Menta's original vision for East Croydon: you won't be able to notice the lack of parking spaces, or any consideration given to existing, low-rise homes in the area
Some bad news as far as Oscar Dahling and James Hogg, the self-appointed local representatives for the Mental Towers, are concerned.
Hogg and Dahling, who some suspect to be readying themselves to run as developer-friendly Conservative candidates on Croydon Council, won’t like the press release issued from City Hall this afternoon.
Assembly Member Darren Johnson, from the Green Party and the deputy chairman of the London Assembly’s environment committee, has taken a disliking to the proposal to build Britain’s tallest residential tower besides the railway tracks at East Croydon.
“The Mayor of London’s decision to nod through a 55-storey residential tower block in Croydon without any affordable housing in it has been awarded the coveted annual Dodgy Planning Award by Darren Johnson AM,” says his office’s press release.
“The Menta Tower will see 48 social rented homes demolished and replaced with a smaller number of affordable homes on a separate site, comprising only 10 per cent of the total homes in the development, and split in half between homes let at ‘affordable rents’ that are higher than social rents and half sold on the shared ownership scheme.”
Johnson (Darren, rather than the bumbling former Bullingdon Club member who is London’s part-time Mayor) has clearly taken a disliking to the Mental Tower, which local Conservative MP Gavin Barwell also opposed.
Take Our Poll“The Mayor should never have waved this tower block through,” Darren Johnson said. “It will loom over local residents, most of whom will be unable to afford a flat in the tower. Croydon will be left with a towering symbol of our failed housing policies that have priced so many out of buying or renting a secure, affordable home.
“Having lost two-thirds of his affordable housing budget, the Mayor will be faced with more and more planning applications for homes most Londoners can’t afford.”
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