Planning News

Use the Council’s Simple Search link for their Public Access Register to find information about Croydon’s planning applications.

An alternative approach is to use the open-source UK Planit website, which has Croydon’s planning data from 1999 and has most other local authorities from the United Kingdom.

Latest News on Planning Issues in Addiscombe & East Croydon

Please find below a list of the central planning applications that have been submitted or where significant developments in the Addiscombe West Ward may occur.

List of sites with active planning applications or building works underway

Croydon Park Hotel, Addiscombe Grove

Planning Application: None submitted

Latest Information: Currently closed and unlikely to be re-opened as a hotel. Croydon Council is looking to recoup its purchase costs and redevelop the site in partnership with a developer.

 

Warehouse, 130 Oval Road

Planning Application 21/03040/OUT | Outline planning application (for access, scale, and layout only) for demolition of existing unoccupied warehouse buildings. Erection of 2 x part 2-storey, part 3-storey and part 4-storey buildings providing 36 units with associated cycle and bin storage, amenity space and landscaping. | Warehouse 130 Oval Road Croydon CR0 6BL.

Details of the Councillors’s objection can be found here https://www.addiscombewest.org.uk/councillors-planning-objections-for-the-warehouse-130-oval-road/

June 2022 Update: The application was refused on 30 May 2022. A letter from the Council outlining the reasons for refusal can be found here.

Croydon Area Remodelling Scheme (CARS): East Croydon Station rebuild and Tackling the Croydon Bottleneck

Planning Application: Indefinitely delayed (July 2021) by the decision of the Government not to agree on the funding needed to take the development to the next stage. Evidence is the Government is more interested in funding rail schemes in the north than in London or the South East.

Latest information: Public Consultation on Network Rail’s CARS proposals was completed in 2020. Network Rail needs financial support from the Government to progress the rebuild of East Croydon, unblock the Croydon bottleneck at Selhurst Triangle, and replace Windmill Bridge.

July 2021: Network Rail confirms that it has “paused” its work on the CARS programme. See Government force Network Rail to abandon the rebuild of East Croydon Station. – Addiscombe West.

June 2021: Various transport media websites report that the Government will delay its decision on whether to fund the rebuild of East Croydon Station and to tackle the Croydon Bottleneck. See New Civil Engineer report Updated rail enhancements pipeline to be published in ‘coming days’; what can we expect?

Latest article: See article from September 2020 Unblock the Croydon Bottleneck – Addiscombe West

Good background information can be found on the London Reconnections Website, particularly A Study in Sussex (part 15): East Croydon revisited – again! – London Reconnections

The Glamorgan Pub, Cross Road

Planning application: 19/05926/FUL. (Withdrawn March 2021)  Demolition of the existing public house building and the construction of a new building to re-provide a public house together with the erection of 36 residential units (Use Class C3) and associated means of access and landscaping. | The Glamorgan 81 Cherry Orchard Road Croydon CR0 6BE

Latest Information: April 2022: No information has been provided by the developer/owner since 2021. The building remains squatted and in Poor condition, with the ground floor bar and restaurant extensively vandalised with much of the lead stripped from the roof.

Dec 2021: The owners of the Glamorgan Public rejected the offer from a local consortium to buy the premises at their current market value (around £1m). The developer claims the Public House is worth over £2.2m (they originally paid £1.4M from Punch Taverns).

July 25 2021, Developer Butler Wallsal Ltd informed Croydon Council that they intend to sell the site after denying that they would submit a new application for months. As per the legislation regarding Asset of Community Value, Croydon Council has given the community until midnight on 23 July 2021 to offer an intention to bid for the site. The choice to bid must be from a charity, a community interest company, or a company limited by guarantee. On 23 July 2021, a group of members connected to the Save the Glamorgan Campaign set up a Company limited by guarantee called the Glamorgan Phoenix. It informed the Council of its intention to bid and requested that the Council invoke the six-month legal moratorium on the developer to stop them from selling. The group is waiting for a formal response from the Council.

June 2021. The owners of the Public House, Butler Walsall Limited, have informed Croydon Council of their intention to sell the building. As the building is an Asset of Community Value, there is a 6-week moratorium to allow a community interest group – i.e. a legally constituted organisation such as a charity, a company limited by guarantee that does not distribute profits amongst its members, an Industrial and Provident Society, a Community Interest Company (CIC) or a Parish Council -to express an interest to bid. If this is submitted in time, the community will have another six months to formalise its bid.

March 2021 Planning Application withdrawn by developers Butlers Walsall Limited following concerns expressed by the Mayor of London and Croydon Council. Applicants claim they will resubmit a revised application.

