Residents' Association
The Council has this week placed preservation orders on 11 trees within the site. We thank Mr Goode of Planning and Sustainable Regeneration Division within the Planning Department for registering these trees. We also thank the Whitgift Foundation for preserving these trees during the sales process.
Details of the TPOs (including a map at the end of the document) are below.
Croydon’s Housing Targets: Where are we as of March 2023?
Is Croydon building sufficient new homes – and the right mix of housing for Mayor Perry not to be reeled in by either Mayor Khan or the Department of Levelling Up, Housing and Communities?
The current target per annum agreed with Mayor Khan is 2,079 units starting in 2019 up to 2029. After 2029 Croydon Council are proposing around 1,200 units per annum until December 2040.
The last time I wrote on this was in December 2023 with March 2022 data and the Council was meeting these targets and in addition had a pipeline of 11,893units. You need a pipeline to show you are going to meet the targets in future. This data was published in the Annual Monitoring Report for 2021/2022.
I suspected that by December 2023 Croydon was well in excess of its targets given the number of blocks completed around East Croydon in that year. As I have said before, to me all this high rise development around East Croydon is on balance good.
We now have some new numbers. For the four years from the start of this plan cycle up to March 2023 Croydon has built 8,754 units vs a target of 8,316. This is 105% of the target. Well done Croydon Council in facilitating this.
To compare this with the whole of London, the London wide target is 52,287 units per annum. So for the four years the cumulative target is 209,148 and the actual completions are 145,444. So completions are 69.54% of the total. This puts Croydon’s performance in even better light. Especially as Croydon has the seventh highest housing target of all the 33 London boroughs and the highest for an outer London borough. However we should have a high target as we have East Croydon Station. Can you Spot it on the “Access Map”?
However how is Croydon doing in meeting its targets on affordable homes and family homes? The answer as of March2022 was – badly. For affordable homes the target is 50% and the current run rate is 17%. For family homes – homes with three bedrooms or more – the target is 30% and the current run rate is 16%. An update on these numbers to follow.
This is a follow up of the original piece here
Chris talked about the 4 Ps and 2 Cs
Policing
Chris was proud that the offender facial recognition system first rolled out in Croydon has now expanded nationally. He indicated that there is evidence offenders avoid Croydon to avoided being recognised and detained
Chris is working with the police to counter phone theft particularly from children in specific areas eg South Croydon Station. More police on the streets is the answer
An Eastern European gang has just been arrested for wholesale catalytic converter theft which should bring the incidences of this theft down.
Planning
Chris and Mayor Perry continue to reject applications fir the demolition of family homes to build flats.
Purley Pool
The planning application of the development of Purley Pool should be assessed by the Council later this year. The application does not contain as much parking as Chris would like but its the most Mayor Khan will allow under the current regulations for a site with such high levels of public transport infrastructure.
Purley Hospital
Services are increasing. It now contains a community diagnostic centre. It needs to be used.
Coulsdon Non-Profit banking centre
As there are no banks left in Coulsdon, Chris is working to set up one of the above. This will be one of 50 sponsored by the Government in the country.
Coulsdon Medical Centre
Chris is working to replace the old Cavat Classrooms with a Medical Centre
Chris answered the following questions
Q1 Will any of the old regime face any criminal convictions for the bankruptcy of Croydon Council
A1 Chris believes the four main individuals in charge were the Chief Executive, the Financial Director, the Head of Council and the Councillor for Finance. A file has been handed over to the police to see whether there is a possibility for Malfeasance in Public Office. But it is a high bar to cross.
Q2 Are the flats in the Centre of Croydon full!
A2 As far as Chris was aware they are full.
Q3 When will the old Nestle building be completed.
A3 Unfortunately it is owned by a Chinese developer who is having financing problems. Similar for the old Georges Walk Site.
Q4 Will the Purley Pool and Leisure Centre be self financing after completion.
A4 Yes experience from the existing leisure centers show they break even.
Q5 What about the Whitgift Centre development.
A6 It is hoped there will be a planning application early in 2025
The Local Plan provides an overall strategy, guides decisions on future development proposals and addresses the needs and opportunities of the borough over a 20 year time horizon. The Current plan was drawn up in 2018 by the Labour administration. The Plan must be consistent with the London wide plan and UK government planning guidelines.
Changes to the plan are being made to reflect Mayor Perry’s views on development which is called his “Business Plan 2022-2026”. Final consultation on these revisions will be taking place during Jan and Feb of 2024 and adopted later in the year. The main changes from the current plan – the 2018 plan are as follows.
In terms of Urban Design, the Mayor has already revoked SPD2 which the previous regime used to justify many inappropriate infill developments. The new recommendations are for the removal of all suburban intensification areas and the removal of 3 storey blanket policy. The Mayor will also promote design over density, respecting Croydon’s unique character and identity and allocate larger brownfield sites and sustainable locations to meet housing targets.
