The horticultural retail industry can be argued to operate on a sliding scale. At one end of the scale you have horticultural nurseries selling 100 percent home-grown stock; at the other end are garden centres selling imported items, many of which may not be directly related to the garden or gardening. In between are any number of combinations of the two. For instance, plant centres retailing imported as well as home-grown plants or retail nurseries selling other imported items such as sundries. Just as position along the sliding scale is important to operators wishing to diversify, it has important implications in terms of planning control. While the safe of home-grown plants to visiting members of the public falls within a horticultural use and does not require planning permission, the sale of imported items is a retail use, does. The question is, at what point along the sliding scale does a material change of use requiring planning permission occur?
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