This section explains the role of the four main town centres in the district - Didcot, Henley-on-Thames, Thame and Wallingford - in the local hierarchy of town centres and describes the planning strategy for the four centres based on the latest available survey information and research. The section then sets out the Council's planning policies which aim to maintain and enhance the centres by:

• securing development for appropriate town centre uses on certain sites allocated for development in Sections 10 to 13 of the plan
• encouraging development for appropriate town centre uses on other unforeseen sites within the town centres where that development is acceptable
• improving the environment, character and quality of the centres
• encouraging diversity of uses in the centres by bringing back into beneficial use disused or underused upper floors
• preventing the loss of dwellings that contribute to the diversity and vitality of the centres
• preventing out-of-centre development proposals that would harm the centres
• protecting shop uses that underpin the vitality and economic viability of the centres.

The centres of South Oxfordshire's four main towns play an important role in the economic and social life of the district. They each provide a focus for a wide variety of functions. They serve as market places, shopping centres, business centres, meeting places, arts, culture and entertainment zones, centres of local administration, tourist attractions, transport hubs, and residential areas. The extent of these mixed-use areas comprising the four main town centres is defined on the Proposals Map.

The town centres contribute to the quality of life of a large number of people by providing employment and services for them and by making an important contribution towards achieving the aims of sustainable development. Attractive public spaces and streets in the town centres give a distinctive identity to South Oxfordshire's towns and this strong sense of place is valued by local people and by visitors to the district. The concentration of a variety of uses in a town centre enables the efficient provision of public transport services and provides a focus for cycling routes linking the town centres with their catchment areas. Concentration of uses also facilitates walking trips in the centre itself.

The relative proximity of uses in town centres facilitates easy comparison between shops selling similar products and the ability to combine several purposes in one journey. It also enables them to be lively places, where people can live, work and socialise. Promoting the vitality and viability of town centres is a key objective of Government policy in PPS6: Planning for Town Centres and it is thus an important objective of this plan. "Vitality" refers to the liveliness of a town centre, reflected in how busy the centre is at different times and in different parts. "Viability" refers to the ability of the centre to retain key uses that attract people in large numbers, including shops, commercial and public offices, entertainment, institutional, assembly and leisure uses.

The Oxfordshire Structure Plan identifies Oxford and Banbury as "sub-regional centres," which have an important role in meeting the comparison goods shopping and other specialised service requirements of the population of the wider catchment areas of these towns. Structure Plan Policy TC1 proposes further development in the two sub-regional centres to maintain and enhance this important role. In addition, Structure Plan Policy TC2 aims to encourage improved shopping facilities in the four country towns, including Didcot in South Oxfordshire, and the policy states that Didcot should be "a principal location for major new shopping development."

The Structure Plan does not define the hierarchy of town centres below the level of the four country towns or indicate in any policy the appropriate level of development to be permitted in these smaller centres. These matters are to be "dealt with as necessary in local plans." In order to determine the place of South Oxfordshire's four main town centres (including Didcot) in the hierarchy of centres, the Council commissioned research into the extent of their catchment areas for comparison goods and convenience goods shopping. The results of this research are set out in Section 3 of the South Oxfordshire Shopping Study (May 2000).

Observed comparison goods shopping patterns and the actual size of a centre are good indicators of the centre's position in the local hierarchy of centres. With regard to comparison shopping patterns, the Shopping Study shows that the catchment areas of the four main South Oxfordshire towns are to a greater or lesser extent overlain by the catchment areas of the sub-regional centres of Oxford, Reading, Aylesbury and High Wycombe. The South Oxfordshire town centres attract only a relatively small proportion of available expenditure from the survey area and the Study describes them as "district centres" in the hierarchy of centres. A district centre's primary role is to meet the needs of local residents for convenience goods and services that are needed regularly and preferably close to home. A district centre also performs to a varying degree all the functions listed in paragraph 7.2 above. Within South Oxfordshire District, Henley-on-Thames is both the leading comparison goods centre and the largest centre in the district and it is described in the Study as a "major district centre," whilst the existing smaller centres at Didcot, Thame and Wallingford are "minor district centres."

