[New] A plan for Kingston town centre area Shaping the future of Kingston town centre and the surrounding area

Kingston Council is working with key partners including Kingston First to create a 10-year plan for the Kingston town centre area, which will include a vision for how we all want the town centre to transform and change. To ensure the plan is community-led, deliverable and owned by all, we are following a new national best practice design process, engaging with a wide variety of people.

In 2022 the council set up a Citizens’ Panel, which represents the demographic make-up of the borough. This brought together 40 people to discuss the issues and together create their vision for the future of the town centre area.

We are now talking to more people including residents, workers, visitors, community groups, businesses, landowners and developers, to make sure there is wide local input into the vision.

As well as the engagement currently underway the work is also being informed by feedback we received during the further engagement on the Local Plan in summer 2021 and an economic development report which Arup were commissioned to do pre-Covid looking at the changing nature of the town centre economy over the next 15 years.

Why do we need a plan for the Kingston town centre area?

Kingston town centre area is currently experiencing significant levels of change.

We need a plan to be proactive and ensure we:

• Find sustainable ways to adapt and breathe new life into our town centre, making it is resilient to climate change so our local economy and communities can thrive

• Invest in and create memorable places and spaces for everyone to enjoy and benefit from

• Celebrate and enhance Kingston’s rich heritage and cultural diversity

• Respond to opportunities emerging through the major development of Unilever HQ, council led development and the educational offering at Kingston University and Kingston College

• Require all new development to be of the highest design quality, environmental sustainability and inclusivity to all people

• Secure a balanced mix of commercial spaces, homes, green spaces and infrastructure 1. A vision - setting out what we want the town centre to look and feel like, bringing together the different strands of engagement into one clear document. 2. A planning framework - this will be supplementary to the Local Plan, providing area based guidance to manage new development and infrastructure in and around the town centre and secure the most benefits for our communities. 3. A delivery plan - this will set out the public sector projects we want to fund and deliver in partnership with key stakeholders to make our vision a reality.

The Plan for the Kingston Town Centre Area will be made up of three parts.

Next steps

The draft vision will be published in early 2023 for comments. Work will then focus on creating the planning framework. For more information about the engagement and reports from the workshops and to share your views visit https://kingstonletstalk.co.uk/ hub-page/aplanforkingston