At last, the planning tide is beginning to turn! Purley residents are heartily fed up with overdevelopment, and I'm delighted to report that an application to replace two traditional family homes in Foxley Lane by a four storey block of 22 flats was turned down at Planning committee on 14/7. The photos show the current homes and the proposed new block.
The overall & particularly “windfall” housing targets for Croydon, on which this application relied, have been totally discredited; at a Cabinet meeting in May 2022, the Executive Mayor said that the provision of new housing in Croydon is currently running at 120% of the target. There was therefore no need for this development at all, and particularly not in Foxley Lane which has already suffered no less than 31 planning applications since 2018.
I said in my speech that the new building had an awkward roof design and two-tone façade facing Foxley Lane which was completely out of character, particularly as its roof line is some 3M higher than its neighbours #91 & 93, so would completely dwarf them.
It was disappointing that there were no solar panels, no recycling of grey and rainwater, no green roof and, in contravention of policy, there were no electric car charging points.
Parking arrangements were extremely unsatisfactory. For 22 flats, there are just 22 spaces whereas guidelines allow up to 33 for this site which has a very poor 1B PTAL rating. The transport assessment claims that this provision will be adequate, but the quoted data is for all sizes of flat, and as this development has 15*3bed flats, this is clearly inadequate and wrong.
The National Policy Planning Framework (NPPF) encourages SUSTAINABLE development, and Policy DM10 states that the Council “will take account of cumulative impact”. Over the last 3 years, planning permission is being considered or has already been granted for about 150 family homes in Purley to be replaced by about 650 new flats, and just four other largescale developments are contributing another 650 flats. This totals about 1300 homes which is over 50% of the annual requirement for new homes for the WHOLE OF CROYDON. If this does not constitute cumulative impact on Purley, then what does? This is totally UNSUSTAINABLE, and therefore against NPPF policy, particularly as there has been no compensating infrastructure increase in schools and surgeries etc.
I'm delighted to report that the Committee decided to reject this application - this was the first rejection of a planning application in Purley since the new Conservative administration took control, and I look forward to many similar decisions!