Builders’ target: Ashen Grove, and its badger setts, are about to be auctioned for a second time in a few weeks
Alarm bells are sounding among concerned residents in Selsdon, after a patch of public open space that sold at auction last month for more than five times its guide price has now been put straight back on the market – accompanied by carefully compiled computer images of dozens of new houses.
The estate agents handling the latest sale make direct reference to the market pressures created by the Labour government’s house-building targets.
Ashen Grove is a small patch of woodland in Selsdon which has been used as a public open space for decades. It is a Grade 2 Site of Importance for Nature Conservation and locals suggest that it might be classified as “semi-ancient woodland”, having survived development of most kinds since Medieval times.
It has active and extensive badger setts in the woods, which ordinarily should put any prospective residential developer off buying the site.
Indeed, Ashen Grove was owned by developers Taylor Wimpey, from the time that they built the Selsdon Vale estate. And while the giant housing developer considered building on Ashen Grove, difficulties over access to the site and the badgers made it appear to be an unprofitable option.
But that hasn’t deterred the land’s newest owners, who within a month of paying £105,000 for the site, have flipped it and are marketing it alongside some swishly contrived drawings of imagined housing – what looks like 27 private detached homes squeezed together on something the vendors have decided to call Peacock Gardens.
The Selsdon Residents’ Association, holding a watching brief for now, have taken a sanguine view of the situation: “Ashen Grove is up for sale again, with a guide price of £135,000, this time with some pretty CGI images of what someone imagines could be built there.”
Here’s an idea: Ashen Grove’s newest owners have decided to flog it on, suggesting that the woodlands can be turned into a street of new housing
And they note, accurately: “There is no planning permission associated with this.”
At least, not yet there isn’t…
When Ashen Grove was first being auctioned off last month, one of the Selsdon Vale and Forestdale ward councillors, Conservative Andy Stranack, tried to distance Mayor Jason Perry’s council from the process.
“This is a private sale of land and has nothing to do with the council,” Stranack wrote.
“Both the Croydon Local Plan and the London Plan have policies that protect this land from development,” Stranack wrote ahead of the initial auction.
“If in the future any plans come forward to develop the site, your local councillors along with residents will come together to oppose the planning application.”
Opposing a planning application is not the same as stopping it.
The site is being marketed by estate agents Barnard Marcus.
The lot’s particulars appear to suggest that the land has no Green Belt or Metropolitan Land planning protections, and would therefore be ready to concrete over by any buyer.
“This site is in the heart of existing housing within South Croydon and is ideally positioned for ease of access to transport, shopping and recreation facilities in the area,” goes the estate agents’ spiel, failing to mention that it seems likely that the only way for developers to access the site would be to buy one of the existing homes that surround it and demolish the building, just to make way for site access.
“There is a range of leisure facilities within the area with the open space of Selsdon Wood Nature Reserve within a few minutes’ walk to the south,” the estate agents add, without mention that what is being sold is itself an existing open space.
Housing boom: the CGIs with the sales particulars for Ashen Grove/Peacock Gardens might suggest that there is planning permission already in place. There is not
“The site is strictly offered on an unconditional basis only and buyers are deemed to rely solely on their own enquiries as to permissions required for intended use or future development prospects,” is the caveat emptor.
Under “Planning”, they turn up the seductive come on: “The land is not within the Metropolitan Green Belt and does not appear to be classified as Metropolitan Open Land…”.
Get that, “does not appear to be“,
“… Prospective buyers may wish to refer to national target set for new home development is 1.5million by 2030 with 88,000 homes per annum for London.” This is something we can expect to see increasingly often around previously undeveloped sites, thanks to Keir Starmer’s Labour government.
“This demand clearly puts pressure for release of land and may result in sites not previously considered suitable for development now being considered by planning authorities. Purchasers must rely on their own enquiries in respect to suitability of this land however, with demand increasing all the time it is reasonable to assume that land not yet developed/considered for development will become rarer and more valuable.”
The 3.17 acres of Ashen Grove/Peacock Gardens are due to be auctioned on May 20.
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Worth pointing out that, nationally, both the Conservatives and Labour have called for changes to planning policy that would allow developers to bulldoze their way past objections and build homes, not for the poor who need refuge from mouldy tower blocks or shop doorways, but for the well-off (and overseas investors).
Those 27 homes are going to need an awful lot of plastic windows, guttering, soffit boards and maybe the odd bit of decking, fences and flammable cladding. Maybe Mayor Perry could help the developer find a local supplier
Extremely short-sighted of the government to signal that planning rules would be relaxed for special areas like this, a grade 2 SINC. Likewise if the council would give permission. It’s a bad idea to isolate people from nature, which is happening increasingly. Thanks Inside Croydon for drawing attention to this travesty in the making.
The likes of Perry will not protect this land. As we have seen with the development in Purley they roll over if some mysterious and can only assume Conservative donor is behind the scheme. I would watch out if someone starts some funny business with the Badgers.
The developers calling that patch of land “Peacock Gardens” is bizarre. The road in the bottom RH corner of their map is already called Peacock Gardens, but it is a rare non-cul-de-sac road in that area and is used by the 433 bus, and their proposal has no link to/with Peacock Gardens. Why didn’t they call it Kingfisher Gardens, as that is the road on the bottom LH of their map which they are basically “extending”, although there is probably a good reason that Taylor Wimpey didn’t originally develop that small but hilly patch of land?!
At least they are not proposing to break the rarely-used off-road cycle route, which goes just outside the red line of their area on the RHS. That route goes over two ridges in the short distance btw Addington Rd and Courtwood Lane, so is hard, off-road cycling !
This site shouldn’t be built on for lots of reasons.
Obviously the first one is that it is an important site for nature – there are some very old trees on the site, an active badger sett and a wide variety of other interesting natural features.
The second reason for not building on it is that there is no easy access to the site. It has footpaths at either end and, despite the active imagination of whoever created the computer images, none of the entrances appear to be wide enough for a road – which means no access for fire engines or ambulances if they were ever needed.
A third reason for not building here is that there are already plenty of places in Croydon that already have planning permission and/or have derelict buildings that could be replaced with new housing. Not far from this site is the old Selsdon Garage which has stood empty for over 20 years waiting for a developer to build housing instead of just using it as a ‘land bank’.
I know local residents are not keen for any new development here and I will work with them to do all we can to stop this precious green space being destroyed.