Having regard to the strategic aim to make Didcot a principal location for major new shopping development, it is an aim of local plan policies to advance Didcot town centre in the hierarchy towards the status of a "major district centre." National and strategic aims expressed in PPS6 and in the Structure Plan also require local plan policies to promote, sustain and enhance the vitality and viability of the existing major district centre at Henley-on-Thames and the two minor district centres at Thame and Wallingford. It is the intention in this plan to further these aims.

In accordance with Government advice, the Council has been monitoring the economic health of the four main town centres using the indicators of vitality and viability set out in paragraph 4.4 of PPS6. The Council commissioned the first health check in 1994 and the results were published in the South Oxfordshire Shopping Study (October 1994). At that time retail and service businesses in the town centres were experiencing slow recovery from a national economic recession that affected traders in district centres more severely than traders in larger centres. The Council published an up-dated health check in the South Oxfordshire Shopping Study (May 2000). This revealed a continuing improvement on many of the indicators of vitality and viability in the four main town centres.

The retail convenience goods trade underpins the economies of the four main town centres in South Oxfordshire and this is likely to remain the case throughout the plan period. It is clear from the analysis contained in the Shopping Study that the four district centres will continue to face strong competition in comparison goods retail trade from the sub-regional centres (and from large retail warehouse stores outside those centres). The response of traders in the South Oxfordshire towns has been to develop a market in specialist, unique, high value goods that cannot be acquired in the larger centres and considerable success is being achieved in this endeavour. The four town centres possess a good diversity of other uses, with a wide range of other retail, professional, eating and drinking, and cultural services offered to local people. They are vital and viable centres worthy of maintenance and enhancement.

The Shopping Study contains a retail floorspace capacity assessment for each of the four towns for the period to 2011. This assessment, together with the results of the health checks and other survey work, are the basis of the following recommendations relating to a future strategy for the development and use of land aimed at sustaining and enhancing the centres. It is important to note that the Local Plan can only advance those elements of the Shopping Study's strategy, or of the Council's economic development strategy, that relate to the development and use of land.

In 2000 Didcot was a minor district centre serving a very localised catchment area. The town had a population of 24,000 making it the largest settlement in the district and further large-scale housing development proposed in this plan at Didcot would increase the population to over 30,000. In 2000, however, the retail and other service facilities available in Didcot town centre were the most limited of any of the four main towns in South Oxfordshire. The Shopping Study recommended that the plan's strategy for Didcot town centre should focus on:

• encouraging the major development scheme being promoted by the Council and a property company that was designed to increase the scale and mix of town centre uses and to promote the position of Didcot in the shopping hierarchy
• resisting proposals for shops selling convenience goods in out-of-centre locations and adopting a cautious approach to proposals for retail warehouses in such locations
• encouraging improvements to the appearance of buildings and civic spaces in the centre to give Didcot a better image
• introducing more catering and leisure uses to enhance vitality and the evening economy
• exercising a strict control over non-shop uses in defined primary shopping frontages, whilst adopting a more flexible approach to proposals for change of use elsewhere.

In 2000 South Oxfordshire's residents spent more on comparison goods in Henley town centre than in any other town in the district. The sub-regional centres of Oxford, Reading and Aylesbury, however, still claimed a far greater share of this expenditure. The Waitrose supermarket in Henley attracted the largest amount of spending on convenience goods of any town centre foodstore in the district. These facts, together with the relatively large size of the town centre (12,450 square metres retail floorspace), confirm Henley's status as a major district centre. The Shopping Study recommended that the plan's strategy for Henley town centre should focus on:

• the provision of additional retail floorspace on two large sites in the town centre where land was likely to become available for development in the period to 2011
• resisting proposals for shops selling convenience goods in out-of-centre locations and adopting a cautious approach to proposals for retail warehouses in such locations
• exercising a strict control over non-shop uses in defined primary shopping frontages, whilst adopting a more flexible approach to proposals for change of use elsewhere
• proposing land-use and traffic management measures (derived from an integrated transport strategy for Henley prepared by the local highway authority) that would improve shopper car parking facilities, enhance the pedestrian environment and circulation, and mitigate the problems of traffic volumes and congestion in Henley town centre.

