Croydon Council hopes to restore pride to its town centre with the £18.5m of government funding from the Levelling Up Fund.
The projects will incorporate East Croydon and West Croydon station, the South End restaurant quarter, and Old Town and Croydon Minster.
In addition to the plan of a new civic square for the Fairfield cultural complex, to connect Queen’s Gardens and Surrey Street Market.
Executive Mayor Jason Perry revealed the council’s vision for the project is to “Reconnect, Refresh, Revitalise, and Regenerate’ the town centre.
Perry said: “This will be a huge boost for Croydon Town Centre and will form part of my determination to restoring pride in our community, reconnect and regenerate Croydon.”
The council claim that the projects will provide improved connections throughout the town centre, allowing residents and visitors to travel more easily through safer, greener, and more pleasant routes.
Croydon applied to the Department for Levelling Up Housing and Communities (DLUHC) for the Reconnecting Croydon scheme, which will see six public realm and infrastructure projects funded to reconnect and revitalise Croydon’s streetscape.
However, the reaction from residents is not what the council would have wanted.
In response to the Council’s X post regarding the successful bid, one resident stated: “It won’t fix the empty shops though will it.
“So it seems pretty pointless spending £18.5m on a mostly boarded-up town centre.”
Another said, “It will need a lot more than £18.5m to revitalise Croydon following years of mismanagement and incompetence administration!”
The DLUHC announced a £1b boost for the levelling up scheme, targeting 55 local projects, to spread opportunity, create jobs and revitalise local communities.
£150m of the fund will be allocated to develop better transport links across the country and £825m to regenerate town centres, like Croydon.
Levelling Up Secretary Michael Gove said: “This funding sits alongside our wider initiatives to spread growth, through devolving more money and power out of Westminster to towns and cities.
“Putting in place bespoke interventions to places that need it most, and our Long-Term Plan for Towns.”
