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Town centres and retail topic - Engagement version

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ùgh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh

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Top­ic: Town centres and retail

Engage­ment ver­sion – August 2025

Require­ments addressed in this section

Table 1 Inform­a­tion required by the Town and Coun­try Plan­ning (Scot­land) Act 1997, as amended, regard­ing the issue addressed in this section.

Sec­tionRequire­ment
Sec­tion 15(5)(a)the prin­cip­al phys­ic­al, cul­tur­al, eco­nom­ic, social, built her­it­age and envir­on­ment­al char­ac­ter­ist­ics of the district.
Sec­tion 15(5)(b)the prin­cip­al pur­poses for which the land is used.
Sec­tion 15(5)(cd)The health needs of the pop­u­la­tion of the dis­trict and the likely effects of devel­op­ment and use of land on those health needs.
Sec­tion 16B(2)In pre­par­ing the Evid­ence Report the plan­ning author­ity are to seek the views of and have regard to any views expressed by key agen­cies and others.

Links to evidence

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ùgh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh

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Sum­mary of evidence

Policy con­text

Nation­al Plan­ning Frame­work 4

Nation­al Plan­ning Frame­work 4 Policy 27 spe­cific­ally addresses town centres and pro­motes a town centre first approach to devel­op­ment. It aims to encour­age devel­op­ment in town centres by apply­ing the Town Centre First Principle.

Nation­al Plan­ning Frame­work 4 Policy 27 states that loc­al devel­op­ment plans should:

  • Sup­port sus­tain­able futures for city, town and loc­al centres, in par­tic­u­lar oppor­tun­it­ies to enhance city and town centres. They should, where rel­ev­ant, also sup­port pro­pos­als for improv­ing the sus­tain­ab­il­ity of exist­ing com­mer­cial centres where appropriate.

  • Identi­fy a net­work of centres that reflect the prin­ciples of 20-minute neigh­bour­hoods and the town centre vision.

  • Be informed by evid­ence on where clus­ter­ing of non-retail uses may be adversely impact­ing on the well­being of com­munit­ies. They should also con­sider, and if appro­pri­ate, identi­fy any areas where drive-through facil­it­ies may be accept­able where they would not neg­at­ively impact on the prin­ciples of loc­al liv­ing or sus­tain­able travel.

  • Provide a pro­por­tion of their loc­al hous­ing land require­ments in city and town centres and be pro­act­ive in identi­fy­ing oppor­tun­it­ies to sup­port res­id­en­tial development

Work under­taken through the town centre health checks can inform future policy and plan­ning decisions sup­port­ing the Town Centre First approach. Policy 27 (a) states:

  • ‘Devel­op­ment pro­pos­als that enhance and improve the vital­ity and viab­il­ity of city, town and loc­al centres, includ­ing pro­pos­als that increase the mix of uses, will be supported’.

The find­ings of the Town Centre Health Check 20231 and Vil­lage Centre Health Check 20252, ref­er­enced in this report, can help sup­port the imple­ment­a­tion of this policy.

In line with Nation­al Plan­ning Policy Frame­work 4, devel­op­ment pro­pos­als with­in town centres that enhance and improve the vital­ity and viab­il­ity of town centres, including

1 See [https://​cairngorms​.co​.uk/​u​p​l​o​a​d​s​/​d​o​c​u​m​e​n​t​s​/​L​o​c​a​l​-​D​e​v​e​l​o​p​m​e​n​t​-​P​l​a​n​-​E​v​i​d​e​n​c​e​-​R​e​p​o​r​t​/​S​u​p​p​o​r​ting- Documents/Cairngorms-National-Park-Town-Centre-Health-Check-Report-2023.pdf](https://​cairngorms​.co​.uk/​u​p​l​o​a​d​s​/​d​o​c​u​m​e​n​t​s​/​L​o​c​a​l​-​D​e​v​e​l​o​p​m​e​n​t​-​P​l​a​n​-​E​v​i​d​e​n​c​e​-​R​e​p​o​r​t​/​S​u​p​p​o​r​ting- Documents/Cairngorms-National-Park-Town-Centre-Health-Check-Report-2023.pdf) 2 See [https://​cairngorms​.co​.uk/​u​p​l​o​a​d​s​/​d​o​c​u​m​e​n​t​s​/​L​o​c​a​l​-​D​e​v​e​l​o​p​m​e​n​t​-​P​l​a​n​-​E​v​i​d​ence- Report/Supporting-Documents/Cairngorms-National-Park-Village-Centre-Health-Checks-2025.pdf](https://​cairngorms​.co​.uk/​u​p​l​o​a​d​s​/​d​o​c​u​m​e​n​t​s​/​L​o​c​a​l​-​D​e​v​e​l​o​p​m​e​n​t​-​P​l​a​n​-​E​v​i​d​ence- Report/Supporting-Documents/Cairngorms-National-Park-Village-Centre-Health-Checks-2025.pdf)

