199-home scheme also includes health centre on second floor
BPTW is set to get the go-ahead for a 28-storey residential-led tower in Croydon, more than five years after a lower Broadway Malyan scheme was approved for the same site.
The practice’s proposals for Bellway Homes would deliver 199 new flats and a 1,294sq m health centre on a 0.2ha site in Dingwall Road that previously housed a two-storey Job Centre.
In 2018, Broadway Malyan secured consent for a scheme for the site that would have delivered 181 homes in a 24-storey development that featured lightweight metal cladding.
BPTW’s proposals, which feature brick cladding, follow three non-material amendments to the consented scheme – for which groundworks have already commenced on site. The plans have also been reworked to include a second staircase following changes to Building Regulations inspired by the Grenfell Tower disaster.
The BPTW development features a nine-storey block to the rear, to align with the height of the neighbouring Premier Inn hotel, while its frontage – which will face the Ruskin Square development – steps up from 18 to 28 stories.
A total of 20 of the new homes would be “affordable”, the majority of them one-bedroom properties. A report to members of Croydon council’s planning committee said the figure equated to 9% by habitable room. All of the affordable housing will be available for shared ownership.
Officers acknowledged that the affordable housing figure does not meet local policy requirements. They said Bellway had submitted viability information that justified the shortfall, and that the stance was backed by an independent viability consultant.
They added that the inclusion of the healthcare facility, which will be located on the main building’s second floor, was “valuable” and counterbalanced the lower affordable-housing offer. The earlier Broadway Malyan proposals did not contain a comparable facility.
Recommending the scheme for approval, officers said the proposals had been designed to respond successfully to the local context and achieved that brief using “high-quality design, detailing and materials to enhance the street scene of Dingwall Road”.
Planning committee members meet at 6.30pm on Thursday to consider the application.
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