DC Casebook: Retail development - Pharmacy move held to meet retail policy

Planning, 15 August 2008

The site formed part of a car park at a DIY store and garden centre. The proposal was to replace an existing pharmacy that was due to cease trading when nearby surgeries relocated to a primary care centre on the retail park. The council maintained that rather than forming part of a defined district centre, the site lay in a wider area where small-scale retailing that could undermine existing centres should not be permitted.

The inspector found a dichotomy between the centre as defined in the unitary development plan (UDP) and descriptions of district centres in national guidance and officers' reports to the council. He concluded that the area around the site now operated as a district centre.

In contrast to the centre defined on the UDP proposals map, which had just one superstore, he observed that the retail park included a food store, a fast food restaurant and other shops as well as the primary care centre. In his view, these facilities accorded more closely with the definition of a district centre set out in the UDP and national advice. He decided that a pharmacy would be suitable in this location since it would allow linked trips to be made to other uses in the centre.

DCS Number 100-056-326

Inspector David Sheers; Hearing.