Beckenham working party looking again at improvements for High Street. (From News Shopper)

Beckenham working party looking again at improvements for High Street.

12:01pm Monday 6th February 2012 in News By Rachel Conner

FOLLOWING Beckenham’s failure to attract funding from the Mayor’s Outer London Fund [OLF] councillors will be looking again at ways of improving the town.

A working party has been reconvened and will meet on February 9 to look at what changes need to be made to the bid submitted for the OLF.

Portfolio holder for renewal and recreation Councillor Peter Morgan says the plans are likely to be quite similar to previous ones, but shared space proposals, which would remove kerbs and barriers separating traffic and pedestrians, are likely to be scrapped due to unpopularity.

Suggestions for improvements include getting new street lighting for the High Street, removing street clutter such as poles and railings, and changes to shop fronts.

A suggestion has also been put forward to buy an area of wasteland at the rear of 86-132 Beckenham High Street, known as Stables Town Green, to turn into a park.

The group will present their plans to the Renewal and Recreation committee in March and hope to conduct a study and traffic survey in the summer before making an application to Transport for London [TFL] for funding.

If the application is successful work should start by 2013.