Save the Glamorgan Campaign: Residents have come together and are campaigning to return the building to its original use as a Public House. They can be contacted via their Facebook page, Save the Glamorgan Pub.

Latest article: March 2021 Residential Planning Application to demolish the Glamorgan Pub withdrawn – Addiscombe West

City Link, Addiscombe Road

Planning application. Submitted June 2021. 21/02912/FUL for Demolition of existing building and redevelopment of the site to provide a part 14-storey and part 28-storey building with basement, comprising 498 co-living units and associated communal amenity spaces (Use Class Sui Generis), 85 residential units (Use Class C3), commercial space (Use Class E) and flexible commercial and community space (Use Class E/F1) at ground/mezzanine level, together with roof terraces and balconies, wheelchair accessible parking spaces, refuse and cycle storage and associated landscaping and public realm works including removal of subways

Proposals: Residential Development. To replace office blocks with 498 Co-living units (student accommodation-style micro-flats for adults) and 85 affordable homes. Pre-application consultation with residents in 2020. Link to the 5th State’s website. The future of City Link House, Croydon (fifthstate-croydon.co.uk). A planning application is yet to be submitted. A pre-application hearing at Croydon Planning Committee on 15th October 2020 can be seen via the Council’s webcast.

Councillors’ objections to this scheme can be found here.

Outcomes: 27th January 2022 The Planning Committee refuses the planning application because the proposed building is far too tall at 91M, as it will harm Number One Croydon (NLA Tower) and the Townscape around it.

Summary Of Objections Reasons

1) Height of the building and impact on NLA Tower

2) Inadequate size of each co-living unit.

3) Loss of a Key Employment Site and proposed application deliver inadequate levels of employment

4) Inadequate amount of affordable housing

5) Street scene and failure to provide a cycling path around the building.

6) Privacy issues

7) Daylight and Sunlight issues on neighbouring properties, especially for Altyre Road and Addiscombe Grove residents.

Royal Mail Sorting Office, Addiscombe Road

Planning application: 21/01831/PAD submitted April 2021. Application to demolish the building. It was submitted by Network Mail, which bought the site from Hyde Housing and will be used as a site office to rebuild East Croydon Station.

Latest Information: On June 16th 2021, Croydon Council approved the Demolition planning application. Network Rail has employed BAM Nuttall to demolish the existing building to the ground floor slab level and to leave the site safely and securely until the CARS scheme commences. The current basement will be retained. There is a forecast 30-week project length. There is no Start Date currently. The site’s demolition and traffic management plan states that the bus stop on Cherry Orchard Road will be suspended for the duration of the works to facilitate a new exit from the site onto Cherry Orchard Road.

Previous Applications: 13/03126/p Royal Mail got outline planning permission to demolish the sorting office and replace it with a 21-storey residential tower block of 201 flats. This application has now lapsed.

Meat Packers Site, 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.

Latest Information: April 2022: Demolition of the building is complete. Foundations have been dug, and the concrete frame is rising from the ground.

Autumn 2021: Cherryfield Meatpackers have sold their site to Optivo Housing and vacated the premises in May 2021. The company has moved to a new location near Gatwick. The tenure proposals by the original applicant, Crest Nicholson, have been amended by Optivo. The number of units is reduced to 116, all of which will be affordable (shared ownership or affordable rent). Demolition started in late July 2021. Henley Homes will carry out the building works. The completion date is set for Late Summer or Early Autumn 2023.

Morello Quarters, Cherry Orchard Road (Twin Towers)

April 2022 Update: Both Towers are progressing on target. And Menta is committed to delivering the new bridge link to the East Croydon Station.

July 2021 Update: Menta Ltd has employed Sir Robert McAlpine to deliver the new housing on their Cherry Orchard Road site and the Cherry Orchard Gardens site across the road.  The development consists of Twin 25-storey towers and will be home to 338 residential apartments. Between the twin towers will be the bridge link to East Croydon Station. The developer, alongside Network Rail, has promised the link since 2011. If Network Rail keeps their side of the bargain, this new pedestrian link could open in 2023 and allow residents to walk across from Cherry Orchard Road to the Lansdowne Road entrance to East Croydon Station.

The original proposals for the site went back to 2009 and included a 55-storey skyscraper. The then Conservative Council approved a planning application 11/00981/P including a 55-storey tower despite receiving over 600 objections from residents, whose main concerns were the height of the building; at 160m, it would have been over twice the height of NLA Tower (No 1 Croydon) and the low percentage of affordable homes. The planning application was never enacted, and the site stays empty until the 2017 planning application.

