SO now we know. From around this time next year – CPO inquiry not withstanding – Croydon's flagship shopping centre will be bulldozed.
It won't open again for at least another 34 months.
That's a pretty scary thought, on the face of it. For three years, the centre of a borough which has 360,000 residents will, in effect, resemble a huge building site. It's hardly going to be an attractive destination for a while, that's for sure.
But if, as this newspaper does, you broadly support what this £1.5 billion scheme is going to bring to our town centre in the long-term then, frankly, what choice is there?
Westfield/Hammerson could have done this in stages, true, but that would have been just as – perhaps even more – disruptive and time consuming. Plus Westfield's John Burton is right to say the transformative effect and, to coin a horrid phrase, 'wow factor' of this will carry far greater weight if done in one big hit.
There is no point in complaining about what is likely to face Croydon from 2016 to 2019.
Rather, we should look ahead with optimism and excitement to the future and, most crucially in the meantime, do everything possible to help existing businesses and ensure this doesn't become Britain's biggest ghost town.
Get that right, and the short-term pain will be minimised, making the long-term gains all the sweeter.
Plenty of bodies have a role to play in this – certainly the council and groups like the FSB and Croydon Chamber of Commerce, but also the Croydon Business Improvement District (BID) who will go to ballot next year seeking a mandate for another five-year term.
Hopefully they will get the result they want, as Croydon will need a town centre body standing up for its businesses' interests more than ever over these next three years.
