CROYDON COMMENTARY: The Town Hall planners handing over Masterplan responsibilities for the town centre to Westfield, as Inside Croydon reported this week, has left reader CARL LUCAS angry that our council will be missing a significant opportunity for a sustainable future
Flats, flats and more flats: Westfield’s latest scheme, endorsed by Mayor Perry’s planning committee, could include 3,000 ‘units’
It’s an insult that Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield’s vague Masterplan “Framework” even made it to Croydon Council’s planning committee.
I view it as a statement of intent of how much URW can take the absolute piss and how unfit for purpose most of the people on the planning committee are.
Nicola Townsend, Croydon’s chief planner, needs her P45 for this.
Westfield were originally brought in for a reason, and it wasn’t to be a housing developer, yet now they propose 3,000 flats, front and centre.
All they’ve done since they arrived in Croydon in 2012 is slowly squeeze the life and soul out of the town centre. This Masterplan Framework has one aim, an attempt to make as much money as possible for URW.
The planning committee’s chair, Councillor Michael Neal, is just a weird, clueless “Yes Man”, who needs replacing. Sadly, he’ll be there for the rest of this administration.
A good replacement might be Sean Fitzsimons, the only person who was asking truly pertinent questions at the committee meeting and is able to see the big picture of the redevelopment of Croydon, something you would normally expect from a planning department.
To say this Masterplan Framework is “underwhelming”, as one Conservative councillor on the committee did, is an understatement. It offers no ambition or aspiration for the future of Croydon.
I get the flats would make a lot of money for URW, but what is its USP for Croydon?
What are these cultural venues they speak of?
Why would people actually come to visit Croydon based on this?
The current path is just more skyscrapers, grow the population to half a million and beyond, give nothing to offer.
Just off the top of my head it seems to me that the future is about creating sustainability, to just create a pleasant places with things to do that people want to visit and hang out in. Look at something like Burwood Brickworks, outside Melbourne, Australia: nothing vast, but green, sustainable, attractive, and multipurpose. It can be interconnected with a greened up Wellesley Road and a greened up George Street, some grey to green, nothing too radical, quite achievable, that’s just about the visual, not the contents.
Sustainable ‘greenprint’: Burwood Brickyards shopping centre in Melbourne shows what can be achieved with a greener approach to development
Make that hypothetical walk from the train station to the centre a pleasant one that’s a bit different, particularly for urban London. Greenery has a calming effect and research has shown that more in an urban area can help lower crime. This grey concrete living we created for ourselves is actually quite odd when you think about it.
We are at a point where Gatwick Airport is about to be significantly expanded, East Croydon Station might get developed in the future. We are in an incredible location between a major airport and one of the major cities of the world with one of the most used train stations in the country.
I want a Croydon that is transformed, that people want to visit, not avoid. A place where people smile because of how it turns itself around, not a place where people frown and make a sarcastic joke when you say you come from Croydon.
Central Croydon just feels like a blank slate at a crossroads, and I don’t want URW to blow it.
Read more: Perry’s council endorses scheme for 3,000 flats in town centre
Read more: Westfield boss says Croydon scheme could take 15 more years
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I agree with so much of this article, however I have learned certain things during my lifetime in Croydon.
1. Croydon Councillors and the Planning Department have always been besotted by developers. I am not suggesting that any favours have been performed, non that any payments have been made, but I can find no sensible explanation for many of the decisions made, particularly those concerning the Whitgift Centre. Perhaps the Whitgift Trustees applied pressure unwisely, we shall never know.
2. Croydon is broke. They have to dispose of any assets which cost money to maintain. Any developments will have to cost the Council virtually nothing for maintenance. The Council is not capable of maintaining anything, most responsibilities are already outsourced.
3. Most of Croydon’s greenery is neglected, and has been for longer than the Council has been broke. Developers are never bound to provide green spaces or planting, nor to maintain any which already exists (any responsibilities that were written into contracts are not enforced). Heathfield Gardens and Coombe Gardens used to be the Council’s training areas for Council gardeners and were maintained beautifully. Now they aren’t. Parks management is drastically reduced. If the suggested green walks through the centre of Croydon were provided, they would soon deteriorate into scrubland, covered in litter, syringes, vapes and worse, with contractors performing occasional rubbish clearance and mowing weeds where grass used to be. The demise of the Queen’s Gardens confirms this.
I’m sorry to be so negative in response to excellent suggestions, and what I have seen of the decline of Croydon during the last 7 decades breaks my heart, but I can see no chance of improvement during what remains of my lifespan, sadly. If others disagree, I would like to read their comments here. I am beginning to think that those of us who do give a damn about Croydon are a very small minority indeed.
“I am not suggesting that any favours have been performed, nor that any payments have been made, but I can find no sensible explanation for many of the decisions made”.
With some (many) decisions, it would seem the only explanation…..
