Object

Representation ID: 5920

Received: 24/11/2016

Respondent: Hitchin Town Action Group (HTAG)

Legally compliant? Not specified

Sound? No

Duty to co-operate? Not specified

Objection SP4:
-fails to take into account rapidly changing nature of retail growth
-figures used in evidence base(Retail Study Update 2016) not well founded
-not convinced NLP report provides justification for increase in retail provision so much greater than the expected increase in housing since last set of calculations.
-figure closer to28,000sqm of floorspace might better reflect likely growth in population,though still does not take into account increase in online retail since earlier study.
-flexible approach to retail development targets to be made clear and linked specifically to regular reviews and modifications of town centre strategies with clearly defined timescales