RGDATA represents independent retailers who believe that our villages, towns and cities should be developed in a way that benefits the people who live and work in them – not property developers or global retailers.
RGDATA believes that being strategic about development and planning means we bring together the location of houses, amenities, shops, employment and transport in a way that can dramatically enhance quality of life for this generation and for future generations.
Strategic planning ensures that people who live in a community have easy access to shops, services and amenities.
RGDATA wants sustainable development to be at the heart of the ongoing development of Irish society. RGDATA members believe that planning activity should enhance the quality of life of communities by promoting development in the most appropriate locations without compromising the environment.
RGDATA believes in vibrant, diversified and localised retail development. We want to reverse the decline of town centres and encourage investment in traditional shopping areas, high streets and town centres. We want small villages and rural communities to have access to a local shop.
RGDATA members live and work in their communities. They support diversity and vibrancy in towns and self sufficiency in the surrounding villages.
RGDATA supports policies that:
- Promote vibrant, diversified, sustainable and localised retail development.
- Support a diverse range of retail provision include both internationally owned shops and locally owned shops and local food initiatives that deliver added advantages to their local community and economy.
- Provide access for less mobile shoppers
- Deliver sustainable environmental benefits.
RGDATA opposes policies that:
- Encourage the domination of local retailing by a few large format global retailers.
- Limit choice and diversity.
- Will damage local economies.
- Encourage car dependent shopping and environmental pollution.
RGDATA supports the following Spatial Planning Strategy Objectives:
- Vibrant and vital town centres.
- Shops that people can walk to.
- To renew, consolidate and develop Ireland's cities and towns keeping them as physically compact and public transport friendly as possible.
- High quality design in new developments and refurbishments.
Shops that People Can Walk to
Local shops that people can walk to have important social, economic and health benefits for all citizens of a community.
They are even more important for those who do not have access to a car – which still includes a significant proportion of the Irish population. The rate of car ownership in Ireland, at 391 per 1000 population in 2004, remained well below the level in the UK (447in 2002) and the EU 15 (491in 2002).