The on-off plans to completely overhaul London’s Elephant & Castle area appear to be going ahead again, after Southwark Council approved a £1.5bn regeneration scheme for 170 acres of the much-maligned area.

The last serious proposals – put forward by Southwark Land Regeneration -were rejected by the council back in April 2002, due to disputes over who should profit from the scheme and to what extent. That led to the tortuous process of starting a new search for commercial partners, which in turn resulted in a consortium being put together to spearhead the project, with Foster & Partners, Tibbalds TM2, Gehl Architects and Space Syntax all involved in the design work.

Finally, the ‘Framework for Development’ as the project is now called, was given the approval of the council's executive committee last week, which now paves the way for work to start in earnest.

It’s certainly something that the local residents want to see, at least according to a questionnaire completed as part of the proposal process – 80% of those who filled in the form gave their backing to the regeneration plans.

The framework makes several recommendations for the future of the Town Centre in Elephant & Castle, including the removal of the Heygate estate and shopping centre, a re-design of the traffic system to prioritize public transport, the creation of a new civic square and extension of the main shopping precinct, Walworth Road, to provide 807,300 sq ft (75,000 sq m) retail and leisure space.

Catherine Bowman, executive member for regeneration and economic development at Southwark Council, said: “The regeneration of Elephant and Castle has been talked about for years, but never before have the plans and proposals reached this advanced stage. By adopting this framework and grounding it in the planning policy for the area, we now have a watertight proposal that is both ambitious and achievable.”