CROYDON IN CRISIS: If 2020 was Croydon Councils year of Negreedy and bankruptcy, 2021 has been the year of leaks, mould and a local authority exposed as incompetent and uncaring about those living in its properties. We will normally only consider complaints about things which happened in the past 12 months. At just after 4pm on July 7, I received an email from a corporate resolution officer at Croydon Council telling me that in order to progress the complaint investigation, the planning team needed to be sent signed authorisation that the Newlands had asked me to act on their behalf in the complaint. The hardest part of being at Croydon council is the uncertainty when there are cuts in budget or changes to services. The court judgement established the boundaries of Ms Zs house. Deliberate delays by council officials in the processing of a formal complaint from a couple in their 90s has helped allow the unlawful demolition of a family home in Sanderstead and the start of development of a block of flats, in breach of planning permission. During our investigation, we could have run a piece every single night on this, Daniel Hewitt, ITV Newss political correspondent, says in an interview in the latest edition of Inside Housing magazine. The work of OConnell and Hewitt had done in 2021 what Cathy Come Home had exposed in the 1960s. (19%) Those of us who deal with Croydons planning service are used to their incompetence but this one reaches a new level. Information about our two-stage corporate process can be found on this page. This form can be used to report a number of problems relating to the environment, that is in your neighbourhood, on the streets and roads, in parks, woodlands and public areas, which you think should be brought to our attention. If you have a company vehicle, a copy of the vehicle registration papers and a letter from the company stating that you have sole use of the vehicle and that it is normally parked at this address. The closure, which lasts until March 2017, follows a nine-month investigation into complaints of ASB and nuisance. Re Mr. Harveys comment above, I would comment that Land registry plans (at least, those shown on the Land Title documents) rarely if ever show the ownership of a boundary fence. Ploughing through the law: demolition of 89 Hyde Road went ahead, despite a complaint suggesting the council process had been unlawful, Schedule 1 of the undertaking reads (my italics for emphasis): Sustainable Transport Contribution means the sum of 13,500 to be utilised towards (which could include but not limited to and council exercising absolute discretion) sustainable transport, highway management measures and the delivery of sustainable transport initiatives in Sanderstead.. Over a hundred years, maybe 33% of the countrys existing properties would come up for renewal. It found that at its southern and western boundaries, the garage trespassed on land in the ownership of Mr X or Mr Y. . I would put out a plea to maybe cut the officers a bit more slack, particularly the ones, at my lowly sort of level, that are not managers, have no control over how many applications they are allocated, and also have no real control over the policies they are required to apply, or the Planning Laws that govern their powers. The council has powers to deal with noise that is considered a statutory nuisance, a statutory nuisance is determined by a number of factors including, but not limited to; type of noise, volume, frequency, duration and its impact on others. You can change your cookie settings at any time. Make a complaint. Mr Patel might be best advised to contact a qualified property ( legal / building surveying) professional to check whether his neighbour has a legal right to build the wall on Mr Ps land. Heather Cheesbrough was in charge when Planning Policy SPD2 was written. Croydon councillors vote against 15% tax rise. I have used the service on many occasions and found it very useful with prompt response to most complaints. We will also ask you to keep a record of the noise and how it affects you on diary sheets for a few days or weeks, depending on how often the noise occurs. as far as I could ascertain from our neighbours, plastics/etc and food were collected from . Complaints about one-off parties are unlikely to be dealt with under nuisance law as in the majority of parties are one off events. Once this form has been completed, the information will be forwarded to the relevant team for action. Plans for five new houses and two new flats in Coulsdon have been green lit despite sparking a huge 450 objections from locals. For information, the Newlands letter of July 14 WAS copied to Katherine Kerswell and Sarah Hayward, Shifa Mustafas replacement. Planning enforcement. A fair amount of chalk (from those lorry wheels) is also being deposited on the roads so much for any wheelwash facilities ! Perhaps the members of the councils planning committee were still in a state of shock. Based in Croydon and edited by Steven Downes. Unlawful: the destruction of the trees on the Hyde Road site broke the planning conditions. Follow these steps if you have a dispute with your neighbour. 13 July 2021. . But Hey, that sounds like hard work and it would expose to public scrutiny just how useless these two are. If you are a tenant or live in a strata scheme you may have other options for . It's how to get the most out of everything nearby. It took the council another two months to reply six months after the original complaint had been lodged. This is well established.. Bonfires generate around 30,000 nuisance complaints to local authorities each year. Developers break the law with impunity as demonstrated time and time again. 