Retail hierarchy

EC8: Retail hierarchy The Council will promote the role and function of its centres to positively contribute towards their viability, vitality, character and public realm. The retail hierarchy for town centres in Buckinghamshire is defined as follows: a) Sub-regional town centres: Aylesbury and High Wycombe. b)Town centres: Amersham on-the-Hill, Beaconsfield New Town, Buckingham, Chesham, Gerrards Cross, Marlow and Princes Risborough. c) District centres: Amersham Old Town, Beaconsfield Old Town, Burnham, Chalfont St. Peter, Great Missenden, Wendover and Winslow. d)Local centres: Bourne End, Chalfont St. Giles, Denham Green, Farnham Common, Flackwell Heath, Haddenham, Hazlemere, Holmer Green, Iver, Little Chalfont and Prestwood. 7.118 The NPPF requires the Council to define a hierarchy of town centres and promote their longterm vitality and viability. 7.119 All centres have designated centre boundaries. Sub-regional town centres also have a designated Primary Shopping Area (PSA). Primary shopping frontages are designated in subregional town centres and town centres. The boundaries of centres and these designations will be defined on the proposals map. 7.120 Aylesbury and High Wycombe are designated as sub-regional town centres, they are the focus for retail development, serving communities within the northern and southern halves of Buckinghamshire. Other town, district and local centres play an important role as a focal point in their respective settlements / community areas but have a lesser range and choice of facilities compared to Aylesbury and High Wycombe. 7.121 These policies protect all centres to ensure appropriate accessibility to important facilities for all sections of the community and to ensure sustainable shopping patterns. Table 9: Retail, food / beverage and leisure / cultural floorspace needs. Convenience retail (sq.m gross) Comparison retail (sq.m gross) Food / beverage (sq.m gross) Leisure / cultural (sq.m gross) Total (sq.m gross) 2030 4,380 9,772 8,725 6,026 28,930 2035 9,798 20,612 17,033 11,767 59,210 2040 15,869 32,580 26,321 18,186 92,956 2045 24,071 54,315 36,700 25,356 140,442 7.122 Capacity projections indicate that an element of new retail development needs can be met in existing centres through the re-occupation of vacant units in the plan period. For example, if the shop vacancy rate reduced by 10%, this could accommodate 14,300 sqm of new space. Reducing the vacancy rate further would deliver more new space in our town centres. Larger scale new developments proposed in this Local Plan will be required to provide their own centres or small-scale shops to serve the new communities. This can also go some way to meeting the remaining retail needs of the plan. 7.123 The uncertainty around the forecasts and changes in shopping patterns, means the Council is likely to be looking to plan to meet the needs to 2035, and would then review the situation in a future Local Plan. 7.124 Further work will look at this before the next iteration of the Local Plan, and we welcome views on how retail needs can be met within existing and new centres.