenhall Village, are highly nucleated. Others, like Stafford Road / Three Tuns, are linear in form. However they are all important in meeting a wide range of convenience shopping and other needs in their localities. Comparison retailing is generally limited.

In addition to Bilston and Wednesfield town centres and the four district centres, 24 local centres are now identified on the Proposals Map. Most of these centres have between 10 and 20 shops and approximately 750 to 1,500m² of retail floor space (although significantly more in a few centres where there is a discount food store / supermarket). They usually include several food and other convenience stores and in most cases they provide other goods and services including a pharmacy and a post office.

10.7

Local Shops and Centre Uses

Notwithstanding the identification of additional local centres, there remain many individual shops and small parades outside defined centres that perform an important role in the City’s shopping and services provision. These facilities often provide a ‘top-up’ convenience shopping facility close to people’s homes and they are particularly significant to the less mobile members of the community. This Policy defines the Council’s approach in respect of such shops and services and also states its approach regarding the protection of key local shopping facilities generally, whether these are in or outside the defined centres.

The provision and retention of essential local shops and services within easy walking distance of people’s homes and workplaces is an important element of the Council’s centres strategy. Where the Council is itself the landlord it can use its powers in this capacity to encourage the provision or retention of essential local shopping facilities. Elsewhere however it cannot prevent the closure of a shop or a change of use from one type of Class A1 retail shop to another, notwithstanding that such changes can have a profound effect on the shopping facilities available to a local community. The Council’s powers are generally limited to determining applications for changes of use of shops to Class A2 financial and professional services, Class A3, A4 and A5 food and drink, and other non-retail uses. In seeking to ensure the retention of shopping facilities which are important to a local area the Council will take into account the availability of convenient alternative provision within a reasonable walking distance which will be taken as a maximum 400 metres by existing pedestrian routes. It will also apply policies that seek to retain the predominant retail use of key retail frontages (see Policy SH10).

In terms of new shopping development outside identified centres, it would be inappropriate to identify a rigid maximum size of unit that could be regarded as a new ‘local shop’. The acceptable scale for new local shopping provision will depend on local circumstances including the nature of the retailing envisaged, the characteristics of the site and the relationship to existing shopping facilities.

10.8

Protected Frontages

Many non-retail uses which provide for visiting members of the public (mostly falling within Classes A2, A3, A4 and A5 of the Town and Country Planning (Use Classes)(Amendment)(England) Order 2005 along with certain sui generis, social, community and leisure uses) are appropriate in shopping centres and within groups of local shops. Examples of such uses are banks and building societies, estate and employment agencies and catering outlets. Such uses complement shopping and help to provide the visitor with a complete range of shops and services in one location, minimising the need to travel. They can also provide an alternative form of commercial investment where the shopping role of a centre is declining. However an excessive concentration of non-retail uses can threaten the retail role of suburban shopping locations and the service which they provide to local communities. Policy SH10 therefore provides criteria through which a reasonable balance can be maintained.

10.9

New Retail Development

In terms of expenditure changes and floor space requirements for city centre comparison  retailing, the Wolverhampton Shopping and Town Centres Study implies a remaining need for an additional  36,310 sqm net of floor space in the City Centre (2001-2011). The key requirement in providing this floor space is for an expansion of the primary retail core. The plan contains detailed policies and proposals in Chapter 15 for implementing this development, and the Council will be taking action in partnership with private developers to bring forward appropriate proposals.

Bulky goods retail units in the form of ‘retail warehouses’ - large single level stores specialising in the sale of household goods (such as carpets, furniture and electrical goods) and bulky DIY items - are now a familiar feature in the retail structure of the City. The main concentrations, mostly comprising groups of units (‘retail parks’) are located on radial routes close to the City Centre and ring road (e.g. Lower Stafford Street, Bilston Road and St. John’s) and there are further developments in the vicinity of Bilston and Wednesfield. Policy SH3 explains that planning conditions will be imposed to ensure that new bulky goods retail developments do not change their characteristics in such a way as to have an adverse impact in terms of the Policies in this Plan. With an increasing number of retailers expressing a preference for large, free-standing units, developer interest remains strong and there is also pressure to broaden the range of goods which can be sold through these outlets to include goods which can be sold from centres. Where such units are in out of centre locations, proposals for the variation of conditions that restrict the range of goods sold, proposals for the insertion of mezzanine floors, or proposals for the sub division of units will be determined against Policy SH3.

