- 26 October 2025
- Posted by: Cllr Sean Fitzsimons
- Category: Addiscombe East-West Roads, Application, Citylink House, Consultatation, Councillors Newsletter Updates, East Croydon Station, Glamorgan Pub, Latest News, Planning, Street Cleaning
Council Budget Setting Finances March 2025 Update
The council’s finances continue to worsen under Croydon Conservatives, as a £40m departmental overspend this year is expected to remain next year and has therefore forced the council to secure Exceptional Financial Support (EFS) from the Labour Government. This support is in the form of permission to borrow a staggering £136m next year to balance the books.
Labour councillors welcome the Government’s EFS, as this is the only way the council can balance its budget next year, which it legally must do. A balanced budget is the only way the council can continue to provide the vital services that so many of our residents rely upon, especially those who are vulnerable.
Labour’s amendment, which Mayor Perry accepted, maintains a balanced budget while also implementing new preventive measures to help make our streets cleaner and safer.
Labour’s budget amendment can be found here: https://democracy.croydon.gov.uk/documents/b15498/Supplementary%20Agenda%20No%202.%20Labour%20Group%20Budget%20Amendment%2026th-Feb-2025%2018.30%20Council.pdf?T=9
Responding to the Mayor’s budget plans, Labour Leader Councillor Stuart King said: “Far from fixing the finances, under Mayor Perry the finances are actually getting worse – significantly worse. In a year when the council closed four of our libraries and the youth service is facing the axe, residents should not be paying the price for Tory mismanagement of the finances”.
Town Centre renewal: Pre-application presentation of the Masterplan Framework on 27th February 2025 by Unibail Redamco Westfield Pre-App 23/04032/PRE
Planning Paper can be found at Item 6.1 North End Quarter Report.pdf
Over the last 12 years, Westfield and then Unibail Redamco Westfield have had two planning applications approved by Croydon Council, both for the comprehensive redevelopment of the Whitgift Centre and the surrounding land. Neither of these two planning applications was implemented. This new Masterplan Framework sets out the key elements that will underpin future planning applications, to be developed in phases over at least a decade. The main components are:
- Connecting East Croydon through to North End and Old Town
- Breathing new life into North End
- Respecting its historic past
- Wellesley Road softened, humanised, outward-looking
- Stitching into existing streets and routes
- A careful approach to demolition and retention
- A revitalised metropolitan town centre
- A range of new public spaces
- Respecting and enhancing natural assets
- A new residential community
This masterplan approach is more realistic and allows the applicant greater flexibility to tweak their proposals as future circumstances evolve. The masterplan framework is an admission that a retail-led redevelopment will not work, and that a mixed-use approach is the only way to attract the finances needed to redevelop both the Whitgift Centre and the improvements required to Wellesley Road to remove its car dominance. There is a lot to like in the new framework, but the proposals are light on firm commitments or timescales, and there is still a risk that Croydon Town Centre will continue to decline as an employment and retail centre.
Additional documents:
- Appendix 1 Croydon NEQ Masterplan Framework , itemPDF 19 MB
- Appendix 2 Plan X – Masterplan Framework Minimum Plan , itemPDF 2 MB
- Appendix 3 Plan Y – Maximum Zone for Substantial Planning Application Min 3.6 hectares Plan , itemPDF 2 MB
Bridge to Nowhere
Following the campaign in November and December 2024 by Addiscombe West Labour Councillors, members and residents with strong support from across Croydon East, over 630 residents sent in objections to the proposals of Network Rail not to install a ticket line on the Cherry Orchard Road side of the pedestrian bridge. No decision has been made. Natasha Irons MP says Network Rail recently took her and Sarah Jones to the site and made it clear they did not want to install a ticket line. We will continue to campaign for a ticket entrance on Cherry Orchard Rosf.
Planning Condition Discharge application Application Number: 24/03590/DISC Location: East Croydon Railway Station, George Street, Croydon, CR0 1LF.
Leslie Arms Junction Improvement: (new name for the scheme)
Last year, Council officer Abu Barkatoolah confirmed that he was working to secure funding to improve the Leslie Arms Junction, which had been a focus of residents’ concerns about its safety and feel. Addiscombe West Councillors held a meeting before the 2022 local elections, during which resident Richard Mullins presented ideas to improve the junction. Abu has used these ideas as the basis for a scoping exercise, which has now been agreed upon, and he has the financial agreement to bring on consultants. Local Councillors are keen to get more residents who live north of Lower Addiscombe Road involved, so please let us know if you would like to be involved in any consultative groups.
Blitz clean of Addiscombe ( that didn’t include Addiscombe West)
Tory Mayor Perry and Croydon Council have recently made a lot of noise about cleaning up Addiscombe, but unsurprisingly, the work by Council officers in February 2025 only took place in the Addiscombe East Ward (a Tory-held marginal), and no work was undertaken in Addiscombe West. Local councillors continue to press for resources to be spent on Addiscombe West, especially the shopping street around Leslie Arms Junction and Cherry Orchard Road.
