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Cane Hill development
Barratt
Homes have been chosen as the preferred
development partner for the regeneration of the Cane Hill site
by Homes
and Communities Agency (HCA) and Croydon Council to deliver a
residential-led, mixed-use scheme that will integrate this derelict
site with the surrounding area and strengthen links to Coulsdon town
centre. Click here
for the full announcement.
This
will be the start of a lengthy process to develop a masterplan that
will encompass both Cane Hill and Coulsdon town centre and your OCRA
committee will be part of these discussions. If you have views on the
subject, please let us know so that they can be passed on.

157A Coulsdon Road
Planning Issues
There has been activity on the planning
front – more details on our Planning
page and on the front page of the Croydon Advertiser on 6th January
– click here to read story.
123-125
Waddington Avenue - permission has been granted after
appeal for the construction of 10 houses on the site. There will be two
detached houses on the road, and a side road on which there will be
eight semi detached houses.
115-121 Waddington Avenue - another application has been made for
permission to build one detached house and six semi detached houses
– click here for the site plan. This involves demolishing
no. 121 and building in the back gardens of 115-121. This has been
rejected before and we are continuing to oppose it.
157A
Coulsdon Road - an application has been made for a Day
Nursery for 33 children on the site of the empty doctor's surgery. We
are concerned about traffic at this busy junction with parents dropping
off small children.
Congratulations
to Mike Bonsier MBE

Mike addressing the
OCRA Autumn Meeting in November
Mike Bonsier, Chairman of the Board of
Governors, Coulsdon Sixth Form College has been awarded an MBE in the
New Year Honours list for services to Education.
Mike has been a governor at the College
in its various guises since 1971 and has been Chair of Governors since
1982. He lived in Placehouse Lane and attended the school himself as a
youth.
Mike has worked in Local Government as a
Civil Engineer, progressing to Assistant Director (Civil Engineering).
After 32 years in local government he took early retirement and became
a self-employed Consultant Civil Engineer working throughout the UK .
Mike's other public service interests are
as President of the Old Purleians Association, Chair of Theatre
Workshop Coulsdon and Chair of Ben's Educational Trust.
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Recycling
Croydon
Council are planning to close the Neighbourhood Recycling Centre in
Tudor Rose car park in w/c 2nd January 2012. The reason given is “The landowners of
the site are redeveloping the area where the site is located and, after
many years of the site being there, they are unwilling to host one once
the work is completed due to issues surrounding fly tipping and
attracting unsocial behaviour.” An alternative
location is being sought and meanwhile the closest is Lion Green Road
car park in Coulsdon.
Stop
Press 22nd January: It's still there!
Waste Collection
The
collection dates for the next month are:
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Mon. 23rd Jan.
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Blue
week
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Blue (paper)
box, food waste container & landfill bin
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Mon. 30th Jan.
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Green week
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Green (glass) box and food waste container
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Mon. 6th Feb.
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Blue
week
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Blue (paper)
box, food waste container & landfill bin
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Mon. 13th Feb.
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Green week
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Green (glass) box and food waste container
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Coulsdon Common
You may have noticed that contractors
have repaired the junctions at Stites Hill Road, Coulsdon Road and
Homefield Road by relaying the stone sets marking the edge of the roads
and installing wooden posts to prevent future damage by turning
vehicles.
For more information on What's New on the
local commons, click here.
Dog Owners
The City of London Open Spaces Committee
have signed an agreement with the Kennel Club, promoting responsible
dog control - another example of partnership working for the benefit of
all our visitors to our open spaces. Click here for
details of the agreement.
London Green Belt Council
There were some interesting items
discussed at the recent Meetings and also sourced from other
correspondence dealing with the work of The London Green Belt Council (LGBC).
For those who may not be aware, the
object of the LGBC is to preserve and extend the Green Belt. The
government has indicated quite clearly that they have no intention of
weakening their commitment to the Green Belt and they will maintain
Green Belt protection.
The Green Belt serves five purposes:
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To check the unrestricted sprawl of large
built up areas.
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To prevent neighbouring towns merging
into one another.
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To assist in safeguarding the countryside
from encroachment.
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To preserve the setting and special
character of historic towns
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To assist in urban regeneration by
encouraging the recycling of derelict and other urban lands.
There are certain forms of development
which are not inappropriate in Green Belt, provided they preserve the
openness of the Green Belt and do not conflict with the purposes of
existing Green Belt land. They are:
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Mineral extraction
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Engineering operations
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Local transport infrastructure which can
demonstrate a requirement for a Green Belt location.
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The re-use of buildings, provided that
they are of permanent and substantial construction, and are capable of
reconstruction
Here is
a quote from the National Trust Chairman Sir Simon Jenkins: “Land
cannot be a curb on housing when there are permissions in developers
land banks for 330,000 unbuilt houses not to mention 750,000 lying
empty, a majority for more than six months. Builders are not interested
in so-called brownfield sites because they are less desirable. Building
on green fields is more profitable with the State often having to
supply the infrastructure.“
There are a number of areas covered by
the LGBC with attempted development on the Green Belt. Fortunately,
there are no major areas, at present, in the London Borough of Croydon.
Gas Works in Hartley Hill

Work to replace gas
mains started on 21st November 2011 at the Hartley Old Road end of
Hartley Hill and will continue to Old Lodge Lane for anything between 8
and 14 weeks. At some stage traffic lights will be in operation as a
safety measure.
We
advise residents who use Hartley Hill to avoid this route from this
date.
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Bradmore Green Library Campaign

Croydon
Council have decided to work with Wandsworth Council to attempt to find
ways to reduce the cost of the Library service and are obtaining
tenders to take over the combined Library services of the two boroughs
currently.
In a
decision which will alarm campaigners against library closures, the
appeal against Brent Council's plans to close six libraries in their
borough has been turned down by the appeal judges.
The key words in the ruling
announced on 19th December were "Given the scale of the
spending reductions the council was required to make and the
information available following earlier studies, a decision that the
library service should bear a share of the reduction was not, in my
judgement, unlawful."
The
case may be taken to the Supreme Court for one last appeal.
A
summary has been added to the What's
Happening page.
Ongoing issues
For information on ongoing issues and
topics, please go to the What's
Happening page.
Current
items:
Bradmore
Green Library
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