To maximise the potential benefits from such developments in terms of City or town centre regeneration and of accessibility to all sections of the community, the Council, utilising the sequential approach, has identified sites to accommodate the anticipated demand. These comprise principally sites on the edge of the City Centre, in locations where integration with the retail core inside the ring road can be achieved.

Since the 1993 UDP was prepared three large new food stores - all in the 6,000 to 8,000 sqm size range - have opened in Wolverhampton, two associated with Bilston and Wednesfield town centres respectively and the third on a free-standing site at Penn Road (where it is conveniently placed to meet a previously recognised deficiency in the south west of the City). The Wolverhampton Shopping and Town Centres Study identified a limited further potential up to 2011 which, after allowance is made for the expansion of the Wednesfield store which has already taken place, can be met through the provision of a single large store in the vicinity of Wolverhampton City Centre. This need would be met by the foodstore element of the approved mixed use development at Raglan Street. If the approved development at Raglan Street is not implemented, the Council will seek an alternative development of the site incorporating similar food store provision.

10.10

Other Centre Uses

Catering outlets (Classes A3, A4 and A5) typically include pubs, restaurants, cafes and hot food takeaways. The policy will apply both to proposals for new buildings and to changes of use/conversions. Policy SH10 (Protected Frontages) and the frontage use policies for Wolverhampton City Centre and Bilston and Wednesfield town centres will also need to be considered.

The Council recognises that catering uses provide a useful and necessary service to the community and can add to the vitality of shopping centres. They can however cause considerable pedestrian and vehicle activity and the Council needs to consider the likelihood of noise, fumes and disturbance to nearby residents, particularly at the weekend and late at night.

In order to minimise the environmental and transport issues raised by catering outlets and to ensure that they are accessible by a choice of transport modes they should be located within the defined centres, subject to frontage use policies. In some cases they may also be suitable in employment areas where there are unlikely to be problems with residential amenity and they can provide a service to local employees. In local shopping areas (i.e. those not identified as defined centres), proposals for catering outlets may be acceptable provided they do not cause significant problems with residential amenity, parking or highway capacity or threaten the local shopping role.

In all potential locations the Council will consider compatibility with nearby uses in order to ensure the protection of residential amenity and achieve a suitable design and layout. Particular attention will be paid to the arrangements for fume and ventilation extraction, especially in terms of the height of any associated ducting and soundproofing arrangements. If inappropriately located, such equipment can generate noise nuisance and be visually intrusive.

The concept of drive-through or drive-in facilities usually involves dedicated on-site car parking provision for customers, who may park either while they visit the premises or are served in their cars. The format is most commonly applied to fast-food outlets but might also be used for other goods and services.

The most suitable locations for these uses are within the City Centre outside the primary and secondary frontages, Bilston and Wednesfield Centres outside the Primary Shopping Area, and the District Centres. However, within these locations, the impact on adjoining occupiers and the area generally will be given careful consideration. In particular, the Council will seek to avoid any adverse effect on the amenities and viability of existing or potential residential accommodation. In this context the Council’s intention to encourage the re-use of vacant upper floors above shops for residential use is relevant.

10.11

Retailing at Petrol Filling Stations

An emerging form of retailing at the local level is the introduction of small supermarkets/convenience stores in association with petrol filling stations. The Council recognises that in certain circumstances such developments may provide a local shopping facility in an area that might otherwise remain deficient. However, Policy SH17 requires that where proposals for retailing at petrol filling stations is not in compliance with Policies SH3 or Policy SH9, the retail element will be confined to motoring accessories, newspapers and magazines, tobacco and confectionery and a limited range of basic food and other convenience goods, and the gross retail floorspace should not exceed 90 sqm.