Addiscombe East – West Neighbourhood Area-wide Road Safety
Abu Barkatoolah, the LIP Programme Delivery Manager, has led this review for C oydon Council. Alongside colleagues, Abu has held several meetings with community representatives over the last years. One of the outcomes is a traffic management scheme that would see some roads in Addiscombe East closed to non-local traffic at night. Abu has been working with various residents’ groups and local churches that meet the needs of residents without adversely impacting many of the local churches, including St Mary Magdelene of Canning Road. The current proposals that are with Transport for London for technical assessment are the products of these conversations.
Leslie Arms, 62 Lower Addiscombe Road
I confirmed last year the original features of the ground floor bar are being retained as part of its conversion to a community centre. Work continues very slowly on the interior of the building in line with the planning applications approved to turn the ground floor and basement into a co munity centre. The latest planning update is that the owner has submitted a discharge of conditions to the council’s pla ning register. “Proposed works to the Grade II listed Leslie Arm public house. Works include change of use to the existing pub to support new community use/café, demolition of the existing rear hall to provide a new rear extension community space and 2 additional residential units.”
Glamorgan Public House: Planning Application
Officers are still reviewing the submission re the applicants applications to demolish the building and build an eight-storey block of flats with a much smaller licence premises on th ground floor. No decision has yet been made as of 9th March 2025
The developers submitted a planning application in October 2023. 23/04106/FUL to demolish the building and build an 8-storey lock of flats. As yet, there is no date as to when this will come to the planning committee.
Permitted Development application for 2-8 Altyre Road (AIG Building)
Permitted Development application: 24/04220/GPDO Change of use from commercial (Use Class E) to residential (Use Class C3) to provide 132 flats under Schedule 2, Part 3, Class MA of the Town and Country Planning (General Permitted Development) (England) Order 2015 (as amended)
In January Local Councillors opposed this application on the following grounds
1) Loss of an employment site, which will have a detrimental impact on the Croydon Town Centre economy.
2) Quality of Accommodation. Most of the flat s are studios. Concerned about layout, noise and soun transmission. Concern about adequate sound insulation from railway line.
3) Inadequate provision or communal facilities to meet needs of the residents.
4) lack of dual aspects, and concerns about heating and ventilation, especially overheating in the summer, especially on South facing sides of the building.
5) Lack of affordable housing.
6) Ground floor layout doesn’t provide privacy for occupant of studio flats near the busy pavements and the entrance to the building.
February 2025: Approved by Croydon Council
Permitted Development Request to convert the NLA Tower/ Number One Croydon into residential flats.
British Telecom Pension Fund (BRITEL) wants to convert the site from a commercial tower to residential, featuring 158 x 1-bedroom and 92 x 2-bedroom units.
This is not a planning application but a permitted devel pment request. Permitted Developments are a legacy of the last T ry Government. The Tory Government made it easier for owners of office blocks to turn their buildings into residential towers without meeting local or national plannin requirements. As a result, in Croydon, we now have several sub-standard housing blocks, like Green Dragon House, where leaseholders are trapped in unsalable
In November 2024 Officers approved the permitted development application,
Glamorgan Public House: Anti-Social Behaviour
The owners of the building allowed squatters into the building soon after closin the pub down. These squatters have slowly destroyed much of the original features o the building. During 2023 and 2024, the building was a focus of anti-social behaviour and drug dealing in he local area. Councillors pressed the police, the Council and the fire brigade o take action. In autumn 2024 the Council took legal action against the building owners regarding the problems caused by their squatters.The Squatters have been removed from the site, and most of the dangerous material has been removed from the site. I have spoken to the security contractor employed by the owners. The security contractor does use the courtyard as a storage site for his business (second hand scrap) but he does ensure that the building is kept secured.
217 Davidson Road and Garcia Warehouse:
24/03919/OUT for Outline application for demolition of all existing buildings (including 217 Davidson Road) and the erection of 9 x 3 storey terrace houses (use Class C3), with landscaping, amenity areas, car and cycle parking, refuse and recycling stores, and vehicle and pedestrian access from Davidson Road.
Meatpackers Site, Cherry Orchard Road
Southern Housing owns the site, having bought it from the original owner, C est Nicholson. The Mayor of London provided grant funding to Southern Housing to ensure that this scheme will be one of the few where most homes are affordable rent or shared ownership.
The original building contractor went bust last year, and so did the second contractor that Sou hern employed. We await a further update from Southern about whether they have succeeded in getting a new building contractor.
I have not received an official update from Southern but last week I met a contractor who was entering the site, and he said that Southern are in the process of awarding the contrac to a builder. I am chasing this up for confirmation.
Menta Twin Towers, Cherry Orchard Road
Sir Robert McAlpine has finished on site, and the first of the two towers is ready to let as a purely Private Let Development.
The owners are marketing the buildings as the Blossoms, and you can see more about the buildings from their website The Blossoms | Apartments for rent in Croydon (theblossomscroydon.co.uk)
The building owners are fitting out of the ground floor but there are still no signs of residents moving into the building
Patricia, Sean and Clive
Our Ward Surgery is held every month on the second Saturday at the Sir Phillip Game Centre, Morland Avenue, Croydon, between 10.30 am and 12 noon.