Category: Chairmans’ Chat

Chairman’s Review of 2025

 

Development in the CVRA Area
There has been no inappropriate housing development in the area this year.
Once again this is good news. We have objected to the new fence at Coombe Wood School in Melville as it is too high (2.5m instead of 2m) and makes the site look like a prison.
We have also asked our Councillors to object to the new mast planned for the middle of Croham Road outside the Old Palace Site. Whilst this is permitted development, the rules state that existing sites must be used if close by and there is an existing mast close by in the woods behind Benchfield. The fact that the operator has concerns that they will not be able to convert the existing 3G mast into a 4/4G mast by the cut off of 31 December seems to me to be their problem not ours.

Croydon Council’s Overall Planning Policy
Last year I wrote that Croydon’s housing completions were at 105% of its
target for the first four years of the current planning cycle. Now after 5 years we are at 106% of our target. Overall in London the target is again nowhere near being met. Once again well done Croydon. Obviously these targets have been met by building in the centre of the Borough. However the sub-targets for affordable housing and family homes are not being met.

The Labour Government’s and GLA’s Planning Policies
Mayor Khan is proposing a 70% increase in targets for the next planning cycle starting in 2027. To reach this new target there will be more higher rise buildings, greater density and use of the green belt. The proposal to use green belt land in the 2027 London Plan is the 1st time the London Plan has
explicitly stated that the targets cannot be achieved without the use of green belt. Croydon Council’s response to this consultation is set out in the Croydon Growth Plan 2025. It states that increased targets can be met by building within the town centre, by using brownfield sites and also within the current urban footprint. Specifically the Croydon Growth Plan 2025 states that using green belt land undermines brownfield development.
However my worry is that the only way to get anywhere near our family homes target will be for the next administration of whatever hue to build on
the “lesser value” Greenbelt of which we have some of in our valley.

Old Palace Junior School
Last year I stated that the Whitgift Foundation had assured us that they were not looking to maximise profits on the sale of the site but to find a suitable buyer. I was sceptical that a suitable buyer could be found as I thought the site was too big for a more specialised educational provider such as a special school. Well we now know that the site has been bought by a Hindu Fellowship for the majority of it to be used as a Sunday School. We met with The Fellowship in early Summer. They stated that their plans were to get rid of some of the newer buildings in the middle of the site to create car parking and to retain the older buildings and green space for the school. We are waiting to see their plans. They say they have sufficient funds to properly maintain the buildings However I am concerned that such a prominent site is not being used more.

The Limes Building in Melville at the top of Ballater Road
This building has been let by the Hindu Fellowship to the Maypole School
Group and is now being used as a special school. We worked with the school
over the Summer to help them progress the application for their reasonably
planned security fence through the planning department. They have also
tidied up the site and we are happy to have them as neighbours.

Lloyd Park Bowling Green
The latest Council Plan for the site was to lease it commercially to be used as
Padel Courts. It is admirable for the Council to be trying to maximise revenue from its assets but I can’t see how the noise and flooodlights is compatible with it sitting within the Greenbelt. Owen Williams is continuing to nudge the Council towards the correct outcome.
Heathfield House Earlier this year the Council seemed to be looking to sell off Heathfield House on a long lease. There was an online petition against the sale and the plan was dropped. Given the Council’s need for cash I am not sure it is a bad idea to sell off the building with part of the current gardens appropriate to the size of the buildings, say ⅓ of an acre. This will leave the majority of the land free for public access and let some new owners restore the house back to what it should be.

A thank you to everybody who has helped this year. David is moving out of the area so an especially big thank you to David for all the hard work on planning over many years. You will be missed. If there is anyone interested in helping to continue David’s work please get in contact.

Jeremy Gill 29 October 2025

Future of Heathfield House

We arequesting your views on what Croydon Council should do about Heathfield House.
As you will know the Council recently listed the house plus a very limited amount of land around it for sale for offers over £1 million. There was significant opposition and for whatever reason the Council cancelled the sale.
A petition against the sale received over 2,000 signatures. The petition stated the following;
“Community groups have demonstrated how Heathfield House could be used for public benefit, yet have been ignored despite precedent at locations like Beckenham Place Mansion. Community groups now stand little chance against the open market.”
And they want  to “initiate immediate and long overdue talks with the community and heritage experts about community use and/or purchase”.
The Council had been letting the building to Cressey College in 2020 for use as a special needs school but that arrangement failed as the College wanted to install a fence around the house and part of the site. According to “Inside Croydon” the fence would be 9 feet high.
It is our view that the site is big enough for both a special needs school with dedicated land around the back of it and community use of the rest of the site.  Letting out a small part of the site would provide an income stream to maintain and use the other buildings and the rest of the site for community use.
What are your views?
Please reply via cvra.org.uk

Meeting with the Hindu Fellowship – 12th March 2025

Meeting with The Hindu Fellowship, the new owners of the ex-Old Palace School site on the 14th March 2025.

A few of us met with one of trustees and some of the local members of the fellowship to hear their plans for the site.

They intend to use all bar The Limes as a Sunday school and they are in discussions with Croydon Council to let out The Limes as a special needs school to an independent organisation.
The Limes is the part of the site at the top of Ballater. When the site was  Croham Hurst School, The Limes was the junior school.
The Fellowship said there would be about 100 children each Sunday at the Sunday school and about the same number of parents. They were attracted to the site as the sports facilities would help them provide a more varied day for the children.
They were looking to increase parking on the site but wanted to retain all the sports facilities and the classrooms and will be starting discussions with Croydon Council soon.
Apart from two or three events during Diwali there would be no religious celebrations at the site.
The Fellowship also run a school in Chigwell. This will be their second school in London. They are looking for the site to be used by the local community on a non-commercial basis as much as possible with the caveat that any visitors to the site must respect their views on alcohol and diet. This seems very reasonable.
Overall we were very happy with their initial plans. There woul be a follow up meeting in about six months when they had progressed their plans.
The Fellowship pointed out that the Whitgift Foundation spent a considerable amount of time vetting them during the sale process. We thank the Foundation for finding such suitable new owners.

