LDA Planning Application for Park Masterplan
 January 2008


Just 42 Days to consider and object to 30-year £67.5million ‘Masterplan’

If you are a Bromley resident, immediately local to the Park, you should have been notified by Bromley Council of this application. However, many who care about Crystal Palace Park will have no idea of the huge changes planned for the Park by the London Development Agency. These include the construction of at least 180 private luxury housing units on public parkland and the loss of the Caravan Club. Anyone anywhere can object to this planning application.

The LDA's Masterplan application arrives at Bromley Civic Centre Bromley’s statutory time limit for making objection to this application is inconsistent and confusing. Although Bromley officers have extended the statutory 21 days to 42 days, the public notices in the South London Press of 1st February (see these links: Outline and CAC & LBC) give 21 days, while the flimsily attached notices around the Park state 11th March for the Outline application and an illegible date for the Conservation Area Consent and Listed Building Consent applications.

The CPCA is pressing for an extension to the deadline as the £67.5 million ‘Masterplan’ application runs to many thousands of pages and is the largest that Bromley has ever received.

The application, all 5½ feet of it, as it arrived at Bromley Civic Centre - 2nd November 2007

A statutory requirement is that notices are posted adjacent to the area of a planning application. As of 30th January no such notices had been posted around Crystal Palace Park.

There are two methods of viewing the three applications and supporting material; either visit the planning department at Bromley Civic Centre and ask to see the documents, or open the documents online at the LDA’s website www.crystalpalacepark.org home page and click on ‘here’ in the top right green box. This takes you to ‘Planning Applications and Supporting Documentation’ and links to the following application references:

07/03897/OUT
07/03906/CAC
07/03907/LBC
Supporting documentation

NB: It is important to note that the only way the documents can be viewed is by downloading and saving them with different file names to your computer. It is not possible to view them directly online which will be a difficulty for those using public internet services. We have pointed this out to both Bromley and the LDA but no action has been taken.

The Bromley website is much harder to navigate and does not include critical ‘Supporting Documentation’ such as the ‘Business Case, ‘Cost Plan’ and the ‘Management and Maintenance Plan’. On both sites there are a number of files that do not open despite the CPCA bringing this to the attention of Bromley and the LDA.

2 out of 3 notices at the Triangle Gate entrance
The flimsily attached notices around the Park

The CPCA is resolutely opposed to the building of housing on the Park and we would urge that you pay particular attention to the housing proposals for Rockhills and Sydenham Gate. The applications’ illustrations, although ‘outline’ at this stage, give a good indication of size, massing, general design and impact of the housing developments and this is the time to object to the principle of selling parkland for housing or commercial development, although a later ‘full’ application might show amendments.

The LDA are attempting to demonstrate to Bromley ‘very special circumstances’ to allow controversial development on Metropolitan Open Land/Grade II* registered parkland.

To make objection to this or any other aspect of the masterplan, write to:

Bob McQuillan
Acting Chief Planner
Bromley Council
Civic Centre
Stockwell Close
Bromley BR1 3UH

Bromley expect the application to go before a planning committee at the end of September 2008.

If you need further help or advice, please contact the CPCA. Don’t be put off by the statement in bold at the top of each planning application that you can’t object.

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