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ùgh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh

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pro­pos­als that increase the mix of uses, will be sup­por­ted. Devel­op­ment pro­pos­als should be con­sist­ent with the town centre first approach. Pro­pos­als for uses which will gen­er­ate sig­ni­fic­ant foot­fall, includ­ing com­mer­cial, leis­ure, offices, com­munity, sport and cul­tur­al facil­it­ies, pub­lic build­ings such as lib­rar­ies, edu­ca­tion and health­care facil­it­ies, and pub­lic spaces will be sup­por­ted in exist­ing town centres. They will not be sup­por­ted out­with those centres unless a town centre first assess­ment demon­strates that:

  • All centre and edge of centre options have been sequen­tially assessed and dis­coun­ted as unsuit­able or unavailable.
  • The scale of devel­op­ment can­not reas­on­ably be altered or reduced in scale to allow it to be accom­mod­ated in a centre.
  • The impacts on exist­ing centres have been thor­oughly assessed and there will be no sig­ni­fic­ant adverse effect on the vital­ity and viab­il­ity of the centres.

Policy 27 also states that devel­op­ment in town centres for res­id­en­tial devel­op­ment will be sup­por­ted where the devel­op­ment util­ises a derel­ict or vacant site in some instances. The data col­lec­ted from town centre health checks will also help inform future plan­ning policy in the next Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan regard­ing the use of vacant sites in the town centre.

Key Policy 27 con­nec­tions with policies 1, 2, 7, 9, 13, 14, 15, 16, 18, 20, 21, 23, 25, 26, 28, 29, 30 and 31.

Policy 28 spe­cific­ally addresses retail, aim­ing to pro­mote and facil­it­ate retail invest­ment to the most sus­tain­able loc­a­tions, which are most access­ible by a range of sus­tain­able trans­port modes.

Nation­al Plan­ning Frame­work 4 Policy 28 states that loc­al devel­op­ment plans should con­sider where there may be a need for fur­ther retail pro­vi­sion, this may be:

  • Where a retail study iden­ti­fies defi­cien­cies in retail pro­vi­sion in terms of qual­ity and quant­ity in an area, or:
  • when alloc­at­ing sites for hous­ing or the cre­ation of new com­munit­ies, in terms of the need for neigh­bour­hood shop­ping, and sup­port­ing loc­al liv­ing. Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plans should identi­fy areas where pro­pos­als for healthy food and drink out­lets can be supported.

Nation­al Plan­ning Frame­work 4 Policy 28 fur­ther states that loc­al devel­op­ment plans should identi­fy areas where pro­pos­als for healthy food and drink out­lets can be supported.

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Policy 28 addresses pro­pos­als for retail, which include expan­sions and change of use, which will be sup­por­ted if they are con­sist­ent with the town centre first prin­ciple. Small scale neigh­bour­hood retail devel­op­ment will be sup­por­ted where the pro­posed development:

  • con­trib­utes to loc­al liv­ing, includ­ing where rel­ev­ant 20-minute neigh­bour­hoods and / or:
  • Can be demon­strated to con­trib­ute to the health and well­being of the loc­al community.

