Planning: Future of Towns in balance

The Town Centre First (TCF) principle must be a binding principle and not just window dressing if the new planning regime is to provide for sustainable growth, let alone survival, for beleaguered high streets, says the British Indepenent Retailers Association (bira).

Commenting as the consultation period closed, on the 17th October, the retail trade association argued that the admirable brevity of the draft regime must be matched by great precision in the language, lest the effect of the new rules might simply be to weaken the TCFprinciple and unleash a new wave of out-of-town development that would further damage the sustainability of our towns.

Michael Weedon, Deputy CEO said: "Local plans must be robust and they must be produced quickly, the tests on proposed developments and impact assessments must be carefully designed, relevant, covering appropriate time periods and they should use objective, comparative data from similar developments in similar locations wherever possible. In particular the nett effects on local employment should be rigorously assessed.

He continued: "The tension in the document between growth per se and sustainable town centre development must be resolved with a absolute clarity of wording. Rght now Town Centre First could mean either Town Centre First and Last or Town Centre First Unless It's Evenly Mildy Inconvenient Then Anywhere Between The Town And The Green Belt Will Do.

The association maintains that the new regime will set the scene for the fortunes of already suffering town centres for a generation.

The NPPF is expected to come into force in April 2012.

The bira submission can be found here.

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• The main high street problem

  Posted by: Claire Wilkins (Claire Wilkins)

  My retail boutique suffers because of the double yellow lines and lack of accessable parking in the vacinity.

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