The South Norwood protesters marched in support of the residents of Regina Road, a Croydon Council-owned block of flats that shocked when an ITV News expose aired recently. A London borough has been told to pay out 1,000 apiece to an autistic man and his mother, who cared for him, after it failed to properly support them causing stress, anxiety and a breakdown in family life. Routinely, the Ombudsmans office, when issuing its rulings, avoids identifying the complainants. I think there has been a breach of planning control near my property and the council has not taken enforcement action. Meanwhile, Ms Cheesbroughs response to the springtime Complaint is now 22 weeks overdue. By this stage in the Ombudsmans report, the author is clearly warming to the theme of the mind-numbingly, staggering incompetence of the Croydon Council planners. Public Realm Division, Pollution Team, 6th Floor, Zone A Bernard Weatherill House Contact us | Croydon Council Given recent issues with flash flooding across London and the failures of the planning process to mitigate against the impact of heavier rainfall, one of Hales criticisms of the proposal is of particular relevance, There appears to have been no consultation with Thames Water by either the developer or the council to see if there is capacity in the sewer network to take the additional foul and possibly surface water discharge from the proposed development. On April 19 this year, and with the benefit of legal advice, I submitted a formal complaint to the council on behalf of the Newlands. There is no discretion in that. This team is usually your first point of contact as a private renter. Emergency services, including an air ambulance, rushed to the scene at around 12.46am following reports of a disturbance, but the teen was pronounced dead around 45 minutes later.. A neighbour, who knew Camron since he A London borough has been told to pay out 1,000 apiece to an autistic man and his mother, who cared for him, after it failed to properly support them causing stress, anxiety and a breakdown in family life. Youre having a larf. "Led by an independent external housing specialist, the inquiry will look at what has . Resolving neighbour disputes: Overview - GOV.UK open 9am to 4pm, Monday - Friday. We will also ask you to keep a record of the noise and how it affects you on diary sheets for a few days or weeks, depending on how often the noise occurs . Wooden and mesh fences can rot away. Show There doesnt seem to be any accountability so how will things change? The council has told the Ombudsman that it is seeking to improve its complaint handling, by: In their findings, the Ombudsman said that the council was correct that land ownership is not a relevant planning consideration, But this does not mean the question of land ownership has no relevance to the planning process. "A planning enforcement investigation is ongoing and the ombudsman is being updated on the . A year on from a Judicial Review into one of Croydon Council's planning department's many contentious rulings, when a judge issued a Court Order that confirmed that the development at 54 Arkwright Road is unlawful, and people are now renting flats in that building - at up to 1,800 per month - even though it does not have a valid planning permission. I argued that the decision to give this undertaking any weight when determining application 20/00108/FUL was another error of law and further reason why Townsends decision notice could and should be seen as unlawful. Posted. From disruptive planning permission to noise complaints, you can tackle the issue of nuisance neighbours though your local council. Before making a complaint to Council first discuss any noise issues with your neighbour, or the person responsible for the noise. A party wall agreement, covered by the Party Wall Act covers shared walls in between semi-detached and terraced houses, or structures such as the floors between flats or maisonnettes, plus garden border walls. Hope Thrift Bellgrade, They can refer you on to environmental health if the problem is serious enough. Try to solve the problem informally by talking to them. A nuisance tenant who terrorised his neighbours, making their lives a misery with his persistent noise and anti-social behaviour, has been barred from his home by a court ruling. The council has also agreed to try and learn lessons from this complaint, the Ombudsman states, probably more in hope than expectation. Thursday to Sunday. Nuisance parking and abandoned vehicles | Metropolitan Police Mobile Homes For Rent Hartland, Mi, We are committed to making our website accessible to all visitors. made staffing cuts because of budgetary constraints. Report Illegal Parking / mySociety as far as I could ascertain from our neighbours, plastics/etc and food were collected from . The decision notice on the 89 Hyde Road block of flats was signed off by the councils head of development management, Nicola Townsend. It failed to address the issues of the carers assessments, insurance and transition planning. Akton Recruitment has an opening for a SHELTERED HOUSING MANAGER ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES OF THE SHELTERED HOUSING MANAGER _____ To promote, encourage and support the continued independence and well-being of the sheltered housing tenants by monitoring, enabling and meeting the necessary support needs To assess, review and respond to ongoing support and housing needs of sheltered housing . Nicola Townsend: signed off decision notice. CROYDON IN CRISIS: If 2020 was Croydon Council's year of Negreedy and bankruptcy, 2021 has been the year of leaks, mould and a local authority exposed as incompetent and uncaring about those living in its properties. All bad enough, you might think, but there was more to come on the day, this time from the council. I Love Croydon Reviews 12 . Unlawful (and extensive) excavation works has thereby been allowed to continue (by default), necessitating large lorries using adjacent roads, the control/management of which the CLP was meant to control. . A Croydon flat where the tenant subjected her neighbours to fighting, knife threats and excessive noise has been shut. To reduce noise nuisance from houses and premises, the law defines a maximum amount of noise which is acceptable during night hours. But Inside Croydon is aware of formal complaints being filed within the past month about the supercilious and condescending approach of senior council officials to Regina Road residents at recent meetings. He and Mr Y will now incur more time, trouble and expense in returning to court to seek a further order for removal of building work. Croydon Council. Not if the latest development fiasco in Riddlesdown is anything to go by, says STEVE WHITESIDE. However, Planning Departments have seen some of the biggest budget cuts of any Council Departments (although of course I dont know if this is the case at Croydon), so maybe its not a suprise that things are starting to fall apart at the seams. why dont the council just get a decent building firm/plumbers round to fix the place? The problem is we will never get rid of the shit people in the council, because no other borough will recruit from such base material. I saw one of them trees come down no regard for safety just cut and left to fall. You can also join our user research group to receive invites to activities and surveys to help shape future improvements to the site. Noisy neighbours may be protected by new law to stop council snooping Based in Croydon and edited by Steven Downes. Most councils have yet to confirm plans, with about a third indicating they may propose a 3% increase. Neighbour noise complaints comprise around two thirds of the total. If you think a vulnerable adult is being abused in any way, you can report this as a safeguarding concern. COMPLAINT 202011660. Dozens of concerned residents took to the streets chanting "Croydon Council, shame on you" - as part of a protest against poor housing conditions on Wednesday night. A Croydon Council spokesman said: "We apologise for any harm caused to the couple in this instance. Both Mr X and Mr Y learnt of Ms Zs planning application and objected. Despite the surge of opposition to the replacement of a house, the application was passed by Croydon Councils planning committee on Thursday night (January 27).. Croydon Councils antisocial behaviour officers have been busy helping residents in their battle against criminal and offensive neighbours, successfully securing a number of Premises Closure Orders (PCOs). Read more: Your staff make us feel less than human. CR0 1EA. Often this solves the problem. Its time there was a full investigation into the relationships between developers, members of the Council and Councillors. The scale of corporate dysfunction at Croydon council prior to its collapse into bankruptcy two years ago was serious enough to warrant police investigation into potential misconduct in public . The council can also apply to the magistrate's court for a warrant to enter premises and seize equipment that is causing a nuisance. In May 2018, the council opened a planning enforcement investigation to consider various potential planning breaches committed by Ms Z. They say this is necessary as the existing court orders do not allow them to remove the further building work undertaken by Ms Z after she received planning permission.. I note that at no point in the application did Ms Z present a plan showing the footprint of the garage in relation to the property boundaries or surrounding land. Image: Cleaner Croydon, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0. 