Town & Country Planning Act 1990 – Section 77 Application by Arrowcroft Ltd
Site and Land Adjoining East Croydon Station, George Street, Dingwall Road and Lansdowne Road, Croydon Town and Country Planning (Environmental Impact Assessment) (England and Wales) Regulations 1999 (SI 1999/293)
REASONS FOR OBJECTION TO THE PLANNING APPLICATION
SYNOPSIS
- The development is not sustainable. Worse it will cause considerable harm to neighbouring communities that are sustainable and have been so for many years.
- There has been no proper consultation or community involvement as prescribed by PPS1. In fact there has been much shrouding in mystery to such an extent that we have had to resort to the Freedom of Information Act twice to gain information from
the Council. - For a large event based development a robust transport plan is needed. The information the applicant has provided relies upon sparse or out-of-date surveys and nowhere mentions improvements to the public transport infrastructure.
- It is indicated that the Council - to respond to Arena customers parking in residential streets - would likely introduce new parking zone regimes in our areas which are unwanted.
- We think that a sequential approach should have been applied in selecting the location for the proposed development.
- Nothing in the applicant’s material leads us to believe that the proposed development is commercially and financially capable of delivering the metropolitan status rebranding and regeneration of Croydon. We have yet to see a business plan for the operation of the Arena.
- The applicant does not mention off-site law, order and crowd control.
- We think the latest design for the Arena with apparently 50 or so steps poses a natural danger and appears to contain more oppressive greyness and glass with which Croydon has been architecturally overburdened since the 1960s.
- The UDP Inspector’s Report said that an Arena on this site was not essential.
Chairman, Canning & Clyde Road Residents Association
Also on behalf of Park Hill Residents Association, Morland Park Residents Association, H.O.M.E Residents Association and the Croydon Transport Focus Group
6 comments:
Do we live in a police state? It's certainly starting to feel like it when you consider the attitude of Croydon Council over the proposed Arena development? No one has asked any residents what WE want, yet we will have to live with the disruption caused by the construction, the increased crime caused by the concrete wasteland that the development creates and, no doubt, pay the highly inflated council tax that is needed to pay for it. When will the council realise that the residents don't want an Arena - we want schools, healthcare, safe roads, proper policing, clean streets - in fact, all the mundane things we already pay them for but which they are failing to deliver?! Or is there a hidden agenda which we are not party to? Something smells decidedly fishy over this one - all power to your elbow, Mr Collins!
Can't wait to hear how the Council - our elected representatives, let's remember - try to wiggle out of these objections, which are robust, sensible points! And how our local councillors, who were elected on their promise to object to the Arena development most vociferously, try to explain their total silence on the matter. Their lack of comment speaks volumes, it seems to me, about exactly how little they think of their own electorate.
It would be interesting to see how many supporters that the council have for this scheme as I have yet to notice too much noise from their camp....or is that because they are so hard to find? I doubt that there is much support outside of related business interests in Croydon as the Council have failed to trot out supporters amongst local residents. Whilst I don't disagree with the principal of an arena or any development of the site, I can't believe that the current proposal from Arrowcroft is sustainable as far as transport, as even the head chap from Tramlink mentioned in the Advertiser recently. We have been trying to get acceptable answers to the impact of traffic and parking to us residents for a few years now...... Think about it, the catchment area for an Arena with a 12,500 capacity isn't just Croydon Borough, try getting public transport back to Cheam, Epsom, Banstead, Woodmansterne all of which are within striking distance when a concert chucks out at 11:00 at night!
Croydon Council, take a reality check, Croydon doesn't want or need this proposal!
Strange though that at this very late stage the Arena still does not have an operator. They did a few years ago, but then they dropped out too.
Perhaps the Council will subsidise it?
Contrary to suggestion that we have been doing nothing to oppose the arena, we have in fact spent the last few weeks surveying the residents of Addiscombe regarding this very issue. We have also sent our objection to the cpo/planning application on behalf of Addiscombe residents. The results we gathered from the respondents to the survey show that around 70% are against the arena and we will be presenting this when we appear at the inquiry.
Cllr Garcia seems to be missing the fact that she is a Conservative Councillor in a Conservative run Council. It is the council that is proposing the CPO order. It is her councillor friends who are appearing at the inquiry to support the Arena.
Is it not just a great bit of political management to have the 'local councillors' opposing the Arena and the leaders of the council supporting it?
It is very sad that our councillors are so hell bent on an Arena that they dont listen to 'local councillors' nor do they listen to local people.
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