The Shopping Study indicated that the economic health of Thame town centre was underpinned by the Waitrose and Co-op supermarkets, which fulfilled an important anchor role. The town centre's economy also benefited from the fact that, unlike Henley and Didcot, there was no diversion of food trade to out-of-centre stores. The scale of comparison goods shopping was relatively small, reflecting the close proximity of Aylesbury and Oxford, but shoppers were mainly content with the retail and other service facilities available and with the attractive appearance and layout of Thame town centre. The Shopping Study recommended that the plan's strategy for Thame town centre should focus on:

• encouraging new uses that would either add diversity to the range of uses presently found in the centre, or create a modest increase in comparison shopping floorspace
• exercising a strict control over non-shop uses in defined primary shopping frontages whilst adopting a more flexible approach to proposals for change of use elsewhere
• resisting proposals for expansion of convenience goods shopping in out-of-centre locations and adopting a cautious approach to proposals for retail warehousing in such locations
• proposing land-use and traffic management measures derived from the preparation of an integrated transport strategy for the Thame area by the local highway authority, that would improve accessibility to the town centre by all modes of transport.

The Shopping Study described Wallingford's retail economy as being "reasonably buoyant" in 2000 with the existing supermarkets in the town centre providing an important anchor role. As in Thame, there were no out-of-centre stores to divert trade from the town centre. Whilst comparison shopping outlets included few multiple stores, there were a growing number of specialist independent retail outlets contributing to the town centre's economy. Wallingford benefited from an attractive shopping environment and the town's location on the River Thames generated significant tourist expenditure. The Shopping Study recommended that the plan's strategy for Wallingford should focus on:

• encouraging the major development scheme being promoted by Waitrose that would provide additional floorspace for convenience goods shopping in the town centre in the form of a large foodstore for that company, and encouraging the re-occupation of the existing Waitrose store by new retail operators following the Waitrose relocation to the new foodstore
• resisting proposals for convenience goods shopping in out-of-centre locations and adopting a cautious approach to proposals for retail warehousing in such locations
• exercising a strict control over non-shop uses in defined primary shopping frontages whilst adopting a more flexible approach to proposals for change of use elsewhere
• proposing land-use and traffic management measures derived from the preparation of an integrated transport strategy for the Wallingford area by the local highway authority, that would improve accessibility to the town centre by all modes of transport.

The South Oxfordshire Shopping Study identifies a number of sites in town centres, which have the potential to be developed for mixed-use development. The sites could accommodate a wide range of uses including shops, offices, housing and other key town centre uses which attract many people, as defined in Parts A, C and D of the Schedule to the Use Classes Order. The development of these sites would provide significant opportunities for extending the range and quality of shops and other key uses appropriate in the town centres. Having regard to the findings of the Shopping Study, the Council is allocating sites for mixed-use development in Sections 10 to 13 of the plan where enquiries have shown that land is likely to be made available for development during the plan period. In each centre the scale of development proposed is consistent with the centre's intended place in the local hierarchy of centres as explained in paragraph 7.8 above. Bringing forward development on the allocated sites will be particularly important to the aim of extending the range and quality of shops and other town centre uses. The Council will, therefore, be prepared to use its compulsory purchase powers to facilitate site assembly in cases where a developer is unable to acquire sufficient land by private treaty to deliver a comprehensive scheme. All costs incurred by the Council in this respect will be borne by the developer.

It is the Council's intention to implement proposals on allocated sites in accordance with the criteria and specific requirements contained in the policies in Sections 10 to 13 and in accordance with development briefs to be approved by the Council as supplementary planning documents where appropriate, following consultation with landowners, developers, local people and other interested parties. The development briefs will provide guidance on detailed matters including the layout, type and amount of each use to be permitted on the site, having regard to local circumstances and to other policies in this plan.

The survey of town centre uses contained in the Shopping Study revealed that many premises in the main shopping streets of the four towns were substandard in size having regard to the space requirements of modern businesses. Policy TC2 provides a positive planning framework in which proposals for extension of those premises will be considered.