I was having a pseudo Thomas More moment working on the assumption that future leading Councillors and the Planning Department would be paragons of virtue! This was an idealistic vision where there are two paths, to simply give up and accept what is being presented, or to challenge it with endless alternative possibilities of what could be. I understand that the idea of a well functioning Croydon Council is an unrealistic one, I think that’s why we are most here on Inside Croydon, frustrated, annoyed and angry by it!
With any financial challenges, there are always approaches of in terms of public and private funding. I’m just not willing to give up at this point. It’s not possible to not have people that don’t have respect for public property but I think the nicer something is, the more most people will respect it. Put it this way, if everything is very clean, most people will make an effort to not litter, if a place if poorly kept then more people will litter. Maintenance of our public green spaces has been a choice, when the council is spending millions on new laptops, pay increases, consultants etc, it’s all a choice. This Mayor talks about restoring pride in Croydon, he fails on the most basic level, let’s get our Green Flags back.
What a mess Croydon is. When I came in early 70’s there was a shopping centre choice, Croydon Whitgift or Bromley Glades. Looks a bit sick now?
Shall we follow the ‘London’ airports and rename East Croydon Station as Victoria (Croydon) or London Bridge (Croydon) because Croydon will just become somewhere to sleep for commuters to those two great stations.
I still think URW did the turf feedback response to a younger age group that was not across a wider age like 25-65 range on purpose?
We made two surveys – one targeted to getting under 25s heard (as by far the least represented in town planning decisions) and one general, ‘on purpose’.
To be clear though, that wasn’t undertaken on behalf of URW or their masterplan. It was for Croydon Council’s Croydon Town Centre Regeneration Strategy, which was a separate project. Whether that should have been the case as there is definitely confusion between the two, and which will hold more weight, are questions worth asking – especially consideringURW’s own reported figures show the CTCRS work had far more extensive community representation.
I think that the whole Westfield contractual fiasco has been commercial suicide by Croydon council. A first year Commercial student could have done a whole load better.
Where has the commercial challenge been? What happened to contract competition reviews? It’s been a commercial s*** show, in my humble opinion.
Westfield seem to be happily gaining from a solid order book, while delivering nothing?
Except there’s no commercial relationship between Westfield and the council, the planning authority.
Croydon still has a thriving shopping centre. It’s called the Purley Way.
Stupid councillors allowed what were once industrial premises to be turned into out-of-town retail units, all with free parking.
The result is inner city decay in and around North End and massive traffic congestion and pollution for 2½ miles on the A23, from Lombard Roundabout down to the Battle of Britain Memorial
Purley Way has Ikea and Wing Yip which attracts people as far as Hastings and Canterbury by car. Croydon Council know this so that’s probably why they reduced their business rates respectively last time I checked.
Retail is dead , sure, but the revised Westfield masterplan doesn’t have enough of an attraction to draw people to the Town Centre…. unless they have food halls like Eataly, Market Halls or Mercato Metropolitano which seems to be thriving in London right now.
Nicola Townsend (her surname couldn’t be more apt) should indeed get her P45. As should Heather Cheesbrough our extortionately paid Planning Director. As it’s a sunny afternoon I wrote a poem for Heather. Okay I admit, I asked AI to write a poem about Heather. It seems even AI knows what’s really going on.
Heather Cheesbrough’s Grand Design
Once, the town had dreams to soar,
But now they ache, they creak, they implore.
For under her watch, progress stalled,
The borough declined, the town was mauled.
The town centre, once a place of pride,
Now stands in ruins, dreams denied.
Plans were drawn, but many failed,
And still, the projects seemed derailed.
Residents waited for change to come,
But Heather’s moves left them feeling numb.
The streets grew silent, the future unclear,
A disaster quietly drawing near.
In boardrooms bright, she’d often stand,
A friend to developers across the land.
With plans that favoured profit’s sway,
While local voices had much to say.
She backed their projects, vast and wide,
While ignoring the people’s side.
New towers rose, but hearts were torn,
As Croydon’s soul was left forlorn.
Her loyalty to profit’s call,
Made developers’ fortunes rise not fall,
In Croydon town the towers rise,
Does the planner weave a web of lies?
With maps and plans and sweet deceit,
She spins her tales on every street.
“Sustainable!” she cries with glee,
As homes cram in like sardines at sea.
Green space shrinks, the trees fall fast,
Yet promises of parks hold steadfast.
She marks the maps with cold disdain,
For flats that flood in heavy rain.
Locals beg, “Please hear our woes!”
But Heather shrugs—that’s how it goes.
A leafy street, a quiet view?
She’ll stack up flats, and block it too.
Parking’s tight? No place to stand?
She waves it off with one firm hand.
For who needs space, or light, or air,
When profits rise and planners stare
At glossy plans, where deals are made,
And Croydon’s charm will soon degrade?
Developers grin, their profits soar,
While locals knock on Fishers Folly’s door.
“Where’s our say?” they beg and plea,
But Heather’s pen moves silently.
With every block that scrapes the sky,
Another promise goes awry.
Integrity, once firm and stout,
Now lost in plans she won’t redoubt.
For in Croydon’s planning halls so grand,
Truth is built on sinking sand.
