My colleagues in Planning Policy are in the process of preparing an Area Action Plan for a town centre area that contains a high proportion of small independent retailers, something that people are keen to protect. They have been asked whether it would be possible to include a policy that could be used to prevent larger national retailers from coming into the town centre and joining several small units together. as you know it is likely that the internal works would not require planning consent and that the only element that would require permission would be any changes to the shop fronts but we were wondering if anyone had any examples of such a policy and whether that had been tested at appeal. Thanks.
