croydon council complaints about neighbours

. Not if the latest development fiasco in Riddlesdown is anything to go by, says STEVE WHITESIDE. Once this form has been completed, the information will be forwarded to the relevant team for action. Its as if the Regina Road scandal never happened, said the source. 8 Mint Walk The Council confirmed that the developer must have served notice before making the planning application. Were not stopping. Class B means of access to a highway. Hide, Send feedback directly to the content team using our website feedback form. The property is in a great condition, and ready to move in. We'll send your report directly to your local council, wherever you are in the UK. Most councils have yet to confirm plans, with about a third indicating they may propose a 3% increase. Night hours are 11.00 pm until 7.00 am. The independent Reports into Croydon council to include the ARK Report are very clear. Ms Z appealed the court judgement, and lost. The council will expect you to discuss the issue and negotiate with your neighbour first. News, views and analysis about the people of Croydon, their lives and political times in the diverse and most-populated borough in London. Her questionable management skills is a large reason why the planning department is in such disarray. 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. For it to constitute a nuisance, the relevant activity must not be trivial or unreasonable. The site now floods on a regular basis. Barnet Homes housing complaints. Shouldnt be a problem. To reduce noise nuisance from houses and premises, the law defines a maximum amount of noise which is acceptable during night hours. Wed like to set additional cookies to understand how you use GOV.UK, remember your settings and improve government services. Open Menu. If talking hasn't resolved the issue, you can make a complaint to your local council or the police. Stalling: the Newlands letter to Heather Cheesbrough, after the council somehow managed to ignore their formal complaint for three months. We certainly think so, and wonder how or why she was persuaded to make such a flagrant error of law in this case. This team is usually your first point of contact as a private renter. 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. Who says slapstick is dead? But he says because the council gave Ms Z planning permission, she undertook further building work. 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. The gaslighting is astonishing. The report discussed the perceived planning merits of the application and found no reason to refuse it.. Based in Croydon and edited by Steven Downes. After the Croydon housing scandal had led the News At Ten on Monday night, the council published the following statement, "Croydon Council has launched an urgent inquiry into conditions caused by water leaks at a council high-rise block in the borough. The condition of the neighbours trees and vegetation. Indeed, it has been Croydon Councils policy, under successive chief executives Nathan Elvery, Jo Negrini and now Katherine Kerswell, never to publish Ombudsman rulings against the authority. 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. The proposal includes the unacceptable felling of eight individual trees and five groups of trees as well as substantial areas of mature hedging, Hale told the committee. Block by block: Quantums proposed five-storey block of flats for Hyde Road, a street of two-storey homes. Call the cops The LAPD suggests that noise complaints, from loud TVs to awful parties, are best dealt with by your local police station. Read more: Croydon shamed over dangerous squalor in council flats 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. To contact us, please email inside.croydon@btinternet.com, Help to support our genuine local and independent journalism, Purley Way kitchen showroom has special offers this weekend, Planning department judged at fault over boundary dispute. No thought for the environment, the local infrastructure, parking, GPs schools or transport. But it said this was a civil issue and as such not a relevant planning consideration. Croydon man furious at neighbour having tree cutter over at 9am because it's 'ruined his lie in' Stop what you're doing and check out these cats that looks like vampires Posted. Utter incompetence and no one ever held to account. We aim to give all our customers a good service, but sometimes we make mistakes. The councils Housing Revenue Account is a ring-fenced fund used to run the boroughs council homes. Re Mr. Harveys comment above, I would comment that Land registry plans (at least, those shown on the Land Title documents) rarely if ever show the ownership of a boundary fence. Sign up today as a subscriber. Hide, Send feedback directly to the content team using our website feedback form. By far Croydon Council is the worse Borough ever. By November last year, Mr X made a formal complaint. The Government is introducing many improvements at the Land Registry but is not addressing the status of plans. another ruling from the Local Government Ombudsman against 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. You can complain if you are unhappy about how a council service has been delivered or if the council have failed to deliver a service. Also, with workloads the way they are nationally most Planning Officers simply dont have the time to deal with things as closely as they would like. News, views and analysis about the people of Croydon, their lives and political times in the diverse and most-populated borough in London. Their reports are deliberately written in a dry, officialese. Based in Croydon and edited by Steven Downes. 