Councillors February 2026 Update

Addiscombe West Councillors provide an update on their activities and local issues

Lack of Investment in Addiscombe West Ward by Tory Mayor (but plenty for Tory Marginal Addiscombe East)

In February 2026, the Elected Mayor announced a third round of investment in the Addiscombe East Ward. No investment has been announced for Addiscombe West Ward, even though our ward has a higher level of deprivation.

Mayor Perry has announced a new community Centre and café in Bingham Park (to go with the relatively new community centre and café in Ashburton Park). He has spent Labour Government money on the high street, and Blitz clean-up of Addiscombe District Centre. All these resources were spent within Addiscombe East. This, of course, has nothing to do with having a Tory Councillor who is struggling to win again in May 2026.

Community-First Planning

Local Councillors are scrutinising every planning application to ensure development serves people, not just profit.

• The “Bridge to Nowhere”: Working together with Natasha, we are keeping the pressure on Network Rail and the Council to resolve the delays and open this vital link, which has suffered further delay in opening, which the Council announced in a press release that it will now be in Autumn 2026.Update on East Croydon pedestrian bridge – Newsroom. Councillors have pressed officers for more details, as the recent decisions were not made transparently. The Council has stated it will fund the upkeep of the new walkway on the bridge. Planning Officers state that it is still the Council’s aspiration to have a ticket line installed.
• Partial Review of the Local Plan: There have been delays, and we will not see the inspector report until after the election in May, so the new Labour administration will have a chance to review it.
• The Glamorgan Planning Appeal was on Wednesday, 14 January 2025.
  Planning Inspector rejected the appeal by the owner of the building, who was appealing Croydon Council’s refusal of their application to demolish the Public House and to build a block of flats.  It is now being marketed for sale at £ 2 million, which is way above market value.
• Rocket Padel on the old Sorting Office Site at East Croydon: The applicant has submitted a new set of documents to meet several conditions, which hopefully will allow them to start on site soon.
• Meatpackers site on Cherry Orchard Road: The new building company is progressing well on site, with new scaffolding, protective covers, and building cranes on site. It is till 2 years before it will be ready
• Croydon Park Hotel: The owners have announced that have shelved their 32-storey build-to-rent new build scheme and instead are refitting the existing building to let an apartment hotel (short-term lets).
• Amro Building, Altyre Road: The owners, after getting planning permission to convert the building to residential, are now selling the site
• NLA Tower (Number One Croydon) owned by British Telecom Pension Fund (Britel), have let a contract to build to refurbish the building as private rented flats. We have received complaints about the noise from these works.
• City Link, George Street: the owners have applied for some changes to make the proposed building fire-safety compliant, and to change some of the flats and community spaces on the lower floor.