APPENDIX ITEM 4B
Item No: 3
Case Officer: Mr D Staniland
Site: Neighbourhood Centre, Culliford Crescent, Poole, Dorset, BH17 9DW
Application No: 07/22286/059/F
Date Received: 24th January 2007
Agent: Lyons, Sleeman & Hoare Nero Brewery Cricket Green Hartley Wintney Hook Hants RG27 8QA
Applicant: L & C Investments Ltd
Development: Erect terrace of 5 one & two-storey retail units (3406 sq metres gross) for use as A1 (shops); A2 (professional & financial services): A3 (restaurant & cafes); A5 (hot food take aways) or D1 (non-residential institutions). Alterations to access and car park. Erect electricity sub-station. Amended drawing received 4/6/07.
Ward: L 120 Canford Heath West
The application is brought to the Planning Committee because of the level of local interest.
Site Description
The application site, the Canford Heath Local Centre, comprises some 3.59 hectares of land situated some 4 km north east of Poole town centre. Within the retail part of this centre are food and non food units including a fitness suite, estate agency, public house, squash courts, veterinary practice, a 2,581 sq metre Asda store and petrol filling station. At the heart of the centre is a 371 space car park with 14 disabled spaces, ten cycle spaces and several trolley bays.
Cars and delivery vehicles enter the centre from the south west corner of the site with some delivery vehicles continuing up the west side of the site along a private service road to the delivery area of the Asda store. This road also provides access to St. Paul’s Church / Canford Heath Baptist Church, health centre and doctors’ surgery. There is a further service yard in the north east corner of the local centre.
Relevant Planning History
1980: Planning permission granted for the erection of supermarket, shops, public house, petrol filling station, car park and squash courts
1994: Planning permission granted for redevelopment of filling station.
Current Proposal
The proposals include the following principal works:
· Erection of a 3,406 sq. m. building in the north western area of the local centre presently occupied by customer car parking and a landscaped bund. This building to be subdivided into 5 units the largest being 2,210 sq metres a further three of 168 sq metres and a final unit of 685 sq metres. The possible uses of these units would include retail; financial and professional services; restaurants and cafes; hot food take away; nursery/crèche/playgroup and church/ local authority day/evening centre
· Improvements to the car park layout, increased disabled, cycle and motorcycle parking, a new lighting strategy, CCTV enhancement and sub station together with new hard and soft landscaping
· A financial contribution toward the provision of a toucan crossing in Canford Heath Road and a central refuge in Culliford Crescent. In addition improved vehicular access to the local centre by the realignment of the Asda service road and Culliford Road junction
REPRESENTATIONS
As a result of the publicity afforded this application and the public exhibition undertaken by the applicant at the local centre in February 2007 191 letters of support and 60 letters of objection have been received from local residents.
The letters of objection raise the following issues:
Head of Transportation Services
A Transport Assessment (TA) has been submitted to address the impact the proposals will have on the adjoining highway, car parking facilities and mitigation measures.
The number of car parking spaces has been increased from 371 to 408 with surveys of existing use and forecasts suggesting that the number envisaged are sufficient. However, 19 of those spaces, to the rear of the public house, do not have a safe pedestrian route to the shops and require pedestrians to walk along the service road. A footway should be provided to serve these spaces.
· It is necessary to encourage non-car use especially for staff and that requires safe road crossing points and secure sheltered facilities for cycles and motorcycles. The disabled parking has been improved with more spaces located close to the main entrance to the new major store.
· The visitor parking for the community facilities depends on the local centre car park and they have not been included other than in the actual surveys of the car park. The enlarged car park should be available to those uses.
· The access off Culliford Crescent is to be modified to improve safety. The proposed servicing arrangements at the rear of the building are tight and to avoid loss of important manoeuvring areas it would be necessary to apply yellow cross hatching to the appropriate parts of the service areas.
· The TA suggests that there will be no significant capacity issues at the Canford Heath road roundabout. Safety concerns arise from pedestrians crossing Culliford Crescent and Canford Heath Road and to address these the applicant has offered to make a financial contribution towards the building of a central refuge island in Culliford Crescent and a toucan crossing in Canford Heath Road. Full funding of these facilities should be secured.
Natural England – no objections.
Wessex Water – no objections.
Environmental and Consumer Protection Services – no objections subject to recommended conditions and informatives.
Relevant Planning Policy
The following policies of the Poole Local Plan First Alteration (Adopted 2004) are relevant to the application:
BE1 – (Design Code)
BE2 – (Landscaping )
BE9 – (Public Art)
T13 – (Traffic Generated by Development)
T14 – (Access to the Highway Network)
S4 – (Retail Development in Local Centres)
Planning Considerations
As the applicant states in the design and access statement that accompanies the planning application,” The physical fabric of the retail centre has deteriorated with age, leaving it with a tired and unwelcoming feel, with little sense of enclosure”. Despite this it is further said that, ” the retail centre benefits from an anchor food supermarket, recently occupied by Asda and has generally traded well since opening, with high retailer demand allowing almost continuous full occupancy”. The following matters are considered by the applicant to require attention:
· Street furniture is of mixed styles, without a unifying theme and lacks quality
· The car park layout and circulation routes are confusing and can cause conflict between pedestrians and drivers
· Much of the existing landscaping requires reorganisation and replacement, due to poor health, vandalism and inappropriate siting
To fund enhancements of the local centre, the applicant is seeking permission for an additional 3,406 sq metres of retail floorspace (gross).