There are some relatively small sites in the town centres with a street frontage of up to about 10 metres that are presently undeveloped or occupied by existing buildings that are disused, underused and often of a poor design, detracting from the appearance of the street. In these cases the Council would welcome infill development, or redevelopment with a new building, that would enable new uses to become established or existing uses to relocate into larger, more modern premises. Policy TC2 provides a positive planning framework in which such development will be considered.

In applying Policy TC2 the Council will need to ensure that any infill or redevelopment proposals for retail or other town centre uses attracting many people are well integrated with the primary shopping frontages designated in accordance with Policy TC8. Good integration will be achieved where the site is within reasonable walking distance of a primary shopping frontage, the guideline in PPG6 being 200 to 300 metres. What constitutes a reasonable distance, however, will vary depending on local topography, the degree of visibility of the site from the primary frontage, the ease of movement along the connecting footways and pedestrian safety considerations. Policy TC2 also requires the Council to ensure that proposals do not conflict with other policies in the plan and in this respect developers should pay particular attention to those policies designed to protect the historic environment, to secure good urban design and to prevent loss of dwellings.

The Council will seek to engage with others in the effective management and promotion of the town centres. The Council will continue to work with town councils, relevant public agencies, residents, business organisations and individual businesses, investors and voluntary groups to draw up non-statutory town centre management strategies. Many of the promotional activities and projects in the strategies will relate to non-land use planning considerations and in these cases, no planning permission will be required to implement them. Certain projects, however, do have a land use dimension and will require planning permission to be obtained. For instance, some environmental improvement schemes in streets and public spaces are in this category.

The four town centres already benefit from a wide diversity of uses as indicated in the Shopping Study. New development in the town centres in accordance with Policies TC1 and TC2 of this plan will provide further opportunities for diversification. It will also be important for the town centre management strategies, described in paragraph 7.21, to pursue initiatives to attract appropriate new uses to the town centres, particularly when vacancies occur in existing buildings. The Structure Plan carries forward Government guidance in PPG3 and PPS6 by making specific reference to the need to encourage an increase in housing in town centres, above ground floor retail, leisure or other facilities. Such residential use is desirable because it not only provides ideal accommodation for small households but also adds to the vitality and security of the town centres, particularly in the evenings. Policies TC1 and TC2 will enable housing development to take place as part of new mixed-use developments in the town centres. The following policies also address this issue.

There has been a gradual decline in the use of upper floor accommodation in town centres for residential use. There are a number of reasons for this, including the desire of many traders to have a home separate from the workplace, the policy of some businesses and investors not to provide housing over commercial premises, competition from more profitable commercial uses and difficulties with the building itself. Such difficulties can involve the lack of a separate access, security problems and the cost of converting upper floors into residential use. The identification of suitable upper floor accommodation for conversion to housing and the promotional work necessary to overcome the various difficulties described in this paragraph, will be an important initiative for town centre management strategies (see paragraph 7.21). In each case the Council will need to ensure that the change of use does not adversely affect the viability of any ground floor shop use.

It is particularly important to retain residential accommodation in the town centres for the reasons given in paragraph 7.22 and Policy TC5 is intended to achieve this objective. The Council will allow a change of use in the exceptional circumstances described in the policy. With regard to environmental factors, however, there will be few locations in the four South Oxfordshire towns where noise, fumes or other forms of nuisance will be such as to render premises unsuitable for living accommodation. The Council will be guided in this matter by advice from its environmental health service. The amenity afforded by a private garden is often an important factor in keeping town centre flats and houses in residential use. The Council will, therefore, resist developments that would destroy such gardens.

The Council will permit office uses to occupy upper floor accommodation in locations that are within the primary shopping frontages or that can be well integrated with those frontages. Good integration is explained in paragraph 7.20 above. The size of office development proposed will be limited in accordance with Policy E2 and the requirements of Policy E5 of this plan.

