Policy CS20 Town, district, village and local centres
The strategy is to:
(a) Create safe, attractive and accessible town and district centres, providing a good range of shopping, food and drink uses, services, offices, and entertainment and leisure facilities, and high quality public spaces.
(b) Protect the primary retailing role of the defined primary shopping areas in town and district centres, within the context of maintaining a broader mix of uses, including service, office, entertainment, leisure uses, and appropriate visitor facilities within town and district centres.
Within the primary shopping areas there will be a presumption against the loss of premises in an A1 retail use, except where it can be demonstrated that an alternative use proposed would be complementary to the retailing function and would enhance the overall vitality of the centre.
(c) Maintain active ground floor frontages, within town centres, district centres and local centres with appropriate town centre uses.
(d) Strengthen the vitality and viability and enhance consumer choice in town and district centres by making provision for additional retail floorspace consistent with their scale and function, as follows:
Proposed distribution of additional retail floorspace 2005-2018
| Centre | Convenience | Comparison | Large Format | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2005-2011 | 2012-2018 | 2005-2011 | 2012-2018 | 2005-2011 | 2012-2018 | |
| Totton | 350sq.m | 1700sq.m | 1900sq.m | 1700sq.m | 900sq.m | |
| Hythe | 350sq.m | 800sq.m | 900sq.m | |||
| Lymington | 850sq.m | 2200sq.m | 2000sq.m | 2200sq.m | 1300sq.m | |
| New Milton | 850sq.m | 1500sq.m | 1300sq.m | |||
| Ringwood | 1400sq.m | 1400sq.m | 1000sq.m | 700sq.m | ||
| Fordingbridge | 600sq.m | 600sq.m | ||||
(e) Require major shopping, commercial or service development (including large extensions to existing stores) outside the four town centres and two district centres to comply with the sequential approach to site selection which prioritises development in existing centres, then edge-of-centre sites, and only then out-of centre sites which are accessible by a choice of means of transport.
There will be a requirement demonstrate that the proposed development will have no unacceptable impact including cumulative impact on existing centres.
(f) Within village and local centres, ensure active ground floor frontages are maintained and permit new retail and other commercial, service and leisure uses that help meet the day to day needs of the local community and are of a scale appropriate to the role of the centre in the shopping hierarchy and proportionate to its size.
Share this page
