A council is taking over two housing schemes delayed by planning red tape.
Both sets of Crawley plans – for more than a hundred flats at Longley House and 39 flats on the town’s former ambulance station – were approved in principle more than three years ago.
But the final approval for both was subject to negotiations on how much their respective developers should pay Crawley Borough Council in contributions for things like affordable housing and transport, which have yet to conclude.
Since then, both sets have been called before councillors twice more – once in light of new national rules about water supplies, and then again yesterday to make sure they line up with the council’s new local plan, a set of development policies.
Meanwhile, the Longley House developer, A2Dominion, has decided not to go ahead, allowing the council’s own landlord division Crawley Homes to step in and buy the scheme.
And yesterday, councillors were told the ambulance site would “in all likelihood” be taken over by Crawley Homes too, from developers Tkei Homes.
Tkei Homes’ application, to build 39 flats on the site, designated 16 of the new homes – or 40% – as affordable. But yesterday officers told the council’s planning committee that this would likely increase to 100% if and when Crawley Homes bought the scheme.
The Longley House plans in East Park are for 121 flats in a U-shaped building, which will step from four to seven to nine storeys in height.
While some issues were raised by the committee – including fears that the 58 parking spaces included in the plans would lead to a ‘parking crisis’ – they approved the application in principle again.
In October, the council was granted £3.854m from the government’s Brownfield Land Release Fund – some £1.3m of that money will go towards building the Longley House development.
To view the ambulance site application, log on to planningregister.crawley.gov.uk and search for CR/2020/0274/FUL. To view the Longley House application, search for CR/2020/0024/FUL.
