Implementing Planning Policy Statement 6

Planning Policy Statement 6 (PPS 6): Planning for Town Centres succeeds a consultation draft of December 2003 and replaces Planning Policy Guidance Note 6 (PPG 6): Town Centres and Retail Developments. This paper examines how effective the former guidance has been, how it has been modified to form PPS 6, the likely impacts of the new guidance and what support from other policies will be necessary to achieve the stated objectives. Although PPG 6 has supported some successes in achieving objectives relating to accessibility of services by public transport, walking and cycling, and has supported some central areas, the overall picture is one of continued aggravation of the problems identified in it, principally the decline of many central areas, increasing problems of accessibility to services and deteriorating environmental quality. PPS 6 places greater emphasis on analysing relationships between central areas and on assessing development needs. These changes will help clarify the problems but will need the support of other policies outside PPS 6, in particular policies relating to the amount of travel. Increasing travel over many years has been accompanied by polarisation of central areas; the decline of many commercial centres, especially the smaller ones, is causing social exclusion, deteriorating performance on sustainability criteria, and results in greater demands for expenditure on transport infrastructure. A case study of Dudley in the West Midlands examines how the guidance might help a town centre severely affected by decline since the mid 1980s.