Tag Archives: Ross Gentry

Home owner’s victory after four-year battle with planners

The planning department at Croydon’s dysfunctional council has been caught out yet again after the collapse of a developer’s appeal – but only after incurring huge and avoidable costs. Our housing correspondent, BARRATT HOLMES, unravels a saga of deceits and … Continue reading

Posted in Business, Chris Clark, Croydon Council, Heather Cheesbrough, Housing, Jade Appleton, Katherine Kerswell, Nicola Townsend, Park Hill and Whitgift, Parking, Paul Scott, Planning, Property | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 17 Comments

Croydon’s planners out-strip other boroughs in permissions

EXCLUSIVE: Research based on government figures confirms that Croydon’s planning department has been out-stripping other south London boroughs in giving permission to property developers – at times by a rate of more than 5 to 1. By STEVEN DOWNES Research … Continue reading

Posted in Business, Croydon Council, Heather Cheesbrough, Planning | Tagged , , , , , , , | 8 Comments

Suspicions over secrecy surrounding Slominski’s return

Council directors are withholding information from a local MP on the date that a planning official started a new job. By STEVEN DOWNES The attempts to cover-up the close connections between Croydon Council’s planning department and some commercial developers who … Continue reading

Posted in Business, Chris Philp MP, Community associations, Coulsdon, Coulsdon East, Croydon Council, Croydon South, East Coulsdon Residents' Association, Heather Cheesbrough, Nicola Townsend, Planning | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | 13 Comments

#Macarnage: Formal complaint over planners’ too-close links

EXCLUSIVE: The council has approved a scheme for another block of flats which is to be built by a firm with close links to a senior member of the planning staff, and where another planner appears to have helped draw … Continue reading

Posted in Coulsdon, Coulsdon West Residents' Association, Croydon Council, East Coulsdon Residents' Association, Heather Cheesbrough, Nicola Townsend, Old Coulsdon, Old Coulsdon Residents' Association, Planning | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 10 Comments

#Macarnage: Planner Slominski returns with a promotion

EXCLUSIVE: Distrust of the council’s planning department, and director Heather Cheesbrough, has reached new highs after it was discovered that they have re-employed a developer-friendly official with blatant conflicts of interest. By STEVEN DOWNES Representatives of residents’ associations at a … Continue reading

Posted in Business, Chris Philp MP, Community associations, Coulsdon, Coulsdon East, Croydon Council, East Coulsdon Residents' Association, Heather Cheesbrough, Kenley, Old Coulsdon, Planning | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 6 Comments

#Macarnage: Not a single ‘affordable’ home from Coulsdon plot

Next in the firing line for Macar Developments is a beautiful Arts and Crafts house on Coulsdon Court Road, which the developers want to destroy and replace with six small terraced houses. The architecturally significant house was built as part … Continue reading

Posted in Business, Coulsdon, Heather Cheesbrough, Housing, Planning, Property | Tagged , , , , , , | 10 Comments

#Macarnage: Planning officer’s ‘leaving present’ to Coulsdon

EXCLUSIVE: The revolving door between the council planning department and private developers and architects is exposed over a scheme for 39 flats in Coulsdon. By STEVEN DOWNES Before Jan Slominski was hired as a senior planning adviser for the architects … Continue reading

Posted in Business, Coulsdon, Coulsdon East, Croydon Council, East Coulsdon Residents' Association, Heather Cheesbrough, Planning | Tagged , , , , , , , | 6 Comments

Coulsdon concern as planning’s husband and wife act returns

Coulsdon residents are expressing grave concerns about serious potential conflicts of interest in the council’s planning department and proposals to build two massive blocks of flats in a quiet, tree-lined residential cul-de-sac. The developers at the centre of the latest … Continue reading

Posted in Coulsdon, Croydon Council, Housing, Planning | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 8 Comments

Questions tower over council’s husband and wife planning act

Angry residents are seeking a full and independent investigation into the role played by a senior member of the council’s planning department in a £300million tower development that was granted planning permission in central Croydon – when the wife of … Continue reading

Posted in Business, Chris Philp MP, Croydon Council, Croydon South, Heather Cheesbrough, Housing, One Lansdowne Road, Planning, Property, Purley | Tagged , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Council in cover-up over planning’s husband and wife act

Croydon’s planners have clearly never heard the old saying, ‘when in a hole, stop digging’, as suspicion mounts over the absence of documents to support dubious statements given to a committee, as KEN LEE reports Croydon Council has been accused … Continue reading

Posted in Business, Chris Philp MP, Community associations, Croydon Council, Heather Cheesbrough, Kenley, Paul Scott, Planning, Property, Purley | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Family fortunes: council suspected of planning cover-up

Heather Cheesbrough, one of Croydon’s most senior directors, has been accused of misleading the public and the elected councillors on the planning committee in a council cover-up over whether one of her staff properly declared an interest in advance over … Continue reading

Posted in Community associations, Heather Cheesbrough, Planning, Purley | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

How Croydon’s planners have been giving a lift to developers

Planning policy requires that, apart from in ‘exceptional circumstances’, all new housing should have ‘step-free’ access. STEVE WHITESIDE has been looking at whether the council is always meeting those requirements when it grants planning permission to blocks of flats Croydon’s … Continue reading

Posted in Croydon Council, Housing, Paul Scott, Pete Smith, Planning | Tagged , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Purley residents outrage over planning’s ‘husband and wife act’

Croydon Council’s planning committee has had an application for a development in Purley rushed on to its agenda for tomorrow, its last meeting of 2019, with a scheme submitted from a company whose “development director” is married to a senior … Continue reading

Posted in Croydon Council, Housing, Jo Negrini, Paul Scott, Planning, Property, Purley, Toni Letts | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments