Addiscombe West Councillors Labour & Cooperative Councillors Report – November 2025

Remembrance Day Service: Nov 9^th 2025

It was an honour to lay a Remembrance Day Wreath at the Addiscombe War Memorial, which is sited within St Mary Magdalene with St Martin Church on Canning Road, Croydon.

Councillors Clive Fraser, Patricia Hay-Justices, and Sean Fitzsimons laid the wreath with Nick Beall in attendance. Both the Police and Councillors gave an update later in the service on their role in solving community issues. After the service, it was great to taste the range of homemade, war-inspired soup and bread, and talk to members of the congregation.

Rowenna Davis’s Mayoral Campaign

Fair Funding Campaign actionnetwork.org/petitions/fair-funding-for-croydon-now/

Rowenna has launched a Fair Funding Campaign to make the case that Croydon get a fair share of funding from Central Government.
Since the early 2000s, Croydon has received significantly less per person than inner London boroughs like Lambeth, Southwark, Wandsworth, and Hammersmith & Fulham.

• In 2025/26, Croydon received £243 per head whilst Lambeth received £516*.
• That’s more than double the money per person, with the total difference sitting at £99.7m for Croydon and £163.5m for Lambeth.

Jason Perry has followed Rowenna’s lead and launched his own fair funding petition, but one has to ask why he did not do this when his political party was in power nationally.

Since 2010, local government has borne the most extensive austerity cuts of all government departments, with nearly 75% of direct funding cut. The national Conservative Government pushed the burden onto local Council Tax payers, with year-on-year above-inflation Council Tax rises. The Institute of Financial Studies states there was an 18% average drop in real-terms spending power per resident between 2010 and the current financial year, with councils serving more deprived areas suffering tougher cuts.

Last Year, the new Labour Government delivered the most significant increase in funding for local government in 14 years and committed to a Fair Funding Review to ensure that government funding goes to those communities with the greatest needs. Croydon is one of those local authorities which did poorly under the old funding formula, which didn’t adequately fund our growing population of over 400,000 people, the largest in London.

The table below shows how Inner London Borough received substantially more funding per head compared to Outer London boroughs. The Fair Funding Campaign, if successful, is to close this gap and would make a significant difference in ensuring that Croydon has a sustainable council budget. Please sign the petition.
Fair Funding Campaign actionnetwork.org/petitions/fair-funding-for-croydon-now/

Bridge to Nowhere- Broken Promises

The entrance from Cherry Orchard Road is still closed, and Natasha Irons MP has received a letter from Network Rail saying that it won’t be open this year, and that it is still working with Menta and Croydon Council regarding its re-opening (without a ticket line on its Cherry Orchard Road side) sometime next year.

Glamorgan Public House – Planning Appeal November 10th Deadline

See November 2025 update on this website Tell the planning inspector, “No to the demolition of the Glamorgan Public House” – Addiscombe West

Ron Appleby, resident and Chair of the Campaign, says, ” We continue to have to fight hard to preserve the building that was once the much-loved community pub, The Glamorgan. The freehold owners, Butlers Walsall Ltd., have now appealed against Croydon Council’s rejection of their last wholly unsuitable development application, but without addressing the issue of there being no replacement in it for a decent-sized pub.  The proposed bar (you

could not call it a pub) in their plans is a cynical “designed to fail” affair, without any of the attractions that made The Glamorgan such a decent local, regularly frequented by many nearby residents as well as office workers from around the station. Obviously, they intend to close this new “bar” as soon as they can, claiming it is unviable in today’s market, and convert the ground floor to yet more flats to add to the 8 stories of flats (24 of them) above it. We all now have to add our objections to upholding the appeal THIS WEEK, so that the Planning Inspectorate takes the needs of the local community into full account when considering the appeal. Otherwise, the Glamorgan will be demolished and lost for good.”

