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.
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
- Croydon Commentary provides a platform for any of our readers to offer their personal views and experiences about what matters to them in and around our corner of south London. To submit an article for publication, just email us at inside.croydon@btinternet.com, or post your comment to an Inside Croydon article that has caught your attention
Recent Croydon Commentary columns:
- Who can afford £4,000 per month for Purley later living flats?
- Cut Mayor’s special allowances by 50%, say Croydon’s Greens
- Council computer errors and £195 driving fine that never was
- ‘The improvement panel’s general position is to sell everything’
FREE ADS: Paid-up subscribers to Inside Croydon qualify for a free ad for their business, residents’ association or community group, just one of the benefits of being part of our online community. For more information about being an iC subscriber, click here for our Patreon page
PAID ADS: To advertise your services or products to our 10,000 weekday visitors to the site, as featured on Google News Showcase, email us inside.croydon@btinternet.com for our unbeatable ad rates
- If you have a news story about life in or around Croydon, or want to publicise your residents’ association or business, or if you have a local event to promote, please email us with full details at inside.croydon@btinternet.com
- Our comments section on every report provides all readers with an immediate “right of reply” on all our content. Our comments policy can be read by clicking here
