BARRATT HOLMES, housing correspondent, on what is undoubtedly, even by Croydon’s low standards, the most egregious example of ‘do as we say, not as we do’ from our politicians
Chief Nimby: even estate agents have more scruples than Croydon South MP Chris Philp
Croydon residents living south of the Flyover, whether they are in his constituency or not, have become all-too-familiar with regular, ever-so-slightly shrill, emails from the borough’s only Conservative MP, Chris Philp.
For when the shadow home secretary isn’t counting small boats crossing the Channel or chasing delivery drivers down the street, he and his state-funded assistants – who include two Tory councillors: Lynne Hale and Simon Fox – appear to like nothing better than to demonstrate how many homes they have managed to block from being built in the borough.
It’s almost as if they don’t want any more donations from rich property developers.
And just as you might expect from Philp (the “nose in search of a bum” according to Grauniad journalist John Crace), the regular emails from Croydon Conservatives are about as reliable as a second-hand motor sold by Arfur Daley.
Look familiar?: the MP’s monthly updates appear to have just a single theme
In May, Philp spammed supporters and detractors alike with “another periodic update of more recent good news on local planning matters”.
As you’d expect, he referred to his partnership with Mayor Jason Perry and their work “to safeguard the character of our area and protect family homes”.
Philp’s email said: “I know many residents share my view that, while some new flats are needed, we should not be destroying family homes, which local families need, or changing the character of green suburbs like ours to build them.
“New flats are better suited to places like Croydon town centre, city centres and brownfield sites.” It is the very definition of Nimby-ism.
“Local objections to overdevelopment – including mine as our local MP and those of local residents’ associations and councillors as well as individual residents – continue to now be listened to under Mayor Perry’s new planning approach in Croydon.” Did no one teach Philp at his grammar school about split infinitives?
Success story: how Philp boasts about how he and Croydon Conservatives have been blocking new builds
“For far too long in Croydon, the previous Labour council used to just wave through nearly every application with barely a moment’s consideration.” This, of course, is untrue, but then Philp is a Tory politician…
“By granting indiscriminate planning applications, often destroying family homes and concreting over green spaces to make way for the over-intensive flats, they risked changing the green character of many neighbourhoods in our area and reduce the number of houses available for families.”
As an example of this, Philp cited “Floral House, 238 Selsdon Road, South Croydon”, which “proposed squeezing in an additional house into the garden of a family home”.
This just happened to be the former “family home” of Maria Gatland, the Conservative councillor for South Croydon ward. Oh.
This was “refused due to the proposed sub-division resulting in a plot much smaller than the area and therefore incongruous and out of keeping with the pattern and rhythm of nearby development, resulting in significant harm to the character and appearance of the area”. Oh dear…
Cars before people: Philp and Croydon Tories have helped to preserve the ‘character’ of the borough by keeping these garages
As well as rampant hypocrisy, Philp’s little email campaigns practice deception by omission. Unmentioned in his email was that the proposed flat would replace a double garage. Philp, like Mayor Perry, must think cars are more important than homes for people.
In Philp’s desperate effort to find something, anything, good to say about the Tories’ failed Mayor, his email campaign gets worse. Much worse.
Not far from 238 Selsdon Road, but still in Philp’s Croydon South constituency, there was an application to build “a two/three storey building comprising three self-contained flats” in the back garden of a house in Purley. That’s right: three flats. In a back garden.
This was given the go-ahead with “barely a moment’s consideration”, as Philp might have put it. Indeed, there was not a complaint filed with the council’s planning department from Croydon’s Nimby-in-chief MP, nor by any other Not-In-My-Back-Yard Tories.
Because this bit of backyard development was proposed for the back garden of 36 Brighton Road, which just happens to be the office of Croydon Conservatives.
This was the second attempt by Philp, Perry and their chums to make some money from the back garden of the house, a former family home. The first effort, in 2017, was rejected by the council – then under Labour control (Philp never mentions that, either) – and the Planning Inspector, to whom the Tories appealed.
