Chichester Local Plan 2021 - 2039: Proposed Submission

This consultation statement is submitted by Brookhouse Group Limited and provides a formal consultation response to the Chichester Local Plan 2021 – 2039 Proposed Submission Regulation 19 consultation. It follows earlier representations submitted in relation to the emerging Local Plan in relation to a site known as land at Barnfield Drive shown on at Drawing Reference 7054-P701-A – ‘Site Development Plan’ appended to this e-mail (the ‘site’).

The site is allocated in the adopted Chichester Local Plan: Key Policies 2014 – 2029 (July 2015) (the ‘Local Plan: Key Policies’) for retail and business land uses. It is also designated for those uses in the adopted Sites in Chichester City North Development Brief (January 2012).

A summary of the site characteristics are provided as follows:
1. Located within the settlement boundary and urban area of Chichester, surrounded on all sides by existing development.
2. Previously developed or ‘brownfield’ land. The site was formerly a gravel extraction operation and has subsequently been landfilled.
3. Free from the presence of environmental, historic or infrastructural constraints.
4. Sustainably located, intimately situated within existing communities, adjacent to allocated growth areas, and well served by a variety of modes of transport, including public transport and cycle routes.
5. Allocated for development in the adopted Local Plan: Key Policies, by virtue of the Sites in Chichester City North Development Brief, adopted by the Council in 2012 as noted above.
6. Part of a wider regeneration site which has benefited from significant support from the Local Planning Authority and has been hugely successful in delivering 15,000 sq. m of new development at Barnfield Drive.

The land is owned by the Council, who have a development agreement with Brookhouse Group Limited to deliver development on the site.

However, as part of the emerging Local Plan, the Local Planning Authority intends to deallocate the site from its existing allocation for retail and business uses. No justification has been provided for the deallocation of the site, although discussions with the Planning Policy team has confirmed that it envisages that there will be a development that takes place on the site.

The Local Planning Authority has a long-standing position of supporting planning applications for retail development at the site and surrounding area and has granted planning permission to Brookhouse for retail uses on a number of parcels of land surrounding the site, including the Homebase, Home Bargains, Iceland Food Warehouse, Halfords, Aldi (the now completed phase one) and Lidl uses that form the boundaries of the site between Barnfield Drive and Westhampnett Road and have been developed by Brookhouse Group Limited as part of its development agreement with the Council for developing the site and its surrounding. As the Local Planning Authority is aware, outline planning permission was granted for retail development on this specific site under Reference CC/13/03775/OUT on 26 January 2016; this was phase two of the wider development. Subject to market conditions, the only element of this phase of retail development that was able to be delivered pursuant to that permission was the Lidl store, which was always intended to be the first element of development on the parcel of land that the site forms part of, with the site itself being the final phase of the ‘Barnfield Drive’ retail development area that forms part of the development agreement with the Council and the final phase that has always been envisaged by the Local Planning Authority to be delivered for retail development.

Given that long-standing position by the Local Planning Authority to support retail development on the site, there has therefore been no justification provided to remove the site allocation for the site and place a barrier to the delivery of the development of the final phase of development, which has had long-standing support from the Local Planning Authority. The Local Planning Authority is aware that the applicant will shortly be progressing a planning application for retail development at the site, consistent with the site’s existing allocation for retail purposes.

The Council has prepared an evidence base to support the Local Plan that indicates that in the City, there will be a comparison goods and convenience goods need of 6,100 sq. m (gross) by 2039; which is the end of the emerging Local Plan period. Emerging Policy E5 indicates that that need will be met through the reoccupation of existing floorspace, but doesn’t provide any evidence as to how that would be the case and whether that floorspace is even appropriate to meet modern retail use needs. Further, the Council’s evidence in the Chichester Retail and Main Town Centre Uses Study Update Report published on 23 March 2022 identifies a need of 3,700 sq. m (gross) of food and beverage floorspace, which itself could ensure the reoccupation of vacant floorspace. It follows that there is no empirical evidence that the need for additional retail floorspace would be met through existing town centre units and it may very well be the case that the vacant units may be occupied for alternative town centre uses, principally within Use Class E, as is the current trend for the reoccupation of vacant units in centres.

It follows that the site still presents the opportunity to meet latent need for retail floorspace in the City, consistent with the vision for the site in the adopted development plan, the Development Brief and the Local Planning Authority and Council’s long-standing objective to see the site developed for retail purpose consistent also with the numerous planning permissions that have been granted for the development of the site and surrounding area for retail purposes. The site, as mentioned above, would be the completion of the final phase of development of the area for retail purposes as envisaged by the Local Planning Authority in its long-standing land-use planning strategy that dates back almost 20 years since the Homebase was developed, but for at least ten years since the Development Brief was issued earmarking the site and wider immediate area as a location that is suitable for retail development.

Paragraph 35 of the National Planning Policy Framework requires Local Plans to be positively prepared, justified, effective and consistent with national policy. Whilst it is the case that the Local Planning Authority has an evidence base setting out a need for additional retail floorspace, the emerging Local Plan is not positively prepared, justified or effective in terms of how that need will be met – there is no clear evidence that a nebulous view that the need could be met through the reoccupation of vacant floorspace is either justified or effective; particularly as vacant floorspace is a characteristic of that space being a failed retail outlet, and nor is it a positively prepared strategy to meet modern retail requirements.

Conversely, by maintaining the allocation of the site for retail purposes will ensure that the emerging Local Plan is positively prepared, justified and effective in terms of meeting that need as:
1. It provides a location where there is market demand to meet that need, as evidenced by the forthcoming application for retail development on the site that will meet modern retail requirements, and the long-standing position of the Local Planning Authority to support retail development in that area through the grant of numerous planning permissions, including permission on the site. The allocation of the site will therefore meet the requirements for the emerging Local Plan to be positively prepared to meet objectively assessed needs.
2. It is justified and positively prepared as it will ensure that the completion of the development in that area for retail purposes through the development of the last parcel of land that has long been earmarked for retail development in the area, including through the support of applications to develop the site for retail purposes.
3. Given the market demand for retail development on the site, such an allocation is effective in meeting the need for additional retail floorspace in Chichester. Such an allocation will also represent positive preparation to meet the identified need.
Against that background, we request the continued allocation of the site for retail purposes for the reasons outlined above and we further request a meeting to discuss matters further.