Class B means of access to a highway. If you are a tenant or live in a strata scheme you may have other options for . How Do Squirrel Monkeys Protect Themselves, It goes on and on. 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 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. Venues for hire. Mr X also contacted Ms Z directly asking her to stop the trespass. I got quite a waft from the other side of the road as it hit the ground. The listing numbers complaints to the Local Government Ombudsman: Birmingham received 257 last year, with our neighbours to the north, Southwark (198) and Lambeth (186) taking the runners-up spots. Importantly, complaints help us to improve our services for all customers. Rightly, Inside Housing states, this is the story that everyone who lives and works in social housing has been talking about this year., In the lengthy interview, Hewitt says that the moment he stepped into the council home of Fransoy Hewitt in South Norwood, It was the most angry Ive ever been as a journalist, as a human being., The magazine reports, Footage of her flat revealed the appalling conditions that she and her two sons were living in: walls covered in thick black mould and damp so bad the carpet squelched under her feet. 3 1 March 2021. Croydon Council have launched a new smartphone app, that allows users to report noisy neighbours.. There was understandable disgust and anger, from the Riddlesdown RA members as well as the long-suffering Newlands, that the council had left it so long before introducing this new excuse for the already totally unacceptable and disrespectful delays. The complaint process. Her questionable management skills is a large reason why the planning department is in such disarray. The complaints process - Stage 1 Once your complaint is received, the relevant department will aim to deal with it as quickly as possible. Further council plans to make the town greener include an electric bicycles hire scheme. . Image: Cleaner Croydon, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0. It is up to the applicant to make sure they have all the other permissions in place, such as the permission of the land owner, Building Regs etc. It's how to get the most out of everything nearby. On the allegation of racism in the handling of Leroy's complaint, Croydon Council did not provide a response. No reply: Katherine Kerswell is the 192,000 per year chief exec of a council that is slow to respond to resident complaints. My own Labour-controlled Croydon Council is in debt to the tune of 1.5bn. If the dispute involves a statutory nuisance (something like loud music or barking dogs), you can make a complaint to your local council. Call 999 if the crime is still happening or 101 to report a crime later. You can report non-urgent incidents to the Anti-Social Behaviour Team at contact-centre@royalgreenwich.gov.uk or on 020 8921 4411. In the 10 weeks that had gone by, there had been no mention of this requirement. , No answers of course, from anyone. The same complaint that the council had been sitting on for almost three months. 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. The you can get help for rough sleepers through StreetLink. A fair amount of chalk (from those lorry wheels) is also being deposited on the roads so much for any wheelwash facilities ! Poor repairs: the maintenance of the flats at Regina Road is still less than optimal. tenancy document that obliges the resident to behave in a way that is not antisocial or causes a nuisance to your neighbours. Also the same problems with the complaints process they dont follow their own complaints process. If your neighbours complain to the Council, you may find the Environmental Protection department writing to you asking you to take action to avoid causing a nuisance. Alberto Bocelli Architect, 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. Attribution. The site now floods on a regular basis. 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. Ministers have sent in a taskforce to oversee Croydon council after an audit report revealed the Labour-run authority is on the verge of bankruptcy following a . Support and help is available for victims, survivors and their families of domestic, violence and sexual violence. JR. Jroc23 Roc. Dont worry we wont send you spam or share your email address with anyone. Croydon Council had been dealing with our formal complaint for three months by this point. 16 hours ago 16h It is established case law that local planning authorities cannot withdraw and re-issue decision notices to correct such errors. Croydon councillors vote against 15% tax rise. The aim of the charity is to support local residents who are concerned about crime such as burglary, scams and anti social behaviour. But at least shes no longer claiming to be a chartered landscape architect so thats nice. You can report fly-tipping online or download our Don't Mess with Croydon app to send a photo and location of fly-tipping straight to the relevant team. The council respond directly to you with further enquiries or to update you as the rubbish is cleaned up. 