3 1 March 2021. Your Croydon. Their reports are deliberately written in a dry, officialese. Most councils have yet to confirm plans, with about a third indicating they may propose a 3% increase. Emergency services, including an air ambulance, rushed to the scene at around 12.46am following reports of a disturbance, but the teen was pronounced dead around 45 minutes later.. A neighbour, who knew Camron since he A London borough has been told to pay out 1,000 apiece to an autistic man and his mother, who cared for him, after it failed to properly support them causing stress, anxiety and a breakdown in family life. By far Croydon Council is the worse Borough ever. They own land built on by Ms Z. I asked Will anything be done to enforce what has been approved here, or is the developer to be given free rein? Utter incompetence and no one ever held to account. The tenant attended court on November 29, but However, this work must be done at reasonable times and should not cause nuisance to neighbours. Call the cops The LAPD suggests that noise complaints, from loud TVs to awful parties, are best dealt with by your local police station. You can help us keep the borough looking clean and tidy by reporting untidy or eyesore gardens. Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email. Where neighbours support local businesses and get updates from public services. If Steve Reed OBE MP and Clive Fraser spent less time trying to strangle democracy in the LLP and more time trying to address these dire housing issues, theyd be doing what they were elected to do. That design is hideous and mirrors a template of square blocks going up all over the place with no regards to aesthetics and the surrounding area. A planning investigation has been opened after Croydon Council made a 'series of mistakes'.. By the early hours, rioting Talk to your neighbour. Heather Cheesborough said in writing The application was accompanied by an application form in which the applicant had signed Certificate B to state that the notice had been given even though it had not (and she was given numerous pieces of evidence including a postmarked envelope) and that I had been given notice of the forthcoming planning application even thought by her own admission she knows that I knew nothing about it until after it had already been made. News & events from Croydon Council. Antisocial behaviour. Croydon council has declared effective bankruptcy for the third time in two years, saying it faces an "existential question" after collapsing under the weight of a "toxic debt burden . How things have been allowed to get so bad is beyond belief. Heather Cheesbrough, the six-figure salaried council exec in charge of the planning department, recently lectured elected councillors, telling them that, All the planning officers in the team have the highest personal integrity and professionalism.. Quantum Homes, their work on Pollards Hill South . For any noise emergencies contact 020 8726 6000. Other than essential front line services, Planning is the thing that Croydon Council has let down the people of Croydon the most on and continues unaddressed at a high level in the council. The report was finally released at lunchtime today, with council leader Hamida Ali emailing it first to members of the Croydon Labour Party. No reply: Katherine Kerswell is the 192,000 per year chief exec of a council that is slow to respond to resident complaints. It's where communities come together to greet newcomers, exchange recommendations, and read the latest local news. By STEVEN DOWNES, The shame that wont go away: the latest edition of Inside Housing magazine, featuring Regina Road and ITV News reporter Dan Hewitt. The HRA was the source of the money used to pay Dr Alison Knight her 800 per day fees when she swanned into Croydon as an emergency interim head of housing, only to leave after less than six months without any obvious sign of actually achieving anything. Yet a Labour-run council has axed its meals on wheels service even after paying its outgoing chief executive more than 600,000, it emerged yesterday. However, I cannot see that a lot of what they are accused of here is entirely within their control, and they do not appear to be significantly worse than many other Planning Departments (although admittedly may be a bit too relaxed regarding over-development). We aim to give all our customers a good service, but sometimes we make mistakes. Night hours. Labour councillors in several wards have lodged formal complaints on behalf of their residents for months on end, as the homes security is being placed at risk, and break-ins at the blocks have become more frequent, vandalism and drug-dealing has been an issue. Dont worry we wont send you spam or share your email address with anyone. If you're a member of the public who has concerns that a child or young person is being harmed or needs support, you should contact our Single Point of Contact (SPOC) team. Just another episode in the regular shambles at Fishers Folly. see https://www.gov.uk/party-walls-building-works. As we read it, the inclusion of the bracketed text effectively means that the contribution could be spent on anything, without restriction and not necessarily even within Sanderstead. Putting aside the likely unauthorised blocking of the highway, the demolition works were in direct breach of Condition 5 of the permission, which required the submission and approval of a "Construction Logistics Plan" before development commenced. But this latest ruling from the Local Government Ombudsman effectively declares the planners to be utter buffoons. A nuisance tenant who terrorised his neighbours, making their lives a misery with his persistent noise and anti-social behaviour, has been barred from his home by a court ruling. London. However, Planning Departments have seen some of the biggest budget cuts of any Council Departments (although of course I dont know if this is the case at Croydon), so maybe its not a suprise that things are starting to fall apart at the seams. 