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. It then adds, in what appears to be especially restrained understatement: One day after the court granted this order the council approved the planning application at the crux of this complaint.. Our efforts were initially confined to another scheme at No98, which had been put forward by one of the more rapacious developers in southern Croydon, Aventier. It will surprise no one who has had to deal with Croydons cash-strapped council that it failed to do so. The decision notice on the 89 Hyde Road block of flats was signed off by the councils head of development management, Nicola Townsend. It confirmed it had written to the neighbour after the residents initial report of him urinating down the drain and the tenancy team would continue to monitor the area. By law, they had 20 days to respond. Poor repairs: the maintenance of the flats at Regina Road is still less than optimal. Please select Council property Housing Association Private rented Owner occupied. If you are an owner occupier, please seek independent legal advice, For the Guaranteed Rent Scheme please email. 25.6K Followers. The council found the size of the garage then under construction exceeded that allowed under permitted development rights, where a developer does not need any planning permission. 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. A ward councillor, Lynne Hale, spoke at the meeting and raised a series of concerns regarding the overdevelopment of the site. please note that the Stage 1 Complaint was addressed to YOU and it is from YOU that we expect a substantive response . I remember thinking that I couldnt live in this for a day, never mind for months and months and months.. Nice move Robert! This latest Ombudsmans decision against Cheesbroughs department would appear to contradict that contention. The ruling stems from a long-running boundary dispute between three neighbours, where one of them started to build a garage on land that they do not own. CR0 1EA. Where to find Access Croydon. What a shit show the planning department is. giving feedback And Katherine Kerswell remains inflated but silent on the matter and Heather Cheesbrough is in professional denial (but were not exactly sure what her professional qualifications are?? Dan Hewitts first report on the News At Ten was the start of an odyssey that would go on to highlight cases of poor social housing conditions across England. He thinks he is smarter than law he know law order more than anyone. see https://www.gov.uk/party-walls-building-works. 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 . This report simply relates what the Local Government Ombudsman says. The aim of the charity is to support local residents who are concerned about crime such as burglary, scams and anti social behaviour. 8.00am to 5:30pm. Which is what makes this ruling, published yesterday, all the more extraordinary in its criticism of the council planners incompetence and lack of professionalism. It was dated February 22 2021, three months after the committee meeting. Other than essential front line services, Planning is the thing that Croydon Council has let down the people of Croydon the most on and continues unaddressed at a high level in the council. Croydon Council had been dealing with our formal complaint for three months by this point. The court judgement established the boundaries of Ms Zs house. The Ombudsmans report says, I have called the complainant Mr X. You can also join our user research group to receive invites to activities and surveys to help shape future improvements to the site. This time, through a relatively minor boundary dispute between neighbours, the Ombudsman Re Mr Patels comments above, it is actually frightening as to how much of the plot that can be filled up with sheds, under what is termed permitted development under The Town and Country Planning (General Permitted Development) (England) Order 2015, Worth looking up the UK Government Website, under its pages titled:- Nicola Townsend: signed off decision notice. For the smell to count as a statutory nuisance it must do one of the following: unreasonably and substantially interfere with the use or enjoyment of a home or other premises. 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. Croydons planners have recently lost a significant Judicial Review case in the High Court for their failure to enforce conditions on developments around the borough. So, I find the lack of scrutiny of Ms Zs submission of Certificate A is a fault.. According to senior council sources, the HRA has more than 900,000 earmarked to pay for a borough-wide door replacement project but the work has been delayed because a council official has not approved the work to start. Complaints about one-off parties are unlikely to be dealt with under nuisance law as in the majority of parties are one off events. Image: Cleaner Croydon, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0. Its quite clear that theres a pattern of treating tenants like the problems that theyre living with are their own fault. Youre having a larf. Class F hard surfaces incidental to the enjoyment of a dwellinghouse, PART 2 Minor operations Antisocial behaviour. I cannot see the council scrutinised Ms Zs service of Certificate A through any such process here. Over a hundred years, maybe 33% of the countrys existing properties would come up for renewal. A Croydon Council spokesman said: "We apologise for any harm caused to the couple in this instance. open 9am to 4pm, Monday - Friday. The only requirement is that the correct Certificate is completed by the applicant (which may not have been done here), but this is pretty minor. Class E buildings etc incidental to the enjoyment of a dwellinghouse It said Mr X could return to court and seek an order permitting him to remove the stanchions and recover the costs of this if Ms Z failed to comply. We are committed to making our website accessible to all visitors. 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. 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. . Why are they still working on the site? I would put out a plea to maybe cut the officers a bit more slack, particularly the ones, at my lowly sort of level, that are not managers, have no control over how many applications they are allocated, and also have no real control over the policies they are required to apply, or the Planning Laws that govern their powers. If you live in private rented accommodation, please contact your landlord or managing agent. If you're a member of the public who has concerns that a child or young person is being harmed or needs support, you should contact our Single Point of Contact (SPOC) team. The court also said it would link a copy of its order to the Land Registry record alongside an expert report which identified the boundaries of Ms Zs property.. Explore. . 