Full Plans For Martlets Shopping Centre Are Revealed

So, today was the big day where the plans for the Martlets shopping centre were revealed to the public by NewRiver Retail.

They've owned the centre since 2010, in that time they've had many development plans but never actually submitted an official planning application to Mid Sussex District Council.

The public presentation was held in the empty shop unit previously occupied by the Man Shop. There was video playing on a projector which showed a computer generated tour of what the new centre could look like.

::UPDATED:: - Video Presentation
Can't see the video below? Visit this link - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VvSRJsgZRQ8


There were various posters with information on, but they weren't the easiest to make sense of. Thankfully a man was on hand to explain what''s happening in great detail.....



NewRiver Retail hope to submit a planning application in December of this year. They claim it's cost nearly £500k to put this plan together.

The highlights of the plan are....

• Lidl will be knocked down and relocated to the rear of Queens Crescent Car Park
• Argos will be relocated to the left of NewLook
• The Marlets Hall & Library will be knocked down
• A new library will be constructed over two floors nearer to the roadside of Civic Way
• Above the library will be a Travelodge hotel, more shops and housing.
• The multistorey car park will be turned into a tall block of housing with an underground car park for residents
• A convenience store (such as Sainsbury Local) will go in the place of Lidl, smaller in size, with a different orientation
• Shop units from Cafe Nazaar,Sussex Appliances all the way round to Truffles will be knocked down and reconfigured into a handful of larger retail units
• William Hill Interiors, Pulse, Iceland, Boomerang and all other units in that area will be demolished and resized to house larger retailers
• Only selected businesses will have a place in the reconfigured units
• The Martlets Heights building will be knocked down, seeing the departure of Heights Health Club, Apollo Lasertag and all the offices.
• In it's place will be shops with an 8 screen multiplex cinema above.

In a nutshell, imagine a bomb being dropped on the Martlets where everthing goes apart apart from a handful of shops. They literally are going to rip it all up and start again.




Public Exhibition
There's still time to see NewRiver's public display of the plans. They will be at the Martlets tomorrow from 10am - 4pm in the shop unit previously occupied by the Man Shop.

Got an opinion on this story? Leave a comment below.....
What do you think to the plans? Do you think it's going to be financially viable to rip pretty much everything up and start again? Do you think this could finally be the time we see the redevelopment of the Martlets?