The PWRA has identified a significant difference between the housing target we are being told lies behind the current Council administration approving virtually every planning application in the south of the Borough, and that which the overall London Plan is expecting from Croydon.
We have asked for an explanation and when the current policy will change. See below for the PWRA’s correspondence to one of the key decision-makers behind this discrepancy:
Dear Cllr Letts,
In common with many Croydon residents and Residents Associations, I have been reviewing the material produced by the Council for the Local Plan Partial Review, and also documents and policies that set the wider context within which the Partial Review is taking place.
One of these documents, and possibly the most important, is the (New) London Plan for which the inspectors report has been issued. Both Croydon’s current planning approach to the provision of new housing units, and that being proposed in the Local Plan Partial Review, become even more deeply concerning than they already are, when read in the context of the London Plan.
We have been told by both the current Council administration, of which you are a part, and by Council Officers, for example at the various events around the Borough, to explain and obtain feedback on the Local Plan Partial Review proposals, that much of the current housing development policy, with its apparent focus on allowing unfettered small scale housing development (invariably 9 flats with inadequate car parking) development across the Borough, and especially in the South of the Borough, is being driven by the requirements of City Hall and the wider London Plan. The London Plan directly contradicts what we have been told. It reduces the 10 year target for the total number of housing units across all London Boroughs from 245,730 to 119,250. For Croydon, the 10 year target is reduced from ~30,000 to ~21,000, and, even more dramatically, the number of these new housing units to come from small scale developments (currently usually being translated in Croydon as the destruction of family houses and the construction of the 9 flat blocks referred to above) from 15,110 to 6,410.
Given this clear direction from the London Plan, of which there will have been awareness well before publication, we would like to know:
- why the current council administration is persisting with its current policy of unfettered small scale housing development, especially in the South of the Borough?
- why the current council administration has proceeded with its Local Plan Partial Review options and engagement sessions in an unamended form, when a significant element of its context is changing?
- when the current council administration will amend and re-issue current housing planning guidance, such as SPD2, to reflect the London Plan?
- when the current council administration will amend and re-issue its Local Plan Partial Review proposals to reflect the London Plan?
We look forward to your response.
Yours sincerely
Andrew Gammie
Purley and Woodcote Residents Association