Cherry Orchard Gardens

April 2022: The building has now had its topping out ceremony, so the superstructure is complete, and the following stages are the completion of the cladding and fitting out of the flats. Clarion’s marketing arm, Latimer, is marketing the shared ownership flats on their website. They are calling the development of Crescent Gardens and waiting for details of prices and details.

July 2021 Update: This was a former council estate of 48 Council homes. The Conservative Council sold to Menta in 2007 for £8m after reneging on the previous Labour Council’s deal to redevelop the site for social housing and shared ownership in 2006. The buildings were demolished in 2011 by Menta, and the site lay empty until work started in 2020. The 2011 Planning application provided 72 affordable homes, though most were shared ownership units.

The 2011 planning application was never acted upon. The site continued to lay empty until a new application was submitted in 2017 and approved in 2018 for a five to nine-storey building, which will provide 118 units for shared ownership and social rent and will be owned by Clarion Housing Association. Local Councillors successfully protected the Plane Trees from being cut down as part of the planning approval, which was an improvement on the 2011 application, which, if implemented, would have seen all the Plane trees cut down. Instead, the building has been set back at the junction of Oval Road and Cherry Orchard Road to create a small pocket park for residents to enjoy, protecting the Plane Trees.

30-38 Addiscombe Road

April 2022 Update: The tower has been topped out, and the building cladding is underway. The development is called Addiscombe Oaks by L&Q Homes. L&Q are now marketing their homes for the Addiscombe Oaks New Homes site.

Croydon Council granted planning permission for this site in 2019. L&Q has promised to deliver 50% of the 137 new homes as affordable. L&Q has been on site since 2020 and should be complete by 2022/23.

18/06102/FUL: Redevelopment of the site to provide 137 residential units across an eight and 18-storey building with associated landscaping and access arrangements.

L&Q secures planning permission for 137 new homes in Croydon

As part of their commitment to support the local community, L&Q and their contractors have provided resources and labour to improve Dartnell Park in Addiscombe in support of the Park’s Friends Group.

Bridge to Nowhere

London Reconnections has a good overview of the history of this proposal. A pedestrian bridge between Cherry Orchard Road and Lansdowne Road was first proposed in the mid-2000s to increase the connectivity between Addiscombe and Croydon Town Centre. The idea was incorporated into the 2011 East Croydon Masterplan and was predicated on funding from Network Rail, Croydon Council (£6m) and developers’ contributions of land and budget. The bridge has a dual-track, one for access to the station and its platforms. The second (not currently used) is for a separate pedestrian link from Cherry Orchard Road to Lansdowne Road. Addiscombe West Councillors are pushing Network Rail to open up the pedestrian link once the building works on the Menta Morello Twin Towers residential scheme are complete in 2023.

Garcia Industrial Unit, Rear of 217-219 Davidson Road, CR0 6DP

Dec 2021 Planning application: December 2021 Planning Application submitted by Trinity Square Developer of the existing Industrial Warehouse on Davidson Road. “21/06378/FUL for Demolition of all existing works buildings and demolition of the house at 217 Davidson Road, and the erection at the rear of part 3, part 4 storey block of flats to provide 22 residential units (use Class C3), with landscaping, amenity areas, car and cycle parking, refuse and recycling stores, and vehicle and pedestrian access from Davidson Road. Please use the link below to view the case details.  https://publicaccess3.croydon.gov.uk/online-applications/applicationDetails.do?activeTab=summary&keyVal=R4VV78JLJ5B00

Trinity Square carried out consultations with residents in March 2021.

February 2022 Update. Local Councillors were approached by residents concerned about the development and how close the building was to the rear of their homes. We objected on the following grounds
1) Overdevelopment of the site
2) Doesn’t reflect the character of the area
3) Height of the development
4) Privacy, Overlooking, Impact on adjoining properties

 

Addiscombe Grove

This Pocket Living residential scheme 17/02680/FUL on Addiscombe Grove was first approved in November 2017. “Demolition of existing buildings including parking garage and redevelopment of the sites for a part 9, 20 and 21 storey building comprising 153 residential dwellings (Class C3) and a single storey sub-station”.

Forty-one of the units will be for shared ownership, provided by Optivo Housing. Pocket Living claims their 112 one-bed units will be “genuinely affordable homes designed for local first-time buyers on moderate incomes”.

Addiscombe Grove is a modular build that Pocket claimed would result in a “quicker, less disruptive manner” than a conventional residential building. Still, the build time has been one of the slowest in Croydon, and despite being on-site since the summer of 2018, it does not look like the building will be finished until 2022.

April 2022 Update: Local Councillors have recently been informed that the building has achieved Practical Completion, which means it is now ready for occupation.

Pocket is marketing their homes on their website. Optivo is now selling their homes on their website.