Whoops: Polaska, the holding company for the Purley Pool scheme, started the process of administration last month
In the latest embarrassment for Croydon’s failed Mayor, the offshore-registered parent company behind the £60m redevelopment of the Purley Pool has gone into administration. There are other problems with the long overdue project, too. EXCLUSIVE by STEVEN DOWNES
Polaska Assets Ltd, the shadowy holding company registered in the British Virgin Islands which has been behind the £60million project to build 220 “later living” flats in the centre of Purley, with a swimming pool and leisure centre tacked on, has gone into administration.
It is just the latest blow to Croydon’s failed Mayor, Jason Perry, who for the past five years has been promising residents, first, that he would “re-open” the old pool in Purley, and later that he would deliver a new pool at no cost to Croydon’s tax-payers. The first of those Perry promises was broken long ago. Now it is looking very likely that Perry will break the second promise, too.
Polaska submitted its (seriously flawed) planning application on March 4, 2024.
Tall order: residents’ associations objected to the revised Polaska plans, which included a 12-storey skyscraper
The planning committee considered the application in February 2025.
Despite hundreds of objections and opposition from seven residents’ associations, the planning committee, chaired by a Conservative councillor and long-standing mate of Perry, approved the scheme.
Yet almost 18 months later, the Section 106 agreement between the developers and the council remains unsigned, and so the Purley Pool project remains in a planning limbo.
Appointing administrators for Polaska, which self-described as a “non-trading property development vehicle” (most likely a tax dodge) and was until recently registered at an accommodation address on Main Street in Tortola in the British Virgin Islands, might just be a move intended to break through that planning blockage.
Last month, when he held his little “meet the people” event in a sand pit on a town centre multi-storey car park, Mayor Perry was claiming ignorance of the situation.
“Purley Pool’s still happening. It’s taken longer than I would have liked,” Perry told one resident. Asked when work on the pool might happen, Perry said, “I can’t give you a time right now.”
Mayor Perry’s response that day either indicates he is incompetent, without a proper grasp on one of his flagship policies, or he was being deliberately disingenuous.
Out of his depth: last month Inside Croydon reported how Perry was telling people he had no idea when building works would begin on the pool in Purley
Because just days earlier, the British Virgin Islands-registered Polaska Assets Ltd had notified that they were appointing administrators. Which is something Perry really ought to have known about.
Yet he chose not to mention this potentially significant development when asked specifically about Purley Pool during his little PR stunt.
In the absence of any honest update from Croydon’s Mayor or his council, Inside Croydon has been in touch with a number of Katharine Street sources to piece together the most likely explanation for the company behind the project choosing to wind-up their “non-trading” business.
And it seems probable that it has been done to resolve an impasse over the S106 agreement.
These agreements come from Section 106 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990.
They are really just a legalised bung to local councils from developers, in return for being granted planning permission. It is a contract between the property developer and the local planning authority, and usually includes payments used to offset the impacts that a new building project will cause in the local area.
But planning authorities cannot enter into a S106 with an overseas entity. Which is probably (remember, Perry and the council ain’t saying) why Polaska BVI has entered administration, most likely with its leaseholdings now passing into the hands of its British-registered subsidiary.
Mouldering: how the Purley Pool and later living scheme appears on the council’s planning portal, 18 months after going before the planning committee
It is the unsigned S106 which has seen the scheme mouldering on the council’s planning portal as “awaiting decision” for 18 months.
Now anyone might reasonably have expected someone in the council’s planning department to flag up this pretty fundamental issue many months ago.
But this, remember, is the Croydon planning department, with its Mayor Jason Perry. That’s the same Jason Perry who dropped a £24million bollock 14 years ago when he failed to secure a legal contract with developers so that a pedestrian bridge over the railway lines at East Croydon could have access to Cherry Orchard Road.
Thus: Croydon’s notorious Bridge to Nowhere.
The signing of the S106 agreement for the Purley site might not be the end of Perry’s problems with Polaska, though.
The word on Katharine Street is that Polaska has yet to confirm who will be the operator of the “later living” development, which is to include a 12-storey skyscraper (a Purley skyscraper which MP Chris Philp has never objected to). If Polaska fail to find an operator for the expensive flats – and the housing market has changed significantly since the idea was proposed four years ago – then there might be no scheme at all.
In addition, it is suggested that there remain differences over the specification for the leisure facility.
Purley fools: five years ago, Perry was sending out councillors Simon Brew and Jeet Bains to make false claims
And, even worse, Perry’s promise that the new Purley Pool would be delivered at zero cost to Croydon residents looks like that is to be broken – like so many previous Perry promises.
There could be some clarity, with a “key decision” to be made by Perry’s council cabinet of muppets some time in the coming weeks.
But the chances are now that piss-poor Perry has allowed the saga over the Purley Pool to drag on for so long that, even if the project does go ahead, the facility might not be open and ready to use much before 2030 – almost nine years after Perry promised to re-open the pool “immediately”.
Read more: Panicked Purley Pool developer in appeal for public support
Read more: Perry admits he has no idea when work will start on Purley Pool
Read more: Tories warn residents: don’t dare complain about Purley pool
Read more: Council backs Purley Pool tax dodge by off-shore company
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This might take some mansplaining
Piss-poor Perry’s perfidious Polaska Purley pool plans poleaxed
Clearly they couldn’t find a solution to keep their virtual anonymity with this polaska of a project and will now have to create a British shell. Wonder if this will offer up any clues about the real ownership of this miasmic developer and the connections to Croydon Conservatives? They must be realising that the chances of Perry securing a third term of inertia and the hope of a maximun return for as little as effort as possible is starting to fade.
Well I guess there’s always due dilligence when starting a project and spending lots of tax payer’s money. Unless of course, your name is Jason Perry. The reputation of this wannabe is definitely now concrete. Or perhaps something else.
Even with a UK based firm a s106 agreement should be finalised a lot quicker than 18 months.
Brighton has a 3 month condition that if the s106 isn’t agreed and signed then the whole application is deemed to have been refused.
Amazing what concentrates the mind.