Retail and Town Centre Policies

Strategic Policy 10: Quantity and Location of Retail Development

Quantity and Location of Retail Development

The District's town centres, local and village centres provide a focus for activity and community life providing shopping, leisure, employment, culture as well as other services. This is particularly the case for Dover, Deal and Sandwich town centres.

The Council is required to set out a network and hierarchy of shopping and service centres in the Local Plan. Identifying the existing hierarchy provides an understanding of the role and function of the District's centres and their interrelationship. A major factor in determining the role of the centres is the catchment which they serve. Canterbury is the pre-dominant centre in the wider sub region of East Kent. Dover's hierarchy of centres broadly accords with the settlement hierarchy (set out in Appendix 1) and is set out below:

Secondary Regional Centre - Dover Town Centre is positioned at the top of the retail hierarchy and performs the role of a Secondary Regional Centre as it is materially larger in terms of floorspace than the other centres in the District; and provides town centre functions for the whole district in terms of administrative, retail, leisure, office, education and culture.

Town Centre's - Deal and Sandwich Town Centre's provide a complementary role to Dover Town Centre. The catchments of these town centres are predominantly their individual town populations and tourist trade with a wide range of shops to cater for everyday need, special interest and tourism. These towns have traditionally attracted national retailers and services as well as local businesses.

District Centre - Aylesham has been identified as a Rural Service Centre in the Settlement Hierarchy since the Dover Local Plan of 2002 and is considered to fit the definition of a District Centre, given its the largest rural settlement by population in the District. It caters for local needs and services, providing shops, including a supermarket, a range of non-retail services and local public facilities e.g. a library. It serves a limited catchment and as a location it is not appropriate for large scale retail development.

Local and Village Centres - These cater for a more restricted local need and tend to have a small catchment. Typically, local centres might include, amongst other shops, a small supermarket, a newsagent, a sub-post office, a pharmacy or a launderette. Business is often local rather than the national multiples. These centres are not appropriate for large scale retail development.

The retail hierarchy demonstrates an understanding of how the District's centres interact with one another at district and sub-regional levels. It is not designed to favour one centre over another and does not in itself direct investment decisions.

With regards to future retail need, the Retail and Town Centre Needs Assessment 2018 concluded:

• Convenience goods – District wide forecast capacity over the plan period to 2037 can be accommodated by existing commitments
• Comparison goods – there is no District wide capacity for new comparison goods floorspace over the short term (to 2022) and the medium term (to 2027). By 2032 there is the capacity for 615sqm net rising to 3,243 sqm net by 2037.

When capacity is assessed on a centre-by centre basis the forecasts show no quantitative need for new comparison goods floorspace for Dover (assuming constant market shares) as any residual expenditure growth over the Plan period will be absorbed by the St. James’ scheme. Any floorspace capacity over the longer term is forecast for Sandwich and Deal, with a total combined capacity of 1,923 sqm net by 2032, increasing to 2,854 sqm net by 2037.

However, it should be noted that capacity forecasts beyond five years should be treated with caution, as they are based on various layers of assumptions and forecasts with regard to the trading performance of existing centres and stores, the growth in population and retail spending, constant market shares, etc.

Strategic Policy 11: Dover Town Centre

Dover Town Centre

The Council's aspiration for Dover Town Centre is to...

• Create a more vibrant centre by encouraging a diverse range of uses in the town centre, to maximise its attractiveness as a place to live, work and socialise;
• Increase the number of visitors to the town centre (both residents and tourists alike) and improve dwell time;
• Improve the synergy between different areas and visitor attractions in the town centre and beyond;
• Enhance the environment in the town centre to make it more welcoming and renew the sense of pride in the town; and
• Improve connectivity both within the town centre boundary, and with other areas such as the sea front to maximise and optimise the way people get to and travel around the town centre.

The strategy to deliver this aspiration is set out in Strategic Policy 11 and the Dover Town Centre Strategy Plan is below.

The strategy that has been developed for the town centre takes into account the findings of the 2017 Retail and Town Centre Needs Assessment, and the Economic Development Strategy (2020) and identifies opportunities for development within the town centre boundary, in addition to setting out general principals to guide development in the town centre area.

The focus of the strategy is to create a more vibrant town centre. This will be achieved by:

• Reducing the town centre boundary;
• Protecting the core primary shopping area in the town centre for commercial, business and service uses that fall under use class E of the updated use class order (Sept 2020) and other main town centres uses including: leisure, entertainment facilities, cinemas, restaurants, take-aways, bars and pubs, night clubs, casinos, health and fitness centres, indoor bowling centres, bingo halls, offices, arts, culture and tourism development (including theatres, museums, galleries, concert halls, hotels and conference facilities).
• Taking a more flexible approach to proposals outside the core primary shopping area, and supporting a broad range of uses here, including residential and community (including libraries, public halls, places of worship and law courts) to enhance the long term vitality and viability of the town centre.

In addition to this, the strategy identifies a number of sites which present the opportunity for mixed use redevelopment within the town centre that potentially includes residential. These will contribute to the overall vibrancy of the town. These sites include the Bench Street area, the former Co-op Site, Stembrook Car park and the Mid Town area. Further development opportunities have also been identified adjacent to the Town Centre boundary at Dover Waterfront and the former Leisure Centre Site. These sites would be suitable for mixed use development.

