New block of 67 flats gets the green light from Croydon Council

The new block will replace six houses from 11-21 Banstead Road and be over the road from the 17-storey Mosaic Place development – dubbed the Purley Skyscraper.

A series of six storey buildings will include 24 affordable homes, 14 of which will be for affordable rent, with the rest sold as shared ownership.

Overall the application from RAA Ventures received 55 objections, but 65 people signed a petition in favour of the development.

It will include seven disabled parking space as well as 128 cycle parking spaces.

At a planning committee meeting last week, Councillor Simon Brew, for Purley and Woodcote, spoke in objection to the plans.

He said: “This 67 flat design presents four angled slabs of six storeys instead of the gabled houses which are a feature of the local area and it is totally out of character.”

Cllr Brew added that the development would have “unacceptable” loss of sunlight to neighbouring properties.

The councillor said: “Purley is being completely overwhelmed by catastrophic over development such as this one without any compensating infrastructure improvements.

“This is blighting the lives of current residents due to the congestion caused by construction work and it will blight the lives of residents for decades to come, it is time to stop this madness.”

Kevin Goodwin on behalf of RAA Ventures said: “The site is a challenging one being opposite to the listed library and the new Mosaic site, the topography and need to transition to existing houses in Banstead Road.

“It is a high quality brick built building with gable and pitched roofs which respects the character of Purley.”

The plans were approve with six votes in favour and four against.