Work on Croydon’s long-awaited Westfield shopping centre will get a decision in about ‘a month or so’ it has been revealed.

The Croydon partnership, partners Hammerson and the Westfield group, are in the final stages of waiting to hear back from the most recent planning application, for an enhanced scheme.

The highly-anticipated new Westfield shopping complex will combine existing shopping sites, Centrale and The Whitgift Centre to allow for better integration between the sites. 

A spokesman for the Croydon Partnership said: “We are expecting a decision in the next month or so on our planning application for an enhanced scheme which maintains the majority of the masterplan and design principles of the original consented scheme, but also includes  a number of upgrades that have primarily been driven by retailers’ demand for space in Croydon. 

As we have said before, we believe the new centre will turn Croydon’s town centre into a top 10 UK retail, dining and leisure destination for London and bring with it significant economic and social regeneration.  

 Once the planning consent is in place, we will look forward to providing a further update on what the next steps will be, as we work towards a start on site next year and finalising our plans for ensuring that Centrale and the rest of the town centre are open for business throughout the construction phase. ”

More than £1.4bn will be pumped into Westfield, with an estimated 5000 new jobs to be created. It will also feature key anchor stores and more than 300 hundred shops, restaurants and cafes.

This comes after Richard Plant, from Stiles Harold Williams announced that there will be ‘shovels in the ground’ by Easter  2018 next year.

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