By Ross Garrod, Mitcham

I have lived in Mitcham ever since my family decided to move to the area when I was very young.

I am, like many other Mitcham residents, very excited at the prospect of having our town centre improved to help create an attractive and vibrant place where we all want to visit and shop.

It is really important that residents get behind the Council’s regeneration project, as this is a once in a lifetime opportunity to shape the future of our historic town. It is therefore important that we get it right.

The consultation period should not be a time for posturing and tying to grab cheap headlines. We should be considerate of what will work and what is suitable for fellow Mitcham residents.

A knee jerk, wildly ambitious, and I would argue, unachievable dream of bringing a cinema to the town centre should not be allowed to distract fellow residents from the important decisions that need to be taken to make the area attractive to investors, businesses and most importantly residents.

The Council have acknowledged that the funding for the regeneration project is to be used on transforming the town centre through altering the road layout, improving the fair green and adding street furniture.

I do not see the budget, in the current economical time, for the Council to sell off council assets such as the Sibthorp Car Park to fund a cinema. The finances just don’t add up!

If the Council wish to use the finances set aside for the regeneration project to pursue the dream of a small-scale cinema that will struggle to make headway against bigger competitors in Wimbledon and Sutton rather than on the actual regeneration of the Town centre it will be an opportunity lost maybe for another generation.

I would urge the Council and residents to ignore the distraction and help support a better Mitcham – one that we can all be proud of.