SPD2
The Supplementary Planning Document (SPD2), dubbed the ‘developers charter,’ has been officially scrapped by Croydon Council’s Planning Committee. In an email newsletter Chris Philp MP says it will ‘end the desecration of our neighbourhood by indiscriminate over-development.’ He commended Mayor Perry and new Planning Committee Chair Cllr. Michael Neal for a new approach to planning decisions.
KENDRA, and other residents associations in the borough, regarded SPD2 as one of the main reasons developers were able to justify their ‘intensified’ planning applications. Chris Philp claims the scrapping of SPD2 and the new considered approach by the Planning Committee has already seen some plans being withdrawn. He says ‘new flats should be built in town centre areas and on brownfield sites, not built by destroying much-needed family homes.’
The Croydon Plan
Our own Geoff James says in his Planning Newsletter that ‘the draft Croydon Plan removes the Focussed Intensification Zone designation from the area around Kenley Station and replaces it with a Moderate Intensification Zone. It is confirmed that the draft Croydon Plan will be re-worked and the ALL the proposed Moderate Intensification zones will be removed.’ No date has been set for final publication.
The London Plan
More changes are afoot regarding the London Plan. As Geoff reveals ‘The new London Plan has revised the housing target for Croydon to 2079 per year (previously it was 2949 per year). This is a major reduction. It recognises that outer London boroughs like Croydon are unable to sustain high levels of “windfall” development. The target for windfall development across Croydon has been drastically reduced to 641 per year. This is fantastic news for Kenley and all the other southern wards, as the very high housing targets for all the southern wards were premised on very high levels of windfall development. (Note: all the blocks of flats, terraced houses and back garden in-fills that plague our area are a direct result of the unsustainable windfall planning assumptions).’