Policy information sourced from the Dartford Core Strategy

CS 2: Dartford Town Centre

In order to revitalise Dartford Town Centre and improve its range of attractions and environment, the Council will:

  • Work with landowners, developers and government agencies to increase the range and improve the quality of the food, comparison shopping and leisure offer.
  • Require planning applications for retail and leisure development within the town centre (Proposals Map 1) to demonstrate, commensurate to their size, their contribution to the achievement of the objectives set out in paragraph 2.18 above. In particular, how the proposal will ensure benefits are spread to the wider town centre.
  • Seek to deliver up to 1,030 homes and 300 jobs (B1 uses and A2 uses) in addition to jobs provided in retail and leisure uses.
  • Work with its partners to deliver the following sites for mixed-use development, incorporating retail and/or leisure proposals at ground level, and a mix of uses on upper floors that could include housing, office use and community facilities subject to meeting the objectives in para 2.18:
    • Lowfield St
    • Hythe St (former Co-op site)
    • Kent Rd (former Westgate car park)
  • Encourage proposals for refurbishment, extension or redevelopment of the Orchards and Priory Shopping Centres to provide enhanced and/or increased shopping and/or leisure facilities.
  • On the Station Mound site, work with partners to facilitate a new Dartford station building, improved interchange facilities at the station and create a high quality gateway into the town centre, through redevelopment of the site for a mix of uses, which could include cafes, pubs and restaurants, housing, employment (B1), hotel, community facilities and supporting retail and leisure uses.
  • Enhance the social and recreational role of the Acacia Hall complex and improve its linkages with Central Park and the town centre. Explore options for the eventual replacement of Fairfield Pool on the Acacia Hall site.
  • Protect and enhance the town centre’s historic environment, by requiring that development creates a sense of place by responding positively to the market town context and within and adjacent to the Conservation Area respecting the varied historic, heritage and archaeological context; work with landowners to improve buildings in the Conservation Area; maintain the historic garden landscape at Acacia Hall; and provide town heritage information in historically significant locations. The archaeological potential should be assessed prior to development through a desk-top study and investigated via fieldwork, where the desk-top study indicates this will be necessary, or through an archaeological watching brief, if appropriate. The approach to any finds of significance will be determined through an Archaeological Strategy or Framework, agreed in partnership with KCC.
  • Use available resources to improve the public realm, in particular through improvements to Central Park, street environment enhancements in the High Street and the area around Dartford station.
  • Enhance the biodiversity of the River Darent and create an Ecology Island between the two branches of the River Darent, as part of improvements to Central Park.
  • Work with its partners, with funding from development contributions and/or the Strategic Transport Programme (see Policy CS 16) to implement schemes giving greater priority to pedestrians, particularly at the eastern end of the High Street and Market Street and improving accessibility between bus stops and the main shopping area.
  • Require that new housing development contributes proportionally to the land and build costs of a new primary school at the Northern Gateway.
  • Require that planning applications for development in Flood Zones 2 and 3 are accompanied by a site specific FRA39 to demonstrate that development is safe and will pass part C of the Exception Test40, where applicable. These 41 sites to also be sequentially tested to direct ‘more vulnerable‘ uses to the parts of the site at less risk of flooding, where possible.
  • Prepare a Dartford Town Centre Supplementary Planning Document to provide further guidance on the implementation of the strategy for the town centre. The Development Management DPD will identify the primary shopping area, and consider primary and secondary shopping frontages and the management of uses within these.

Planning applications must be supported by a transport assessment which takes into account all development proposals in the town centre as well as those at the Northern Gateway. A Travel Plan will be required for each application. Local improvements related to a proposed development will be required to be delivered by the development.

See Diagram 3 and see also Policy CS12.

For more information please see the Core Strategy