Views Being Sought on Kew Retail Park Plans

---

Community engagement weekend to be held by developer

Kew Retail Park could be partly converted to housing. Picture: St. George

The consortium behind the planned redevelopment of Kew Retail Park has announced it intends to hold a weekend of engagement events to find out the views of the public on the future of the site.

St George and Marks & Spencer are understood to be intending to increase the amount of residential units on the site with the possibility of some of the shopping space being lost. They say that the “redevelopment of the retail park provides an opportunity to bring forward high quality new homes, replacement retail , and local amenities, as well as improved public realm and connections through the site.”

The 139,200 sq. ft scheme is popular with shoppers across west and south west London as it offers free parking with a range of stores including Next, TK Maxx and Sports Direct with over half the space currently occupied by a large Marks and Spencer store. It is located along Bessant Drive just off the A205 Mortlake Road.

Just over half the site was reportedly bought by the Berkeley Group, of which St George is a part, for £41 million last year.

A Community Planning Weekend is to be held at the adjacent National Archives building which the developer says will allow the public to shape the future of the site by sharing local knowledge. Workshops and session will include those specifically for younger people.

The event takes place on Friday 24 June (1.45pm) to 5.30) and Saturday 25 June (11.15am – 4pm) and there will be an exhibition explaining the background to the site.

There is no need to pre-register to take part and you can drop in at any time. Project team members will be on hand to answer questions.

After this event there will be an exhibition of an illustrative masterplan for the site on Tuesday 5 July at 7.15pm also at the National Archives.

Comments on the future of the site can also be submitted online in advance of the community engagement weekend.

Like Reading Articles Like This? Help Us Produce More This site remains committed to providing local community news and public interest journalism. Articles such as the one above are integral to what we do. We aim to feature as much as possible on local societies, charities based in the area, fundraising efforts by residents, community-based initiatives and even helping people find missing pets. We’ve always done that and won’t be changing, in fact we’d like to do more. However, the readership that these stories generates is often below that needed to cover the cost of producing them. Our financial resources are limited and the local media environment is intensely competitive so there is a constraint on what we can do. We are therefore asking our readers to consider offering financial support to these efforts. Any money given will help support community and public interest news and the expansion of our coverage in this area. A suggested monthly payment is £8 but we would be grateful for any amount for instance if you think this site offers the equivalent value of a subscription to a daily printed newspaper you may wish to consider £20 per month. If neither of these amounts is suitable for you then contact info@neighbournet.com and we can set up an alternative. All payments are made through a secure web site. One-off donations are also appreciated. Choose The Amount You Wish To Contribute. If you do support us in this way we’d be interested to hear what kind of articles you would like to see more of on the site – send your suggestions to the editor. For businesses we offer the chance to be a corporate sponsor of community content on the site. For £30 plus VAT per month you will be the designated sponsor of at least one article a month with your logo appearing if supplied. If there is a specific community group or initiative you’d like to support we can make sure your sponsorship is featured on related content for a one off payment of £50 plus VAT. All payments are made through a secure web site.

June 10, 2022