SPRING | 2018
TEAM CATFORD
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TEAM CATFORD
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TEAM CATFORD Catford Town Centre is on the brink of exciting change. Here’s what you need to know:
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Catford is changing
Community News Welcome to the spring edition of Team Catford’s community newsletter. It’s designed to keep you up to date with the regeneration of Catford Town Centre as well as celebrate everything that’s great about our neighbourhood.
Q&As
We’re interested in hearing from local champions, community groups and businesses so if you’d like to share useful information, promote upcoming events or would like to be featured please email us at hello@teamcatford.com
What’s happening?
Lewisham Council is leading on a major regeneration programme that is estimated at £750 million. It will transform the town centre by rerouting the south circular behind Laurence House, redeveloping Catford Shopping Centre and Milford Towers to provide new retail space and homes. Pedestrian-friendly areas, open spaces and new community facilities will also be created. Regeneration is more than physical change and there have been a number of place-making and meanwhile use initiatives that are revitalising the town centre. These include set builders Supersets moving into the depot on Thomas Lane, Little Nan’s opening in the Broadway Theatre, street art around the town centre and the revival of the Catford Beer Festival.
How will this happen?
It starts with a masterplan that will allocate areas of the town centre for new public space, office space, shops, community facilities and homes. Architects will be appointed to draw up this masterplan which will be shared with the community for feedback.
Once agreed, this masterplan will be the vision for Catford - a plan of plans to guide planning applications from developers.
When will it happen?
Work on the masterplan will begin in summer 2018 and we will share the early draft with the community for feedback. Once the final version has been drawn up and following approval from Mayor and Cabinet, proposals for individual sites will be considered through the planning process. The overall plan is long-term. Construction on some sites will begin after 2020 with the entire redevelopment complete by 2030.
We’ve heard this all before. Will it actually happen this time?
We acknowledge the natural scepticism that local people may feel about the regeneration of Catford Town Centre. It’s something that has been talked about for many years and people are understandably frustrated by the apparent lack of action. Why should people believe that Catford’s time has finally arrived? The major reason for
optimism is the game-changing decision taken by the Mayor and Cabinet in July 2017 to realign the south circular to the south of Laurence House. This finally removes a significant block to progress, and allows the town centre to be properly masterplanned, in a way that is now supported by Transport for London and that is in line with the emerging draft London Plan. The draft London Plan has also now officially identified Catford Town Centre as within a Growth Corridor and on Phase 2 of the potential Bakerloo line extension. The Council was also recently awarded a £10million grant from the Government‘s Housing Infrastructure Fund which will go towards moving the south circular behind Laurence House. These recent strategic policies and funding at a London-wide level set the context for Catford as one of the places for positive transformation in the capital over the next 10-20 years. Now is also the first time that the Council is procuring a comprehensive masterplan of the town centre, fully incorporating local people’s views and aspirations. It is important to understand that a regeneration scheme of this size does take time, and it will be three to four years before construction starts on site. However, the Council is committed to driving forward the revitalisation of Catford Town Centre.
TEAM CATFORD
TEAM CATFORD
TEAM CATFORD
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Is the regeneration programme going to be the same as what’s happening in Lewisham Town Centre?
TEAM No, we want to build on Catford’s strengths and CATFORD
character and offer something different from larger shopping destinations like Lewisham and Bromley.