All this is much appreciated and a confirmation of what we have seen recently in Planning Committee decisions over the last 18 months.
However is Croydon building sufficient new homes – and the right mix of housing for these policies to continue and Mayor Perry not to be reeled in by either Mayor Khan or the Department of Levelling Up, Housing and Communities.
The current target per annum agreed with Mayor Khan is 2,079 units up to 2029 and Croydon Council are proposing around 1,200 per annum from 2029 until December 2040. The Council is currently meeting these targets and had a pipeline of 11,893 as of March 2022 – the last time figures were published.
I suspect Croydon is well in excess of its targets given the number of block completed around East Croydon in the last year. As I have said before, to me all this high rise development around East Croydon is on balance good.
However how is Croydon doing in meeting its targets on affordable homes and family homes. The answer is badly. For affordable homes the target is 50% and the current run rate is 17%. For family homes – homes with three bedrooms or more – the target is 30% and the current run rate is 16%.
Whilst Croydon is not alone in not meeting its targets I think these targets are worth trying to achieve. For example what is going to happen to all those 20 somethings living in the new 1 and 2 bed flats in the towers all around East Croydon. Are they all going to have to leave us when they turn into new families. And what about those people who cannot afford these new flats and there is insufficient affordable housing.
We at the CVRA will be raising these affordability and size issues in the January consultation. If there is anything else you would like us to raise, please get in touch.
The Council’s update document can be found below:
The Friends of Lloyd Park are consulting with local residents’ associations regarding the Council’s plan evolution of the park. Examples of questions are “do you want areas of the park where dogs have to be on leads?” and “do you want more events (such a music festivals) in the park.
It was a three minute survey for me (so probably a two minute survey for most) so if you are a user of the park or impacted by it please fill in the survey. The link , below.
A follow up from our MP Chris Philp.
Below is the email from Chris. I was concerned that the only thing we had heard from the police or MPs regarding this incident was from Croydon Central MP Sarah Jones who stated “The dogs have once again been seized and the local police are doing everything they can to ensure they don’t get released back to the owner.” So I asked Chris Philp MP to request an update from the police. The response is below. It says the investigation is ongoing under section 3 of the Dangerous Dogs Act 1991 and also that the courts will decide whether the dogs are released back to the owners. The fact that the courts will make the decision (which I believe is under the Dogs Act 1871 and is independent of a any proceedings under the 1991 Act) is, to me, reassuring.
Thank you Chris for this update
Dear Jeremy,
Following from our previous correspondence, I have now received a response from the Metropolitan Police. Please find a copy of this response attached for your reference which I do hope you find helpful.
“The South BCU take all dog related matters, that are reported directly to police, very seriously. Regardless whether we have a complaint that meets the threshold of an offence under s.3 of the Danger Dogs Act legislation or not.
We have a working practice were all irresponsible dog owners or owners of problematic dogs, will be engaged with, regardless of social background of the owner and the breed of dog involved. There is legalisation in place for police to deal with prohibited breeds, i.e. Pit bull terriers, Japanese Tosa, Dogo de Argentino and Fila Brasileiro and we will looked to enforce this piece of legislation where applicable.
The LEAD (Local Environmental Awareness on Dogs) Initiative is a police led initiative that deals with ALL dogs related incidents that do not meet the threshold of an offence under the Dangerous Dogs Act legislation. Through engagement and early intervention we, (and through working with partner agencies), offer intervention by way of police engagement regardless of the breed of dog and the social background of the owner. LEAD has highlighted that through early intervention we can prevent escalation. If during the process offences are highlighted or it is felt that enforcement is required, this will be taken. LEAD encourages partnership work and shares the responsibility/risk. LEAD helps in dealing with Safe Guarding communities.
LEAD is endorsed by Government departments (DEFRA) and Government ministers, National Dog Charities, RSPCA, Blue Cross, Battersea Dogs Home etc. While also being recognised as ‘Best Practice’
In relation to the community’s concerns in regards to the three Turkish Kangal Dogs linked to Coombe Farm. Firstly, and most importantly, ALL THREE DOGS are currently being held in secure police kennels and will be staying within police kennels until such time the courts have made a final decision.
We currently have two ongoing investigations into these dogs and their actions under s.3 of the Dangerous Dogs Act. One non-aggravated offence, (NO injuries caused to a person or Assistance dog) and an aggravated offence, (injuries Caused to a person or an assistance dog).
As these are still ongoing investigations you will understand that we are unable to quote on the matters at hand. But we can assure you that police are working diligently to uphold the legislation under the act, in a way that will protect and safeguard the local communities. However the final decisions will lie with the courts and it will be up to them to decide the final outcome on the evidence produced.”
