Retail & Leisure Study

The Council is seeking to appoint suitably qualified consultants to produce a Retail and Leisure Study. The Retail and Leisure Study must be compliant with National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF), the requirements of Planning Practice Guidance (PPG), cognisant of the evolving requirements of the Levelling-up and Regeneration Act 2023, and assist the authority to meet its duty to cooperate with neighbouring authorities on strategic matters that cross administrative boundaries. The Study will help to inform any forthcoming review of the local plan and retail and leisure policies and town centre strategies by providing robust evidence of retail and leisure trends, updating the retail hierarchy, reviewing the extent of the town centre boundaries and primary and secondary shopping areas whilst making sufficient provision for retail and leisure uses.

The study will help deliver a positive strategy for each town centre allowing them to grow and diversify considering the implications and opportunities from the revisions to the Use Classes Order and definition of town centre uses and the retention and the creation of new markets which can promote the centres long term vitality and viability for the next 10 years and up to 2043 and contribute to the achievement of sustainable development.