Policy information sourced from the Sutton Local Plan 2016-2031

3: Sutton Town Centre

a. The council will work with residents, community groups, businesses, landowners, developers and relevant bodies to deliver a comprehensive approach to developments in Sutton Town Centre, having regard to the Sutton Town Centre Masterplan, the Heritage Action Zone designated by Historic England and other material considerations.

New Housing

b. The council will enable the delivery of at least 3,400 new homes in the plan period 2016-2031 within Sutton Town Centre and its Area of Potential Intensification (227 new homes per year). The council will expect housing developments to provide a range of tenures and dwelling sizes. All developments should seek to provide a minimum of 25% of all dwellings on the site as having three bedrooms or more, unless it can be demonstrated that this would be unviable or the particular site circumstances are not suitable for family housing. The council will also investigate the feasibility of the redevelopment of the following estates: Chaucer Estate, Benhill Estate, Rosebery Gardens, Collingwood Estate, and Sutton Court. These will appear on the Policies Map as ‘Potential Renewal Areas’, and, subject to feasibility and viability studies, the council may bring these estates forward through an Area Action Plan which will ensure full resident consultation. However, the redevelopment of the estates can only take place with infrastructure improvements, in particular improvements in transport infrastructure such as Tramlink.

New Retail Floorspace

c. The council will enable the delivery of at least 3,000m2 gross convenience retail floorspace and at least 23,200m2 gross comparison retail floorspace and 5,000m2 gross food and beverage floorspace within Sutton Town Centre. The council will expect much of the new floorspace to be delivered by reconfiguring the shopping centres, retail floorspace on the ground floor of mixed use developments and, subject to the site allocations, new or redeveloped floorspace providing solely retail floorspace. The council will expect a significant proportion of food and beverage floorspace to be delivered in the area south of Hill Road and will promote the area as a restaurant and café and cultural centre. However, food and beverage floorspace may be delivered elsewhere in the centre (see also Policy 18).

New Office Floorspace

d. The council will enable the delivery of at least 23,000m2 gross office floorspace within Sutton Town Centre. The council will expect much of this office floorspace to be delivered around Sutton station. In particular, the council will support single occupier office developments and developments for start-ups and small companies (see also Policy 16).

Character, Design and Taller Buildings

e. All new development, including new buildings, alterations and extensions, within Sutton Town Centre and its Area of Taller Building Potential should be of high-quality design (see Policy 28). In particular, within and adjoining the Sutton High Street Crossroads Conservation Area, new development should conserve and, where practicable, enhance the significance of heritage assets and their settings. Developments should also respond positively to other heritage assets that make a positive contribution to the Town Centre, including those identified in the Sutton Town Centre Masterplan. Proposals for taller buildings must be of the highest quality and justify their presence in the townscape through careful consideration of the existing positive features in the area.

Principal Public Realm Improvements

f. The council will support proposals to soften the effects of the gyratory. In particular, the council will encourage the creation of active frontages along St Nicholas Way and Throwley Way, the introduction of soft landscaping and measures to create a pedestrian friendly environment along the gyratory and to reduce the barrier effect of the gyratory for pedestrians intending to visit the High Street. The council will also support the removal of the Hill Road underpass under St Nicholas Way and introduce measures to improve other existing roads and alleyways in the town centre, and seek to improve the setting of Trinity Church.

Infrastructure

g. The council will encourage the development of new infrastructure to serve Sutton Town Centre and to improve the environment for residents, shoppers, employees and visitors. In particular, the council will continue to work with Transport for London to deliver a Tramlink service to Sutton Town Centre (as set out in Policy 4) and seek to transform the existing gyratory system to make the roads less traffic dominated (see Policy 35). The council will work to improve east-west pedestrian and cycle movements, a new road link between Brighton Road and Grove Road and implement junction improvements (as set out in Policy 35) as required, in particular improvements to the junction of Throwley Way / Carshalton Road. The council will help to provide a new primary school on the Secombe Theatre site (Site Allocation STC10). The council will expect new developments, where practicable, to be future-proofed to enable connection to any future district heat network.

Delivery

h. All new development should incorporate the requirements of site allocations STC1-STC45 later in this document, where applicable, and have regard to the Sutton Town Centre Masterplan and the town centre’s distinctive heritage. Please note the site allocations are flexible for most sites and are not prescriptive regarding floorspace for each land use. Instead, a site allocation can be mixed use or mono-use. This enables businesses wishing to have their own office premises or large retailers to be able to locate in Sutton Town Centre without the requirement to provide other uses on site, providing that this does not result in an underdevelopment of the site. Nevertheless, the council will monitor floorspace development within Sutton Town Centre by use class to ensure development is occurring in the quantity required for each land use.

For the Sutton Town Centre boundary and shopping frontages see Appendix 3, Maps 3.1 and 3.2 and Policies Map.

For Potential Renewal Areas see Appendix 1, Map 1.10 and Policies Map.

For Sutton High Street Crossroads Conservation Area see Appendix 8, Map 8.21 and Policies Map.

For Areas of Potential Intensification to Sutton Town Centre see Appendix 1, Map 1.1 and Policies Map.

For Areas of Taller Building Potential see Appendix 7, Maps 7.1 and 7.2 and Policies Map.

For more information please see the Local Plan 2016-2031