Tag Archives: Planning
Upper Norwood neighbours win 5-year battle with developer
After a five-year battle against a deep-pocketed developer, aided and abetted by Croydon Council’s planning department, residents on Downsview Road in Upper Norwood have claimed victory in the High Court. But they now face financial ruin because of the huge … Continue reading
£1,000 per day ‘Interim Adam’ was Kerswell’s personal pick
CROYDON IN CRISIS: Residents are stung twice for recruitment costs of head of planning, at a crucial time for Westfield development and review of London and Local Plans. EXCLUSIVE by STEVEN DOWNES Adam Wilkinson was handed the position as Croydon’s … Continue reading
‘Scandalous’ planners condemn Coulsdon’s chippy to closure
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. In March, KJC Architects applied to the council on behalf of the property’s landlord to … Continue reading
Crisis for Perry as Interim Adam resigns council planning job
KERSWELL’S CHAOTIC COUNCIL: A journeyman council director notorious for charging fees of £1,000 per day and taking massive pay-offs has quit as Croydon’s head of planning, following an investigation by this website. EXCLUSIVE by STEVEN DOWNES Adam Wilkinson, the journeyman … Continue reading
Interim Adam gets council job as HMRC winds up his company
CROYDON IN CRISIS: The council’s most recently appointed planning director was given the role while a company where he was sole director was being wound up in the High Court, an iC investigation has found. EXCLUSIVE by KEN LEE, Town … Continue reading
The sorry 25-year chronology of a once great Addiscombe pub
LESLIE ARMS TIMELINE Since 2020, the owner of the Grade II-listed Leslie Arms on Lower Addiscombe Road has submitted 13 separate planning applications for the building – 14 if you include his 2009 appeal against a refusal of a planning … Continue reading
£1,000 per day ‘Interim Adam’ lands Croydon planning job
CROYDON IN CRISIS: The council has made no announcement about who has taken over the borough’s top planning job, but this website has discovered that Heather Cheesbrough’s stand-in replacement is an ‘interim specialist’ who has pocketed more than £500,000 in … Continue reading
Complaints against Perry’s council on rise, Ombudsman says
CROYDON IN CRISIS: Our Town Hall reporter, KEN LEE, on another year where our council is close to the top of a league table – for most upheld complaints Katherine Kerswell, Croydon’s £204,000 per year chief executive, if she bothered … Continue reading
Building on precious green spaces won’t fix the housing crisis
CROYDON COMMENTARY: With mounting pressure on local authorities to allow the building on Green Belt land, PETER UNDERWOOD raises concerns that private profit is being put before people The combination of unreliable politicians and profit-hungry developers is putting our green … Continue reading
‘Hypocrite’ Tory voted for proposal to destroy heritage home
Town Hall reporter KEN LEE on a planning committee meeting where Conservative councillors backed a private developer’s bid to drastically alter a listed family home in a conservation area So much for Tory Mayor Jason Perry protecting family homes in … Continue reading
Network Rail pulls its planning request for Bridge to Nowhere
EXCLUSIVE: Network Rail has made a U-turn over the Bridge to Nowhere, as people power – and commonsense – appear to have won the day. By JEREMY CLACKSON, transport correspondent Network Rail appears to have made a significant U-turn over … Continue reading
Negrini enjoys her centre stage return pitching for Mayor Khan
Like Banquo’s ghost, Jo Negrini has returned to haunt Croydon after her latest jaunt to the south of France for the annual “booze and hooker fest” – or prestigious international property conference – that is MIPIM. When “Negreedy” was the … Continue reading
Ex-planning chief’s rose-tinted view of Croydon developments
It appears that Heather Cheesbrough, Croydon Council’s former “director of planning and sustainable regeneration”, has been busy trying to rewrite history since leaving her £130,000-plus job earlier this month. An internal council memo gave the reason for Cheesbrough’s departure as … Continue reading
Beddington survives its own Suez crisis at ‘explosive’ meeting
In another set-back for “Hapless Helen” Bailey, the £230,000 per year chief executive of Sutton Council, a planning application to build a “monster” waste plant on Beddington Lane was rejected by councillors last night. The planning committee voted 4-3 against … Continue reading
Six doctors lead the objections against ‘monster’ waste plant
Six concerned doctors are among the hundreds of worried Sutton residents who have filed objections to a plan to build what one local councillor calls “a monster” food waste plant on Beddington Lane. The Suez food waste plant proposals are … Continue reading
Council bosses need to answer for Cheesbrough’s toxic legacy
CROYDON COMMENTARY: The announcement of the departure from the council of its long-standing planning director has been widely welcomed by many residents. But as WAYNE MULLEN explains, after his four-year battle with the council over planners’ misconduct, some of those … Continue reading
Council planning chief Cheesbrough set to take ‘career break’
EXCLUSIVE: After nearly a decade in charge of Croydon’s planning department, one of Jo Negrini’s closest colleagues is to leave Fisher’s Folly. By our Town Hall correspondent, KEN LEE Heather Cheesbrough, Croydon Council’s “director of planning and sustainable regeneration” (try … Continue reading
East Croydon bridge to open in October, as MP fails to update
East Croydon Station’s Bridge to Nowhere is expected to be open, and finally allow pedestrians to go somewhere, in October. That’s according to Jeet Bains, the council cabinet member for planning and regeneration, in a speech at a Town Hall … Continue reading
Planning committee signs a blank cheque for Polaska scheme
Croydon is taking on significant risks by granting planning permission for 220 ‘later-living’ homes in Purley, a councillor warned a Town Hall meeting last night. By our housing correspondent, BARRATT HOLMES The majority of members of Croydon Council’s planning committee … Continue reading
Council now to pay subsidy for Perry’s ‘free’ Purley Pool
Proposals buried in a planners’ report show that a vast development of retirement homes to be built by private developers are to have Croydon’s cash-strapped council picking up some of their construction costs for a swimming pool and leisure centre. … Continue reading
For planner Cheesbrough, budget increase is ‘non-negotiable’
CROYDON IN CRISIS: All those public consultations that don’t ever make any difference to what the council sets out to do? This week, one director made it clear that they are indeed pointless exercises, as KEN LEE reports Croydon Council … Continue reading
Network Rail can’t afford staff for Bridge to Nowhere ticketing
Our transport correspondent, JEREMY CLACKSON, on the latest bizarre twist in a £22m railway saga of incompetence and mismanagement The deadline for resident comments is fast approaching on a planning application for the notorious Bridge to Nowhere – with proposals … Continue reading
Mayor grants Aldi wish on parking – and coins it from motorists
A proposal to remove free parking from a Coulsdon supermarket’s car park has been pushed through on the quiet by Croydon’s Tory Mayor Jason Perry, in what is suggested is another money-grabbing exercise by the cash-strapped council at the expense … Continue reading
