Mall to play for in the battle for shoppers

And it's not just provincial centres such as Dunfermline and Kirkcaldy that have suffered the blight of boarded-up shop fronts as out-of-town schemes threaten to kill off trade.

Over the past decade, Edinburgh too has undergone sweeping change.

Major developments such as The Gyle, Ocean Terminal and Fort Kinnaird have taken their toll on city centre retailers.

Jenners' boss Robbie Douglas Miller has blamed the growth in out-of-town shopping centres as one of the reasons behind the recent sale of the Capital's most famous department store to House of Fraser. He points to a critical reduction in footfall as consumers continue to turn their backs on Princes Street.

Yet, despite the mounting evidence that city centre stores are being harmed by big retail parks, a number of expansion plans have been drafted, and in some cases given the green light.

Last week it emerged that Craigleith retail park at Blackhall is to be expanded by more than a third, with around six new shops set to neighbour the likes of Sainsbury's, JJB Sports and Homebase.

Meanwhile, a 30 million expansion of Fort Kinnaird - already the largest outdoor retail and leisure complex in Britain - will see the amount of retail space there increase by about a quarter.

The explosive growth of peripheral retail parks and shopping malls has prompted some to call for a halt to all edge-of-town expansion plans.

That, property experts say, will not happen, nor would it be welcome amid such a dynamic marketplace. Nevertheless, change is afoot.

Shopping centre owners, retailers, developers and planners are currently awaiting new guidance from the Scottish Executive specifically on retailing. The draft Scottish Planning Policy 8 (SPP8) - updating guidelines published seven years ago - will aim to revitalise flagging economic growth, while at the same time empower local people to take a more active role in the planning process than they do at present.

The move follows hard on the heels of a white paper on revamping Scotland's much-maligned planning system.

Paul Scott, an Edinburgh-based partner within the planning and development team at property adviser GVA Grimley, is one of those eagerly awaiting the new retail guidance.

He believes SPP8 will seek to re-energise the role of local authority planning departments in delivering key developments in the heart of Scottish towns and cities - proposals such as adding shopping and office space to Waverley Station and overhauling large sections of Princes Street.

"There needs to be a greater focus on the city centre and how to balance respect for the historic heart of the Capital with serious investment in new retail formats," notes Mr Scott.

"The key areas that have been looked at over the last few years are Waverley Station and Princes Street. The Galleries [underground shopping centre] plan was probably a step too far, but building on top of Waverley is a proposal that could become reality if we can get public and private sectors working more effectively together.

"The retail guidance will definitely try to re-energise local authorities - getting them much more involved in facilitating developments such as Waverley - and lean on Network Rail as a key land owner to try and be more pro-active."

The planning departments of local authorities will be reminded of their responsibilities to use compulsory purchase and other powers to help overcome the problems which have curtailed new shopping developments.

SPEAK to any retail property specialist and they will tell you that the demand from big-names for city centre space has never been stronger. The stumbling block has been the lack of suitable accommodation.

Companies like book-seller Borders have been attracted to out-of-town sites because of the large floor-plates and easy transport access on offer. With additional leisure facilities such as cafes, restaurants and cinemas, Ford Kinnaird and Ocean Terminal have become popular weekend destinations in their own right.

Like most of his contemporaries, Mr Scott does not advocate an iron fist approach to out-of-town developments and reckons a balance has to be struck.

"We'd resist any call to halt the growth of retail parks," he argues. "The simple fact is that the economy is largely underpinned by retailing these days. You have to allow what is a really dynamic sector to respond to change and that often involves additional floorspace and changes in format.

"These need to be facilitated or else the people of Edinburgh will continue to drift away to places like Livingston and even Glasgow.

"If you had schemes like Waverley or the plans for Princes Street coming forward then you would find that big retailers would have plenty of choice in the heart of town."

The Executive guidelines are set to be joined shortly by a report from Edinburgh City Centre Management and the local council, which will seek to identify how much new retail floorspace is needed to maintain the Capital's reputation as a leading shopping location.

"There is going to be major demand for new retail space over the next five to ten years because of personal expenditure growth and increasing pressure to build and update retail formats," adds GVA's planning partner.

"The revised SPP8 will seek to focus such development on the city centre, where things have suffered because of the drift out of town."

If the updated guidance does indeed encourage local authorities to use their powers more freely and widely, major retail planning applications could find themselves being fast tracked.

ALTHOUGH compulsory purchase to enable new shopping and mixed-use developments has been available for years, the procedures involved are relatively complex, and it's fair to say that planners have often struggled to get to grips with them. Industry figures are hopeful that will change with the introduction of the fresh guidance.

However, even if the emphasis shifts to what's happening in the centre of town, expansion at the out-of-town retail parks will continue.

The Gyle and Cameron Toll are prime examples of locations where the new guidelines could encourage further development, providing the centres can improve their mix of uses, as Mr Scott elaborates: "At the Gyle, you could see innovative proposals come forward for mixed-use development within the car parking area.

"It may be possible to introduce residential or office development linked to improved public transport.

"If you are the owner of a shopping centre and able to demonstrate that you have brilliant accessibility by public transport I think they will be ticking the box in terms of extending the amount of floorspace or uses that you can bring to the site."

Speaking more generally, Mr Scott welcomes the recent white paper on planning and in particular the removal of the threat of third-party rights of appeal.

"There seems to be a swing back in favour of business and economic growth, as opposed to the environmental lobby. That is something that we have been supportive of. We would have ended up with a situation where Scotland was the only part of the UK that adopted third party appeals against planning decisions."

But he adds: "There are few planners coming forward, yet there is huge demand for them to meet new legislation.

"I was hoping to see more encouragement and resources being made available to universities to improve their intake of planning graduates to plug the gap."