A boost for Sutton town centre

If you’ve been to central Sutton over the past few months I’m sure you will have noticed some of the building works taking place around our high street.

Sutton Council recently announced the next exciting phase for our town centre regeneration as we wanted to share our ambitious plans to make Sutton such a great place to live, work and visit.

As a Council we are very aware of the economic problems we are currently facing and I’ve been asked by residents who I’ve spoken with why we are going ahead with such plans. 

My answer is that we want the businesses in our borough to do well, and that we need to attract more of them to invest and bring their business here. This will then lead to more people using our high street and therefore spending more money in our shops and restaurants creating jobs for our residents. 

In order for developers to build in our borough they have to contribute financially towards our area too and new businesses also bring more money to the borough as they pay business rates. This money helps us to fund our much-needed council services.

The scaffolding has now come down from the co-working space Oru and I encourage you to go and visit it as it has an amazing cafe and yoga space, as well as being a great place to work. 

As well as the well-known chain stores and food places, Sutton is lucky to have some great independent shops. Some of the new food shops have some fantastic things to offer and, of course, we have the wonderful Sound Lounge which has had a great impact on our high street and culture in our borough with their tasty food and popular music events.

There are also currently works going on to renovate the old Chicago’s nightclub into a cinema and community arts venue, and to build new council homes and a new base for Sutton College in the empty White Building at the bottom of the High Street, opposite Asda.

Sutton High Street always has a lot of people visiting it and it will get busier over the coming months. I’m very grateful for everyone who comes and spends their money and time with us.

I am excited that there is a real buzz about the changes we are starting to see in Sutton town centre and I look forward to letting you know more about how our plans are progressing in the near future.

Councillor Ruth Dombey
Leader of the Council