Cllr Lesley Heap, New & Old Malden Neighbourhood Chair, said:
We were pleased that so many people took the time to take part in the initial engagement, both at our in person exhibition as well as online. I understand that the judging panel (using the feedback received and other success criteria to select the winner) was made up of key local voices, cementing our community in the decision-making process.
This is only the starting point for engagement, and the design team will be working with local stakeholders, residents, businesses, the council and councillors to take the winning concept and create a final design that truly displays the pride we feel in our town.
Exciting schemes like this help us to improve our public spaces and bring life into our high streets. As a council, we are focussed on placing history and heritage at the heart of our regeneration projects, which is why it’s lovely that we’ll be working with a local design team who really understand the uniqueness and vibrancy of New Malden.
Money from Section 106 and Neighbourhood Community Infrastructure Levy, which are collected from developers on qualifying developments, will be used for this next stage as important further engagement is carried out, and a final design is created. Proper governance procedures will be followed to agree the funding for construction of the project, as would be expected with any council spending. We expect this to take place over the coming months.
