The Assembly welcome the inclusion of the chapter dedicated to Retail and Town/ Village Centre Management, particularly following the heightened uncertainty for our towns and villages resulting from measures to control the COVID-19 pandemic. The chapter is supported by an overall chapter aim which is to ‘Ensure that the town and village centres of Co. Laois retain their vitality and viability and that all future retail development is plan led in line with the settlement strategy’, and underpinned by policy objectives relating to Town/Village Centre Management and Retailing.
It is considered that the suite of policy objectives relating to Town/Village Centre management are positive additions to the Plan, including policies for instance, that support the implementation of LECP Economic Actions and LECP Community Actions related to the maintaining and enhancing the vitality and vibrancy of Laois Town and Village Centres, encourage the maintenance of town/village centre buildings and improve the quality of the public realm in town/village centres, provision of a night time economy, and, living over the shop arrangements. This is in keeping with a number of RPOs in the RSES, including RPO 6.12 for instance.
The Assembly welcome the inclusion of Section 7.2 and Appendix Four, detailing retail and the Retail Strategy for County Laois. It is noted that the Retail Hierarchy presented is in keeping with the proposed Settlement Hierarchy and the Retail Hierarchy of the RSES (Table 6.1). The stated objectives of the Retail Strategy are welcome, including to provide guidance on policy recommendations and criteria for the future assessment of retail development proposals over the Development Plan Period and to retain and enhance the vitality and vibrancy of the town centre core areas as shopping destinations. With regard to the objective to identify the broad requirement for additional retail floorspace development in the county over the plan period, notwithstanding the information contained as part of the Draft Plan and the Retail Strategy at Appendix Four, it is considered that further clarification is required relating to the quantum of vacant retail floorspace available and the need for the quantum of additional retail floorspace.