Earlier this month, we were informed that Croydon Council had refused our planning application to build 7 affordable homes on a site off The Lawns leased to us by the council.
The CLT board has agreed the following statement.
We are shocked and disappointed that Croydon council’s planning officers have refused our application for 7 affordable homes at The Lawns. After winning a competition for the site with the council in 2019, local people have volunteered thousands of hours to design a not-for-profit proposal that is sensitive to neighbours and maximises the affordability of the homes.
We’re so proud of how the local community has come together to try and build homes for people priced out of the area. We don’t want this effort to be wasted, so we intend to appeal.
We have worked closely with the council throughout the process, the final grounds for refusal are subjective, and we have explained that the changes the planners sought would make it too expensive to provide affordable homes. Over the past five years we have door knocked residents three times and consulted widely to understand concerns about infill developments like these. We brought together 18 local people, representative of the area in terms of age, income, race and housing need to set our objectives and work with the architects on the design that could best achieve them. Their objectives were affordability, environmental standards and sensitivity to neighbours. We believe we have resolved these as best we can.
Our board has also put thousands more hours into setting up the Community Land Trust, making sure it is well governed and financially managed. We have had countless meetings with Croydon’s elected mayor, cabinet members, ward councillors and council officers, and London’s deputy mayor for housing. We hope more local people will join us in this effort to build up our CLT to provide affordable homes, workspace and other community assets for Crystal Palace.