All local authorities will have to incorporate new retail planning guidelines in their development plans to control the spread of large-scale out-of-town shopping centres, in Dublin's case within the next 18 months, the Minister for the Environment, Mr Dempsey, said yesterday.
In a statement on the publication of a draft set of guidelines, prepared by British consultants Roger Tym and Partners, with the assistance of Jonathan Blackwell and Associates, he noted that other EU member-states were adopting "increasingly stringent controls" on out-of-town retail centres.
"The experience in other European countries is that these developments have had quite damaging effects on existing urban centres and have not been in line with the principles of sustainable development," the Minister said, "not least because they are largely dependent on private car transport."
Apart from causing road congestion, they "can lead to the closure of smaller retail outlets and town centre shops, inconveniencing those dependent on the availability of local shopping outlets and contributing to urban decline". They could also "strip" rural areas of their retail services.
In future, the preferred location for retail development would be within town centres. The guidelines would require the local authorities to adopt clear policies on retail provision in their development plans. These should specify that retail development would be located in areas that are readily accessible, particularly by public transport.
To ensure motorways and other national roads can fulfil their primary transport role, the guidelines say there should be "a presumption against the location of large retail centres adjacent to such roads". Instead, retail planning policy should seek to support and reinforce the continuing role of town centres.
The draft guidelines say there is "no justification in any circumstances for [further] large-scale regional shopping centres" outside the Dublin metropolitan area, and that such proposals "should be resisted". This would restrict any new out-of-town centres in Cork, Limerick, Galway, Waterford and elsewhere.
The consultants have also recommended retaining the floor space "cap" of 3,000 square metres on supermarkets - imposed by Mr Dempsey last June. In Dublin, however, it would be increased marginally to 3,500 square metres.
