Over the last two years, the council has been meeting regularly with tenants of the Elephant and Castle through a forum called the Shopping Centre Liaison Group. In addition, several other meetings have been held with shop owners from the Walworth Road and the market traders. Throughout 2005 and beyond, the council will increase the number of meetings with local businesses and will try to reach as many as possible that will either be directly or partially affected by the regeneration plans.

Will there be room in the scheme for local retailers as well as for the big multiples?

A. In February 2004, the council adopted Supplementary Planning Guidance (SPG) called “A development framework for the Elephant and Castle” The plan acknowledges that there are very high levels of retail expenditure leakage from Southwark to the West End and other centres including Bromley and Croydon. This suggests that most Southwark shoppers are sufficiently dissatisfied with the shopping offered within the borough to make lengthy journeys to find the shops and services that they want.

The plan proposes to redress this problem by adding to the range and quality of shops in the borough and thereby increasing both the total number of shoppers in Southwark and the total retail expenditure.

The London Plan and Southwark’s own planning strategies identify the Elephant and Castle as the location in Southwark best able to accommodate a large increase in retailing floor space. The form proposed for this as outlined in the Elephant & Castle SPG is a northward extension of the Walworth Road leading to a new mixed-use town centre, roughly where the shopping centre is today, that will bring back Southwark’s shoppers and attract customers from further afield.

Within the area, the plan intends that major retailers will congregate in the central area, giving way to more local shops and businesses along Walworth Road, Newington Causeway, London Road, Heygate Street, New Kent Road, etc.

In the development framework (Section 3) the council sets out its commitment to supporting the transfer of the existing businesses and the local employment that they provide to new addresses within the framework area. This is to be achieved by providing tailored support and information to help businesses find new premises and to adjust their business plans to take advantage of the expected increases in customer numbers.

 


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