Opportunities have also been identified at Market Square, along the section of the A20 corridor that runs through the town centre, Pencester Gardens and along the River Dour corridor to deliver public realm improvements, improve connectivity, and enhance the attractiveness of the town centre as a place to live, work and socialise. A key element of the strategy is also to improve the connectivity of the town centre with the seafront and this will be facilitated in part through the development of Dover Waterfront.

Dover Town Centre in particular offers opportunities for significant change through the redevelopment of vacant sites and replacement of poorly designed buildings. Developments with innovative layouts which maximise the use of a site and, where appropriate, make use of multiple levels are encouraged, having regard to local context and the historic setting of the town. Proposed schemes that aim to achieve landmark buildings should be of demonstrably outstanding architecture.

In order to deliver the strategy for Dover Town Centre a a co-ordinated, multi-partner, approach is required. Further design guidance will also be produced to expand upon the policy approach below and provide more detail to guide the regeneration of the town centre.

Strategic Policy 12: Deal and Sandwich Town Centres

Deal and Sandwich Town Centres

The strategy for Deal and Sandwich is to continue to protect the vitality and viability of the town centres for the communities they serve. The primary shopping areas for Deal and Sandwich are both located entirely within Conservation Areas. The context of the historic environment will play an important and defining role on any future proposals to enable an interchange between uses to adapt to market changes within the towns, whilst not compromising on their overall identities as characterful historic towns.

For Deal, the town centre will be proactively and continuously promoted as a family leisure destination which capitalises on the historic heritage, with improved connectivity to the seafront from the town to increase the tourist trade.

For Sandwich, which has certain limitations because of the historic medieval street pattern and number of listed buildings, the focus will be upon capitalising on the tourism spend within the town centre associated with the town's historic medieval heritage and golfing identity.

DM Policy 25: Primary Shopping Areas

Retail and Town Centres

Town centres have been changing and will continue to do so through the plan period. They are no longer solely supported by traditional retail development and in order to provide vibrant places for our communities and visitors, we need to enable our Town Centres to be resilient to withstand the pressures of change by allowing them to adapt. Our Town Centres are community hubs and encompass cultural, leisure, arts and heritage uses that in turn support the tourism industry, as well as the retail and commercial uses.

Generally town centres and high streets are comprised with a close grouping of shops selling a wide range of products. Customers can fulfil the majority of their shopping needs in one trip, as well as providing the opportunity for comparing the price and availability of less frequently purchased goods. The presence of non-retail businesses in primary shopping areas can inhibit these activities by reducing the range of shops, which can reduce the number of people visiting the centre, as well as making the centre less compact and therefore less convenient and appealing. Local consumer choice needs to be maintained in order to ensure town centres can function effectively and to retain their overall vitality and viability.

The Council recognises that the flexibility provided by the current permitted development rights for commercial uses means that some changes of use would not require planning permission. Where planning permission is required the retailing and town centres policy will apply.

Residential development plays an important role in the vitality and viability of our centres, bringing people into the town at different times of the day, increasing footfall and supporting a more vibrant evening and night time economy. We need to provide a balance between protecting our town centres from an overall erosion of those characteristics which make a vibrant town centre and enabling residential uses through appropriate parameters. Residential uses at ground floor within the primary shopping areas would be severely detrimental to the overall vitality of our town centres, by fragmenting the retail and commercial uses, but also creating incompatible living conditions for potential occupiers. There are also issues with the conversion of traditional shopfronts to allow for suitable residential frontages. These competing requirements are not always compatible within the more traditional core town centre areas.

Residential uses at ground floor level within the primary frontage areas of Dover, Deal and Sandwich will not be permitted. In considering changes of use within the town centres we will apply the principles that proposals will need to be able to attract vibrancy, activity and pedestrian footfall to the town centre during the day time. Proposals will need to be compatible with a retail area, to include an active shopfront and be immediately accessible by the public from the front elevation. They would not have an unacceptable impact on the retail function of the frontage, the attractiveness, or on the vitality and viability of the primary shopping frontage.

DM Policy 26: Sequential Test and Impact Assessment

The Sequential Test and Impact Assessment

Local planning authorities are required by the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) to apply a sequential test to planning applications for main town centre uses that are not in an existing centre and are not in accordance with an up to date Local Plan. Applications for main town centre uses should be located in town centres, then in edge of centre locations and only if suitable sites are not available should out of centre sites be considered. When considering edge of centre and out of centre proposals, preference should be given to accessible sites that are well connected to the town centre. Applicants and local planning authorities should demonstrate flexibility on issues such as format and scale.

DM Policy 27: Local Centres

Local Centres

Whilst the majority of the districts day to day needs are served by shops within designated centres, there are a number of small individual convenience shops (below 280sqm floorspace) in locations where shops in the rest of the hierarchy are not within a convenient walking distance. These standalone shops provide a vital role in reducing car dependency and provide an accessible service at a local level and within the more rural communities. The Council will resist the loss of these smaller convenience stores in order to continue to create sustainable communities and reduce the need to travel. Where there are proposals for any new convenience stores, these will serve the local population and be of an appropriate scale to the locality.

DM Policy 28: Shop Fronts

Shop Fronts

The character and attractiveness of an area can be added to by the quality and variety of its employment and retail shop fronts. High quality shop fronts can improve the public realm by being attractive to look at, provide coherence to the street scene and facilitate opportunities for informal gatherings. Insensitive shopfronts can damage the character of a building and the wider street scene and is of significant importance when considering the impact on conservation areas and listed buildings. Shop fronts using security shutters and grills can be particularly unattractive and can diminish the vitality of a commercial area.