Policy information sourced from the Richmond Upon Thames Local Plan

Policy 17 Supporting our Centres and Promoting Culture (Strategic Policy)

A. The Council will support shopping, leisure and culture uses, providing spaces for businesses and services and promoting community and cultural exchange which contributes to the vitality and viability of our centres, helping to diversify their offer and facilitate adaption to meet changing needs. Development proposals will be supported which:

  1. Reflect the centre’s role and function within the centre hierarchy and is of a scale appropriate to the size of the centre.
  2. Comply with the sequential test set out in the NPPF. Major new development for retail, leisure and business uses is directed to the five designated town centres as set out in Policy 18 ‘Development in Centres’. New retail development is encouraged to locate within the designated Primary Shopping Areas where defined, in line with Policy 18, or within a Site Allocation which specifies retail, meeting any requirements of that Site Allocation including in terms of scale of retail and complying with other Local Plan policies.
  3. Resist the loss of retail floorspace in Primary Shopping Areas.
  4. Resist the loss of essential shops and services (as defined above in accordance with Policy 20 ‘Shops and Services Serving Essential Needs’).
  5. Support diversification and repurposing of high streets and centres to contribute towards retail, leisure, business, educational, healthcare, community and cultural floorspace, and to encourage hubs with clusters of uses that support the centre hierarchy to become key meeting places and provide opportunities for linked trips, at different times of the day and night, in accordance with Policy 1 ‘Living Locally and the 20-minute neighbourhood (Strategic Policy)’;
  6. Maintain existing commercial uses in our centres, including space that can be repurposed and is flexible and can be adapted to reflect modern needs. Uses that provide active frontages are required at ground floor level as set out in Policy 18 ‘Development in Centres’. Residential use will be supported on upper floors and/or to the rear, provided it does not compromise the ongoing use of existing commercial space;
  7. Provide high quality environments which promote local distinctiveness with regard to the character of an individual centre, respecting heritage and townscape character. Enhance the public realm, including with the use of urban greening and mitigation to address climate change, to provide a sense of place and destination in our centres. Event spaces, temporary uses and proposals for ‘meanwhile uses’ of vacant spaces within the centre hierarchy will be supported where it can be demonstrated that they can be appropriately managed and their impact on the streetscene does not give rise to adverse environmental impacts.
  8. Enhance the connections between uses, improving legibility and wayfinding, and access to digital infrastructure. Provide opportunities for active travel, supporting the Healthy Streets Approach, in accordance with Policy 1 ‘Living Locally and the 20-minute neighbourhood (Strategic Policy)’; and
  9. Enhance the Cultural Quarters in Richmond and Twickenham Town Centres and other existing cultural clusters in smaller centres and can demonstrate suitable management of adverse impacts arising from their proposals.

For more information please see the Richmond Upon Thames Local Plan