M&S wants a full-line store in the empty Homebase at Discovery Park, decided on 9 September. North Street goes, East Street drops to a ground-floor foodhall.

Marks & Spencer wants to move its Chichester clothing and home range out of the city centre. The plan is one large store in the empty Homebase building at Discovery Park. North Street would close and East Street would shrink to a ground-floor foodhall.

Chichester District Council’s planning committee decides the application at 9.30am on Wednesday 9 September. Officers have recommended approval.

The application is 26/01145/FUL. The applicants are Marks And Spencer PLC and Brookhouse Chichester Limited, with Lichfields acting as agent. The officer recommendation is to defer for a Section 106 agreement and then permit.

What M&S wants to build

The Homebase store on Barnfield Drive closed in February 2025 and has been empty since. No change of use is needed, because the building already has a Class E retail use. The application covers:

  • an extension at the rear service yard for back-of-house storage
  • a new sliding entrance door, with the existing cladding and render redecorated in white
  • a car park extension to the north west, into greenspace beside the public footpath
  • new plant, and the relocation of an existing sculpture within the sculpture park

The new store would have a gross internal area of 6,584 sq m and a net 4,994 sq m. Proposed conditions would cap what it can sell:

  • a maximum sales area of 4,994 sq m
  • no more than 1,775 sq m of that selling food
  • no more than 3,219 sq m selling non-food goods

Another condition would stop the unit ever being split into more than one shop.

What happens to North Street and East Street

This is the part that changes the city centre. M&S currently trades from North Street, from East Street, and from a foodhall at Portfield Retail Park. If permission is granted, the officer report says the company’s city centre presence would be reduced to the ground floor of East Street.

The report is clear that the North Street closure is not caused by this application:

  • the North Street lease ends in April 2028, so the store closes then at the latest
  • the East Street first floor, currently clothing and the M&S cafe, will stop trading
  • the East Street ground floor is to be kept as a foodhall
  • M&S will still own the East Street first floor, and is running a feasibility study on what to do with it. No future use has been confirmed.

M&S told the council that East Street has no future as a full-line store because it is too small. Officers also record that there is no mechanism to force M&S to stay in the city centre, and that future commercial decisions by the company are not tied to this permission.

Table of Marks and Spencer's four Chichester stores: North Street closes when its lease ends in April 2028, East Street drops to a ground-floor foodhall, the Portfield foodhall is unchanged, and the former Homebase at Discovery Park becomes a full-line store with a 4,994 sq m sales area
What the application would change, from the officer report. Graphic by Chichester Live.

The council’s own consultant put a number on the damage

Chichester District Council hired an independent retail consultant to check the applicant’s figures. That consultant estimated the new out-of-centre store would divert 5.9% of trade away from the city centre, combining food and non-food. The applicant’s own estimate was lower, at 4.1%.

Officers say that is an adverse impact but not a “significant adverse impact”, which is the test the National Planning Policy Framework sets. On that basis the application is judged to comply with national retail policy and with Policy E5 of the local plan.

The applicant’s sequential test looked at only one city centre alternative, the former House of Fraser store on West Street. Officers accepted it is neither available nor suitable: it is spread over several floors in a tight conservation area, with a limited servicing area and difficult access.

Residents are overwhelmingly in favour, the city council less so

Counting the figures in the officer report and the committee update sheet together, the council has received 115 letters of support and 5 objections, plus one comment that was neither.

Supporters mostly wrote about bringing a long-vacant eyesore back into use. The five objectors also said they wanted M&S on the site; their concerns were about traffic, congestion at the bus stop outside, and Swanfield Drive being used as a rat run.

Chichester City Council supports the application in principle, but its comments regret the loss of the city centre stores and raise the same rat-running worry about Swanfield. It said that if traffic mitigation is not required of the developer, West Sussex County Council should provide it.

It will not be required of the developer. West Sussex County Council as highway authority found the scheme would produce a net reduction in vehicle trips compared with what the site is already permitted to do, and raised no objection. Officers concluded that no off-site highway works can reasonably be sought. The application reached committee because Cllr Chant red-carded it to raise congestion on the eastern side of the city in debate.

Parking

The car park would grow to 348 spaces, up from the 326 allowed by a 2012 permission. The breakdown is 315 standard bays, 12 active electric vehicle charging spaces, 8 accessible bays, 8 parent and child bays and 5 staff spaces. Cycle parking would rise to 30 spaces, 20 for customers at the front and 10 for staff by the service yard.

What it means for you

  • If you shop at M&S in North Street, that store is going regardless of this decision. The lease runs out in April 2028.
  • East Street will stay open for food on the ground floor only. The clothing floor and the cafe are going.
  • If approved, the new store is a car journey to Discovery Park off Barnfield Drive, next to Aldi, Halfords, Home Bargains and the Harvester. There is a bus stop near the site entrance and a shared foot and cycle path along the south side of Barnfield Drive.
  • No new road improvements are attached to the scheme. If you live in Swanfield Drive or nearby and expect more through traffic, the county council is the body to raise it with.
  • There is no opening date. Permission would be deferred until a legal agreement is signed, and the developer then has three years to start work.

The Section 106 agreement would secure a travel plan, a £4,110 travel plan monitoring fee for the county council and a £1,350 monitoring fee for the district council. The development is also liable for the council’s Community Infrastructure Levy.

For other applications in the area, see our Chichester planning news page. City centre car parks and charges are listed on our parking in Chichester page.

Sources