Consultation Portal

12 Shopping Policies

12.1 Core Strategic Objectives SO8 and SO9 indicate that the Council aims to:

• Promote St Albans city centre as an attractive, vibrant and competitive place for commercial, civic and cultural activity and improve the vitality and viability of the centre.

• Enhance the vitality and viability of Harpenden town centre and the  district, local and village centres.

12.2 Government guidance in PPS 6 requires Councils to adopt a sequential approach to meeting future retail needs. This means giving priority to town centre sites, then edge-of-centre sites and finally out-of-centre sites. Non-town centre sites should not be chosen unless there are no suitable and available sites in town centres.           

12.3 Policy E5 in the East of England Plan states that major new retail development should be located mainly in regional centres and major town centres. The policy requires Development Plan Documents (DPDs) to identify a network of local town centres, district centres, neighbourhood centres and village centres. The text below Policy E5 calls for DPDs to define the future role of out-of-town centre retail sites, including Colney Fields.

12.4 The Council proposes to define a retail hierarchy as follows:

• Major town centre (St Albans)
• Town centre (Harpenden)
• District Centres (Fleetville, Marshalswick, Southdown)
• Local centres (To be defined in the Development Policies DPD)
• In addition there are three retail parks:
• Alban Park, Hatfield Road,(St Albans)
• Colney Fields (London Colney)
• Griffiths Way(St Albans)

12.5 In addition to the above hierarchy, the Core Strategy will also address the future role of the various retail parks in the District, particularly the former Gas Works Site, in Griffiths Way, St Albans (see Appendix 10).

12.6 RSS Policy E5 describes St Albans as a ‘Major Town Centre’, where major new retail development and complementary town centre uses should primarily be located. However, its retail market share in the sub region has been declining over recent years and this will continue without any major injection of new retail floorspace. A continuing decline will have a negative effect on the vitality, viability and customer attractiveness of the City Centre, contrary to the objectives set out in the draft City Vision and Strategic Objective SO8.

12.7 The quantitative forecasts in the Council’s 2009 Retail Study Update (see Appendix 4) should be treated as a broad indication of need, not a maximum or minimum target that must be met. This is particularly so beyond 2016. These forecasts assume a constant market share, but a large shopping scheme in St Albans city centre could increase the city’s market share, thus increasing the floorspace need. The forecasts take the growth of internet shopping into account.

12.8 The Retail Study also looked at qualitative factors.  Some of the key points are:        

• St Albans city centre is healthy and vibrant, partly due to the market and the specialist independent retailers. However, it lacks a department store and a major foodstore and has a limited supply of larger shop units.  
• Harpenden has a vital and viable town centre and foodstore provision is   strong, but non-food shopping is limited and has been declining.
• District centres generally have a good mix of shops and other facilities; local parades have an important retail and service role.
• There is good provision of out-of-centre foodstores and retail warehouses, particularly in the south of the District.

12.9 In developing its core retail policy, the Council has acknowledged the importance of the general markets in St Albans as well as the regular farmers’ markets in St Albans, Harpenden and Wheathampstead and the occasional French, Italian and German markets in improving the attractiveness of the District as a retail destination of choice. It is also mindful of the changing patterns of retail expenditure nationally, particularly the increasing demand for internet shopping on not only high end comparison goods but also everyday convenience goods.

12.10 The key findings of the 2009 Retail Study are set out in Appendix 4. With regard to comparison goods retailing, the study identifies a quantitative need for additional floorspace of 14,000 sq m in St Albans and 2,600 sq m in Harpenden.

12.11 However, for St Albans City Centre alone, there is estimated to be a need for an additional 20,000 sq m of comparison floorspace, which suggests that, in the City Centre the existing non-food retail floorspace would need to be nearly doubled and that there will be a gradual contraction of retailing in the outer areas of the City. The Council would support new retail development which includes a department store as an anchor to a mixed use development, for which there is a qualitative deficiency at present.

12.12 Two possible areas for new retailing provision were put forward in the 2007 consultation document:

• Land west of St Peter’s Street; and
• The Civic Centre area, east of St Peter’s Street.

The City Vision project will include a detailed master plan exercise for key sites within the City Centre and will look in detail at retail and leisure opportunities. The work will be broad in its scope, covering all relevant issues for the creation and delivery of the Vision, not just those related to spatial planning. Further details regarding these two possible options and the possibility of further out-of-centre shopping at Griffiths Wayand Colney Fields can be found in Appendix 10. 

12.13 The suggested emerging strategy is set out on the table below:

12.14 The 2009 Retail Study identified a quantitative need for an additional convenience floorspace of 1,700 sq m in St Albans and 2,900 sq m Harpenden by 2026. For St Albans, a qualitative need for additional convenience floorspace was identified in the City Centre.

12.15 The Council’s 2007 consultation sought views on three possible sites for a new food superstore in the St Albans area:

• FS1 (East of St Albans City Centre)
• FS2 (North of St Albans City Centre)
• FS3 (North of St Albans)

However, it did not suggest any possible sites for a foodstore in the Harpenden area.

12.16 Appendix 10 includes an assessment of sites FS1-FS3 and potential foodstore sites in St Albans city centre.

12.17 PPS6 advocates a sequential approach to meeting future retail needs i.e. looking for town centre sites initially and only allocating edge of centre or out of centre locations in the absence of any suitable town centre sites. In light of this Government guidance, the Council considers that the opportunity to secure a new food store as an anchor to a mixed-use redevelopment scheme (either west of St Peter’s Street or within the Civic Centre area, east of St Peter’s Street) still needs further exploration during the master planning phase of the City Vision project. A central foodstore would encourage people to make linked trips, would increase accessibility for those without cars and would improve the attractiveness of the City Centre as a retail/leisure destination.

12.18 The Council has concluded that, if a suitable city centre site cannot be identified, then either Option FS2 (Harpenden Road, former fire station and adjoining land) or FS3 (Harpenden Roadbehind the Texaco filling station) are the best alternatives.   This conclusion reflects the assessment in Appendix 10, including the existing distribution of superstores in St Albans.  An alternative possibility might be to build a primary school on FS2 (see paragraph 14.5). 

12.19 The Council does not favour Option FS1 (London Road/Alma Road) for new convenience goods floorspace, partly as it is considered too far from the City Centre to bring many qualitative retail benefits and linked trips. Option FS1 is, however, proposed for a mainly residential development on the site for around 100 homes.  It might also accommodate some very limited commercial development.  An alternative possibility might be to build a primary school on this site (see paragraph 14.5).  

12.20  Given the identified need for new convenience floorspace in Harpenden, possible sites for a new foodstore have been considered.  However, there do not appear to be any suitable sites in or near the town centre.  A new out-of-centre foodstore is not favoured, because of the likely harm to the town centre’s vitality and viability, which is largely based on food shopping.   Extensions to existing supermarkets in the town centre and Southdown are acceptable in principle, but it may prove difficult to bring forward acceptable schemes in traffic and conservation terms.  A replacement supermarket in Southdown might be a possibility, if a suitable site can be made available.

12.21 The suggested emerging strategy is set out on the table below: