#Heather Cheesbrough

[insidecroydon]

For planner Cheesbrough, budget increase is 'non-negotiable'

CROYDON IN CRISIS: All those public consultations that don’t ever make any difference to what the council sets out to do? This week, one director made it clear that they are indeed pointless exercises, as KEN LEE reports Budget showdown: our bankrupt borough is facing even tougher times. But one director believes her spending should be allowed to increase – whatever the public thinks Croydon…

[insidecroydon]

Directors leave scrutiny short of answers over council job cuts

KEN LEE reports from the frontline of budget cuts at the Town Hall, after a scrutiny committee where everyone is working very, very hard, but no one in charge bothered to turn up equipped to provide any answers  Very, very important: council director Heather Cheesbrough Councillors from both larger political parties were left stunned and more than a little peeved at a Town Hall meeting this week…

[insidecroydon]

Council director took 'delegated' decision to lease out CALAT

Cash-strapped council admits it leased out the site for a long-promised medical centre in Coulsdon without any reference to councillors, while ‘the NHS is yet to confirm the latest forecast completion date for the project’ Croydon Council has admitted that the decision to lease a Coulsdon car park to a vehicle dealership was taken by an unaccountable council staffer, entirely without reference to…

[insidecroydon]

Councillor accuses Perry of broken pledge on affordable homes

Tight site: the local community group had been encouraged to work up a proposal for flats on the green at The Lawns by City Hall and Croydon Council Mayor Jason Perry’s council has been accused of yet another broken promise, and of wasting hundreds of thousands of pounds of tax-payers’ money, this time after rejecting a planning application for seven affordable homes in Upper Norwood, in a scheme…

[insidecroydon]

Planning battle over The Lawns after council official's threats

Tight site: the local community group had been encouraged to work up a proposal for flats on the green at The Lawns by City Hall and Croydon Council Five years’ work have been wasted after Croydon Council planners rejected a planning application from a community group in Upper Norwood to build seven not-for-profit flats in a scheme instigated by… Croydon Council. BARRATT HOLMES, housing…

[insidecroydon]

No one can afford ticket machines for the Bridge to Nowhere

Bridge to Nowhere: six months after the link to Cherry Orchard Road was finally completed, Croydon Council’s ‘planning’ failures and Network Rail budgets mean that the East Croydon Station bridge can still not be completed After 11 years and at least £22m of public money, it now turns out that the public bodies responsible for the pedestrian bridge at the northern end of East Croydon Station…

[insidecroydon]

Key document withheld from planning scrutiny for 21 months

STEVE WHITESIDE with an update on how the council’s planners and planning enforcement teams continue to fail the borough’s residents, while turning a blind eye to developers ignoring conditions Going…: 158 Purley Downs has been demolished despite planning conditions laid down by the council not being met Last month, I wrote about the sad saga of 158 Purley Downs Road in Sanderstead, where the…

[insidecroydon]

Demolition shows how council's planners have no 'red lines'

The way we were: the family house at 158 Purley Downs Road, before the developers sent in the bulldozers, and despite the demands of planning conditions STEVE WHITESIDE on the developing (geddit?) saga of a house-builder who manages to ignore planning conditions laid down by elected councillors, thanks to some considerable assistance being provided by council staff The sad saga of 158 Purley…

[insidecroydon]

How the council's planners help developers dodge conditions

The case of 158 Purley Downs Road is an object lesson shows what lengths some senior council staff will go to in order to help property developers circumvent building regulations and bamboozle councillors on the planning committee. By STEVE WHITESIDE The builders move in: there used to be a family home on this site in Purley Downs Road. Until, that is, Croydon’s planners worked closely with…