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]. 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. Walls tend to stay put. A brand new Croydon library could be sold off before it's even been used; Read More Related Articles. If your issue is not listed above, use our formal complaints form. A Croydon house known for drug-taking, harassment and antisocial behaviour has been boarded up by council enforcement officers. Planning delivery has always been a weakness at Croydon Council and is the major factor in the recent referendum for a mayoral election. A Croydon flat where the tenant subjected her neighbours to fighting, knife threats and excessive noise has been shut. A Croydon Council spokesperson said: "'Our successful Trees for Streets scheme helps the council go above and beyond the hundreds of trees we already plant each year. There is a culture of not taking their complaints seriously., And Hewitt has a worrying message for Croydon Council and other social housing providers who fail their tenants. The only plan showing location was a red-line plan showing the outline of the whole curtilage of Ms Zs house at 1:1250 scale. 13 July 2021. . I knew nothing about the development I found out afterwards by way of a backdated letter. It seems like this website loves to stick the boot in on the Croydon Planning Department. Im afraid this is just the tip of the iceberg for the Croydon Planning department. Croydon council has outlined a drastic "renewal" plan that would result in extensive staff job losses and major reductions to services at libraries and children's . Wooden and mesh fences can rot away. All bad enough, you might think, but there was more to come on the day, this time from the council. On July 3, I was phoned by Mr Newlands, who told me that all the trees on the site were being cut down. Updated 16:31, 17 OCT 2022. The council effectively encouraged this illicit building work to go ahead after it granted planning permission, because the planners never bothered checking on the Land Register or other certificates to confirm the property ownership. Normally a Councillors mail bag is full of important, but not life threatening, mail and emails regarding missed bin collections, planning issues and complaints about noisy neighbours. Emails from residents unanswered, six-month delays in dealing with a formal complaint, and a planning department that ignored a court order. If you think your neighbour's making trouble because you're transgender or because of your disability, race, religion or sexuality, it could be a hate . Designed to abuse the local voters. For information, the Newlands letter of July 14 WAS copied to Katherine Kerswell and Sarah Hayward, Shifa Mustafas replacement. Fransoy Hewitt had collated a diary of shame a list of all her phone calls and emails to the council and its contractors over the previous 18 months. But they will see the light of day and the ombudsman will direct responses. There is a process under which registered owners can obtain definitive boundaries from the Registry but at a cost, With building plots becoming ever smaller and in need of precision and cartographic technology advancing there is a strong argument for a national survey giving reliable boundaries to all plots of land. 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. Gumtree. 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. 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. Noise is the largest cause of complaints to local authorities. But lawyers who get fees from boundary disputes will oppose this, Having reliable and continuously updated INTERNAL plans of all properties should also be an additional (but separate) part of fire safety improvement post Grenfell. On that basis, on June 17 I added to the complaint claiming that the s106 contribution described does not satisfy the legal requirements. We do not provide anout of hours service for complaints about parties. A planning officers report accompanying the decision noted Mr X and Mr Ys objections, based on their ownership of some of the land on which Ms Z had built the garage. Talk to your local police about ongoing crime and anti-social behaviour issues: Contact your police safer neighbourhoods team, NEW Help improve this site by If your neighbour is a tenant, you could contact their landlord. You can report non-urgent incidents to the Anti-Social Behaviour Team at contact-centre@royalgreenwich.gov.uk or on 020 8921 4411. made staffing cuts because of budgetary constraints. London. Whether its unconsciously, there is potentially this culture thats seeped in of we dont need to rush this and thats a really dangerous conclusion to come to. If the noise continues and we can see from your diary that it is unreasonable and therefore could constitute a noise nuisance we will serve an informal notice on the alleged offender. This included the garage under construction to the south of the plot. 8.00am to 2:00am. If theyre going to hire more managers isnt it better that they understand quality management , ISO 9001 and all that, to ensure that complaints seldom arise in the first place? Where neighbours borrow tools and sell sofas. In the interests of openness, I have worked for 2 Council Planning Departments (not in London). Perhaps we can apply for planning permission to excavate one? Some of her neighbours had been lodging similar complaints to the council's housing department and Axis for four years. If you live in a House in Multiple Occupation (HMO) please contact your landlord or managing agent. Heather Cheesbrough, the six-figure salaried council exec in charge of the planning department, recently lectured elected councillors, telling them that, All the planning officers in the team have the highest personal integrity and professionalism.. Aside from Croydon Council's mega 15% hike planned, London councils can increase bills by 10%. We can then serve a legal notice under the Environmental Protection Act 1990 requiring the offender to stop causing a nuisance. Mr Patel might be best advised to contact a qualified property ( legal / building surveying) professional to check whether his neighbour has a legal right to build the wall on Mr Ps land. He has built out building in his back yard without lawfully planning. The reply Mr X received from Ms Z said we are building lawfully and within [the] granted planning permission. There doesnt seem to be any accountability so how will things change? Where neighbours support local businesses and get updates from public services. Environmental health officers spoke to the owners . Croydon Council. At times the flooding in Lower Barn Road and Mitchley Avenue is so bad that it cuts Riddlesdown in half., And Hale concluded, The whole scheme does absolutely nothing in terms of sensitive optimisation it is pure maximisation of the site to the huge detriment of the green and open local character. 