CROYDON COUNCIL REGENERATION PLANS

Key areas of Central Croydon, East Croydon and West Croydon have been given new detailed information displays showing regeneration plans for these areas.

Thirty exciting detailed projects have been highlighted on vivid information boards giving data about the plans and the locations and types of new builds planned for other areas of regeneration.  This is great news for people living and working here in Croydon.

Croydon Council has made great gains in winning £516,000 from the Mayor of London’s, Boris Johnson, Outer London Fund. To begin with, upgrades are planned for Central Parade, one of the Mayor's Great Spaces in Croydon. A design team will be based at the Octagon Hub to deliver and enhance a programme of events and major improvements by early April 2012. These initial works to be made to Central Parade will be a firm stepping stone towards future improvements to the wider area.

Croydon Council will be among the first London boroughs to publish a Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL). The new levy will allow the borough to ensure that major new developments and upgrades contribute money that can be reinvested in the local areas and its people. The Council will be consulting on a varied levy across the borough. This will provide incentives for residential and commercial development to occur in central Croydon.
 The money raised will be spent on things that support growth and the development objectives of the borough, as outlined in the emerging Core Strategy. 

From 2014, arrangements will focus on the provision of on-site infrastructure and the delivery of affordable housing. Councillor Jason Perry, cabinet member for planning, conservation and climate change, said:  "The Community Infrastructure Levy offers us a far more flexible and transparent means of ensuring that residents and businesses in Croydon get exactly what's needed within the area surrounding any new developments. We have a new series of master plans to guide development over the next 20 years. This announcement sends a clear message that Croydon is serious about encouraging regeneration and is willing to make it an attractive - and affordable - place for developers to bring their business."

The future of planning decisions in central Croydon will soon be fully laid out in three interlocking master plans. Two of these (East and West Croydon) are complete whilst a third is now ready for consultation. The mid-Croydon area covers almost 20 acres in the heart of the town - from the main shopping area to Wellesley Road to Old Town and the flyover.

The new super plans will ensure that every scheme in the area contributes to an overarching strategic picture.                                                                                                                       A £20 million pound bridge is now in the pipeline to link East Croydon with the main shopping areas and a key part of the plan is to improve Wellesley Road - making it more pedestrian friendly and less of a barrier between the two halves of the town.

A consultation group comprising the main landowners has been established for mid-Croydon. This includes Minerva, Nestlé and the Whitgift Foundation. All of these have pledged to work alongside the London Development Agency, the Homes and Communities Agency, Transport for London, the council and our own development partner, John Laing.

Councillor Jason Perry, cabinet member for planning, conservation and climate change, said: "Our borough is looking at the first ripples of its largest wave of regeneration since the 1960s. This major transformation starting in and around 2012 – will be introducing new homes, new leisure facilities and new business openings – this will breathe new life and energy into Croydon.”

The council is drawing up a Coulsdon Master plan too - one of a series of schemes for the borough which will guide business, residential and leisure proposals to ensure they transform Croydon and provide sympathetic and high-quality developments for all.

We are working with the local community, Transport for London and the Homes and Communities Agency (HCA) to ensure that the master plan is good news for everybody who lives and works in Coulsdon.

Proposals laid down will build on work already done in the town over recent years - including the Farthing Way by-pass and improvements to Brighton Road. Complementary to the master plan are proposals to build on the former Cane Hill Hospital site.

A planning brief outlining the parameters for the 203-acre site's development has been drawn up, and the HCA will appoint a developer to transform the site in to fantastic homes for the people in Croydon.

Plans are also afoot to transform central Croydon into a vibrant and exciting cosmopolitan area, alive with new homes, great night life, businesses and leisure opportunities.

Projects already under way include Saffron Square on Wellesley Road, the eye-catching black glass extension to Croydon College, and the public services hub in Fell Road which has received a warm welcome from locals.

Exciting plans in the pipeline include the new bridge spanning East Croydon station., a transformed Wellesley Road – reduced from an eight lane highway to a people-friendly, tree-lined and grass lined boulevard – is intended to form the back bone of the new Croydon town centre.

The regeneration extends beyond central Croydon with the New South Quarter development offering almost 900 new homes between Purley Way and Wandle Park, and the new Waddon leisure centre set to offer local people state-of-the-art facilities; as well as a great place to relax.

In addition to this, there are a number of other residential and commercial schemes which hold much promise for our town and should help secure its economic future.

    
Croydon’s Third City vision imagines how Croydon could be in the next 20 years.  Architect Will Alsop worked with the local community and businesses to develop the new vision of Croydon as a City in London, alongside Westminster and the City of London.

The new vision is to build upon a strong local identity to create a place which contains all that’s needed for urban life: a place in which people can live, work and relax.

Town centre regeneration and improvement projects will transform the current tired concrete jungle of 1960s buildings, underpass and subways into an exemplary urban space of the highest quality. It will be an attractive, vibrant and people friendly space that’s full of life and activity.

Croydon will be:

• A place of opportunity – competitive, creative, connected
• A place of belonging – cultures, values, cohesion, identity
• A place for the future – sustainable, vibrant, prosperous
• A place to be - proud off.