Croydon (Parliament Politics Magazine) – Glamorgan campaigners have issued a last-minute plea for public backing in Croydon as the crucial deadline day for their initiative approaches.
In order to oppose developers’ appeal over the denial of their plans to destroy a long-closed bar on Cherry Orchard Road and construct 24 apartments on the site, local activists in Addiscombe are hoping that enough people will file protests before today’s deadline.
Developers purchased the building after Glamorgan closed in 2016.
Since then, locals have been fighting a rearguard effort against the threatened demolition of the run-down bar, sometimes with help from Croydon Council.
In April of this year, the planning committee of Croydon Council rejected the building owners Butlers Walsall Ltd’s most recent planning objection. However, they have appealed their case to the planning inspector. After the ten-year drama, that choice might be definitive.
Ron Appleby, the chair of the Save the Glamorgan Campaign, issued a plea at the weekend:
“Say no to the demolition of the Glamorgan Public House!”
The residents of Addiscombe and East Croydon are urged by Appleby “to tell the planning inspector that we don’t want our historic community public house destroyed and replaced with a seven-story block of flats.”
The developers have included a modest ground floor space in the blueprints, supposedly so that a pub might run inside the structure. However, detractors claim that this is a scam and that the designated area is too small to be a functional pub.
“We continue to have to fight hard to preserve the building that was once the much-loved community pub,”
Appelby said.
“The freehold owners, Butlers Walsall Ltd, have now lodged an appeal against Croydon Council’s rejection of their last wholly unsuitable development application.”
Appleby says that the bar space in Butlers Walsall’s plans “is a cynical ‘designed to fail’ affair”.
Appleby said:
“We all now have to add our objections to the appeal, so that the planning inspectorate takes the needs of the local community into full account when considering the appeal.
Otherwise, the Glamorgan will be demolished and lost for good.”
Objectors are being asked by the Save the Glamorgan campaigners to declare their support for the appeal’s denial on the following grounds:
We agree with Croydon Council’s itineraries’ decision to deny planning blessing.
The proposed development would be exorbitantly altitudinous, large, and out of scale, making it dominant and out of place in the neighborhood. Its arrangement, which includes undercroft rudiments and broken windows, would warrant consonance and acceptable design quality, and its design, accoutrements , and façade would not duly blend with the girding townscape. In violation of programs D3, D4, and D6 of the London Plan (2021) and Policy DM10 of the Croydon Local Plan (2018), this would damage the area’s character and look.
Due to private amenity space, poor availability, and the lack of a noise assessment to assess the goods of roads and roads as well as an assessment of the noise associated with the proposed public house use, the proposed development would not give an acceptable standard of domestic accommodation.
Due to its excessive height, size, and close proximity to nearby properties, the planned development would create an overpowering structure that would deprive nearby inhabitants of sunlight, daylight, and perspective. Contrary to Policy D6 of the London Plan (2021) and Policy DM10.6 of the Croydon Local Plan (2018), the level of harm has not been properly determined in the absence of a development-specific daylight and sunshine evaluation.
Before its owners decided to sell up as they were leaving the region, the building, which is over 160 years old, was a prosperous pub and hospitality enterprise.
The building was successfully listed as an Asset of Community Value (ACV) by the Save the Glamorgan Campaign because it was able to show Croydon Council that it was more than just a bar and that it was an important part of the local community. According to the activists, the building’s ACV certification expired after five years “because the developer didn’t meaningfully engage with the local community and set an unrealistically high price of over £2 million.”
What are the main reasons campaigners oppose demolition of The Glamorgan?
The structure, over 160 years old, is a major community asset and was a crucial social mecca for original residents and callers. It was successfully listed as an Asset of Community Value due to its important part beyond just being a pub.
The community criticizes the structure’s poor condition, which they attribute to neglect by the possessors, including failing to act against squatters who defaced it over several times. The proposed development to replace the pub with a seven- story block of apartments is considered exorbitantly altitudinous, big, and out of scale with the girding area; it would overshadow nearby homes and seminaries.
The inventors’ plan allocates only a small ground- bottom space for the pub, which contenders say is doubtful to support a feasible pub operation, a” designed to fail” tactic. There has been a lack of meaningful community discussion by the inventors.