What a mess!

North West Sutton, amongst the band of abandoned shops on Crown Road and within the proximity of what used to be Burger King, is entrapped within a catastrophic process of refurbishment. Whereby the mass demolishing of the majority of the neglected shops, has produced a bed of rubble with an extra helping of all sorts of debris.

Although the pedestrians are not able to see this heart-breaking period of transformation, as the evidence is concealed within a fencing that is thousands of metres high that borders the circumference of the construction site. However those whom are fortunate enough to get an overview, from the upper deck of a double decker bus, are able to witness how a portion of Sutton is getting physically abused.

It is likely that you are aware of Sutton’s successes, a thriving town that is filled to the brim with economic vibrancy, a skilled workforce and a stable business base. But it is said that this new project will be a ‘future prosperity of the whole town.’ CNM Estates have submitted proposals of the development of South Point, which will be like a giant amongst the town’s skyline. This will contain a 22 storey tower incorporating 332 apartments from between 1-3 bedrooms, 2000 sq. of retail and leisure floor space, 2450 sq. of office space, 900 sq. of health and fitness, a 139 bedroomed hotel and 226 car parking spaces at basement and ground level. Furthermore the larger development of The Old Gas Works will include a 12,221 sq. food store above a car park of 346 spaces, fronting Crown Road. Then the remainder will be transformed into 4 residential buildings, a 13 storey building with 5 retail units at the ground floor and 93 bedroomed apartments.

All in all there will be a collection of accommodation where in which only 43 of the flats will be affordable, an introduction to more businesses where entrepreneurs are entitled to more opportunities and the colossal construction of a mega food store.

With this, many locals are in distress as they await for the birth of the new food store. Which one could it be? Perhaps many locals also do not like the idea of the fact that there are millions of mega food stores that are too close to each other. Don’t forget that there will be a walking distance between the future food store, Tesco Express in Angel Hill, Morrisons on Crown Road, Asda on St Nicholas Way and another Morrisons further up the high street. The large spectrum of supermarkets will soon conjure competition where some supermarkets will struggle to sustain their position within the supermarket wars. Most importantly these highly advanced superstores, that sell good quality items together with reasonable deals (the prey for the bargain hunters,) will domineer the innocent convenient stores. Unfortunately these convenient stores such as, Mini Stor on Crown’s Road, will slowly vanish as the lack of customers will increase their economic instability so that they will be unable to defend themselves against these superstore monsters.  

~ Giovanna Scozzari

St Philomena's Catholic High School for Girls