Croydon’s planners have condemned Glade Fisheries, a long-cherished Old Coulsdon business, to its doom without a peep from the local councillors or Mayor Jason Perry.
Doomed: Croydon planners signed off permission to convert the fish and chip shop into a flat
In March, KJC Architects applied to the council on behalf of the property’s landlord to convert the chip shop at the junction of Taunton Lane and The Glade into a single dwelling.
Using permitted development planning rules, they wanted to create new access for the existing first-floor flat and turn the ground floor into a two-bed flat.
Despite objections from a local residents’ association, more than 120 locals and the area’s MP, the council’s planners failed to refer the application to the planning committee and instead signed off on the proposal.
The secretary of the local residents’ association has described the council’s planning department’s actions as “scandalous” and “a disgrace”.
The ward’s councillors, Tories Margaret Bird and Nikhil Thampi, failed to call the application in for consideration by the planning committee. In the past, if a residents’ association objected, or at least 20 locals, the matter would have been placed before the committee. MP Chris Philp did submit an objection, which of itself outght to have been enough for the matter to be referred to the committee.
That did not happen in this case.
“Do we know who runs the council, the Mayor or the planning officers?” said one deeply unimpressed local.
“The Glade Fisheries has served the people of Old Coulsdon for over 70 years. It is well liked by locals and visitors,” Charlie King, the chair of the East Coulsdon Residents’ Association told Inside Croydon.
“This is another occasion in Coulsdon when planning officers have ruled without referring an important application to the planning committee.” King cites the case of the dialysis centre that was agreed in less than a week, before the public could object, and the remoal of parking restrictions at Aldi.
Maureen Levy, the secretary of ECRA, wrote to the association’s members: “So all the grand-standing about saving family homes from developers by Tory councillors and Mayor Perry hasn’t helped our popular Glade Fisheries from a selfish and greedy landlord.”
Levy is a former council planning official herself, having worked in Sutton. She describes “prior approvals”, where unelected planning staff use delegated powers to grant permissions, as “insidious”.
She wrote to ECRA members: “I understood that these type of applications would go through if there were no objections within 21 days… In this case, RAs objected and 127 other residents objected… Chris Philp MP objected. This should have gone to planning committee.”
Levy says she will discuss the matter with her other committee members, suggesting that they may submit a formal complaint to the council.
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