Thank you again for taking the time to contact me and if I can be of any other assistance please let me know.
Kind regards,
Chris
Rt Hon Chris Philp MP
Member of Parliament for Croydon South
House of Commons, London SW1A 0AA
www.chrisphilp.com | @chrisphilp_mp
Would you use the proposed new pool in Purley? Would you go there by public transport? Do you currently use any of the four public pools currently in operation in the Borough? Would you prefer more affordable accommodation provided by the developer rather than a Leisure Centre?
The contentious issues surrounding the current plans are;
Well done to Councillor Denton, the developer and the Castlemaine resident who reported the mess in the first place.
For some reason the developer of 86 Coombe Lane had left a gap in the boundry wall. Over the last year this gap, around 2m by 2m, has filled up with rubbish (and worse) and became an eyesore and health hazard. Councillor Denton got involved and as you can see a fence has been put up. This might be a temporary solution but it has removed the eyesore. I said when this was built it was a nice looking block. It is again. Well done all.
Your Chairman went along to the 6 monthly meeting with the Planning Department (PD) earlier this month.
At the previous meeting, which was the first under the new administration of Mayor Perry, the whole meeting was spent talking about new build targets, the levels of completions against those targets and the adverse impact of the cumulative numbers of new developments on the availability of school places, transport and health services for residents in some of the other areas of Croydon. However there was less animosity as there had been at previous meetings as it was already apparent that the rate of approvals in the suburbs of Croydon was slowing down.
As I wrote at the time, listening to the complaints from other RAs made me realise that on balance most of us within Croham Valley had not been badly affected by the last administration’s desire to build so much in the suburbs of Croydon.
This time the PD gave us an update on the internal workings of the department and the plans over the next few years.
In 2022 the Department had been reviewed by the Government’s Planning Advisory Service (PAS) and the results have just been released. Not surprisingly the PAS stated that the department had somewhat fallen behind in processing applications as it had been under resourced (see below). In addition the PD had some bad practices and had lost the confidence of Croydon residents. The PAS did say however that the department was willing to learn.
The PAS made many recommendations;
I wondered whether some of the bad press the PD received was due to their poor IT.
The PD then went on to talk about enforcement. The council have a bad reputation for enforcement. The three new townhouses down Croham Road are three story but the plans said they should be four. This was reported over a year ago but no action has been taken and the townhouses are now occupied. As an aside we obviously prefer three stories but want to make the point that compliance is compliance.
Councillor Jeet Bains (Conservative – in charge of the Planning process) explained that Brent – a similar sized Council has many times the number of enforcement officers. We were told that recruiting the right type of people (someone ready to have a vigorous discussion) is difficult. Since May 2022 outstanding cases are down partly as a result of having a “no phone answering” session”.
The numbers since May 2022 are:
Cases outstanding then 1,350.
Now 1,100
Closed 800
New cases 550 (my calculation)
6 Enforcement Notices
2/3 Prosecutions
We did not have a chance to discuss the apparent low levels of enforcement notices/prosecutions compared to the number of cases closed. The Council acknowledged that it needed to publicise its successes, prioritise the big cases give more information of what is being enforced generally and going forward communicate progress a lot better.
A part of the discussion on Enforcement it was agreed that protecting trees was a priority and that both planning and enforcement officers would “drop everything” if it was reported a tree with a TPO was in danger. It was acknowledged however that the TPO details were on paper and should have been computerised by now in common with many other Councils.
Steve Pennington from the PD talked about planning policy in general.
The “Local Development Scheme” (LDS) which is the project plan for the planning policy process (if that makes sense) is out of date and is to be replaced. The new Scheme is to go to Cabinet in March. The timetable for the Local Plan Review is attached below.
The Local Plan Review (for consultation early next year) is to focus on;
The PD made the following comments
The last topic presented on by the PD was in terms of Validation of planning applications. This was one of the items of improvement mentioned by the PAS. Most of the changes suggested seemed common sense. Many changes were directed towards clarifying the requirements for small developments/extensions.
What was more interesting were the statistics regarding timing of approvals. In addition to individual decisions going to the Inspectorate if a desicion is not made within 8/13 weeks for a small/large application (if I am correct) I was not aware that the Inspectorate will start the process of making all decisions if a PD falls below 70% compliance for less than 8 week for small and 60% compliance within the 13 weeks (or longer if prior agreement with the developer) for large.
The PD stated that after significant extra work they are currently at 75% compliance for both small and large whereas in May 22 they were very close to breaching both targets. The RAs were appreciative that the PD had retained its own decision making abilities.
Overall I sensed a PD coming to terms with the new administration and seeming to enjoy the more relaxed relationships with the RAs arising from the policies of the new administration.