Overcrowding

The Croydon Guardian reports that Croydon is overcrowded:

"Croydon is one of London's most overcrowded boroughs and is building a below average percentage of family homes.

A survey, by Inside Housing, has revealed that just seven per cent of the affordable homes built in Croydon last year was family sized."

Why then are there so many derelict houses and areas in Croydon?

Why does the council insist on pursuing a policy of building more shopping centres and an arena?

The Vision Thing

Given the prediction that by 2018 internet shopping could account for half of Britain's £300BN a year retail market, why is that Croydon Council and its friends in the property development companies are still pushing ahead with plans to build another shopping centre in Croydon?

Given the dismal failure that is Centrale, I would have thought that they would had learned their lesson by now.

The centre of Croydon does not need more shops, bars or restaurants. It needs people to actually live there when night falls, in other words we need housing in the centre of Croydon that will provide the engine for the regeneration of the local economy and the environment.

Unfortunately, the council and the developers lack the long term vision to see this.

The Bird House Saga

I received information from Croydon Council yesterday concerning the "Bird House" on Sydenham Road.

I have been banging on about this for almost 4 years, and was told by the council in April of this year that there was planning permission for it.

Unfortunately, the council had given me information relating to the wrong building.

The reality is that the "Bird House" has a history of being owned by a landlord who defaulted on repairs, and could not be traced. Broomleigh Housing Association took the property over and, because a new building could not be built on the site, sold it to Whitstable Investments Ltd of Jersey.

All the buildings in Sydenham Road of this design and date were put on a local list which prevented them from being demolished. This was recently lifted.

Croydon Council have obtained information from the Land Registry and will be contacting the owner to start proceedings to get them to place the properties back into residential use.

I would like to thank the recently appointed member of the Empty Properties Department of Croydon Council for being the first person in the council, in almost 4 years, to actually bother to look into this properly and to state that they will actually try to do something about it.

It is a disgrace that the building has been left to rot and decay over the years. It would have made a fine home for someone, now it seems that it will end up being demolished.

I shall watch developments with interest.

The Times

My thanks to The Times for allowing me to plug this site in their article about the empty homes crisis, and publicly remind Croydon Council that "The Bird House" in Sydenham Road is still untouched and unloved.



"A large property in Sydenham Road, Croydon, has been derelict for years and I featured it on www.croydoniscrap.com, the website where I name and shame squalid buildings, derelict land and streets that are a blight on the community and the environment.

Croydon council claimed in April that it had approved an application to build flats there. However, as yet, there is no sign of any building work commencing.

Ken Frost,

Croydon"

Ken Praises Croydon

24dash.com reports that the Mayor of London, Ken Livingstone, has praised Croydon Council for exceeding his target for building new homes and for ensuring over half of them were affordable.

The figures show that Croydon:

-Delivered 1,121 new homes last year, exceeding the Mayor's London Plan 2006/07 target of 903

-Provided 558 affordable homes, exceeding the Mayor's target that 50% of all new homes should be affordable.

The Mayor told Croydon it was a "good performer" adding:

"I am delighted to see you demonstrating to others that, given the political will and commitment, it is possible to increase both overall supply and the proportion that is affordable."

Croydon Council are to be congratulated to for exceeding plans.

However, given the pressure on housing, I would like to ask why it is that derelict houses such as the "Bird House" on Sydenham Road are still allowed to rot?

Croydon Regeneration

The Croydon Guardian reports that tonight Croydon, "once described as a 'complete concrete hell' by David Bowie, will announce a multibillion-pound regeneration plan that will, potentially, turn it into a beacon of sustainability, drawing on ideas from other European cities including Barcelona.

The architect Will Alsop, who once tried to reinvent Barnsley as a walled Tuscan hill town, is to mastermind the transformation, which has as its centrepiece 'a vertical version of the Eden Project' rising more than 30 storeys in Park Hill Park.
Effectively a giant greenhouse in the form of a skyscraper, it would become Croydon's primary visitor attraction with different species planted in 'sky gardens' on each floor.

Alsop has proposed hacking back 'a forest of car parks' choking the town centre, shutting eight-lane highways to through traffic and building a pedestrian-friendly 'emerald necklace' of parks.

The river Wandle is also to be brought back to the surface 40 years after it was buried in culverts and Alsop hopes to revive fishing for Wandle trout."

The plans don't stop there:

"20,000 new homes will be built to increase the town centre population from fewer than 5,000 residents to 50,000. Glass apartment blocks will be connected by high-level covered walkways crossing the main Wellesley Road, which will be reduced from eight lanes to two.

Pod-shaped buildings will rise up on stilts and scores of public squares and miniature parks will be built throughout the town centre, inspired by the regeneration of Barcelona after the 1992 Olympics."

Admirable in every way. However, I do have two caveats in respect of the ambitions of the council and the architect:

1 Why is the council wasting so much time and resources on trying to build the unwanted and unnecessary arena in Dingwall Road?

2 We have seen plans like this, eg high level walkways, before. Those of you with long memories may recall an exhibition held near the Fairfield Hall in the early 1990's. This was to showcase proposed designs for a "brave, new Croydon". We were treated to stunning models and drawings showing; glass walkways, communal gardens and elegant office/residential tower blocks. Needless to say, these plans came to nowt.

I wonder if any of us will live long enough to see these plans come to fruition?