Planning concerns

Tyler Parkes' assessment of Sainsbury's plans (August 2011) sets out several compelling reasons why this store is wrong in planning terms - out of scale for Dorridge and not in line with Solihull MBC's planning guidelines. You can read the full report here, but here is a summary of its main points:

• In planning terms, the size of store proposed by Sainsbury’s is much too large. It is a town centre-sized store and therefore inappropriate for a village centre.

• The supermarket fails the test of ‘appropriateness’ as defined in Planning Guidance because its scale is not consistent with the role and function of Dorridge as a centre.

• A store of this size is not proposed in Solihull’s Development Plan, which was published in 2006 and has been, and continues to be, the basis for all Solihull MBC’s consultations with the public.

• Of key significance is that the proposal is contrary to planning policy in Solihull’s Emerging Core Strategy. The terms of this strategy make clear that the Sainsbury proposal must be regarded as ‘a significant new retail development’, and the policy emphasises that such development should be resisted in ‘smaller centres’ such as Dorridge.

• Solihull’s own policy framework demands that new retail development in ‘smaller centres’ such as Dorridge should be resisted.

• When Solihull’s planning committee refused Sainsbury’s first application in March 2010 they were right in planning terms to do so. The basis of this decision was reinforced by the publication in September 2010 of the Council’s Emerging Core Strategy which updated and reaffirmed the planning basis for the decision.

• The store size is much larger than would be required to meet the forecast need identified in a retail study by DTZ, consultants appointed by the Council, published in 2009. Since then, retail demand has weakened significantly, both in the shorter and longer terms, as a result of economic changes.

• The proposed new store is more than twice the size of the need forecast by the DTZ study for convenience floorspace for the whole area of Solihull Borough outside town centres.

• The scale and nature of any proposals for Dorridge should reflect the centre’s role and function in serving local needs. This does not include Knowle, where the reduced size of the proposed Waitrose store will match the emerging policy requirement for that centre.

• The scale of the proposed Sainsbury’s store would, in effect, reverse the roles of Dorridge and Knowle; that kind of decision should only be taken as part of the ongoing Development Plan process and not just as a response to a particular planning application.

• A separate study has shown that the car park proposed by Sainsbury’s is likely not to be large enough, especially at peak times, causing queuing and congestion. A smaller store, such as has been proposed by DROVS, would be able to provide sufficient parking for shoppers’ needs.

 

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Click here to read the full planning report from Tyler Parkes (opens in new window)

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