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. Meanwhile, for a while at least, and albeit it across a demolition site, the Newlands can enjoy an improved view of the greenery to the south. The cameras had been checked by both the landlord's staff and the police and permission was granted for him to have them. Contact the police if you think your neighbour has broken the law - for example, they've been violent or threatening. Show As far as I can see, Ive received nothing back so Ill take that as a No then. Permitted development rights, PART 1 Development within the curtilage of a dwellinghouse telephoning: 020 8545 3060 (weekdays 10am to 2pm). The council also apologised to a couple who complained to the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman. The complaint included reference not only to the unlawful tailpiece but also to what I maintain were misleading statements made by the applicant, the agent and council planning officials alike leading up to the committees decision. Yet a Labour-run council has axed its meals on wheels service even after paying its outgoing chief executive more than 600,000, it emerged yesterday. Media. The parish council said it found vehicles travelling in . It had been OConnell, a decade earlier, who had produced Newsnights devastatingly critical report into the equally squalid conditions endured by families living in temporary accommodation in Croydon. Perhaps a Government could bring in a requirement for new title pans to accurately plot all boundaries and building plans on NEW and REBUILT properties using modern surveying methods down to a very high level of accuracy eg by Satellite co-ordinates. There is no discretion in that. Further council plans to make the town greener include an electric bicycles hire scheme. Read more: Ali accused of cover-up over findings on council flats scandal However, this week has been very different because in and amongst my usual e-mails, I have received messages from residents raising serious safeguarding issues. Many residents have already chosen to take advantage of the scheme to plant trees as groups, contributing as little as 3 per person, raising the full amount as a team." If you could bottle the dignity and resilience of the people weve spoken to and sell it, youd make a lot of money, because they have to put up with so much more than most people, Hewitt told Inside Housing. Families have had their lives completely destroyed by this. I am so glad I dont work for Croydon Planning Department. Silverleaf Developments made a planning application that included my land. On December 3, 2018, a decision was made by Lincolnshire County Council to reduce the speed on High Road and Low Road from 40mph to 30mph. Croydon Borough Neighbourhood Watch Association. Public Realm Division, Pollution Team, 6th Floor, Zone A Bernard Weatherill House Putting the boot in? Our approach. 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. Get the most out of your neighbourhood with Nextdoor. And because people often dont have anywhere else to go, when they complain theres a sense of whats the urgency, theyre not going to leave. You can complain to your council about a hedge over 2 metres high or a tree that could damage your property. This was a blatant breach of Condition 15 of the planning permission, which was meant to prevent any work on the trees during the bird-nesting season. Ombudsman finds Croydon council did not carry out assessments, provide 'Mr D' with a support plan or offer him a personal budget. Now you might well think that Townsend, as someone with her qualifications and experience, in a position of such significant (delegated) power, would have known this. Croydon Council is pressing ahead with low traffic neighbourhoods (LTNs), undeterred by criticism from a neighbouring authority. 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 . Officers up to chief executive level seem determined to continue with their couldnt-care-less attitude, while Mr Snodin has apparently decided that this is a good time to leave the Councils employ. Complaint Resolution Team Croydon Council, Floor 7 Zone C Bernard Weatherill House 8 Mint Walk, Croydon CR0 1EA or email us at: complaints@croydon.gov.uk Croydon Council Bernard Weatherill House 8 Mint Walk Croydon, CR0 1EA; We are open for pre-booked appointments only Communal cleaning: The landlord explained that the caretaker was scheduled to attend weekly on a Monday COMPLAINT 202006413. For all customer service enquiries go to @ContactCroydon. But Hey, that sounds like hard work and it would expose to public scrutiny just how useless these two are. As many as 450,000 complaints are investigated each year by councils. There is a borough-wide issue in council blocks with damaged and vandalised security doors. Mobile Homes For Sale Lycoming County, Pa, how soon after gallbladder surgery can i get a tattoo, How Do Squirrel Monkeys Protect Themselves, Mobile Homes For Sale Lycoming County, Pa. After being exposed, Croydon Council apologised and in May, a damning report from independent consultants found systemic failures and incompetence at the council and its repairs contractor, Axis, saying there was a poor operating culture with a lack of care and respect for tenants.

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