16 hours ago 16h cominbuy clothing reviews 9998219401. We can then serve a legal notice under the Environmental Protection Act 1990 requiring the offender to stop causing a nuisance. Drop a pin on the map, describe the parking issue, and send it off - it takes just a couple of minutes. It will add to the already overloaded drainage and sewer systems and should be refused.. 8.00am to 5:30pm. If your neighbours complain to the Council, you may find the Environmental Protection department writing to you asking you to take action to avoid causing a nuisance. The Planning department can advise on height of wall needing Planning Permission (PP) , which will depend on whether the wall is alongside a highway. No public servant has understood their responsibility or how to show contrition since. . Although dated February 16 2021, the relevant unilateral undertaking was only published by the council on May 18, almost three months later. The application was retrospective, and the council had photographs from May 2019 that showed the strutural stanchions on Mr X and Mr Ys land. Based in Croydon and edited by Steven Downes. The only plan showing location was a red-line plan showing the outline of the whole curtilage of Ms Zs house at 1:1250 scale. It goes on and on. Dont include personal or financial information like your National Insurance number or credit card details. Which is what makes this ruling, published yesterday, all the more extraordinary in its criticism of the council planners incompetence and lack of professionalism. Posted. If talking hasn't resolved the issue, you can make a complaint to your local council or the police. For a start, theres nothing to be found anywhere on the councils clunky website that reports any part of this latest clusterfuck by the planning department. Akton Recruitment has an opening for a SHELTERED HOUSING MANAGER ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES OF THE SHELTERED HOUSING MANAGER _____ To promote, encourage and support the continued independence and well-being of the sheltered housing tenants by monitoring, enabling and meeting the necessary support needs To assess, review and respond to ongoing support and housing needs of sheltered housing . Who says slapstick is dead? Three days after the council approved planning permission, Mr X got back in touch with it saying Ms Z had recommenced building the garage and was committing a further trespass on his land. JR. Jroc23 Roc. A Croydon house known for drug-taking, harassment and antisocial behaviour has been boarded up by council enforcement officers. CR0 1EA. Emails from residents unanswered, six-month delays in dealing with a formal complaint, and a planning department that ignored a court order. open 9am to 4pm, Monday - Friday. After being exposed, Croydon Council apologised and in May, a damning report from independent consultants found systemic failures and incompetence at the council and its repairs contractor, Axis, saying there was a poor operating culture with a lack of care and respect for tenants. Get the most out of your neighbourhood with Nextdoor. All bad enough, you might think, but there was more to come on the day, this time from the council. That hardly chimes with the boast of . COMPLAINT 202011660. Nuisance. I am so glad I dont work for Croydon Planning Department. This report simply relates what the Local Government Ombudsman says. The only requirement is that the correct Certificate is completed by the applicant (which may not have been done here), but this is pretty minor. For the smell to count as a statutory nuisance it must do one of the following: unreasonably and substantially interfere with the use or enjoyment of a home or other premises. Putting aside the likely unauthorised blocking of the highway, the demolition works were in direct breach of Condition 5 of the permission, which required the submission and approval of a Construction Logistics Plan before development commenced. By High hedges, trees and boundaries. The Ombudsman says that the council has accepted its findings, and will pay Mr X 750 in recognition of his distress, time and trouble, and pay 500 to Mr Y, with apologies to both. The law is clear that applicants must produce certification to show whether they are building on land they own or which is in third party ownership. On 22 July 2021, I informed Robert Snodin, (then-) Trees and Enforcement Team Leader, that this developer had already breached pre-commencement Condition 5 [Construction Logistics Plan (CLP)] and Condition 15 [tree removal]. Tweets & replies. Councillor Ali will go down in history as leader of Croydon Council for less than two years, her political career forever stained with the scandal of the council homes on Regina Road the worst homes in Britain, as they were described on national television. Choicelet is proud to introduce a studio flat for rent in South London - New Addington under Croydon council. ), There has long been a lack of clarity as to whether a planning authority has to to get involved in a dispute about land ownership or can leave it to differing owners to sort out. Got away with it. Or they could do the work and charge for it. You can complain to your council about a hedge over 2 metres high or a tree that could damage your property. Putting the boot in? The condition of the neighbours trees and vegetation. The CLP application, which amongst things includes articulated lorries drawn half-size and site cabins positioned in areas due to be protected during construction (for the sake of the one remaining tree), has quite rightly not yet been approved.
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