A packed residents’ meeting in Addington this week heard of developer plans to build 300 homes on Green Belt land at the bottom of Gravel Hill.
Conservative councillor Jason Cummings told an audience of more than 100 people at the annual meeting of the Addington Residents’ Association on Tuesday night that Persimmon Homes’ proposal to develop Huntingfield, the four fields between Addington Village bus and tram interchange and Featherbed Lane, was “a real enquiry”.
Persimmon Homes recently reported a 40 per cent increase in their sales over a year ago, which they attributed to the ConDem Government’s Help to Buy Scheme.
Addington residents resisted plans for a hypermarket on the site in the early 1980s and a Sainsbury’s in 1993, but even strong opposition this time around might not be enough to overcome the Conservative-led government’s national policy for house building.
The arrival of Tramlink, the expansion of the petrol station on Selsdon Park Road into a Marks and Spencer’s retail outlet, the decimation of the beeches in neighbouring Addington Park and the creation of a National Grid complex on one of the fields has all served to undermine the “green” feel to the area.
No formal planning application is yet with the local authority, but the residents are wary of a large development which would come close to linking suburban development from New Addington to Addington and Addington Village.
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Coming to Croydon
- David Lean Cinema: Blue Velvet, May 10
- Croydon Ecology Centre seeds and seedlings sale, May 11
- South Norwood local election hustings, May 12
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- Tales from Ancient Greece, Upper Norwood Library, May 29
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- Croydon Tech City “summit”, June 6
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- Classic Car Show at Purley Rotary Fields, June 22
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Forgive me if I’m wrong but isn’t that the Meads, Pollard, Cummings and Barwell stitched up by central government policy? Be interesting to see who they blame.
I am sure that this development will happen sooner or later. Croydon’s population has to go somewhere and families are crying out for affordable homes i.e. houses where children can play outside. Families cannot afford to move out of Croydon easily; everywhere around is more expensive.
All these tower blocks for single people are a population time bomb. History tells us that it is not long before groups of young people pair up, get married and have children – t’was ever thus! None of these tower blocks seem to have any serious provision for the developmental needs of young children, therefore they are going to have to go somewhere else; the North of the Borough has incredible population density; therefore, the developments will be somewhere that intrudes on Green Belt.
People have to live somewhere . How ever just building homes is not enough . The local community must have sufficient amenities. Nurseries , schools. medical facilities .ect The area that has to cope 300 houses has to also cope with a possible 1500 more people 600 vehicles are we really ready ?
I would expect any additional facilities needed for these residents to be assessed and made provision for before planning permission is granted.
That said, we desperately need affordable homes, by which I mean properties that people with an average family income can afford to buy or rent.