The applicants’ design and access statement concludes by saying that, several concept layout options have had to be rejected due to legal constraints and that, “ The application scheme is the only realistic and financially viable option for enhancing the retail offer and the local environment at the centre.”
The following principal planning issues are believed to be worthy of consideration:
· Impact on highway and pedestrian safety
· Impact on the vitality and viability of town centre
· Positive implications for the character and appearance of the existing local centre
· Impact on the character and appearance of the locality from permitting the proposed extension
The Head of Transportation Services is generally satisfied that the proposals are acceptable provided that the applicant entirely funds the provision of a central refuge in Culliford Crescent and a toucan crossing in Canford Heath Road and a safe pedestrian access is provided to the centre for those parking in spaces behind the public house. The applicant advises they are only prepared to make a partial contribution to these works being carried out. The key retailing tests require that the scale of what is proposed is appropriate to the role of the centre and, if acceptable, would it in turn have an adverse impact on other centres.
The proposal seeks to approx. double the size of the retail floorspace but the centre starts from a relatively small base serving a significant catchment area. Additional retail floorspace would help to support the continued vitality and viability of the centre and should help to strengthen local shopping patterns. It would not, however, be appropriate for the proposed floorspace to become in effect a retail park drawing on a wider catchment that might otherwise be expected for this centre. This would then have potentially harmful implications for the role of the centre.
The scale of the development proposed is unlikely to significantly affect Poole Town Centre and its longer term plans for increasing its attractiveness. Assessment of the impact on Broadstone and Adastral Square centres indicate that there would be a low impact. All the indications are that there is sufficient forecast expenditure growth to accommodate the proposed retail floorspace.
Clearly the local centre is in need of considerable attention if it is to fulfil its role as an attractive retail and community services destination. The local centre is tired and dated having received no appreciable enhancement since first built nearly 30 years ago. The applicant therefore considers that the revitalising of this local centre can only be carried out on the back of a substantial increase in its overall retailing floorspace. In general terms the enhancements to the existing local centre are considered acceptable.
Funding for the rejuvenation of the local centre is to be obtained through the carrying out of a large extension. The siting of that extension, which the applicant explains is the only option available to them, is based solely upon the contractual obligations to which they are bound requiring the visual prominence of the Asda store from the public highway to be maintained. This fact alone, rather than wider interests of the local centre and those community facilities that are an integral part of the centre, has brought about a scheme that, if permitted, would significantly marginalise those community facilities that make a positive contribution to the attractiveness of this local centre as something more than just a retail destination. The building would turn its back on the community facilities that lie on the other side of the private road leading to the Asda service yard presenting to this road frontage an additional service yard serving the new units and so adding to the sense of isolation. This would be contrary to the notion of creating inclusive community developments.
In all the circumstances and despite the positive gains that would accrue from permitting this development it is considered that the siting of this retail extension to the local centre would not outweigh the wider detrimental consequences to those community facilities that form part of this centre.
Human Rights Act
In coming to this recommendation/decision consideration has been given to the rights set out in Article 8 (Right to Privacy) and Article 1 of the First Protocol (Right to Peaceful Enjoyment of Possessions) of the European Convention on Human Rights.
RECOMMENDATION
REFUSE
Reason(s) for Refusal
1 ( Non Standard Reason )
By reason of the proposed siting of the development and its associated servicing arrangements the proposals would seperate and marginalise adjacent community uses which are an integral part of the local centre. As such the proposals are contrary to the provisions of Policy BE1 of the Poole Local Plan First Alteration (Adopted 2004).
2 ( Non Standard Reason )
The proposals fail to secure adequate arrangements for the provision of enhanced measures to ensure highway and pedestrian safety in the locality of the application site. As such the proposals are contrary to Policy T13 of the Poole Local Plan First Alteration (Adopted 2004).
3 ( Non Standard Reason )
The proposal fails to make a contribution towards public art within the Borough in accordance with Policy BE9 of the Poole Local Plan First Alteration (Adopted 2004). As such the proposal excludes the opportunity to engender a sense of place and community pride at this prominant location in the Borough. It would be contrary to Policy BE9 and set a precedent that would make it difficult for the Council to implement this policy effectively in the future.
Informative Note(s)
1 - Non Standard
If this application had been acceptable in all other respects, it would have been necessary for the applicant to enter into a Section 106 agreement to secure the provision of a toucan crossing in Canford Heath Road, a pedestrian refuge island in Culliford Crescent and a contributuion to public art in accordance with Policies T13 and BE9 of the Poole Local Plan First alteration (Adopted 2004).