City councillors are to rule on whether an empty unit at Dundee’s Kingsway West Retail Park can be shared by two bedroom furniture stores.
Chain stores Archers Sleep Centre and Bensons for Beds are “signed-up” to occupy two units in the former Furniture Mountain, according to the park’s owners Kingsway West SARL.
The firm says the agreement can only go ahead if the large unit can be sub-divided and has asked the council for permission to do so.
But planning officers state the plan would be against a policy in the council’s local development plan to keep shoppers within Dundee city centre and district centres.
In planning committee papers to be debated on Monday, the council maintains that supporting high street shopping is the top priority.
It states: “Creating small units within a retail park environment could draw high street retailers and other businesses away from the city centre and district centres with damaging effects on their footfall, vitality and viability.
“The aim of these controls is to avoid a potentially damaging diversion of expenditure away from these centres and to ensure that they continue to provide a valuable and accessible service for shoppers.”
‘Bulky goods’ retailers fit local planning
The applicant however says the type of retailers to move in would not be based in town centres due to the bulky goods they sell.
It said: “These are bulky goods operators entirely consistent with the current retail policy for Kingsway West…these retailers only locate on bulky goods retail parks.
“They are not retailers which locate within conventional town centres and there is therefore no adverse impact on the town centre.
“This concept…is recognised in the Local Development Plan where it states commercial centres have become an important focus for shopping and provide a distinction from town centres due to their range of uses and physical structures”.
Current lack of market interest
The unit was vacated by Furniture Mountain in 2016, when that retailer ceased to trade, and a charity has occupied the unit since 2019.
Kingsway West SARL says it has been marketed during the subsequent six years for a commercial tenant, without success.
It states that there is a complete lack of market interest in the unit as it stands (in its current size) and claim there is a need to ensure that the unit does not remain “commercially unviable”.
Dundee City Council’s Local Development Plan was published in 2019 and sets out what land is allotted and for what purposes up to 2029.
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