In rur­al areas devel­op­ment pro­pos­als for shops ancil­lary to oth­er uses such as farm shops, craft shops and shops linked to pet­rol / ser­vice / char­ging sta­tions will be sup­por­ted where they serve loc­al needs, do not have neg­at­ive impacts on neigh­bour­ing set­tle­ments, provide a year-round ser­vice and likely impacts of traffic gen­er­a­tion and access and park­ing arrange­ments are acceptable.

Key Policy 28 con­nec­tions with policies 1, 2, 13, 14, 15, 23, 27 and 29.

Policy 29: Rur­al devel­op­ment aims to encour­age rur­al eco­nom­ic activ­ity, innov­a­tion and diver­si­fic­a­tion whilst ensur­ing that the dis­tinct­ive char­ac­ter of the rur­al area and the ser­vice func­tion of small towns, nat­ur­al assets and cul­tur­al her­it­age are safe­guarded and enhanced.

Nation­al Plan­ning Frame­work 4 states that loc­al devel­op­ment plans should identi­fy the char­ac­ter­ist­ics of rur­al areas with­in the plan area, includ­ing the exist­ing pat­tern of devel­op­ment, pres­sures, envir­on­ment­al assets, com­munity pri­or­it­ies and eco­nom­ic needs of each area. The spa­tial strategy should set out an appro­pri­ate approach to devel­op­ment in rur­al areas which reflects the iden­ti­fied char­ac­ter­ist­ics. The Policy out­comes are:

  • Rur­al places are vibrant and sus­tain­able and rur­al com­munit­ies and busi­nesses are supported.
  • A bal­anced and sus­tain­able rur­al population.

Key Policy 29 con­nec­tions with policies 1, 2, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9, 13, 14, 15, 17, 18, 20, 22, 26, 27, 28, 30, 31, 33

Policy 31: Cul­ture and cre­ativ­ity, aims to encour­age, pro­mote and facil­it­ate devel­op­ment which reflects our diverse cul­ture and cre­ativ­ity, and to sup­port our cul­ture and cre­at­ive indus­tries. The Policy out­comes are:

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  • Loc­ally dis­tinct­ive places reflect the diversity of com­munit­ies and sup­port regen­er­a­tion and town centre vibrancy.
  • Cul­tur­al and cre­at­ive indus­tries are expan­ded, provid­ing jobs and investment.
  • Com­munit­ies have access to cul­tur­al and cre­at­ive activities.

Nation­al Plan­ning Frame­work 4 states that loc­al devel­op­ment plans should recog­nise and sup­port oppor­tun­it­ies for jobs and invest­ment in the cre­at­ive sec­tor, cul­ture, her­it­age and the arts. This is a cross cut­ting mat­ter, with the Nation­al Park’s town and vil­lage centres play­ing an import­ant role in sup­port­ing the cul­tur­al and cre­at­ive sectors.

Centres have an import­ant role to play in sup­port­ing the aims of Policy 12 (Loc­al liv­ing and 20-minute neigh­bour­hoods) since they typ­ic­ally provide the most con­veni­ent and access­ible loc­a­tion for people to access ser­vices and facilities.

There is also some over­lap with this top­ic paper and the top­ic paper for Health and safety³, which is address­ing Nation­al Plan­ning Frame­work 4, Policy 23. In par­tic­u­lar the work relat­ing to the food envir­on­ment, includ­ing hot food takeaways, alco­hol and tobacco retail, food secur­ity and com­munity grow­ing spaces.

Key Policy 31 con­nec­tions with policies 1, 2, 7, 9, 12, 13, 14, 15, 20, 21, 23, 24, 25, 27, 29, 30.

Town Centre Action Plan 2013

The Town Centre Action Plan was Scot­tish Gov­ern­ments’ response to the nation­al review of town centres. It pro­moted the ​‘Town Centre First Prin­ciple’ and the use of data driv­en inter­ven­tions to improve town centres under the six themes of town centre liv­ing, access­ible pub­lic ser­vices, pro­act­ive plan­ning, digit­al towns, enter­pris­ing com­munit­ies and vibrant loc­al eco­nom­ies. A num­ber of tools were also developed includ­ing the Towns Toolkit, The Place Stand­ard, Under­stand­ing Scot­tish Places (USP) and Town Centre Audits.

