Help the Arkell Grove, Upper Norwood residents

Residents safety due to compromised site access

Small community; living in residential close, with currently 12 privately owned homes and a few rented garages. 
The houses are built wall to wall, parking and access to the close is limited to one small road.
A few council garages are being rented out to some of the home owners(for over 28 years); all other non-garage tenants/property owners park on the street in front of homes and or in overcrowded near by streets.

The council has only just notified the garage tenants that the garage area is now identified as a site for the development of 3 storey block of 9 flats.
Since there is no other access to the close other than by a small road, the increase amount of traffic, lack of parking space will have an overbearing impact.
Fire engines may encounter difficulty accessing the close in the eventuality of a fire and access will be limited for most rescue services, as well as for waste and recycling bin lorries. (Cars have already been damaged by recycling lorries due to the current lack of space within the close, documented evidence for these incidents can be provided).

Parking issues

Note: There is no public transport in the immediate area/ the local demographic is families and retired couples. Past recorded fatalities due to congested road on Biggin Hill (situated next to Arkell Grove) have not been taken into consideration in the planning development safety survey.
The removal of the garages would force its current renters (over 15 cars parked inside or outside the garages) to locate currently ‘unprovided’ parking. In addition to this, 9 flats means an average of 12 cars (calculated using Croydon’s statistics of average number of cars per inhabitants as per 2011’s census) which will also require parking.

Arkell Grove itself is fully occupied by its residents’ cars. No provision has been made for any parking for the new building, to add to this, additional cars from local residents will require to locate parking in ‘unprovided’ congested adjacent roads, such as Biggin Hill. A Controlled Parking Zone would be of no help, as the area is such that only residents park here (as opposed to streets located nearby developed areas) and would be be additional cost for residents.

Residents and children safety

Note: as well as families, the close has two active ofsted registered childminders / home based.

In this close live numerous families with very young children who use the close as a safe ground, they play and meet in the area of the proposed site.
A) Having a building site in such a small and confined area would certainly present a danger to the safety of these children. (heavy lorries, and excavation)
B) The new house development would remove the direct area in which family and children play and meet.

Overshadowing / Loss of sunlight

The height of the building is such that any house in its shadow would lose access to the sunlight they currently have.

Residents Privacy

The planning is talking about the development of a block of flats which would look directly over the gardens of the adjacent houses and would remove the direct access to their properties.

Environment

One of the adjacent gardens has a very tall and mature tree on the border of the proposed site and the development plans would compromise the roots of this tree, rendering it unstable and therefore at rick of dying and falling.

Sewage issues and waste disposal

All the immediate area to the proposed site privately owned, with no access to the site, how will the issue of sewage be resolved?
Croydon has just announced that they are reducing waste collection in this area. Again, this could be a major health problem for this area.

Questions:

1) Housing mix. The council policy states they need to built approx 30k by 2031, quote: 60% need to be 3 bedrooms or more as this is largest demand.
So why so many 2 beds flats are being built?
Why not build 2 storey homes? This would be a realistic target and would resolve many of the concerns raised by local residents.

2) Access to sites. How all these issues are being answered?
What about the poor access to the site, the narrow roads and lanes; *Cars being required as public transport is not where it should be..
One of Croydon new policy is looking to address issues round creating additional access methods, where is this being addressed in this proposal?
What about sewage and waste disposal, when croydon has just announced that they are reducing waste collection in our area…?

3) If the permission was granted, has the following been taken into consideration?

Which days a week will the work be carried out? ie solid 5/6 day week or on and off some weeks?
Could quieter works be done weekend?

Access: Clearly only one point of access , how will this be addressed?

1. Deliveries Times (this is a very important point. Early morning when childminders get children dropped off OR over weekend when local children playing outside is not acceptable.)

2. General car congestions. Frequency of construction vehicles, What and when? initial large delivery of bricks that would block access, pavements, danger to children playing. This is all health and safety Builders need to address. Builders will need restrictions in place for them to park on road. Has this been accurately assessed?

We have raised a petition to provide the list of individuals part of the local community and or relatives supporting the appeal if the development permission is granted