Tight site: the local community group had been encouraged to work up a proposal for flats on the green at The Lawns by City Hall and Croydon Council
Mayor Jason Perry’s council has been accused of yet another broken promise, and of wasting hundreds of thousands of pounds of tax-payers’ money, this time after rejecting a planning application for seven affordable homes in Upper Norwood, in a scheme that was instigated by… Croydon Council.
One ward councillor has described Croydon planners’ decision to reject the planning application from the Crystal Palace Community Land Trust after five years’ painstaking work as “a kick in the teeth”.
Another Katharine Street source has described the council’s decision to reject the application as the latest “example of how the planning department is out of control”.
Claire Bonham, the Liberal Democrat councillor for Crystal Palace and Upper Norwood, says that the planning rejection breaks a pledge made by the Mayor earlier this year to increase affordable housing in the borough.
Crystal Palace Community Land Trust had won a council-run bidding process to develop a small infill site on The Lawns, just south of Beulah Hill, after the council’s own developers, Brick by Brick, rejected the opportunity.
The Trust is made up of local volunteers dedicated to providing affordable local housing and helping to build community resilience.
The project has had support, and promises of significant grant funding, from the Greater London Authority. The site is on land leased from Croydon Council. The Community Land Trust also received considerable pre-application advice from… Croydon Council’s planners.
In August last year, after years of careful and diligent work by volunteers, aided by legal and planning professionals, their fees paid for out of the funding that they had managed to raise, they submitted the application for the “Erection of a part two- and part three-storey building to contain seven flats, with associated site alterations including the provision of car and cycle parking and a vehicle turning area” on land adjoining 36 to 46 The Lawns, Upper Norwood.
The council planning department then sat on the Trust’s application for more than a year, before issuing its rejection notice last month.
“This is deeply disappointing news,” Bonham said.
Demanding answers: Councillor Claire Bonham at The Lawns
“SE19 is one of the most unaffordable parts of the borough, so this housing was desperately needed – it’s such a kick in the teeth to the many local volunteers from the CLT who have spent hundreds of hours of their own time on this.
“The council has many questions to answer, especially after years of community engagement and close cooperation on the project from the council’s own planning department.
“I have challenged the Mayor Perry’s deputy to explain why, just five months after pledging to provide more affordable housing, the council has broken that pledge.”
Councillor Bonham wants Mayor Perry to meet with members of the Trust, support the application and “do everything they can to get this vital community project over the line”.
The CLT says that it intends to appeal against the council planners’ decision. “We’re so proud of how the local community has come together to try and build homes for people priced out of the area. We don’t want this effort to be wasted.”
Read more: Planning battle over The Lawns after council official’s threats
Read more: Another Croydon scandal: the £3k per month high-rise slums
Read more: Brick by Brick residents tell Mayor Perry: ‘We’ve had enough’
Read more: How myth of shared ownership has made housing crisis worse
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