535 Following. Search Gumtree.com; Post ad ; Menu Login/Register Enter a location to see results close by . Wireless exposes disconnect between Bromley and neighbours. On the morning of July 7, Mr Newlands called again to tell me the road had been blocked for more than an hour, without warning or signage, while demolition machinery was delivered to site. Croydon Council. I got neighbour from hell and Croydon council dont wish to do anything. Just another episode in the regular shambles at Fisher's Folly Another day, another ruling from the Local Government Ombudsman against Croydon Council. But Hey, that sounds like hard work and it would expose to public scrutiny just how useless these two are. London. That design is hideous and mirrors a template of square blocks going up all over the place with no regards to aesthetics and the surrounding area. It was dated February 22 2021, three months after the committee meeting. Studio-flat in South East London, London | Residential Property To Rent 28 June 2021 . Utter incompetence and no one ever held to account. Laws on Keeping Chickens - Poultry Keeper Block by block: Quantums proposed five-storey block of flats for Hyde Road, a street of two-storey homes. The law uses the word shall, meaning it is mandatory on the council to reject such an application. The only leaks that Steve Reed, Hamida Ali and their chums at the Town Hall should be worrying about are the ones in the council flats in South Norwood, one Katharine Street source told Inside Croydon this week, as the local Labour Party continued in its course of vendettas, internal wrangling and self-destruction. If it ever re-opens, perhaps buying a ticket to an event there would entitle the ticketholder to go and throw things at the prisoners in the dungeon ?! If you have a company vehicle, a copy of the vehicle registration papers and a letter from the company stating that you have sole use of the vehicle and that it is normally parked at this address. Ive had a very similar experience where the planning department have been willing to allow a developer to break law, planning policy and mandatory policy. Antisocial behaviour | Croydon Council Croydon Council installed a new CCTV camera in the town centre, on Charles Street, in November 2019 following complaints about inconsiderate parking by the Q-Park car park. ), There has long been a lack of clarity as to whether a planning authority has to to get involved in a dispute about land ownership or can leave it to differing owners to sort out. No reply: Katherine Kerswell is the 192,000 per year chief exec of a council that is slow to respond to resident complaints. But on November 18 last year, the committee approved the demolition of 89 Hyde Road and its replacement by a block of nine flats. Sack an executive and use that money.. Because Alison Butler tied them in to a contract renewal with Axis. Croydon Borough Neighbourhood Watch Association. This includes seeking planning consent on land that is owned by someone else. If people in the social housing sector are treating tenants like that they just lose all hope that anyone is ever going to treat them well. Explore. The gaslighting is astonishing. Get the most out of your neighbourhood with Nextdoor. STREET parties over the Platinum Jubilee weekend could be shut down if organisers dont have the correct permission. Following complaints from neighbours about vandalism, broken windows and doors and fly-tipping, in 2013 the council began negotiations with the owner to get the property done up and then transferred to council control. The work of OConnell and Hewitt had done in 2021 what Cathy Come Home had exposed in the 1960s. To WM then you, as land owner, have far more powers to stop development on land owned by you, than the Council as Local Planning Authority has. This section has information about making a complaint about neighbourhood noise. 16 hours ago 16h Based in Croydon and edited by Steven Downes. How can a child go to school and do well educationally when their home is riddled with damp and is wet and leaking?, Hard lives: the flats in Regina Road have provided badly inadequate homes. Planning enforcement. In that case, and its one persons word against another, I would suggest that the Council (or someone) should warn the applicant that, if it turns out that the notice was not served, they risk their planning permission becoming void. JR. Jroc23 Roc. We'll send your report directly to your local council, wherever you are in the UK. He explained that the CCTV was initially installed for his protection and the neighbours' complaints about this was malicious and had no merit. Noisy Neighbours - What Can I Do? - HomeOwners Alliance By this stage in the Ombudsmans report, the author is clearly warming to the theme of the mind-numbingly, staggering incompetence of the Croydon Council planners. tenancy document that obliges the resident to behave in a way that is not antisocial or causes a nuisance to your neighbours. We will also ask you to keep a record of the noise and how it affects you on diary sheets for a few days or weeks, depending on how often the noise occurs. My own follow-up email to Heather Cheesbrough of July 27, was ALSO copied to Katherine Kerswell and Cllrs Hamida Ali and Jason Perry. My own Labour-controlled Croydon Council is in debt to the tune of 1.5bn. Putting aside the likely unauthorised blocking of the highway, the demolition works were in direct breach of Condition 5 of the permission, which required the submission and approval of a Construction Logistics Plan before development commenced. The council could serve an order on your neighbour to fix the problem. Croydon council 'lacked care and respect for tenants' report finds The facts about land