Councillors on South Lanarkshire’s planning committee unanimously approved the application for redevelopment of the Centre West site.
East Kilbride’s town centre transformation has taken a major step forward with the granting of planning permission in principle for up to 270 homes and a new civic building in place of Centre West.
Councillors on South Lanarkshire’s planning committee this week unanimously approved the application for redevelopment of the shopping centre site into a residential area, along with accompanying retail and healthcare spaces and a building for “assembly and leisure”.
Full details and plans for the homes and other facilities will later be submitted and approved through a series of subsequent planning applications, while early-stage demolition work is underway at the vacated shopping centre site after ownership passed to the council in December.
The approved proposal states that the shopping centre site will be transformed with “between 229 [and] 270 residential units”, plus around 890 square metres commercial space for uses including food and drink, retail and healthcare, and approximately 7000 square metres for the civic building.
Accompanying site layout illustrations indicate seven design zones within the site – with the civic hub shown allocated to the Queensway side of the site, closest to the remaining shopping malls, while the rest are allocated for the residential development.
It will include affordable housing and “an informal children’s play area for residents”, and detailed property designs will form part of later detailed planning applications along with information including parking and electric vehicle charging, pedestrian connections, construction traffic, waste, landscaping and lighting.
Councillors agreed with the planning recommendation that legal agreements are put in place regarding both developer contributions to local education provision to serve the new homes, and to determine the level of on-site affordable housing provision.
The planned civic hub is described as having “the potential to incorporate a number of functions such as a public hall, theatre, community centre, library and offices”, and the later full planning application will include details of its proposed uses and operation, opening hours, accessibility and car parking.
Centre West’s demolition and repurposing forms part of a major masterplan for redeveloping the town centre, which South Lanarkshire Council say will “enhance the physical fabric, vibrancy and feel of the town centre, delivering a high-quality urban environment”.
Planning committee members were told at their meeting: “This relates to the now-vacated Centre West; this applications is residential-led but seeks permission for a variety of uses, all of which are appropriate to a town-centre location.
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“This permission in principle will establish parameters and design principles which provides a degree of certainty against which future schemes and investment proposals can be progressed; there were no objections to the application.”
Centre West is the newest part of the town centre shopping complex having been was completed in 2003, and a report for councillors noted: “The shopping centre entered administration in 2022 where administrators were appointed and earlier this year, ownership passed to South Lanarkshire Council.”
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It added: “Demolition is only supported when appropriate justification can be provided.
“The shopping centre has seen a significant decline in usage over recent years due to changes in customer habits; while re-use of the existing building has been investigated, this has been shown to be economically unviable due to the costs of refurbishment to make [it] fit for purpose and meet sustainability requirements.”
Public access through Centre West ceased earlier this month, with shopping centre operators EK, East Kilbride posting on social media that this is “to allow for demolition works to progress”.
They added: “Access to the centre from Rothesay Street will now be through our new Plaza entrance.
“Access to Centre West from Plaza will remain open but will be limited to customers using Superdrug who continue to trade in Centre West until their relocation to Plaza in May.”
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