Trashing the place appears to be the new Croydon past time.
The scene of the “rave” at Latitude 25, the afternoon after the morning before
After our report of the mindless vandalism in Wandle Park, news reaches Inside Croydon Towers of a how a “rave” over new year has left one of the “luxury apartments” wrecked in Latitude 25.
Latitude 25 is the low-rise bit of the Altitude 25 development. Despite being Croydon’s tallest residential tower block, some five years after opening it still cannot sell or rent out many of what property developers like to call “luxury apartments” aimed at the Yuppie-types that Croydon Council is so keen to attract into central Croydon (Gerrymandering, anyone?), and with little or no interest anymore from the buy-to-let sector, the majority of the properties have been left empty.
Locals are beginning to think that the “25” bit of the development’s title actually stands for the occupancy rate: 25 per cent.
With so few flats rented out or sold, the owners have resorted to short-term lets, even as party venues, often for just £65 per night for a let of just a few days. The cost of repair of this apartment must make this seem like a much less attractive proposition.
Other residents at Latitude 25 say that they were frightened on Monday night and into the first few hours of 2013. Fire extinguishers were used as battering rams on doors and the fire alarms were set off during the “party” attended by an estimated 70 people.
A whole window was removed from an apartment and bottles tossed out from the “executive” flat. Broken glass was strewn over the grass outside. Blood stains are to be seen in the apartment and in the building. The police were called to attend the disturbance.
The “apartment got trashed badly, girls moving mad, boys having fights, equipment being stolen & girls fighting too”, said MadJ, an events organiser, on Twitter.
“We are frightened by what happened,” one very nervous resident, who asked not to be named, said.
“There are blood stains everywhere in the building. Huge amounts of broken glass bottles were strewn in the rooms, the landings and in the stairwell. Thousands of pounds worth of damage has been done by the rave.”
Clearly too much Latitude has been given in the short-term letting of the building.
The building might be treated with more respect if the council rented rooms at Altitude 25 at a cheaper rate than they pay for their scandalous B&B provision for the borough’s homeless.
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- Inside Croydon: For comment and analysis about Croydon, from inside Croydon
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Croydon Council has the power to requisition these flats and let them.
But it won’t offend the Tory Taliban in the south of the borough by moving homeless folk into Yuppie pieds-a-terre, nor will it risk upsetting its developer chums with their get-rich-quick schemes for other sites in the town centre.
Instead it is content to ask a none-too-cuddly-sounding Dudley Mead to make apologetic noises on BBC national radio.
Our Dud blamed inner London councils for bagging all the spare accommodation in Croydon, thus creating excessive demand in which landlords are able to raise rents.
You wouldn’t think Councillor Mead was a retired accountant: someone who knows better than most how markets work; someone who might reasonably have anticipated the problem before it became a crisis.
Maybe Dudley was too preoccupied cosseting the loss-making Fairfield arts complex to worry about people in bed and breakfast.
The article says the police were called. Did they turn up? Were any arrests made?
Yes and no.
Surely the developers of Saffron Square, Menta (smirk), etc would look at Altitude 25 and realise Croydon doesn’t need “luxury” overpriced flats, but affordable homes? It doesn’t take a genius to see that.
The council really are a disgrace.
Its a shame how i heard of this late. Do you have any update of this issue?
Letting Agency Camden