ownership in this case were clear and in the public domain, the Ombudsman report states. . But this was changed to general boundaries in 1875 which are only indicative and open to challenge. Shouldnt be a problem. In the mixer: if you spot some unwelcome building work going on on your property, you might want to ask the council if they have granted planning permission. Why havent they been made to stop work? We also use cookies set by other sites to help us deliver content from their services. We risk assess reports of noise and prioritise complaints where more than one neighbouring address is affected. By High hedges, trees and boundaries. So, in March, Mr X asked to escalate his complaint to Stage 2 of the procedure because of this delay. Permitted development rights, PART 1 Development within the curtilage of a dwellinghouse Croydon council's housing department operated with "a poor operating culture with a lack of care and respect for tenants" resulting in accommodation being left in terrible conditions, a . It is established case law that local planning authorities cannot withdraw and re-issue decision notices to correct such errors. This is well established.. Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email. You should be able to find the team's contact details on your council website, usually within the housing . The council said it would reply before the end of December. On 22 July 2021, I informed Robert Snodin, (then-) Trees and Enforcement Team Leader, that this developer had already breached pre-commencement Condition 5 [Construction Logistics Plan (CLP)] and Condition 15 [tree removal]. giving feedback Class E buildings etc incidental to the enjoyment of a dwellinghouse He says that the smell and the cold he encountered in that Croydon council flat have stuck with him as well as knowing that repairs teams had been round and she had called the council over and over again. It's all public. Where to find Access Croydon. If you have a story to share about housing conditions, email housingstories@itv.com. Complaints can also be submitted in writing or by telephone to: Complaints Resolutions Team. Nine months on and council tenants are still being ignored COMPLAINT 202004576. Neighbours complain about nuisance cockerels 'crowing every 15 - MSN The hardest part of being at Croydon council is the uncertainty when there are cuts in budget or changes to services. The Ombudsman says that there were two key points that the council ought to have considered. Ploughing through the law: demolition of 89 Hyde Road went ahead, despite a complaint suggesting the council process had been unlawful, Schedule 1 of the undertaking reads (my italics for emphasis): Sustainable Transport Contribution means the sum of 13,500 to be utilised towards (which could include but not limited to and council exercising absolute discretion) sustainable transport, highway management measures and the delivery of sustainable transport initiatives in Sanderstead.. This latest Ombudsmans decision against Cheesbroughs department would appear to contradict that contention. Some of her neighbours had been lodging similar complaints to the councils housing department and Axis for four years. In the instance the council agrees with you, and the noise is a deemed a "statutory nuisance" (ie that it is a nuisance under law), they can issue an "abatement notice" which tells your neighbour that unless they stop they will be prosecuted and might end up with a fine of 5,000 for domestic premises and 20,000 for industrial or . Please select Council property Housing Association Private rented Owner occupied. Tweets. With her application, Ms Z presented Certificate A saying she owned all the land covered by development, the Ombudsman writes. 'The worst I've ever seen': The appalling and 'unliveable' council Hide, Send feedback directly to the content team using our website feedback form. The High Court ordered that Ms Z should therefore remove three steel stanchions outside the boundary of her house which formed part of the frame of the garage. Croydon is an amazing and quaint beautiful town on the Savannah Highway in Queensland, make it part of your journey to Cairns or Tropical North Queensland. Communal cleaning: The landlord explained that the caretaker was scheduled to attend weekly on a Monday Labour-controlled Croydon council gave planning permission for the development in Old Coulsdon; Neighbours said the nine-flat development is 'unquestionably' out of character with the surrounding area Croydon Borough Neighbourhood Watch Association (CBNWA) is a charity with a reach of up to 29,000 residents across the whole borough. Further council plans to make the town greener include an electric bicycles hire scheme. 