A developer has been chosen to build up to 300 new homes in Sutton town centre, but not everyone is happy with the plans.

In July, Sutton Council’s Housing, Economy, and Business Committee picked Lovell as the preferred developer to redevelop the Elm Grove estate, now called the Elm Grove Scheme.

The plan includes building 290 new homes, with half of them being affordable, in the area between Sutton High Street and Throwley Way.

The new homes will be designed to be eco-friendly, which means they will be more comfortable to live in, use less energy, and lower heating costs.

However, not everyone supports the plans.

A total of 22 objections have been submitted on the Sutton Council website, while only one vote of support for the plan has been submitted.

Many residents expressed how the plans would badly affect the much-loved grassroots music venue and restaurant The Sound Lounge in Sutton.

Sutton resident Rod Brooks said: “The owners of the Sound Lounge have advised that these plans would make their business no longer viable.

“With every opportunity to liaise with the owners, more should have been done to develop plans with preservation of this business in mind.

“Without the ability to store kegs they cannot operate a bar with beer lines and moving to bottle only would compromise all the work they have done to reduce tonnes of emissions.

“Losing storage areas would mean they would no longer have a flexible space which is what the event side of the business relies on and would reduce further their ability to generate income.

“They believe they would not be able to operate with the current plans proposed and have already fought back from a difficult financial position which has and continues to threaten the closure of grass roots music venues across the UK.”

Carshalton resident Doug Shaw said The Sound Lounge was a vital community asset but would no longer be usable under the plans.

He said: “I know so many people who rely on the Sound Lounge, not just for the excellent grass roots live music, but also for a sense of belonging, friendship, and safety.

“The plans must allow this place to thrive - and currently the plans simply don't work in this respect.

“The loss of outdoor storage space in particular will limit operations so far as to make them unviable.”

Anita Bradford, another Sutton resident, said the plans would give Sutton a “Croydon look” while Janette Kadriu felt there is “no need to build high rise buildings where there is infrastructure missing”.

Janette said: “The council should be supporting independent vendors and not push them out of business.”

Councillor Jake Short, chair of Sutton’s Housing, Economy & Business Committee, said: “This is a really exciting step forward in the council’s plans to build new quality and affordable homes for our residents in the heart of Sutton town centre.

“Our new council homes across the borough have already been recognised for their high design and environmental standards.

“The selection of an experienced development partner means our goal to deliver incredible homes and open spaces for Elm Grove residents can now move to the next stage.

“We have been driven by what Elm Grove residents want their future homes to look like and now this vision is set to become a reality with construction works currently scheduled to start early summer 2025.”

Sutton Council’s planning committee will discuss the plans further on Wednesday (September 4).