Sutton Court Road B&Q to close next week

The store on Sutton Court Road will close its doors June 8 and it will later be transformed into a residential development following planning permission approval in December, 2023.

B&Q opened a new store on Sutton High Street last year, but this is a smaller “local” store.

According to previous reports by the Local Democracy Reporting Service, the project includes eight blocks of flats, 337 of which will be affordable homes, within the 970-flat establishment.

Tower heights range from six to 21 floors.

The development features 786sqm of open space, accommodating new shops and a public park named Chalk Green.

Both residents and the public gain from a new cycle pathway cutting through the site.

St George, the developers, stated the development will "transform the formerly sterile B&Q site" by linking the green spaces of Manor Park to the north and the Warren Recreation Ground to the east.

During the approval of the plans, Lib Dem councillor and committee chair Richard Clifton highlighted the borough’s housing crisis as his key reason for supporting the development.

He said: “Currently 970 Sutton families are homeless and living in B&B accommodation and that number is rising and is forecasted to grow.

"There are 2,600 families on Sutton’s housing register, the solution to that is more housing. It will not be left vacant, here’s my £20 that says it will be used for housing and these new homes have to go somewhere.”

Before moving to the vote, he added: “It isn’t the price of the 337 homes that’s important, it is that the council will have the nomination rights to put in there the people from the housing register who are in difficult circumstances.”

Proposed plans for the Sutton Station B&Q site were first pitched in late 2020 but were later scaled back before they were approved in 2023.

The modifications included a reduction in the number of homes and parking spaces after objections during the planning process.

Concerns about overflow parking were the main focus of objections about the plans when attendees of the planning meeting criticised the limited number of proposed parking spaces, expressing concerns that this would lead to in overflow parking on nearby streets.

The plans secured five supportive votes, four opposing votes and one abstention.

Construction on the new site is expected to last ten years, offering an average of 200 job opportunities at a time, with "peak construction" potentially providing up to 290 positions.

The decision to sell the retail site, including its underground car park, came after “poor business performance”, prompting B&Q to focus on its high street branch instead.

A spokesperson for B&Q commented: “Due to unsuccessful negotiations to renew the lease at our Sutton Court Road store we will be closing our doors on 8 June 2024.

“In preparation for this closure and to ensure we can continue to serve local residents, last year we opened a B&Q Local store on Sutton High Street where customers can continue to shop for all their home improvement needs.

“In addition to our new Sutton store, we have recently opened nine other B&Q Local stores across London at: Holloway Road, Wandsworth, Tooting, Wood Green, Harrow, Streatham, Camden, Palmers Green, and Staines and new store openings remain at the heart of our retail growth strategy.”