3 1 March 2021. When the law is broken there must be legal redress against the vandals (developers) and where the council fails to take action against those responsible for such failure. Read more: Ali accused of cover-up over findings on council flats scandal Find a propertis in Croydon, London on Gumtree, the #1 site for Residential Property To Rent classifieds ads in the UK. The councils Housing Revenue Account is a ring-fenced fund used to run the boroughs council homes. On that basis, on June 17 I added to the complaint claiming that the s106 contribution described does not satisfy the legal requirements. Information about our two-stage corporate process can be found on this page. Date of experience: 12 October 2021. Croydon Council has been paying a private landlord for the bunglow in The Glade which is empty (Image: Monica McSherry) A bungalow which Croydon Council allegedly pays 2,000 a month for has been "empty for years". Loud music | Croydon Council Putting the boot in? The council's cabinet is set to meet today (Monday, March 8) at 2pm to discuss the 2021/22 budget ahead of a full council meeting this evening. Putting aside the likely unauthorised blocking of the highway, the demolition works were in direct breach of Condition 5 of the permission, which required the submission and approval of a "Construction Logistics Plan" before development commenced. croydon council complaints about neighbours - qarzbook.com Croydon road traffic can be congested and parking is in short supply; but drivers dont have far to go to reach major roads such as the A23. There was not, and has been no sign of any action by the councils planning enforcement officials. The agent replied saying Ms Z had completed the correct Certificate A and would not be building outside the boundary of her land., Unimpressed: Croydon Council planners handling of the neighbours boundary dispute saw the Ombudsman being sharply critical. How Big a Problem Are Problem Neighbours? They went to the High Court and in April 2018 obtained a court order which confirmed this. Dont include personal or financial information like your National Insurance number or credit card details. Environmental health officers spoke to the owners . Local groceries, essential shops, parks and other amenities nearby. Unimpressed: Croydon Council planners handling of the neighbours boundary dispute saw the Ombudsman being sharply critical. I have used the service on many occasions and found it very useful with prompt response to most complaints. Our approach. The law is clear that applicants must produce certification to show whether they are building on land they own or which is in third party ownership. Hewitt has spent most of the past year researching and following up countless other instances of appalling conditions in council and housing association homes. As a result of this case, the council has been forced to pay out a modest amount of compensation to the two wronged neighbours, while giving an undertaking to change its official complaints procedures. Only 10% of council housing repair jobs ever get checked, Ali accused of cover-up over findings on council flats scandal, Croydon shamed over dangerous squalor in council flats, Your staff make us feel less than human, Love it or List it is coming to Croydon and want you to take part, 37-34: Mayor's 15% Council Tax hike rejected in budget vote, 10-year campaign by locals wins reprieve for Central Hill Estate, Scott and Butler to be snubbed by Town Hall honours system, 'Stand up for the people and get fair funding for Croydon', Say No To 15% Council Tax Hike, Town Hall, Mar 8, Fairfield Halls offers some Easter movie magic for just 2, Council heat network hits customers with 25% price increase, 'You never mentioned 15% tax hike when seeking election', Teachers in unanimous vote to escalate their strike action. The councils decision should therefore be revoked under Section 97 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990. Your Croydon (@yourcroydon) / Twitter Or they could do the work and charge for it. If you live in a House in Multiple Occupation (HMO) please contact your landlord or managing agent. Deliberate delays by council officials in the processing of a formal complaint from a couple in their 90s has helped allow the unlawful demolition of a family home in Sanderstead and the start of development of a block of flats, in breach of planning permission. Another day, another ruling from the Local Government Ombudsman against Croydon Council. Croydon Council is pressing ahead with low traffic neighbourhoods (LTNs), undeterred by criticism from a neighbouring authority. Washington architectural metalwork start-up hails successful - MSN Yet when it comes to using HRA money to improve the living conditions of existing council tenants, officials at Fishers Folly seem remarkably reluctant. But Regulation 122 of the Community Infrastructure Levy Regulations 2010 requires that these planning obligations must be necessary to make the development acceptable in planning terms and directly related to the development. Those of us who deal with Croydons planning service are used to their incompetence but this one reaches a new level. Considering what was now occurring on the sites next door and opposite, disgust is probably too mild a word. You have rejected additional cookies. Dont worry we wont send you spam or share your email address with anyone. They made the council aware of the dispute over land ownership and the 2018 court judgement.