Sutton Council has appointed a world-class design team to create a masterplan for Sutton Town Centre that will identify development sites for new homes, commercial space, a new school, and improved transport links and public spaces.

Bilfinger GVA (BGVA), one of the largest planning, development and regeneration advisers in the UK and Ireland, will lead a consortium including Architecture 00, Urban Engineering Studio, Metropolis Green, and Allies and Morrison. The latter helped design the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in Stratford.

Obtaining the views of residents and traders, including the Business Improvement District, will be a key part of the design process as the masterplanning team spends the next seven months creating a plan for development over the next 15 years. The result will be the creation of the Sutton that its residents and businesses want to enjoy living and working in.

Sutton Town Centre is one of the top four metropolitan centres within south London, the others being Croydon, Kingston and Bromley. The masterplan will help to boost that status further so that Sutton can compete in terms of attracting new residential and commercial developments, and making the town centre an attractive place for residents, workers and visitors to spend time.

It will also look into the need for more homes, particularly family homes, as well as improving public spaces and the possible introduction of a new primary school.

Some options will also incorporate potential big-ticket developments including the extension of the Tramlink from Wimbledon to Sutton in 2020. The plans will complement the recent improvements the council and partners including Transport for London have made to the area outside Sutton Station, and forthcoming improvements to the Northern Gateway entrance near the Asda end of Sutton High Street.

Items for consideration by the planners will include:

• Identifying opportunities for much-needed new homes for local people.

• The feasibility of building a new primary school.

• To identify space for new retail units and office floor space, along with opportunity sites that can be redeveloped to attract under-represented retailers and improve the town centre.

• To improve the parks and public realm and create interconnected attractive public open spaces that improve links to the surrounding residential areas.

• To improve and maintain the local transport infrastructure, which could include the improvement of public transport interchanges, improving pedestrian and cycle routes, and making the Sutton ring-road less of a physical barrier to residents and businesses.

• Incorporate a Tramlink scenario plan which would feature the tram from Wimbledon being extended to Sutton Station in 2020 if Sutton is successful in its bid for the extension.

• Consider the implications of the development of the London Cancer Hub, Europe’s largest Life Science cluster in Belmont with potential for 9,000 jobs.

• Conserving the high-quality Victorian, Edwardian and Mock Tudor buildings that reflect the historic core of the town centre.

Jayne McCoy, Chair of the Housing, Economy and Business Committee at Sutton Council, said:

“Sutton is already one of the most popular places to live in the country. We want to build on our excellent reputation by making our town centre fit for the future, with all the facilities for families who want to work, live and visit.

“Everyone in our borough has a stake in our town centre which is why we will be working with residents, businesses, community groups and other stakeholders to create a vision that provides opportunities for all.

“We are ambitious for Sutton to achieve its potential whilst retaining all the things that we love about the area – at its heart, a suburban community where people care about where they live and their environment.”

BGVA Director Chris Hall, who leads its London and South-East Spatial Planning and Regeneration team, said:

“The entire team is really excited about Sutton’s prospects. London is in a period of significant change and Outer London communities such as Sutton are seeing housing, retail and economic dynamics that can be harnessed to achieve local-defined aspirations.”

The masterplan will complement the council’s Local Plan, which it is currently reviewing as part of its wider vision for the whole of Sutton in 2031-32. It will be prepared in the context of Sutton being a “One Planet Borough” with a proud identity as a green and environmentally-sustainable borough.

The masterplan follows on from the Greater London Authority’s recent granting of Housing Zone status for Sutton Council’s Sutton One Housing Zone, which has identified 12 key sites for residential development in Sutton Town Centre and Hackbridge. The council has also set up a development company and investment vehicle to encourage businesses to invest in the borough.

The Sutton Town Centre masterplanning team is made up of:

• Bilfinger GVA has years of experience preparing high-profile masterplans, vision studies and development frameworks for town centres in London and across the south-east of England. Critically the team also includes surveyors, development finance specialists and economists to ensure that delivery mechanisms are also a key part of any masterplan.
• Allies and Morrison Urban Practitioners is an urbanism and architectural practice that was recently named Practice of the Year by the Architects Journal. Their architectural work has won 37 RIBA awards and has been shortlisted for the Stirling Prize. Their design expertise saw the organisation work on the London 2012 Olympics and Legacy Masterplans and a redevelopment framework for King’s Cross central station. Other projects include Swindon Town Centre, Letchworth Garden City, Rochester Riverside, and Wood Wharf, an eastward expansion of Canary Wharf.
• Architecture 00 is an architectural practice shortlisted for the Young Architects of the Year Award that has innovative experience in terms of community engagement and curating under-used spaces to develop incubator office spaces and pop-up shops.
• Urban Engineering Studio is a specialist engineering and urbanism company that puts ‘place making’ first. Their skills have seen them commissioned by the Homes and Communities Agency to address the issues highlighted by the highways-dominated area of the Temple Quarter in Bristol. Other projects include Growth strategy and masterplanning for urban extensions to the east of King’s Lynn, the Didcot masterplan and the Freshford neighbourhood plan.
• Metropolis Green is a well-established energy and sustainability consultancy. They bring to the consortium a wealth of expertise on energy and sustainability strategies. They were key partners in the team that delivered the redevelopment of the prominent West Ham football stadium at Upton Park in east London. Other projects include the redevelopment of The Loxfords, a historic 19^th-century building in north London, and Gayton Road, a major development in Harrow town centre.