Core Strategy - Adopted December 2007

Section 4 - Town Centre and Retail Development

4.1 National planning policy is set out in particular in Planning Policy Statement 6 (PPS6), Planning for Town Centres. This requires local planning authorities, through their development plans, to implement the Government's objectives by planning positively for the growth and development of existing centres, promoting their vitality and viability, focusing development in them, and encouraging a wide range of services in a good environment, accessible to all.

4.2 Provision should be made for a range of shopping, leisure and local services, which allow genuine choice to meet the needs of the entire community, particularly excluded groups, and which remedy deficiencies in provision in areas with poor access to facilities. The economic growth of regional, sub-regional and local economies should also be promoted through such action.

4.3 Planning Policy Statement 6 (PPS6) states that local planning authorities should therefore:

1. develop a hierarchy and network of centres;
2. assess the need for further main town centre uses and ensure there is the capacity to accommodate them, and
3. focus development in, and plan for the expansion of, existing centres as appropriate.

4.4 Similarly, the emerging Regional Spatial Strategy, the East of England Plan, states that thriving, vibrant and attractive town centres are fundamental to the sustainable development of the region and will continue to be the focus for investment, environmental enhancement and regeneration (Policy SS6). Within the RSS structure of retail centres, Southend is identified as a major regional centre, whilst other town and local centres that complete the structure locally will be defined in Local Development Documents (Policy E5).

4.5 Policy E9 also requires new retail development to be located in existing centres and to be consistent in scale with the size and character of the centre and its role in the regional structure. It also requires local development documents to propose development and enhancement of retail and services to implement sustainable regeneration and growth, in accordance with sub-regional strategies and policies.

4.6 The relevant sub-regional strategy and policy for Essex Thames Gateway is set out in the East of England Plan (Policy ETG1) and reflects the vision and strategy of the Thames Gateway South Essex Partnership. It is to develop Southend as a cultural and intellectual hub and a higher education centre of excellence, with a focus on the regeneration of Southend Town Centre to secure a full range of quality sub-regional services and facilities providing 6,500 new jobs and 1,650 additional homes.

4.7 The regeneration of Southend Town Centre is also a key priority at the local level, together with the reduction of unemployment and an increase in the range of local job opportunities in the town, identified by the local community through the Local Strategic Partnership's Community Plan.

4.8 The Southend on Sea Retail Study was undertaken in 2003, and provides detailed information to help guide the implementation of the Government's objectives and take forward the strategic context outlined above at the local level to cover the period to 2016. Based on its findings, the Study Report provides recommendations with regard to the level of different shopping needs in the Borough, and how these needs can appropriately be met.

4.9 In particular, the Study concluded that:

1. Southend Town Centre functions successfully, and should continue to function, as a sub-regional comparison shopping destination. In order to maintain that function and its position in the hierarchy, however, the Town Centre should develop further, and preferably in depth to counter-act its current linear nature, with additional modern town centre comparison goods floorspace. There is scope for approximately 21,000 sq metres of such additional floorspace in the period up to 2016;
2. the District Centres of Westcliff and Leigh are now functioning more strongly, serving convenience, comparison and service needs of the neighbouring communities. However, there is little or no scope for significant additional floorspace in these centres, and any expenditure growth generated in the foreseeable future should be used to support the vitality and viability of existing floorspace;
3. other centres in the Borough serve a more local function, primarily providing main and top-up food and convenience shopping and local service needs;
4. overall, the main foodstores in the Borough provide relatively comprehensive provision. There is, however, a qualitative (geographical) deficiency to the east of the town centre, in the vicinity of Southchurch and Thorpe Bay. There is also evidence of over-trading in certain main foodstores, and capacity for some 5,000 sq metres of net additional floorspace across the Borough as a whole in the period to 2016, including the provision of one additional main foodstore, preferably located to meet the identified qualitative deficiency;
5. there is a specific issue with regard to the provision of 'bulky goods' facilities, where the range and choice in the Borough is limited, with many stores small and dated and significant leakage of expenditure from the Southend catchment area to competing destinations. There is therefore considerable quantitative and qualitative scope for additional such facilities, to support additional expenditure growth, improve the facilities available, achieve clawback of expenditure leakage, and make provision appropriate to a major regional centre. Capacity for up to about 30,000sq metres (including commitments) based on out of centre format stores was considered to exist.

4.10 However the Southend on Sea Retail Study predates the Governments new retail guidance (PPS6) which makes no distinction between comparison and bulky goods floorspace. A single comparison goods floorspace estimate only should be provided.

4.11 As the Southend on Sea Retail Study is based on an earlier assessment of shopping patterns, an early review of the Study is needed to update and roll forward its finding to cover the period to 2021 and to take account of more up to date retail evidence, some of which suggests that retail demand/potential in the Borough has grown reflecting the next phase of its regeneration and growth.

4.12 However, the Southend on Sea Retail Study is a bespoke household survey based study providing a comprehensive retail assessment to 2016. It is a sound basis for guiding retail provision in the Borough pending a review of its provisions.

4.13 The figures in the Study have been adjusted to take account of existing commitments at 31^st March 2006 and, in the case of comparison goods, of the different trading densities of Town Centre and out of town stores. The indications are that in the order of 24,000 to 28,000 square metres net of additional comparison goods floorspace and between 3,000 and 3,500 square metres net of additional convenience goods floorspace is required in the Borough between 2006 and 2016.

4.14 In the light of the evidence base provided by all the above, Policy CP2 below provides a core strategic policy to give local application to Government objectives, regional and sub-regional strategy and identified local needs and priorities. This policy is primarily spatial in its approach, in order to plan positively for the growth and development of existing centres, in particular Southend Town Centre, and to complement the more 'criteria based' approach of national and regional policy set out in PPS6 and East of England Plan, which will also apply to the consideration of town centre and retail development in the Borough.

4.15 Options for such a spatial approach include:

1. focusing all development in a regenerated Southend town centre;
2. spreading development more widely but only within existing centres;
3. directing development to new locations outside existing centres.

4.16 Considerations of sustainability, the continued vitality and viability of existing centres, and national and regional policy (including the development of Southend as a major regional centre) point clearly to a combination of options a) and b) as the most appropriate. However, it must also be recognised, having regard to identified local needs and opportunities, that it may not always be possible to meet these needs within those options. This relates in particular to the provision of an appropriate range, quality and choice of 'bulky goods' facilities, identified in the Southend-on-Sea Retail Study as a specific issue needing to be addressed. It may be necessary to allow for these in other locations (an element of option c), where there are existing retail offers if no suitable sites are available in existing centres.

4.17 Policy CP2 below seeks to reflect these considerations in its sequential preferences and in the tests that proposals elsewhere would need to meet. It replaces the following development plan policies in the adopted Southend-on-Sea Borough Local Plan:

Policy S2 – Southend Town Centre

Policy S3 – Large Shopping Developments

Policy S4 – Retail Markets

Policy S6 – Fringe Commercial Areas

Borough Local Plan Policies S1, S5, S7, S8 and S9 will remain part of the Development Plan for the Borough, pending their review as part of the preparation of a 'Criteria Based Policies and Site Allocations' Development Plan Document, as programmed in the Borough Council's Local Development Scheme.