Over the past decade, the borough of Kingston upon Thames has been overwhelmed with masses of development proposals particularly within the centre of the town – with developments of the Royal Exchange, Seething Wells Filter beds, the Cambridge Road estate, Eden Campus, Tolworth Tower Clusters, Surrey County Hall and Cadbury Place Car park to name but some of the projects.

Development is an inexorable component of any urban area, especially in a growing town such as Kingston where housing is highly sought after with prices rapidly rising and where high-street retail is still hugely demanded. Urban development done right poses unique opportunities to generate jobs and economic growth, offer better livelihoods to residents, increase social inclusion, promote environmental protection of local and regional area, and reduce both poverty and inequality. However, development done wrong can cause increased property and living costs, gentrification, loss of green spaces and increased pollution, strain on infrastructure, over crowdedness, reduction in community areas, increased social exclusion and inequality, destruction of a towns visual appeal and overshadow its history. The line between beneficial and detrimental development is a fine one. The majority of the community of Kingston upon Thames are delighted to see plans to retain and improve the of Kingston and stand behind working towards a fair and sustainable scheme to manage urban issues but hope the vibrancy and history of the area are not lost through this process.

To maintain Kingston’s character, community groups such as the Kingston Residence Alliance (KRA) and other consultation groups have brought up criticisms with some of the proposed developments including the impact on the infrastructure, congestion, the history, visual appeal, and house prices in Kingston. The matter of the height of the buildings has taken much of the attention, with a petition set up to ‘reject plans for high-rise buildings in Kingston’ in 2016. The residents called for the refusal of high-rise buildings as they will ‘undermine a sense of place, overshadow the town's more human scale, and degrade the historic fabric that makes it such a beautiful and unique place’. It was pointed out that it may set an exemplar for further tall buildings in the future that will ‘change the character of the town forever’. There have been calls instead for low to mid-rise, mixed use buildings that fit with the surrounding context of the ancient market town which draw on environmentally friendly practices and materials, the provision of community spaces and the delivery of affordable housing.

Many of the original proposals have adapted original plans to fit the needs of the community. To solve the issue of increased congestion and strain on pre-existing infrastructure, the Surrey County Hall development carried out an assessment of all local services and the impact on these, and a reduction in the number of existing parking spaces to reduce the impact on the local road network. The number of storeys of many developments have been reduced – for the Eden Campus from 22 storeys to 16 storeys and Canbury Place Car Park from 25 storeys to 17 storeys – but many residents still believe these large buildings will severely impact the protected views of Kingston. Moreover, the renewed proposals with decreased storey height have subsequently caused the number of affordable homes and homes with multiple bedrooms in the developments to fall which is something of concern to residents who say the needs of the growing and diverse community of Kingston will not be met. What many of the proposals do offer are places for the community for retail and leisure and many developments claiming high sustainability for example Royal Exchange Developments green roofing and walls and Surrey County Hall’s promise of renewable energy, natural ventilation and rainwater attenuation.

Residents hope these developments will bring benefits not detriment to Kingston and the area be enhanced with the needs of the community also satisfied. Some remain uncertain on the impacts some of the developments may cause in the future.