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. It found that at its southern and western boundaries, the garage trespassed on land in the ownership of Mr X or Mr Y. There's no charge for making a complaint or sending us feedback. Complaints and feedback. Most councils have a private rented housing team. But this latest ruling from the Local Government Ombudsman effectively declares the planners to be utter buffoons. By High hedges, trees and boundaries. Complaints can also be submitted in writing or by telephone to: Complaints Resolutions Team. Updated 16:31, 17 OCT 2022. Environmental health officers spoke to the owners . There are rules about heights of structures, their maximum height alongside a boundary, the area of land that can be covered with sheds without the need for planning permission, and heights of walls, fences gates etc. News, views and analysis about the people of Croydon, their lives and political times in the diverse and most-populated borough in London. Based in Croydon and edited by Steven Downes. Meanwhile, Ms Cheesbroughs response to the springtime Complaint is now 22 weeks overdue. They can refer you on to environmental health if the problem is serious enough. You can also join our user research group to receive invites to activities and surveys to help shape future improvements to the site. It will add to the already overloaded drainage and sewer systems and should be refused.. Croydon Shire Council PO Box 17 Croydon QLD 4871 (07) 4748 7100 (07) . After further complaints from the resident the neighbour was issued with a Section 154 notice by the landlord ' s Public Safety Team. But on November 18 last year, the committee approved the demolition of 89 Hyde Road and its replacement by a block of nine flats. Unimpressed: Croydon Council planners handling of the neighbours boundary dispute saw the Ombudsman being sharply critical. Three days after the council approved planning permission, Mr X got back in touch with it saying Ms Z had recommenced building the garage and was committing a further trespass on his land. The court judgement established the boundaries of Ms Zs house. Which, for most reasonable people, might have been a starting point for a radical improvement in the councils care and attention to its tenants. 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. 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. The CLP application, which amongst things includes articulated lorries drawn half-size and site cabins positioned in areas due to be protected during construction (for the sake of the one remaining tree), has quite rightly not yet been approved. 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". Noise nuisance. But even as the Newlands were being forced to cope with all the nonsense and nuisance next door, they were faced by the prospect of yet another block of flats right across the road from them, at 89 Hyde Road. None of this has the excuse of the councils bankruptcy, which occurred under Councillor Alis predecessor and mentor, Tony Newman and his influential deputy and head of housing, Alison Butler. Sign up today as a subscriber. A Croydon Council spokesman said: "We apologise for any harm caused to the couple in this instance. This section has information about making a complaint about neighbourhood noise. This issue is so important, decent housing is a basic human right, surely. Croydon CR0 1EA Ombudsman (LGSCO) in relation to Croydon Council. Conwy. And if they say that Croydons planners are, at best, negligent, or at worst, incompetent, then perhaps it is well overdue that suitable action is taken at Fishers Folly. Ultimately it seems very like a boundary dispute between neighbours and Planning Departments are not best placed to become involved. Consequently, Mr X returned to court seeking an order for their removal. 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. 8.00am to 5:30pm. Read more: Your staff make us feel less than human. 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. If we receive a complaint from you about neighbours playing loud music, we will send a letter to the alleged offender (s) asking them to keep the volume down. Follow these steps if you have a dispute with your neighbour. This includes seeking planning consent on land that is owned by someone else. Often this solves the problem. We plan to continue to shine a light on the treatment of tenants and the conditions they are living in, and keep questioning what is being done about it., Read more: Only 10% of council housing repair jobs ever get checked The implication is that there are too many complaints for the current management to handle, so wed better get some more 50k a year (and the rest) managers to fob people off. The councils Housing Revenue Account is a ring-fenced fund used to run the boroughs council homes. croydon council complaints about neighbourssunshine coast regional district real estate Comments Off on croydon council complaints about neighbours June 9, 2022 For more information, please see our Corporate Complaints Policy (PDF, 234.68 KB). 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. The Ombudsman says that the council has accepted its findings, and will pay Mr X 750 in recognition of his distress, time and trouble, and pay 500 to Mr Y, with apologies to both. The application was retrospective, and the council had photographs from May 2019 that showed the strutural stanchions on Mr X and Mr Ys land. The hours of service are: Monday to Wednesday. please note that the Stage 1 Complaint was addressed to YOU and it is from YOU that we expect a substantive response . You can complain to your council about a hedge over 2 metres high or a tree that could damage your property. 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. 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. 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. By far Croydon Council is the worse Borough ever. Explore. 