Portland Square & Fox Street

PROJECT STATUS: Under development phase
REGENERATION STRAND: Town Centres & High Streets
ADDRESS: Portland Square, Sutton in Ashfield, NG17 1BA

Portland Square will be transformed into a contemporary public space that will attract more people to the town centre, improve connectivity within the key town areas, and create space for businesses to expand outdoors. 

The centrepiece of the ambitious plans, part of the £62.6m Towns Fund developments, is to create two urban green spaces to add nature back into the centre, while also providing a comfortable and friendly space for socialising.


Plans feature timber benches built into the walls of the planters, extra lighting, and CCTV cameras to deter anti-social behaviour, and space for pop-up food and drink stalls. The design will also provide increased pavement space outside the shops, to allow hospitality businesses to install outdoor furniture to make the most of the outdoor trading spaces.

Work is expected to start in spring 2024, with completion in autumn 2024.

The council is also redeveloping the brownfield site at nearby Fox Street as part of the Future High Street Fund Programme. The existing derelict site will be converted into a flexible outdoor space, capable of hosting markets, and events, with parking for cars, bicycles, and electric car charging facilities, when markets or events are not taking place.

The renovations will include cleaning and revealing the watercourse, new benches, streetlights and CCTV, and planting of trees and hedges to complement the work on Portland Square. These improvements will create a direct pedestrian friendly route from ASDA supermarket car park to Portland Square and the southern end of the town centre.

Improvements to Fox Street are expected to start in March 2024.

Keep up with developments on regeneration projects in our news section.