Core Strategy Preferred Options document - Amazon Web Services

Strategies, Activities and Actions – Retail and Town Centres
On a Saturday in
February 2008,
‘Placecheck’ events
took place in Rochford
and Hockley.
These events were
held to help inform
ideas and options for
future improvement in
the town centres of
Rochford and Hockley,
thus ensuring that the
views and opinions of
local residents are
considered in the
formation of potential
options.
The views of
participants will be fed
into the work on the
Rochford and Hockley
town centre
masterplans.
Southend is the largest
retail centre in the subregion,
attracting
consumer expenditure
from a wider area and
contributing to the
leakage of spending
out of the District.
Town Centres
There are three Town Centres in the District: Rayleigh, Rochford and
Hockley.
Rayleigh provides the most comprehensive range of facilities, and is
classified as a Minor District centre in Management Horizons Europe’s
UK Shopping Index (2008). Rochford and Hockley are ranked as Local
and Minor Local, respectively.
Table RTC1 below shows the ranking, together with score based on level
of facility provision, the District’s centres compared to centres within the
sub-region. The ranking relates to approximately 7,000 centres (1 being
the centre with the greatest retail provision).
Centre Score Rank 2008 Location Grade
Southend-on-Sea 254 54 Major Regional
Basildon 227 79 Regional
Rayleigh 57 600 Minor District
Pitsea 55 629 Minor District
Wickford 44 816 Minor District
Billericay 44 816 Minor District
Laindon 26 1364 Local
Rochford 20 1716 Local
Hockley 7 3321 Minor Local
Table RTC1 – Ranking of District and other local centres (Management
Horizon’s UK Shopping Index 2008).
As part of ensuring the vitality and long-term viability of the town centres,
it is crucial that they contain a high proportion of retail uses. Whilst a
proportion of non-retail uses (e.g. banks, building societies, restaurants
and pubs) will complement a shopping centre, long stretches of 'dead'
non-retail frontage and a high percentage of non-retail uses throughout
the centre will undermine its role and vitality.
As such, we will seek to control the amount of non-retail use permitted
within core areas of town centres. It is considered appropriate to define
primary and secondary shopping frontage areas within town centres
based on their existing characteristics and seek to maintain retail uses
within these, albeit with a more relaxed approach to non-retail within
secondary shopping frontage areas. It is important that town centres not
only offer an enticing range of shops but also a pleasant environment in
which to shop. We are committed to maintaining and enhancing the
character and attractiveness of its town centres.
People make town centres vibrant. We will encourage people to visit
town centres, by ensuring they are attractive, accessible and contain a
variety of uses, but we will also enable people to live in the District’s town
centres by taking a positive approach to the residential conversion of
76