DC Casebook: Commercial and industrial - Shop loss held detrimental to village

Planning, 22 August 2008

The inspector observed that the village had a buoyant small shopping centre providing a valuable retail offer for the area. She found a concentration of shops on the high street and in an arcade and a good balance between retail and other services. However, she noted with interest that several well-loved and well-used shops were sited away from the village core and that these businesses made a significant contribution to its charm and distinctiveness as a shopping centre.

She agreed that there was a preponderance of shops in the centre and no unacceptable groupings of professional services or other non-shopping uses. No shopping area or village centre was defined in the local plan and the premises were clearly not sited in the main concentration of high street retail use, she found. In her view, another class A2 use might not harm the overall retail function of the village centre and could bring trade, competition and additional services.

However, she concluded that although the appeal premises seemed to be tucked away in a backwater, they occupied a strategic position next to a car park and pedestrian link to the high street. She considered that the retail use's loss would be likely to unbalance the critical mass of local shops and services in the village centre and would harm its retail vitality and dispersed shopping character.

DCS Number 100-056-444

Inspector Susan Hesketh; Hearing.