BARRATT HOLMES, housing correspondent, reports on the latest planning mystery at the cash-strapped council
Planning permission: how the Coombe Road site is being marketed by Saviles
The scrap of open space at the junction of Edridge Road and Coombe Road, next to heritage-listed building Ruskin House, is set to be auctioned off next week with a guide price of £550,000.
It is one of the council-owned sites which were transferred – often at waaay below true market value – to the council-owned house-builders, Brick by Brick. But local objections to development on one of the few green spaces in Fairfield ward, and the collapse of the council’s finances, thanks in large part to the failures of Brick by Brick, meant that they never got as far as sending in the bulldozers.
But that could now all change, with a different set of developers, depending on the outcome of a property auction next Wednesday.
The small plot of land is being offered with planning permission to squeeze four houses on to the site – one four-bed and three three-bedroomed houses.
Except Croydon Council’s own planning portal states that the status of the application for the site is “pending”.
The meeting that never was: how the council’s own website shows that the June 13 meeting did not go ahead
The planning application was submitted in February this year by Regent Land and Developments Ltd, a company with offices in South Croydon, whose sole director is Patrick Maher.
The application for the terrace of houses like something off the set of Coronation Street was supposed to be considered at a planning sub-committee meeting in June. But that meeting was cancelled.
The planning committee used to be so very busy that it would meet once a fortnight, with agendas jam-packed with proposals, some better than others. Members of the public, councillors and even MPs would be allowed to speak (albeit briefly) in support or opposition to planning applications.
But with the deeply dense Michael Neal, an old mate of Mayor Jason Perry, now installed as the £25,000 per year chair of planning, the committee hardly meets at all.
Coronation Street: the tightly packed four houses on the small patch of land, as shown in the application document
Croydon Council’s planning committee under Councillor Neal has met only three times since mid-May, and apart from the cancelled June meeting, the planning application for the Coombe Road plot has not been on the agenda for any of them.
Nor is it on the agenda for the next scheduled meeting, which is not until the end of this month.
With the planning committee barely operational under Neal, many applications are now being signed off in private by council planning officials, without the benefit of any public scrutiny. But the Coombe Road plot does not appear in any of the copious volumes of summaries of application approvals given under these delegated powers, either.
According to the planning department’s report on the application – in which council staff recommended approval – the scheme drew unanimous opposition from local residents, and not a single comment in support. All three Faireild ward councillors – Labour and Green – objected, giving a variety of reasons including “loss of open space”, “adverse impact on neighbouring heritage building, Ruskin House” and “concern around the development being dense”.
One councillor, Esther Sutton, wrote, “Residents are very concerned about the loss of an existing green space and four trees.
“Proposed development is quite dense, and out of keeping of the surrounding area being next to Ruskin House, a Grade II-listed building.”
The application was “called-in” by Chris Clark, a former Labour chair of planning, and Green councillor Ria Patel, meaning that they exercised their duties as Fairfield ward councillors to have the matter discussed in public. That has never happened.
Yet according to Savills Property Auctions, who are handling next week’s sale, the Coombe Road site has “Planning permission to build four contemporary new build houses”. It is, says Saviles, a “development opportunity”. Indeed!
Savills description of the site reads: “A broadly triangular and level plot of land with a site area of approximately 0.16 acres. There is a wide road frontage to Coombe Road, with a second frontage to Edridge Road.”
Blockheads: the council’s report even shows how the previous BxB scheme (outlined in red), which they granted permission for, was too large and inappropriate for the site
The site is offered as freehold. “Planning permission was granted (under reference: 24/00389/FUL) in July 2024 for the erection of four new-build houses across two-storeys.”
It is probably significant that this proposal is smaller in scale than that which the overpaid architects at Brick by Brick submitted, when they wanted to plonk three-storey buildings, including flats, in the sensitive location close to the Georgian Ruskin House.
According to Savills: “The proposed development will provide 3×3-bed houses and 1×4-bed house totalling 5,275sqftwith each house benefiting from rear and front gardens.” Private green spaces replacing the current public green space.
Larger, four-bedroomed houses in Croydon can sell for £800,000. Three-bed houses (albeit larger than what is proposed on the tight Coombe Road site) are on the market for £500,000.
“All of the houses are for private sale with no Section 106 applicable,” the estate agents advise. “A CIL payment of £13,229 will be payable,” they say, referring to a Community Infrastructure Levy, which the council is always keen to collect, but apparently most reluctant ever to spend on any community infrastructure.
“Prospective purchasers should undertake their own analysis,” Saviles advise, covering their own arses neatly.
Inside Croydon did as they suggested, but can find no confirmation of the auctioneers’ claims that the site has been granted planning permission. Quite the contrary, in fact.
So we asked Savills. When was the site granted planning permission? They’ve not got back to us.
Katharine Street sources, however, say that, “This is something the chair of planning pushed through.” Except there is no public record of this decision being taken on the council’s own planning portal.
It should be interesting to follow next Wednesday’s auction and Lot 275 to see if any speculative developer is prepared to cough up more than half a million quid for a “development opportunity” that might, or might not, have planning permission for about £2million-worth of new housing.
Read more: Planning battle over The Lawns after council official’s threats
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Read more: Another Croydon scandal: the £3k per month high-rise slums
Read more: Brick by Brick’s final flats put up for rent at £2,400 per month
Read more: BxB’s collapse was predictable. Why did no one else notice?
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There appears to be no provision in Croydon Council’s Planning Sub-Committee constitution for the Planning Chair simply to “push through” a decision, where an application hasn’t been considered by the Committee.
The procedures indicate the application had to be determined by Committee (if recommended for approval) because, for example, ward councillors had lodged objections. The fact that the register has not been updated (so far) appears significant and raises questions about the site’s planning status.
As someone who goes past the site regularly it can hardly be described as a green space anymore as it used for cars parking on it and the grass has been ruined by this activity.
Further it’s proximity to the grade II listed Ruskin house should also be noted. Ruskin House looks to have structural issues and any large scale development so close to it will have implications. Further during the rush hour this site is completely blocked by cars and will have huge access issues.
This was always an ill conceived site for development of such a concentrated nature and was systemic of the madness that was Brick by Brick. With this “new” administration doubling down on this site it really demonstrates there is very little difference between the administrations of Tony Newman and Jason Perry in practice.