A £40 MILLION plan to upgrade Redhill railway station with a Waitrose supermarket and 150 new homes has been submitted to Reigate and Banstead Borough Council.
The food store will be similar in scale to that of the Waitrose in Horley and have its own 193-space car park.
The homes, if approved, would comprise a mix of one and two-bedroom apartments.
The detailed proposals also outline plans to build a 450-space multi-storey car park on site, a new public square, drop-off points at both station entrances as well as a taxi rank, and to increase the size of the station and to provide more ticketing facilities
It comes almost a year after the Mirror first reported plans for the major upgrade, which is also set to create more than 200 jobs in the town.
Edward Pearce, development manager at Solum Regeneration – a partnership between Network Rail and Kier Property – said: "It is widely recognised that the area around Redhill station is in need of investment and improvement.
"This development will radically enhance the station area and create a gateway into the town of which it can be proud and help in regenerating this part of the town centre."
A public consultation in preparation for the planning application was carried out last year, with developers keen to make the plans as attractive as possible to both residents and councillors
According to Solum bosses, who are working with staff at train firm Southern, which manages the station, 66 per cent of people who cast their views during the two-day public exhibition approved of the plans.
And news that Waitrose has finally been confirmed as the project's retail partner comes just a week after borough councillor Natalie Bramhall said she wasn't confident that separate plans to build an ASDA in the town would ever happen.
Nigel Keen, Waitrose's director of development, said: "Waitrose has a long-standing ambition to open in the town and our proposals for a quality food store would bring substantial benefits to local people, including improved choice and up to 180 new jobs."
While no date has been set for the completion of the build, if the scheme is approved Solum hope to start work in early 2014.
