More than £1million could be allocated towards compiling a study for developing the Swan Centre in Leatherhead, creating up to four new shops and improving the car park.

Mole Valley District Council’s scrutiny committee provisionally approved allocating up to £190,000 to commission a study for developing the shopping centre on Monday, June 12.

The council's executive will pass final decision later this month.

The committee also asked to release £1.115million from the Transform Leatherhead budget to spend on creating up to four new shops – costing £815,000 in total – and car park improvements worth £300,000.

The Transform Leatherhead project is expected to take up to ten years and cost £200million – funded by a local enterprise partnership between councils and businesses in south London, Surrey and Sussex.

From July: Mole Valley District Council approves '£200m' 10-year masterplan to transform Leatherhead

It also includes plans for a new urban quarter at Bull Hill and Red House Gardens, renovate Church Street and create a riverside park near Claire House and James House.

At the scrutiny committee meeting on Tuesday, Bookham North Councillor Metin Huseyin suggested that improving the car park could alleviate parking problems in other parts of the town.

“A lot of people don’t want to park in the (Swan Centre) car park (so they park elsewhere in the town),” he explained.

“This will relieve some of the parking issues we have in and around Leatherhead from people who don’t want to park there.”

From April: Ten-year £200 million masterplan to Transform Leatherhead gets underway next week

Councillor Margaret Cooksey also welcomed the proposals, especially the improvement of the shopping centre’s car park: “I’m not an expert on the Swan Centre, but I do know the car park is rubbish and I avoid it all costs.

“It scares me – both trying to get round it and trying to get up the ramps. There’s no space.

“I don’t like being in it. I don’t like trying to get out of it.”

She added: “It’s like being at Blackpool Pleasure Beach.”

The council's executive will meet on June 27 to formally decide whether to approve £1.115million for the four new shops and improvements to the car park

For more information on the project, visit www.transformleatherhead.com

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