For many years, the cumulative loss of shops in traditional centres to non-retail uses has caused concern to local communities. To resist these changes, many of the City’s earlier local plans identified retail core areas within their shopping centres, and included policies opposing further changes from retail to non-retail use within these areas. These were often challenged at appeal, and the appeals in many cases upheld. Nevertheless, there remains strong local support for the objective of retaining existing shops to the maximum possible extent.

The need for centres to accommodate a wide range of functions including, but not concentrating exclusively on, shopping is now generally recognised as a necessary condition for maintaining vitality and viability. Indeed, the need for diversification of town centre activities is strongly emphasised in National Planning Policy Guideline 8: Town Centres and Retailing (NPPG8). Any policy must therefore, strike a balance between diversification, the retention of an acceptable level of retail use, and the interests of amenity for residents and other centre users (see Development Policy Principle DEV 4: Town Centre).

To achieve this balance, the policy has two parts. Part [A] sets out a general approach for all centres in tiers 2 - 4 of the Hierarchy of Centres. Part [B] sets a more detailed, criterion-based approach for specified shopping centres. These are Partick/Byres Road and Shawlands in tier 2, Anniesland and Victoria Road in tier 3. The City Centre is subject to a separate policy CC/SC 2: Retail and Non-Retail Uses in the Principal Retail Area and policy DEV 7: Principal Retail Area (City Centre).

These centres are basically the larger traditional centres where shops have undergone a process of attrition over many years from retail to other uses. Ten years or so ago, this pressure came mainly from financial services such as building societies and estate agents, but with increasing rationalisation in that sector, recent pressure has been mainly from catering and entertainment facilities. This pressure has, in some cases, been exacerbated by the opening of large-scale edge-of-centre or out-of-centre retail stores that draw trade from the centre concerned and reduce the viability of the remaining shops.

If these centres are not to undergo an irreversible change of character, some intervention is clearly required in order to achieve the desired balance of uses and to put a brake on any further serious loss of retail activity. In the light of the experience of previous local plan policies, it is now proposed that, rather than a total embargo on changes of use from Class 1 within principal retail areas, such intervention should be based on the establishment of percentage thresholds providing a trigger for intervention. Any such intervention is only appropriate, however, where the centre concerned is relatively prosperous and where problems of vacancy or environmental deterioration are not acute. The revitalisation of centres that do exhibit such symptoms can only be tackled through a comprehensive range of measures, including the encouragement of alternative uses for disused or unviable shop units. It will be one of the purposes of Centre Action Plans to determine what the measures should be in each case. For this reason, a number of centres that were formerly subject to restrictive policies, for example in the East End, have been excluded on this occasion.

Of those that remain, the major town centres of Partick/Byres Road (now a combined centre but retaining separate core areas) and Shawlands have been subject to heavy and sustained pressure from non-retail uses of various types over a long period. Although the proportion of retail to non-retail use has generally held firm, the maintenance of this balance is seen as important for their continuing prosperity. For these centres, therefore, it is proposed that the relevant thresholds be set at a level that allows the existing approach to be broadly maintained. The other listed centres have not been subjected to the same degree of pressure, and it is considered that a further limited degree of diversification can be tolerated before restrictions apply. These differences account for the varying percentage thresholds established by the following policy.

Another change from earlier policies is that principal retail areas have been redefined much more tightly, so that only the true core of each centre is covered by this designation.

It is intended that as Centre Action Plans are prepared, each centre’s detailed requirements will be reviewed and this policy will, if appropriate, be refined and if necessary replaced by an individual policy tailored to the needs of that centre.

It should be noted that, for the purposes of this policy, "non-retail uses" covers all uses other than Class 1, including Classes 2, 3 and ‘sui generis’ uses. Hybrid or composite uses incorporating significant elements of Class 1 and other use or uses will be regarded as ‘sui generis’ and therefore as ‘non-retail uses’ under this policy. See also policy SC 9: Food and Drink.

[A] The Council will support the maintenance and enhancement of the vitality and viability of all centres listed in tiers 2 - 4 of the Hierarchy of Centres (policy SC 1: The City’s Hierarchy of Centres - schedule SC(i)), through encouraging an appropriate balance and diversity of uses within each centre, including the retention of a suitable level of retail activity. In considering any proposal for the change of the use of a ground floor retail outlet to a use other than Class 1, regard will be had to:

GROUP A: Partick/Byres Road (2 Principal Retail Areas), Shawlands (Tier 2)

GROUP B: Anniesland, Victoria Road (Tier 3)

When considering applications for the change of use of any ground floor premises within these centres from Class 1 to any other use, the Council will have regard to the undernoted criteria. These may be subject to modification for individual centres if justified in the relevant Centre Action Plan (see Part 1: Infrastructure, "Improving Town Centres", and policy SC 3: Improvements to Existing Centres).

(a) If, in a principal retail area, the proportion of ground floor units operating within a use class other than Class 1 exceeds 20% of the total for a Group A centre, or 30% for a Group B centre, further changes of use from Class 1 will not be considered favourably.

(b) In the case of the combined Partick/Byres Road centre, two principal retail areas are defined (see schedule SC(iv)), and criterion (a) will operate separately within each.

(d) Exceptions to criterion (a) may be favourably considered in the following circumstances:

 

(i) the extension of an existing bank or building society office into adjacent shop premises, subject to a binding agreement that no other form of Class 2 use will be permitted;

 

(ii) the occupation of Class 1 premises by a non-Class 1 use, relocating from other premises within that principal retail area, subject to a binding agreement that the future use of the vacated premises will be restricted to Class 1; and

 

(iii) the occupation, by a use other than Class 1, of premises last used for Class 1 purposes which can be documented to have lain vacant for not less than one year, and in respect of which it can be demonstrated (through, for example, failure to attract a retail user) that there is no reasonable prospect of Class 1 use being resumed.

SCHEDULE SC(iv): PRINCIPAL RETAIL AREAS

This schedule lists those centres which contain principal retail areas and are thereby subject to the provisions of this policy. The areas defined are shown on the Centre Maps sheet.

1. See policies DEV7: Principal Retail Area (City Centre), CC/DEV1: Development Guidelines for the City Centre and CC/SC 2: Retail and Non-Retail Uses in the Principal Retail Area.

2. Contains separate principal retail areas for Partick and Byres Road.