Last night I attended a briefing session hosted by the Cabinet Member for Planning and Sustainable Development, the Executive Mayor, and key officers from Croydon’s Planning Department on an ongoing consultation for the revised Local Plan for Croydon.
Why a Local Plan is important, particularly now
Every local planning authority should provide and work within its own Local Plan. Succinct and up-to-date plans provide a positive vision for the future and a framework for addressing housing needs and other economic, social and environmental priorities.
A Local Plan is crucial for guiding sustainable development, ensuring community involvement, and protecting the environment. It provides a legal framework for decision-making on planning applications, aligns local development with national and regional policies (such as the London Plan), and supports economic growth by offering stability for investors.
The Local Plan addresses infrastructure needs, housing provision, and public services, while promoting transparency and accountability through extensive community consultation. Additionally, it strengthens a local authority's position in planning appeals and ensures consistency with broader government objectives.
The adoption of a sound and robust Local Plan is even more important with forthcoming changes to the National Planning Policy Framework set out by the new Labour Government, which are likely to impose new housing targets or make changes to planning on different types of land, such as green belt.
What is Croydon consulting on?
The partial review of Croydon’s Local Plan began in 2019 with the first stage (Regulation 18) involving community feedback through the Issues and Options consultation from November 2019 to January 2020. The second stage (Regulation 19) occurred between January and February 2022. Over 800 responses from the Regulation 18 consultation were considered in the revised Regulation 19 Plan.
Following the election of Executive Mayor Jason Perry and the approval of his Business Plan in May 2022, further updates were made to align with the Mayor's priorities.
The council is now asking residents for representations on whether it is legally compliant and meets the tests of ‘soundness’ as set out in the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF), paragraph 35.
The revised Local Plan will be submitted to the Secretary of State for Examination in Public by the end of 2024. For more information on this process, please see Croydon Local Plan review.
How to respond
Use the ‘Representation Form’ on the council’s website, which will take you through the aspects that the council is consulting on.
Full guidance, including all of the documentation is available on ‘Regulation 19 consultation’ page on the website. Access to the consultation is also available in the Urban Room in the Whitgift Centre and also in Croydon’s libraries.
There is a lot of information here and if you are unfamiliar with making a response it can be overwhelming. If you are just interested in how the proposed changes affect Kenley, then I suggest you review the ‘Kenley and Old Coulsdon’ focus on page 269.
The index on page 7 of this document gives you a list of all of the policies, so you can easily see what other areas are of interest to you. The document is very useful as it has tracked changes so that you can see ‘at a glance’ how the proposed changes are different to the existing plan.
The closing date for responses is 5pm on 12th August 2024.
What this means for Kenley’s residents
This revised Local Plan reflects Mayor Perry’s intention to ensure that ‘Croydon is a cleaner, safer and healthier place, a borough we’re proud to call home’, as set out in priority and outcome four of his business plan, which states that:
New developments will be design-led, not density-led. While we must continue to plan for new homes, schemes must respect the views of local people, enhance the character of our places, and recognise the need for amenity space. This will be achieved by:
- Reviewing Croydon’s Local Plan to remove intensification zones, support sustainable development and emphasise design and character over density
- Revoking the SPD2 Suburban Design Guide
- Reviewing conservation areas to ensure the borough’s special places are protected for generations to come
- Reviewing the planning and enforcement service to identify the resources needed to improve the service for customers
- Enforcing policies to tackle the cumulative impact of houses in multiple occupation
- Reviewing the building control service to ensure it can fulfil current statutory duties and new obligations relating to building safety.
I believe that this is a strong vision for Kenley, particularly in regard to removal of the intensification areas which has adversely affected roads near Kenley station, revoking SPD2 design guide (already completed), concentrating development to the most sustainable locations, amending policies to place more emphasis on design and character over density, and identification of local green spaces.
I would urge you to take a look at the proposals and consider making a response.
Cllr Gayle Gander