The South Oxfordshire Shopping Study describes likely trends in the retail and commercial leisure industries over the next ten years and it is possible that the Council will receive proposals for the development of new, or extensions to existing, superstores in out-of-centre locations. These superstores sell mainly food and other goods in the convenience category, but increasingly they are seeking to diversify into other retail services and into the sale of goods in the comparison category.

The Council will refuse planning permission for these out-of-centre superstore proposals having regard to the findings of the Shopping Study. Briefly, the findings from consumer surveys contained in the Study indicate a high degree of satisfaction with the service already provided by existing convenience stores in the district. There is, therefore, no need to improve the quality of existing stores beyond the quality improvements that are already planned for town centre convenience stores, which accord with the provisions of this plan. The Study also predicts very little available spending power in the catchment areas of the four towns to support additional convenience goods floorspace in out-of-centre locations. For both these reasons, the Council sees no need to permit further out-of-centre superstore development. The Shopping Study also advises the Council to resist such proposals having regard to likely adverse impact on the vitality and viability of the town centres.

The propensity for superstores to sell comparison goods has been noted above. The Council may also receive proposals for retail warehouse developments in out-of-centre locations, containing both large and small shop units selling a wide range of comparison goods. The Shopping Study advises the Council to adopt a cautious approach to such proposals. The Council must assess the extent to which the range of goods proposed to be sold in each case would divert trade from nearby town centre stores. It is likely that when this assessment is made, an adverse impact would be predicted on town centre vitality and viability and this would lead to refusal of planning permission.

The Council wishes to see the trend for expansion of commercial leisure uses, including multi-screen cinemas and restaurant uses, accommodated in town centre locations, in accordance with Policies TC1 and TC2 of this plan, where they can enhance vitality and viability and particularly enhance the evening economy of the centres. The Council will resist proposals for these commercial leisure uses in out-of-centre locations. Such proposals would divert large numbers of people away from the town centres and thereby have an adverse impact on town centre vitality and viability. Proposals for any large-scale, out-of-centre, commercial "leisure parks" will also be refused planning permission for this reason. The Council will also oppose such large-scale proposals on the grounds that they should be sited at the sub-regional centres in the hierarchy of centres from where the majority of their customers would be drawn.

In the event that proposals for out-of-centre development for shops and other town centre uses attracting many people are received, then the Council will require the planning application for such proposals to be accompanied by a written statement which addresses the following issues:

If the Council decides to grant planning permission as a departure from Policy TC7, then in the case of retail developments, the Council may impose conditions to prevent the development being sub-divided into a number of smaller shops, which could be satisfactorily located in town centres, and to limit the range or type of goods sold. Such conditions will be imposed where it is appropriate to do so in order to sustain and enhance the vitality and viability of existing town centres. In the event that developers propose works and measures acceptable to the Council that are intended to achieve compliance with any undertakings made in a written statement, submitted pursuant to paragraph 7.30, then these works and measures will be secured by the Council through planning obligations.

Class A1 shop uses are important to the economy, attractiveness and character of all four of South Oxfordshire's main town centres. Primary Shopping Frontages are, therefore, defined on the Proposals Map and within these frontages, Policy TC8 will be applied to resist proposals for change of use of shops to non-shop uses.

Other non-shop uses within Part A of the Schedule of the Use Classes Order are well represented in all four town centres and the Council recognises that these other uses are an important element in primary shopping frontages, making their own positive contribution to vitality and viability. Nevertheless, the South Oxfordshire Shopping Study has revealed a penetration rate of around 30% non-shop uses of all kinds (measured in units) when the whole extent of a centre's primary frontage is surveyed in each of the four towns. The Council agrees with the Study's recommendation that when the penetration rate exceeds 25% then the dominant retailing character and function in the primary frontages begins to be undermined. In present circumstances, therefore, where the penetration rate is around 30%, the Council will not permit further changes of use.

In relatively small district centres it is not appropriate to measure the penetration rate along short lengths of street frontage as is the usual practice in larger centres. The correct approach in district centres is to measure the penetration rate in the entire primary frontage, in recognition of the fact that the totality of shops contributes to the dominant retail function to be protected. This is the approach recommended to the Council in the Shopping Study.