Since the pub­lic­a­tion of the Action Plan, Scotland’s Nation­al Per­form­ance Frame­work was adop­ted, which con­tains a suite of the Nation­al Out­comes that are aligned with the United Nations Sus­tain­able Devel­op­ment Goals, to repos­i­tion the focus on well­being, inclus­ive devel­op­ment, cli­mate emer­gency responses and health and inequal­it­ies. Town centres have there­fore been iden­ti­fied as key to deliv­er­ing change, which can be achieved through the Town Centre First and Place Principle.

3 See https://​cairngormsldp​.com​mon​place​.is/​e​n​-​G​B​/​p​r​o​p​o​s​a​l​s​/​h​e​a​l​t​h​-​a​n​d​-​s​a​f​e​t​y​-​s​urvey

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‘Town centres have con­tin­ued to have a fight for their future. Then came Cov­id-19, which altered the world as we knew it and amp­li­fied exist­ing, and pro­duced fur­ther, inequal­it­ies’ (Scot­tish Gov­ern­ment, 2021).

In 2021, Scot­tish Gov­ern­ment reviewed the Town Centre Action Plan reaf­firm­ing the need to ensure town centres offer ​‘a sus­tain­able, loc­al eco­nomy and soci­ety with diverse and mixed uses attract­ing and meet­ing the needs and desires of their loc­al com­munit­ies’ (A new Future for Scotland’s Town Centres, P7). Town centres need to ensure they ​‘enhance a sense of com­munity, place, iden­tity and that advance equal­ity by enabling all mem­bers of soci­ety to par­ti­cip­ate fully’. As part of the review, Scot­tish Gov­ern­ment has recom­men­ded that there is a need for a revised and enhanced focus on meas­ure­ment and data for town centres, which in response has pro­moted the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity to resume the Town Centre Health Checks. The Park Author­ity recog­nises the import­ant con­tri­bu­tion the smal­ler set­tle­ments have and as part of the evid­ence for this top­ic paper, sought to review all the inter­me­di­ate set­tle­ments in the Nation­al Park as well.

Nation­al Plan­ning Frame­work 4 was informed by the revised Town Centre Action Plan Review, which included 59 recom­mend­a­tions for town centres. These actions are cross cut­ting and need the involve­ment of many bod­ies. Its actions relat­ing to imple­ment­a­tion of town centre first, town centre liv­ing, and 20-minute neigh­bour­hoods are of par­tic­u­lar rel­ev­ance to plan­ning. The recom­mend­a­tion to devel­op and imple­ment town centre strategies in col­lab­or­a­tion with com­munit­ies aligns with the more place-spe­cif­ic approach of the new-style Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan for the Cairngorms Nation­al Park.

Place Prin­ciple

The Place Prin­ciple sup­ports the Nation­al Per­form­ance Frame­work and aims to pro­mote a shared under­stand­ing of place, identi­fy­ing exist­ing ser­vices and assets, and poten­tial improve­ments that can improve the out­come for loc­al people and com­munit­ies. The data col­lec­ted through the town centre health check can help inform future Loc­al Place Plans, sup­port­ing the deliv­ery of the Place Principle.

‘Towns and town centres are for the well­being of people, plan­et and the eco­nomy. Towns are for every­one, and every­one has a role to play in mak­ing their own town and town centre suc­cess­ful’ (Scot­tish Gov­ern­ment, 2021).

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Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan­ning Guidance

This top­ic paper is primar­ily con­cerned with address­ing evid­ence to sup­port the Nation­al Plan­ning Frame­work 4, Policy 27, 28, 29 and 31. In accord­ance with the guid­ance. In rela­tion to Policy 27: City, town, com­mer­cial and loc­al centres, the paper will evidence:

  • The exist­ing net­work of (town) centres
  • Evid­ence on where clus­ter­ing of non-retail uses may be adversely impact­ing on the well­being of communities.

The top­ic paper will take into account the Eco­nom­ic Strategy (the Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan) for the Nation­al Park and the Town centre health checks report. The Park Author­ity has also car­ried out an audit of the smal­ler inter­me­di­ate (vil­lage) set­tle­ments in the Nation­al Park and this inform­a­tion is included in this top­ic paper.