Update on the Leslie Arms: Planning Appeal Nov 14^th Deadline

 The Leslie Arms: Let’s keep it for Community Benefit: Oppose the Planning Appeal by the Owner

Local Councillors and residents welcome the removal of the scaffolding and hoardings in October 2025. Councillor Sean Fitzsimons spoke with the foreman on the site, and he confirmed that most of the work on the frontage has been completed. A cherry picker will be used for some high-level work. The front area will be cobbled.

The owner has made a planning appeal this autumn regarding the use of the ground floor. The Council’s planning officers had previously agreed that the ground floor should be used for a public house or community centre. The owner now wants to convert the ground floor and basement into offices, which means the building will no longer be open to the community.

Local Councillors are in favour of keeping the ground floor for community use or as a public house.

The Leslie Arms is the landmark building of this part of Addiscombe. It is essential that this landmark building is accessible to the public, whether as a public house or community centre, and serves as a key building in helping to regenerate the wider Lower Addiscombe Road/Cherry Orchard Road district centre.

Residents can comment in support of keeping the ground floor of this landmark building as either a community centre or a public house.

To lodge your objection with the Planning Inspectorate, you have to use their online appeals service. Planning Appeal Reference: APP/L5240/Y/25/336955

You can find the service through the Appeals area of the Planning Portal – see https://acp.planninginspectorate.gov.uk. The reference you need to add to the portal website is 336955.

You can also write directly to James Pocock– Case Officer, quoting the appeal reference number APP/L5240/Y/25/336955. Please make sure that the Planning Inspectorate receives any comments that you want to make on the appeals by 14th November 2025; otherwise, they will not usually be seen by the Inspector and will be returned.

Meat Packers Site-Builders Back on Site

Local Councillors welcome the appointment of Formation Design & Build by Southern Housing to take on the construction of the Meatpackers site on Cherry Orchard Road, which has been in limbo since 2023, when the original contractors went into administration. We thank the Mayor of London’s housing team for their help in ensuring the restart of this site and for increasing the number of London Affordable Rent Homes from eleven to thirty-six. This new housing scheme will help tackle the current housing crisis and also improve the look and feel of this part of Cherry Orchard Road.

“Planning Application 18/03320/FUL Decision approved November 2019: Demolition of the existing buildings, erection of a 7 to 9-storey building to provide 120 residential units and associated amenity space, hard and soft landscaping, boundary treatment, refuse storage, cycle parking and car parking with associated vehicle accesses.”

From Contractor Formation Design & Build https://www.formationdnb.co.uk/

Dear Councillors,

Formation Design and Build are delighted to confirm that we have been appointed by Southern Housing as the principal contractor to complete the works on site at 40 – 60 Cherry Orchard Road.

The construction of the building was startd by Henley Construction in 2023,, but they went into receivership as they reached the 3rd floor level.

Formation Design & Build are now on site and clearing the old materials and vegetation, ready to re start the main construction works.

We anticipate the works to be complete by Easter 2027.

Graeme Brand, Senior Contracts Manager

City Link

The previous owner, Whittington Investments, has sold City Link House to Cheyne Capital Ltd, inclusive of planning permission for 485 co-living units and 84 affordable homes in a 28-storey tower and a 14-storey block, which your ward councillors had previously opposed on the grounds of overdevelopment and a lack of office building space in our town centre.  Recent consultations by the new owners have revealed that they are having to adjust some of the internal layouts to ensure compliance with building safety standards and the requirement for a second staircase. We are hoping to meet with the new owners and their representatives soon.

Croydon Park Hotel

July 2025: Councillors have approached Croydon Council over rumours that the developers are not going ahead with the granted planning application, and instead have instructed surveyors to assess the building for use as temporary accommodation

July 2024: Approved at Planning Committee

August 2023 Update: Revised planning application 23/00872/FUL lodged initially in March 2023

The proposed development comprises the demolition of existing structures with basement retained, site preparation and enabling works, and the construction of two buildings with a shared basement and ground floor level, comprising heights of 9 storeys, part 33, part 36 storeys, to deliver 447 residential homes (Use Class C3), and 204 sqm of community floorspace (Use Class F.1/F.2), highways/access works, landscaping, car (disabled parking only) and cycle parking, and other associated works