So if you fight to save your town,
She’ll likely scowl and mark you down.
For in her eyes, it’s clear to see—
The residents are the enemy.
Tower blocks, particularly as proposed here, are unsuitable for families with children and people with disabilities. They discourage the development of communities and are probably, at best, attractive to absentee investors/landlords. The Council might be keen as it increases the Council Tax base but I can see little other benefit for the Croydon community.
I am sorry to break the news to you. Any property redevelopment by a property developer is supposed to make money for it. The problem all along has been the numerous configurations of property developers have been unable to make a certain profit from the various configurations of development that have been proposed. We are now left with a vague wish list by URW of what they want to do, but they are still faced by the same problem as when they started. They are not sure they can make a sustainable certain profit out of it any longer.
Sorry to break the news to you, DelBoy, but the real point here is that the council’s planners have railroaded through an agreement that hands their quasi-judicial responsibilities over to commercial developers, in return for… nada. Zilch. Nothing.
In a way, the decision of that committee formalises the arrangements of the last 12 years, where the council has been mere cheerleaders for Westfield.
Now, though, under part-time Perry, whatever influence our elected representatives had has been thrown away.
I thought you told me our Elected Representatives don’t make the decisions anyway. This last desperate throw of the dice to stimulate development by the Developer should be seen for what it is. Pure desperation to get something done. They are also passing the buck to the Developer if nothing is going to get done. What if URW now parcel out the development into smaller plots to be undertaken in a piecemeal method. All they will be doing is what our Elected Representatives should have done in the first place to have prevented the terminal blight of the last three decades.
Croydon’s Development and Governance:
Despite repeated promises, tangible progress in Croydon, particularly regarding the proposed Westfield development and broader town center improvements, remains nonexistent. The current administration’s rhetoric is not matched by action.
Allegations of ongoing corruption within the Croydon Council persist, compounded by concerns over the disproportionate allocation of resources to executive staff. The Mayor’s leadership is perceived as ineffective, lacking both a clear vision and a financially viable plan for the borough’s future. The long-anticipated Westfield project, along with associated town center revitalization, appears increasingly unlikely within the next decade, despite continued assurances.
Instead, the borough is witnessing a surge in high-density residential tower blocks, exacerbating existing issues of anti-social behavior (ASB). For a London borough of its size, Croydon suffers from a severe lack of cultural and recreational amenities. The absence of galleries, suitable performance venues, and other community spaces contributes to a pervasive sense of neglect.
The borough’s overall state, characterized by environmental issues and a lack of investment in public spaces, reflects a systemic failure on the part of both past and present council administrations and mayoral leadership.
The allegations of corruption persist for good reason. However, I hear the trail of breadcrumbs is being followed. Let’s hope there are some taps on shoulders before too long.
You “hear”? From where. The Met doesn’t bother with much, and had abandoned its Croydon inquiries years ago.
Unfortunately for us it seems that the Merseyside Police seem a more competent bunch than The Met if you’ve been following their probe into Liverpool Council. When I saw that story I immediately thought how they would have all gotten away with it in Croydon.
This is bonkers – developers cannot write a council’s planning policy. All they can do is submit their ideas, plans etc. for consideration. btw, I agree completely with the author’s analysis
Even that Croydon Sean the man who oversaw scrutiny of the Fairfield Hall redevelopment and Brick by Brick is now the only Councillor providing effective oversight of this Norwegian Blue of a Project? Afraid to break the news, but he would become just as big a Yes Man if placed at the Head of the Planning Committee.
Just a comment on retail, I’ve been in Leeds for the weekend, I know the area well and the place is absolutely thriving. Cheap shops, expensive shops, entertainment, pubs, clubs, bars, restaurants, cafes, markets etc etc all packed, every time I go back there’s new things opening up. The city is also surrounded by many Purley Way style retail parks. The reality is that people want to be out and about living life, doing nice things, being entertained. Can you easily buy things on Amazon, get your supermarket shop delivered, get a take away delivered, just watch tv and game online, those are all options to make our lives more convenient. You can buy a cheap ready meal and not cook. You never have to leave home to watch sport, you can just listen to Spotify and never go to a concert, people are free to live that way.
Or people can go out, meet new people, have new experiences, go to new restaurants and cafes, see live music. I think as technology continues to advance there will also be the juxtapose of wanting to go towards nature. I think just because one thing continues to progress, doesn’t automatically cancel out the opposite thing.
It’s worth pointing out that many longstanding community, cultural and entertainment venues in Leeds have also been pushed out by developers though (Tetley, Sheaf St, Aire St etc), alongside parallel guff n gush about becoming a ‘hub’ of some sort, that we’re all too familiar with in Croydon…
I agree, unfortunately there have been some bad decisions too, along with some bizarre locations for a lot of student accommodation. Thank you for your efforts in saving Heathfield House, I assume you produced all the leaflets I saw in a number of locations too.
Thanks so much Carl – it was definitely a joint effort though! Let’s see if we get a public consultation…