Literally built in the Tories’ backyard: the new flats in Purley, courtesy of Chris Philp and Jason Perry
Where there were once hedges and garden space, there now stands what pretentious estate agents Truuli describe as a “stunning development” and “a beautifully designed building”.
The hedges, which were removed during construction but which were subject of an undertaking to be reinstated in the 2020 planning application, are missing from a recently approved (by the Conservative-controlled council) retrospective application for amendments, and from the street scene today.
One of the three flats built in the back garden of Croydon Tories’ HQ in Purley sold last year for £500,000.
You have to wonder how dim Croydon Council’s Labour opposition must be that they’ve never confronted Perry’s Conservatives over their own little building scheme in Purley – although with Councillor Chris Clark as their lead on planning matters, you probably have a ready-made explanation.
That is no reason to stop you, the next time MP Philp or Mayor Perry stuff your email inbox with claims about how they are safeguarding the character of our area and protecting family homes, to ask them how much dosh these shameless hypocrites and their political party have made from building in their own backyard in Purley.
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You didn’t have to guess what complete humbugs Philp, Perry and the South Croydon Tories are with regard to planning and development. All that matters to them is the noise they make since if you care to give a moment to look at the details of their actual actions you will have a severe headache with the cognitive dissonance it creates.
Have your local Croydon MP and Mayor completely lost the plot? The increasingly drowning not waving MP Chris Philp and the financially beleaguered Executive Mayor Jason Perry have again paraded their so called PLANNING VICTORIES. They claim they are safeguarding the character of our area and protecting family homes but the truth is far from the reality.
One of the homes cited in their social media channels is at 79 Riddlesdown Road. As it stands it is probably the worst example of family housing I have ever seen. It has been unoccupied for many years and is set in a large garden plot that looks like a post apocryphal wasteland. It resembles and air raid shelter and with apologies to the previous owner who I understand has passed I am pretty certain no family would ever want to raise their children in such a prison like building.
Unfortunately Philp and Perry are celebrating that planning permission was not given and the subsequent appeal failed. Eventually after a considerable investment by the developer there is nowhere else to go with this plan and all the effort and costs put into plans is wasted.
The property is not of sufficient environmental standard that a mortgage can be raised and so it will probably be sold to a cash buyer that has half a million spare, I imagine another developer.
The vision for 79 Riddlesdown Road was to create a 5 unit residential development that harmonises with nature, enhancing both the urban and environmental landscape while prioritising the well-being of its residents.
At the core of the design is the principle of biophilic architecture, which seeks to foster a stronger connection between people and the natural world. This is achieved through natural light optimisation, enhanced ventilation, and the integration of green spaces, ensuring a healthy and enriching living environment.
The property design, the first of its kind in Croydon is so efficient that it would have sold energy back to the grid and would have achieved the highly regarded Passivhaus Certification.
Philp and Perry’s approach to this is deeply disingenuous. They want to appeal to natural fears and nimbyism pretending they care for local families. It is a cynical manipulation of information for political ends.
Sure, we need a discussion about housing in Croydon but please do not stand in the way of progress just to milk votes from what you perceive to be your political base.
The people of Croydon are more intelligent than you give them credit and they see through your hypocrisy.
Croydon Tories will probably get about a £1¼ million from the sale of all three flats, less estate agent fees of around £3k and design and build costs of anywhere between £500k and £600k. Whatever the final figure, the profit will prop up their accounts, which last time they declared them to the Electoral Commission, for the year ending 2023, showed a very healthy £2m+. That compares with Labour’s measly £29k.
On that point, while Croydon Labour have published their figures for the year ending 2024, it looks like Croydon Tories are lagging behind. There’s no sign of last year’s accounts on the Electoral Commission website. It seems they run their own party like they run the borough: badly
Funny they don’t want loads of additional flats but they’re still prepared to force the Purley pool monstrosity on us.
If nothing else Philp’s predictable.And not in a good way.
The Purley M&S development includes demolition of a family home too. But that’s fine, because M&S is a vote winner.