Richard Garlick on why one local authority regeneration director is urging the rejection of out-of-town schemes Could local authorities reinvigorate town centres full of abandoned shops by allowing changes of use by the back door? That suggestion was floated yesterday by Jackie Sadek, chief executive of membership body UK Regeneration.
Sadek was speaking in a debate that I chaired at the Mipim property conference in France. The speakers had been asked to suggest ways in which towns and cities can keep their centres healthy in the face of increased online shopping and other threats. Sadek suggested that, in some instances, changes of use to small business units or housing would be appropriate, but would be difficult to implement because of complex planning rules. But councils might be able to simplify the process by endorsing such modifications through the less onerous building regulations process, she said. "That is the idea I would put into this debate," she said. "But it would require responsive local authorities".
She also suggested that many high street retail units were now too small to be "fit for purpose", which was why many fashion chains preferred to locate in modern malls. Speaking alongside her, Luton Borough Council environment and regeneration director Colin Chick acknowledged the issue, but said that councils could use their planning powers to overcome it. The council was currently working with the owners of the Mall shopping centre in Luton to them expand the floorplate of some of their ground floor shops, he said, and was prepared to consider using compulsory purchase powers to allow them to do so.
Chick's main point was to urge councils not only to resist out of centre development "at all costs" but also to reject out-of-town type schemes in the town centre. He said that Luton had rejected a 100,000sq ft Tesco scheme with 700 car parking spaces, and did not regret it. Since then the council had invested in the town centre, creating a new public square and improved street cleaning, and had been repaid by high occupancy levels, he said.
He particularly warned councils against accepting large town centre supermarkets that predominantly sold non-food items. It was not untypical for 100,000sq ft stores to have only around a third of their floorspace dedicated to selling food, with the rest devoted to clothes, shoes, televisions and other comparison goods. Do not accept the supermarkets' argument that visitors to such a store would also use other shops in the town, he said. "Once they have got the frozen food in the boot, all they will want to do is go straight home," he said.
The debate was held on the Mipim stand organised by communications firm Place UK.
Thanks for this post David, I wish regeneration was talked about a lot more online as well. You could click http://bit.ly/hUULmK to see how the frequency of occurrences compares with words like party and yachts...
ReplyDeleteWe must do something to prevent this country becoming one big lorry park of out of town superstores and online shopping. i'm sure if you went to a village in France they would not describe their small shops as 'unfit for purpose'. Rather than a market king mentality we need to actively support valued elements of place over the incessant quest for mass turnover and bulk profits.
ReplyDeleteI like thriving, attractive, successful town centres - who doesn't?
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, many of our centres are dominated by unappealing shops selling a limited range of expensive goods, and opening at hours to suit them, rather than their potential customers.
The big supermarkets (and other big-box retailers) give people what they want: planners should think think about helping town centres compete, not about trying to prevent competition.
I’m skeptical about the ability or capacity of local authorities to oppose planning applications from the big out-of-town retailers or other out-of-town large commercial interests.
ReplyDeleteI say this, sadly, because of a mixture of; toothless central government guidance; debilitated local authorities; big business interests in combination with an obsequious local media; and, of course, the popularity among much of the shopping and voting public of having a local super/hyper market.
I can recall recurrent guidance from the likes of DoE Minister John Prescott (and his predecessors if I’m right?) encouraging local authorities to be resistant to out-of town developments. Yet, things go on regardless.
A year or so ago I happened by chance to be sitting awaiting a hearing at a local authority planning committee. Sitting to one side were three suited guys would looked like they sometime worked for the Kray twins’ ‘firm’. I asked my friendly local planning person about them. He advised that they were the corporate legal guys with a brief to keep an eye on a large supermarket chain’s planning application. He further advised that the officials, and probably a councilor or two, would have preferred to reject the application – but the realpolitic was that the local authority had neither the inclination nor the resources to embark on what would maybe be a long and costly process of process and then perhaps litigation.
More recently, I was part of a customer focus group following the opening of a local TESCO in my neighbourhood. I have to report total and complete delight on the part of all the participants that ‘TESCO had come to town’. Discreet enquiring of the participants seemed to confirm that they were a genuinely cross-selection group of ‘typical’ local residents. The big retail chain popularity did seem to be a reality.
On a different but not-too-dissimilar aspect, one senior councilor in Aberdeen attempted to keep the local authority’s planning decision on some sort of consistent basis in the face of the golf and hotel mega planning application covering pristine Aberdeenshire coastline. The councilor was literally hounded and vilified out of office by the local business community, with the local newspaper as the main channel of attack.
Given this reality, I suggest that; a) we do need to refine focus on how we facilitate fundamental, ‘smart’, sustainable change-of-use and change of function in the traditional high street and neighbourhood shopping centres b). Replenish our attention to the concept of city region – none of these issues can be handled solely at neighbourhood or even city level. At the very least, they require a city-and-region-complementary perspective.