Shopping centre expansion plan supported

Planning, 18 December 2008

The appellants proposed to extend an indoor shopping centre by creating 11,154m2 of sales floorspace containing one large shop unit over two floors and seven smaller shop units.

The council stated that an alternative site within the town centre was sequentially preferable and would deliver the regeneration benefits. In contrast, it stated that extending the shopping mall as proposed by the appellants would simply compound the impact the mall had already had by shifting the focus of retail activity away from the heart of the centre.

The inspector decided that there was sufficient expenditure to support the redevelopment of both sites. Although the appeal site lay outside the town centre boundary it would, once built, effectively form part of an expanded mall.

In his view, it was wrong for the council to oppose the development of the appeal site simply because it wanted Marks and Spencer to anchor its preferred site, the company having decided that the appellants offered the best opportunity of delivering a site within a reasonable period of time.

In his view, given the complex nature of developing the council’s preferred site, it was possible that new anchor tenants would have been identified by the time that scheme came forward.

DCS Number 100-058-996

Inspector Trevor Cookson; Inquiry

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