SPRING | 2018
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TEAM CATFORD Catford Town Centre is on the brink of exciting change. Here’s what you need to know:
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Catford is changing
Community News Welcome to the spring edition of Team Catford’s community newsletter. It’s designed to keep you up to date with the regeneration of Catford Town Centre as well as celebrate everything that’s great about our neighbourhood.
Q&As
We’re interested in hearing from local champions, community groups and businesses so if you’d like to share useful information, promote upcoming events or would like to be featured please email us at hello@teamcatford.com
What’s happening?
Lewisham Council is leading on a major regeneration programme that is estimated at £750 million. It will transform the town centre by rerouting the south circular behind Laurence House, redeveloping Catford Shopping Centre and Milford Towers to provide new retail space and homes. Pedestrian-friendly areas, open spaces and new community facilities will also be created. Regeneration is more than physical change and there have been a number of place-making and meanwhile use initiatives that are revitalising the town centre. These include set builders Supersets moving into the depot on Thomas Lane, Little Nan’s opening in the Broadway Theatre, street art around the town centre and the revival of the Catford Beer Festival.
How will this happen?
It starts with a masterplan that will allocate areas of the town centre for new public space, office space, shops, community facilities and homes. Architects will be appointed to draw up this masterplan which will be shared with the community for feedback.
Once agreed, this masterplan will be the vision for Catford - a plan of plans to guide planning applications from developers.
When will it happen?
Work on the masterplan will begin in summer 2018 and we will share the early draft with the community for feedback. Once the final version has been drawn up and following approval from Mayor and Cabinet, proposals for individual sites will be considered through the planning process. The overall plan is long-term. Construction on some sites will begin after 2020 with the entire redevelopment complete by 2030.
We’ve heard this all before. Will it actually happen this time?
We acknowledge the natural scepticism that local people may feel about the regeneration of Catford Town Centre. It’s something that has been talked about for many years and people are understandably frustrated by the apparent lack of action. Why should people believe that Catford’s time has finally arrived? The major reason for
optimism is the game-changing decision taken by the Mayor and Cabinet in July 2017 to realign the south circular to the south of Laurence House. This finally removes a significant block to progress, and allows the town centre to be properly masterplanned, in a way that is now supported by Transport for London and that is in line with the emerging draft London Plan. The draft London Plan has also now officially identified Catford Town Centre as within a Growth Corridor and on Phase 2 of the potential Bakerloo line extension. The Council was also recently awarded a £10million grant from the Government‘s Housing Infrastructure Fund which will go towards moving the south circular behind Laurence House. These recent strategic policies and funding at a London-wide level set the context for Catford as one of the places for positive transformation in the capital over the next 10-20 years. Now is also the first time that the Council is procuring a comprehensive masterplan of the town centre, fully incorporating local people’s views and aspirations. It is important to understand that a regeneration scheme of this size does take time, and it will be three to four years before construction starts on site. However, the Council is committed to driving forward the revitalisation of Catford Town Centre.
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Is the regeneration programme going to be the same as what’s happening in Lewisham Town Centre?
TEAM No, we want to build on Catford’s strengths and CATFORD
character and offer something different from larger shopping destinations like Lewisham and Bromley.
Help shape the vision
A Masterplan for Catford Town Centre
SPRING 2018
Tender process to identify architects
Competitive tender process to seek architects to prepare the masterplan.
SUMMER 2018
Architects appointed
AUTUMN 2018
First draft of masterplan
Work on the masterplan will commence taking on board the community feedback. Early ideas for strategic sites across the town centre will be presented to the community in a series of engagement events.
Masterplan approved
With the masterplan in place, planning applications will come forward for individual sites.
10 to 15-year vision
SPRING SUMMER 2019
MID 2019
The masterplan will be a vision for the future of Catford Town Centre. It will be shaped by feedback from the community and everyone is invited to participate in the community consultation.
2018 SPRING SUMMER AUTUMN WINTER
The Catford Town Centre masterplan will be a shared vision for the neighbourhood – a plan of plans to guide development over the next 10-15 years.
for Catford Town Centre
ONGOING
#CatfordConversation
Team Catford will continue to listen and make sure your views are heard. Everyone who lives, works, shops or socialises in Catford is invited to participate in the ongoing community engagement throughout the masterplan process. Come along to our next engagement event or add your thoughts to the commonplace map on our website.
