Policy information sourced from the Central Befordshire Local Plan
R1: Ensuring Town Centre Vitality
The Council will support and encourage main town centre uses within its town centres, service centres and large villages. The scale of development should relate to the Retail Hierarchy.
For the Principal and Secondary Town Centres, Town Centre Boundaries and Primary Shopping Areas are shown on the Policies Map.
Within the Primary Shopping Areas, the Council will seek to focus retail uses. The Council will seek to use conditions where necessary and justified to limit uses within Class E in order to maintain the predominant retail function of the Primary Shopping Areas and ensure an appropriate mix of ground floor uses.
Proposals for changes of use away from retail will not be supported within the Primary Shopping Area, unless it can be satisfactorily demonstrated that the units have been marketed for a period of six months or more, with no success and where they would support positively the overall viability and vitality of the centre.
Within the identified Town Centre Boundaries, but outside the Primary Shopping Areas, of the Principal and Secondary Town Centres, development proposals for other main town centre uses such as leisure, commercial, office, tourism, cultural, and community uses will be supported.
Proposals for change of use, or re-development of properties, away from these uses within the Town Centre Boundaries, but outside the Primary Shopping Areas, will be supported where they meet all of the following criteria:
- The proposed use would be of an appropriate scale within the town centre; and
- The proposed use would positively support the vitality of the town centre by enhancing the range of facilities offered and/or stimulating activity outside normal shopping hours
Above ground floor level, proposals for residential use and general office space will be supported.
Outside designated town centres
The Sequential Test will be applied to proposals for retail uses that are outside the Primary Shopping Area and for retail and other main town centre uses that are not within a designated town centre boundary. Development proposals that fail the Sequential Test will not be supported.
Impact Assessments will be required for all retail and leisure proposals over 500sqm gross external floorspace that are outside a designated town centre boundary. Schemes that are found to have negative impact on the vitality of town centres will not be supported.
The Council will seek to use conditions where necessary and justified to limit uses within Class E in order to prevent main town centres being permitted outside Primary Shopping Areas and Town Centres without having to meet requirements of the sequential and impact tests.
For more information, please visit the Central Befordshire Local Plan