[2023] UKUT 153 (LC)

To provide some context to the situation on the ground in Watford at the valuation date and afterwards, it is worth identifying the principal retail areas in the town.   The High Street, which obviously predates the original Charter Place development runs on a north west/south east axis.  Although it extends over a total length of 650 metres the core retail area is to be found between its junctions with Clarendon Road and King Street. 

Charter Place in its original guise was a pedestrianised shopping centre which was completed in the mid-1970s.  It was built on two levels on a site behind the eastern side of the High Street and contained a mixture of shop units, large retail stores, an indoor market hall, a YMCA and a 741 space multi-storey car park.  The central walkway which contained most of the facilities including stores for Argos, Wilkinsons and Top Shop and was aligned parallel to the High Street.   This area was linked to the High Street by two further pedestrian thoroughfares (Meeting Alley and Charter Way), and it was at the junction of the former and the main retail area that the reference property was located.   The design of the centre was such that the access to the first-floor shops was by means of walkways a few metres in width which effectively acted as canopies for the shops located underneath.    Customers of the ground floor shops such as the reference property itself were consequently afforded protection from the weather, albeit limited as the centre was not fully enclosed.  Escalators and stairs which were open to the elements linked the two levels.

The development of Intu Watford in the early 1990s fundamentally altered the retail landscape in the town.   Mr Lightowler described Watford town centre as being dominated by it. The Centre was built on a site to the south of Charter Place and east of the High Street.   Largely enclosed and on two levels, it was anchored by a John Lewis department store and had mall access to the larger stores such as Marks and Spencer whose previous principal frontage was on to the High Street. It contains a total of 145 stores. At the valuation date it had three multi-story car parks providing 1433 spaces with access for shoppers directly into the malls. The only direct entry point into the centre from the High Street is at the southern end, adjacent to the junction of the High Street, Queens Road and King Street. In its original configuration access at the northern end could be gained from Charter Place on both levels, glazed doors delineating the extent of both schemes. The plan below shows the relative positions of the reference and relocation properties.