Croydon Westfield shopping centre plan delayed by 'review'

The Croydon Westfield shopping project is a joint venture by developers Westfield and Hammerson

A decision to delay the building of a Westfield shopping complex in south London has been called a "disaster".

One of the Croydon project's two developers said it was carrying out a review in the face of "a rapidly changing UK market".

A spokesman for Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield (URW) could not say how long the review would take.

The leader of Croydon Council Tony Newman urged them to share their findings "at the earliest" opportunity.

But Croydon Conservative group leader Tim Pollard said: "This is a disaster for our town and represents a real town centre emergency."

The Whitgift Centre in Croydon was expected to be demolished and replaced with a Westfield complex

Croydon Westfield was planned to replace the town's Whitgift Centre with backers boasting it would create 7,000 jobs.

Work to demolish the old shopping mall was first postponed in 2018, but it was expected to get under way in November 2019, with Westfield opening in 2023.

Dan Grosset, who runs Playnation Games, has been moved three times to make way for Westfield.

He said: "The council should make a go of it themselves and regenerate the Whitgift Centre.

"There's a lot of grassroots businesses here and they could have a bespoke high street in no time."

A question mark once more hangs over the future of Croydon's retail future

In its latest financial report, URW said Croydon Westfield had been removed from its development pipeline.

But in a statement the Croydon Partnership, which represents URW and its partners Hammerson, said both "remained confident in Croydon as a destination and its potential for mixed-use development".

The review would reassess the amount of viable retail space alongside hotels, office and residential space.

Croydon Council's Conservative group is demanding an emergency meeting to discuss the latest delay.

Mr Pollard said they needed to "find out what the council's plan B might be, if this is not going to happen".

He said while stores and local businesses were doing their best, "it is impossible to hide the decay at the heart of our retail offer".

Mr Newman said he was expecting to meet Westfield representatives in the next couple of weeks.

"We will be pressing them for details of their new plans and their timescales for the project," he said.