Many of you will have enjoyed ECCO’s Big Lunches and Halloween events in Cart Lodge Mews, off Lebanon Road.  However, the site is once again under threat from development on a tiny triangle of land.

In April,  an application for planning permission was published on Croydon’s planning register to build a two-storey house there.  This had been published in error and was withdrawn.  Now it is back!

The initial planning permission stated that this area would be landscaped. As such it would have been an ideal play space for local children in an area without any open public space. However, the developer chose to disregard this and partitioned the land in an attempt to extract extra value from it. Eight years later, this part of the land remains unfinished and new planning applications are made almost every year. It has remained a hazard because of the uneven ground level and the builders’ debris that is still left there. If the original appeal decision were to be upheld, the community could enjoy the entire space freely in perpetuity.

Concerns include

• Over development
• Access for emergency vehicles
• Parking for existing residents
• Space for refuse and recycling bins