From 2006 to 2010, I was a councillor for Lee Green ward in the London Borough of Lewisham. During that time, I blogged regularly and in 2009 I won the Tim Garden Award for the Best Blog by a Liberal Democrat Holding Public Office. My blog posts from my term of office are archived here in case they prove of use to former constituents, or to those who share my annoyance with faulty street furniture
I’ve pasted the update on Leegate that was presented to the Assembly last night below. The good news is that the centre’s owners have asked for it to be included in the Local Development Framework – the Council’s main planning document. That means there’s a potential window of opportunity for them to redevelop the centre. The assembly decided that they wanted to keep the Leegate Centre as a priority issue, and discussed things we could do in the short term to improve the appearance of the centre. We’ll keep working with the Lee Manor Society to keep the pressure on the owners – St Modwen - to bring forward their plans.
“Lee Green is one of the nine town centres which the Council sees as vital to the prosperity of the borough. The Council wishes to regenerate these town centres by strengthening their retail function, encouraging a diversification of appropriate uses and facilitating visual and environmental improvements. Town centres are vital to a sustainable economy because they are accessible by public transport and a number of linked activities can be conducted on one visit.
Officers will now include the potential allocation of the centre for redevelopment in the next draft of the Local Development Framework. It should be appreciated that the process of allocating the site will not, in itself, ensure that redevelopment takes place. However, representatives of the Council and local community will hold further meetings with St Modwen to encourage them to make early progress in bringing forward proposals.
Together with the Sainsburys foodstore on the west side of Burnt Ash Road, the Leegate Shopping Centre forms the core of the Lee Green town centre. The centre is clearly showing its age and exhibits a number of problems, such as the severance of the parking area and significant trading difficulties.
As landowner of the shopping centre, St Modwen has the key role in improving its long term viability. Representatives of the Council and local community have met them to discuss concerns over the decline of the centre and to encourage them to bring forward proposals for the redevelopment of the centre. It is envisaged that this might take the form of an overall masterplan which could be implemented in phases. However, the preparation of such a masterplan and the subsequent phased redevelopment of the centre would be likely to take a number of years to progress.
St Modwen wrote to the Council in August to clarify their position. They confirmed that they had been looking at the future of the centre for some time and requested that it be identified as a development site in the next round of consultation on the emerging borough plan, the Local Development Framework. They added that they felt the centre offers the opportunity to provide a retail led, mixed use redevelopment including other uses appropriate to such a centre such as residential, office and hotel use together with associated public realm improvements and provision for parking and servicing.”
What do you think? Are there ways we could improve the centre while we wait for St Modwen to come up with their longer-term plans? Leave a comment below, or feel free to drop me a line privately if you’d prefer.