Purley Pool: Second Planning Application

Seven local Residents’ Associations (RAs) in and around the Purley area have got together to look at the controversial planning application from Polaska to demolish the multi-storey car park and current closed leisure centre in Purley, and to erect new buildings of 5 to 12 storeys high and to build a new leisure centre, an Integrated Retirement Community comprising a mix of Specialist Older Persons Housing and Care Accommodation for older people, car parking, and associated works.

Whilst all the RAs are very keen to see a new leisure centre built in Purley, serving our area, we believe this should not be at any cost.  In addition, to our concerns about the financial stability of the developer and the height of the buildings, which do not comply with the current Croydon Local Plan, we are particularly concerned about the loss of the 424 car parking spaces currently available in the public multi-storey town centre car park, serving the town.

In the new development, there will only be 50 parking spaces available for public use, including 5 disabled parking bays. There will also be 28 parking spaces available for the Integrated Retirement Community, including 4 disabled spaces which, although initially will be available for public use, will revert to the Retirement Community once the apartments have been built and occupied, if they need them. Effectively, this means there will not be an increase in the number of car parking spaces from the previous plans submitted. There will only be 50 public spaces in comparison to the current 424 spaces. The RAs believe some of these 50 spaces will also be reserved for electric vehicle charging, as well as 5 disabled spaces. There will be no priority for users of the leisure centre.

Additionally, planning permission has been granted for the redevelopment of the Purley railway station car park for 238 flats and up to 9 storeys high, plus a new smaller station car park, which is also on Whytecliffe Road South. We believe the loss of the 374 spaces from the multi-storey car park together with the reduction of spaces available after the development of the Purley Station site will surely have a significantly detrimental effect on the retail trade in Purley Town Centre. We know Purley has excellent public transport links, but we also know that many of the surrounding areas containing the customers who come to Purley, do not.

This belief is amplified by the parking projections in the application which show there is a deficit of 14 spaces at peak time in Purley once the 374 spaces are gone. This assumes the Tesco Car Park will not be available to take the users currently using the multi-storey, an eventuality the Council admits is a possibility in the long term.  Of course, these figures do not include future users of the leisure Centre (which has been closed since 2020), or the increase in the number of patients using Purley Hospital.  There has been a large increase in the diagnostics at the hospital with a resulting increase in patient numbers, many of whom will need to drive there, and at a time when the hospital has reduced its parking spaces available.

Additionally, a new significantly larger Mosque is currently being built on Whytecliffe Road South. When planning permission was granted in March 2021, it was inferred in the reports that their members would be able to park in the Purley multi-storey car park, the Purley station car park and Tesco car park. This will not be the case for this much reduced Council car park.

The seven RAs believe it is very difficult to see how there will be sufficient parking spaces for the users of the leisure centre, hospital, railway station and Mosque, in addition to people wanting to eat and shop in the town after the completion of all these developments and we believe it could be the ‘death Knell’ for some shops and restaurants in Purley town centre, through lack of custom. Also, can the leisure centre be viable with so little prioritised parking?

Please consider objecting to these new proposals by midnight on Thursday 6 February 2025 on this link to the Croydon Council’s planning website; 

https://publicaccess3.croydon.gov.uk/online-applications/applicationDetails.do?keyVal=S9U0INJLKLR00&activeTab=summary

 

Riddlesdown RA, Hartley & District RA, East Coulsdon RA, Selsdon RA, 

Croham Valley RA, Old Coulsdon RA, Coulsdon West RA

Tree Preservation Orders for 11 trees in the Old Palace Junior School site

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.

TPOdetails

Croydon’s Housing Targets:  Where are we?

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”?This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is jeremy-target01-1.jpg

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 comes to at our 2024 AGM

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

 

Details of call with Helen Gough, Director of Property for the Whitgift Foundation

I sent a mail to the Whitgift Foundation saying some residents wanted to have a meeting about the covenants I received a reply  from Helen Gough suggesting we had a chat.  So I called.
I said that we, the residents of the Croham Park Estate (the land sold by the Whitgift Foundation to Donald Young in  October 1905 comprising Castlemaine, Melville, Pilgrims Way and the parts of Coombe and Croham between them);
– were aware of the restrictive covenants on the land
– believed them to be still relevant as the nature of the core of the estate has not changed significantly.
– would like any purchaser to take into account our views whilst making plans for the site.
– we were happy to be relatively flexible.
Helen said the following;
– the WF had taken extensive legal advice regarding the covenant without giving any indication as to what that advice was.
– our concerns would be passed onto any potential buyers of the site and she was sure they would want to get in contact in due course.
– in fairness to remaining pupils the marketing of the site will only progress after the Summer Term finishes
– the main outcome for the WH was to maximise the benefit for the WF, this was not necessarily the same as maximising sale proceeds.
– they had not ruled out selling to another educational organisation
Helen said that the WF were logging all interaction with interested parties.  She gave an example of a call to the WF expressing concern about the retention of the stained glass windows in one of the buildings.
I I propose we do nothing more for now (except to ask the Council for TPOs).  The WH knows we are concerned and are aware of the covenants. They will pass on our concerns to any purchaser.

Croydon Development Plan Revisions – What do you think?

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:

Plan Revision Document

Consultation on the Lloyd Park bowling green and the Council’s plan for the evolution of the park

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.

CVRA survey about Lloyd Park Bowling Green and Croydon Plan for Lloyd Park with Frequency of Park usage