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Lewes and Eastbourne
Councils

Agenda item

Langney Shopping Centre. Application ID: 171070. (Urgent Item)

Minutes:

The committee was advised that under planning application reference 130229, permission was granted for an extension to the Langney Shopping Centre to provide 33,000sqft of new retail floor space.

 

The above planning permission was granted subject to S106 agreement and the necessary planning conditions one of which stated that the development would need to commence within the three years from the date of the approval; thus the permission would expire on the 23rd September 2017.

 

The applicants had let a construction tender to build the extension however an element of the finance to the support this tendering process was based on the increased marketability of the site. For the applicant this related to supporting all retail uses (Class A1 – A5) to take up the new floor space.

 

As Members were reminded that the original scheme was retail (shopping) led and that there were no conditions or floorplans attached to the original permission that controlled the nature of occupation. The current application therefore sought to clarify the full nature of the uses that could occupy the new extension.

 

Planning Application Reference: 171070 sought to clarify the likely tenant (uses) that could occupy the extension to the Langney Shopping Centre.  The applicants were seeking to establish that a flexible permission be established that would allow any use (A1-A5) could occupy any of the units within the proposed extension.  The supporting statement outlined why such a flexible permission would be in accordance with National advice within the NPPF and also accord with the spirit of the Councils Local Plan and Core Strategy.

 

Officers acknowledged that since the original consent there had been factors (Internet retail activity- retail and funding confidence pre Brexit) that had influenced the viability of town and district centres and as such the continued reliance on a purely shopping (A1) scheme would be unlikely to be sustainable and there was a high probability that the scheme would carry vacant units.

 

Officers therefore felt that a more flexible approach would mitigate the impact of a reliance solely on shopping. However as applied for there was the risk that all of the units could be lost to non-traditional retail uses and this would be equally regrettable.

 

Officers were therefore recommending a condition controlling the extent of the units that could be move away from retail. The drafted condition would allow the two units at the entrance to be occupied by A1-A5 and any other would be resisted as they would take the percentage of non-retail (shopping) floor space over 25%.

 

RESOLVED: (Unanimous) That permission be granted subject to the following condition: 1) Unit MSU 3 as shown in plan 1129.4/P (-) 102 REV N, shall not be used for any purpose other than within Class A1 shops. Unless otherwise approved in writing by the local planning authority, no more than 25% of the floor space of the other proposed retail units (SU1, 2,3&6, 7&8, 9,10,11,15A, 15,16, and 18) shall be used for any purpose other than within Class A1 shops)