I am sure that you are aware that Croydon Council has financial difficulties and one of the causes is loans and non-payment of dividends by BrickbyBrick to the Council. The Council has now reviewed the remaining and ongoing BrickbyBrick projects. This review has resulted in all existing BrickbyBrick projects that have been started will continue. All the remaining projects will be put on hold while they are reviewed and this could mean abandoning, selling the sites, transferring them back to the council.
As there are a lot of rumours floating around about the BrickbyBrick sites, suggesting the existing Community centre in Barrie Close was about to be sold. ECRA has been in discussions with Croydon council to establish where we are with BrickbyBrick sites in Coulsdon.
Tollers estate and Lion Green Road are continuing with BrickbyBrick. The new Lion Green car park should be completed by the end of March. There is a delay due to discussions with UK Power on how to deal with the High Voltage power cables that run under the car park. Construction of the blocks of flats will continue.
The two projects of concern to us have been the Medical Centre and the New Community Centre on the Calat site in the Town Centre and the related to this the existing Community Centre site at Barrie Close.
I am pleased to say that the council and the NHS have both agreed that a new medical centre is required in Coulsdon and the Calat site is the preferred option. The council can also see the value of moving the Community centre to the town centre and the Malcolm Road side of the Calat site. This would then allowed the Barrie Close site to be sold to another developer.
As a result, the Council will now directly take charge of the project I am pleased to say this has the backing of both the new leader of the council and the local councillors. However, there are still some hurdles to overcome. The first will be to either renew or extend the planning permission on all three sites which will run out in April 2021. The second is to finalise the design and actual needs of the NHS in line with their latest plan of Autumn 2020. Finally, to ensure the new community centre is in line with what was agreed with BrickbyBrick.
Croydon have agreed to keep both the RAs and the Community centre informed of progress.
I hope this helps clarify where things are.
Charles King
Chair East Coulsdon RA
1st March 2021