Up to
2,500 new homes for Catford Town Centre
Opportunity area across the town centre sites is
Regeneration proposals likely to see around
(15 football pitches)
invested
11 hectares
ÂŁ750m
Thousands of ideas from our community shared
Natalie and Xhulio, owners of The Bottle Bar
and Shop
and the winner is... In the run up to Valentine’s Day we encouraged everyone to tell us which Catford business held a special place in their hearts and reveal their #CatfordCrush. We were inundated with love letters, tweets and posts and the business that received the most love was The Bottle Bar and Shop on Catford Broadway! We’ve been in touch with Natalie and Xhulio over at The Bottle Bar and Shop to tell them the good news, and they were delighted with all of the Catfordian love they received. Here’s what they had to say: “We’re so grateful for the continuous and fantastic support (online and in person) locals have shown us. It seems our community is keen to “shop local” and support small businesses like ours, a great thing for Catford! We still can’t believe we won the #Catfordcrush competition, THANK YOU so much for your votes and kind words!”
We are Catford and Proud! There was hardly room to swing a free Catford Food Market tote bag on Sunday 25th March as Catfordians came out in force to support South East London’s newest food space. The 20-strong line up featured a variety of South East London traders including street food, cakes, charcuterie and freshly made pasta as well as lifestyle stalls selling local art, plants, clothing and jewellery - there was certainly something for everyone. The market incubated some new traders such as vegan street food crew The Nooch;
impressed with some old hands such as cake stall, Brett & Bailey, who sold out in record time; and featured a delicious range of hot cuisine from Raastawala, Van Dough, Jerk Off BBQ and Fuse Love. Catford Cornucopia, which sells Catford related products, also sold out of everything including its bespoke pale ale Catford Pride and exclusive Catford and Proud tea towels produced by local artist Hazel Nichols. Once the market ended many people continued their Catford day out in local
businesses and we spotted plants, paintings and tote bags in The Bar & Bottle Shop, the Catford Constitutional Club and Little Nan’s Bar as well as at bus stops and the train stations suggesting that the market achieved its aim of complementing the existing offer and stimulating the local economy. Catford Food Market will be back on Sunday 29th April and on the last Sunday of the month on Catford Broadway from 10am to 4pm. Come early and come hungry!
Who is Team Catford? We are a team of consultants who specialise in urban regeneration, community engagement, filmmaking, social media, placemaking and meanwhile use. We are leading a major community engagement on behalf of the Council to ensure that everyone who lives, works,
socialises, shops, commutes or runs a business in Catford has their say. We all live in the borough, mainly Catford, and are committed to championing changes that reflect the character of our neighbourhood.
Join the Catford Conversation So far over 1,400 comments and ideas have been shared with us and we want to hear more. Every comment will be seen by the architects who will draw up the masterplan for the regeneration of the town centre.
You can also leave your feedback on Catford Commonplace by following these simple steps:
1.
Visit catfordtowncentre.commonplace.is, and explore the map and see what people are talking about.
2.
Sign up to leave your own feedback and agree or disagree with what others are saying. You’ll be asked to submit your postcode as this helps us to know whether we’re reaching everyone in the community. Don’t worry we would never share your personal information and we will only send email updates on this project with your permission. Tick the box to permit email updates so we can keep you up to date with these quarterly newsletters and major news on the regeneration plans.
Join the Catford conversation at catfordtowncentre.commonplace.is
!
Did you know Team Catford has a new website?
Visit www.teamcatford.com to find out more about the regeneration of the town centre, have your say and stay up to date on all of the exciting Team Catford projects.
Come and speak to us at our upcoming events:
Saturday 28th April 11am-2pm Catford Library
Sunday 29th April 10am-4pm
Catford Food Market, Catford Broadway
Sunday 27th May 10am-4pm
Catford Food Market, Catford Broadway
Friday 8th - Sunday 10th June 12noon-11pm
Catford Beer Festival, Catford Bridge Tavern
Saturday 7th July 12noon-8pm
Lewisham People’s Day, Mountsfield Park
get in touch This newsletter is brought to you by Team Catford. We’re here to listen to your ideas, speak up for the community and make sure your views are heard. Let us know what you think.
@TeamCatford @TeamCatford @TeamCatfordse6
hello@teamcatford.com 0800 772 0475 catfordtowncentre.commonplace.is
Simply write Freepost Team Catford on an envelope and your letter will find its way to us!
www.teamcatford.com
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