The loc­al liv­ing top­ic paper will sup­port this paper and appro­pri­ate links between the two papers have been included in this top­ic paper. The loc­al liv­ing top­ic paper is avail­able to view here:

In line with the guid­ance the Town Centre Health Checks will be updated in 2026 / 2027, two to three years after the last Town Centre Health Check. Although the guid­ance states this should be done every two years this planned work has been delayed due to the pri­or­ity to com­plete the Evid­ence Report. The next Town Centre Health Check will inform the Pro­posed Plan.

Mat­ter relat­ing to hous­ing including:

  • Where there are gaps in sup­ply of exist­ing hous­ing and flats (includ­ing stu­dent and older per­sons’ accom­mod­a­tion or rent­al accom­mod­a­tion) rel­at­ive to demand.
  • Where there is capa­city or oppor­tun­it­ies to devel­op new hous­ing and flats without com­prom­ising act­ive use of ground floors and pub­lic spaces, or a mix of uses in the area.

This is addressed in the Hous­ing top­ic paper which is avail­able here:

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The Park Author­ity con­tin­ue to work with com­munity plan­ning part­ners through the pro­duc­tion and updat­ing of the com­munity action plans. Actions relat­ing to Nation­al Plan­ning Policy Frame­work 4, Policies 27, 28, 29 and 31 in the Com­munity Action Plans has been included in this top­ic paper.

The Place Stand­ard tool has been used to engage with young people, chil­dren and hard to reach groups through the engage­ment for the Evid­ence Report and engage­ment reports based car­ried out util­ising the Place Stand­ard Tool sup­port this top­ic paper and can be accessed here:

In rela­tion to Policy 28: Retail, this paper will evidence:

  • Where there may be a need for fur­ther retail provision.
  • Inform­a­tion about the loc­al food environment.

Data from the Town Centre Health Checks and Vil­lage Health Checks provide the data for retail pro­vi­sion in the Nation­al Park and a sum­mary of the retail pro­vi­sion in each set­tle­ment and over­all retail pro­vi­sion in the Nation­al Park has been included here.

The food envir­on­ment in the Cairngorms Nation­al Park has been covered in the health and safety top­ic paper (which primar­ily addresses Nation­al Plan­ning Policy Frame­work 4, Policy 23) which is avail­able to view here:

In rela­tion to Policy 29: Rur­al devel­op­ment, this paper will evidence:

  • The char­ac­ter­ist­ics of rur­al areas with­in the plan area, includ­ing the exist­ing pat­tern of devel­op­ment, pres­sures, envir­on­ment­al assets, com­munity pri­or­it­ies and eco­nom­ic needs of each area.
  • Iden­ti­fic­a­tion of Remote Rur­al Areas.

No tailored clas­si­fic­a­tion of the rur­al areas in the Nation­al Park has been applied and the Urb­an Rur­al Clas­si­fic­a­tion 2022 frame­work has been ref­er­enced. In terms of identi­fy­ing the rur­al pop­u­la­tion dis­tri­bu­tion and demo­graph­ic pro­file this has been covered in the Hous­ing top­ic paper which is avail­able to view here:

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The Evid­ence Report in its entirety will be sup­por­ted by a suite of engage­ment papers that provide loc­al know­ledge in rela­tion to pat­terns of devel­op­ment, pres­sures and envir­on­ment­al assets. The Report will also address the require­ment for the use of rel­ev­ant data­sets as iden­ti­fied in the indi­vidu­al top­ic papers.

In rela­tion to Policy 31: Cul­ture and cre­ativ­ity, this paper will evidence:

  • Oppor­tun­it­ies for jobs and invest­ment in the cre­at­ive sec­tor, cul­ture, her­it­age and the arts.
  • Cul­tur­al offer­ing in a place – museums, gal­ler­ies, theatres, cinemas, music ven­ues, stu­di­os, record­ing spaces and space for art / craft activities.

The Evid­ence Report will also be informed by any rel­ev­ant Cre­at­ive Scot­land plans and strategies, together