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. To contact us, please email inside.croydon@btinternet.com, Help to support our genuine local and independent journalism, Woman arrested after four boys die in Sutton house fire, Nine months on and council tenants are still being ignored, a damning report from independent consultants found systemic failures and incompetence at the council and its repairs contractor, Axis. 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. News, views and analysis about the people of Croydon, their lives and political times in the diverse and most-populated borough in London. 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. If your neighbor complaint is more of the barking dog 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. While Plymouth City Council is in talks over a council tax increase of 2.99%. 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. 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 The My Croydon app has a decibel meter that measures noise and informs users whether it is loud enough to be classed as a nuisance. Residents of the block claim that Croydon Council had been informed of the issues but had not acted. The cameras had been checked by both the landlord's staff and the police and permission was granted for him to have them. This time, through a relatively minor boundary dispute between neighbours, the Ombudsman has exposed massive levels of incompetence in the councils planning department. To reduce noise nuisance from houses and premises, the law defines a maximum amount of noise which is acceptable during night hours. And while some of the ill-served residents have been moved out or been promised new accommodation away from Regina Roads badly maintained flats, the notion that repairs are being conducted any more urgently or efficiently are belied by photographs of the blocks. If you think a vulnerable adult is being abused in any way, you can report this as a safeguarding concern. 3 0 Nov ember 2021. 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. Or they could do the work and charge for it. I think there has been a breach of planning control near my property and the council has not taken enforcement action. The leadership is helpful, creative and always supportive. This guide is also available in Welsh (Cymraeg). . 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. Yellow signs backing a campaign against a new development can been seen in the tree-lined street of Pollards Hill South. Sack an executive and use that money.. Because Alison Butler tied them in to a contract renewal with Axis. As Inside Housing puts it, Many residents in the block and in another across the road had repeatedly complained to the council about the state of their homes. The property is in a great condition, and ready to move in. Tue 24 Nov 2020 01.00 EST. Find a propertis in Croydon, London on Gumtree, the #1 site for Residential Property To Rent classifieds ads in the UK. 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. Before making a complaint to Council first discuss any noise issues with your neighbour, or the person responsible for the noise. The facts about land ownership in this case were clear and in the public domain, the Ombudsman report states. A petition was recently set up on the website www.change.org to show support for the continuation of live music at The Jolly Farmers after several complaints from a neighbour. 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. only to leave after less than six months without any obvious sign of actually achieving anything. The court granted this in January 2020, the Ombudsmans report states. Its as if the Regina Road scandal never happened, said the source. I am so glad I dont work for Croydon Planning Department. Families have had their lives completely destroyed by this. If we prosecute we will normally apply to the court to have the equipment permanently confiscated. 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? Night hours are 11.00 pm until 7.00 am. Croydon Council. This DCP supplements and supports the Ashfield Local Environmental Plan (LEP) 2013. If you live in an urban setting and communicate with your neighbours about your plans, are sensible about hygiene and vermin control, and where you locate your coop, there is . Drop a pin on the map, describe the parking issue, and send it off - it takes just a couple of minutes. Bonfires generate around 30,000 nuisance complaints to local authorities each year. So, in March, Mr X asked to escalate his complaint to Stage 2 of the procedure because of this delay. Tenants need to know who to contact when things are going wrong when their council isnt delivering services appropriately. Water leaked from lights and into sockets, leading her to unplug her fridge to avoid electrocution., And reporter Hewitt said, Walking into that flat and seeing not just appalling, squalid conditions, but the fact that it was quite obviously dangerous and Fransoy was living there with her two little boys., The most angry I have ever been: reporter Dan Hewitt with council tenant Fransoy Hewitt in Regina Road in March. I saw one of them trees come down no regard for safety just cut and left to fall. A ward councillor, Lynne Hale, spoke at the meeting and raised a series of concerns regarding the overdevelopment of the site. Brake System Calculator, We will normally only consider complaints about things which happened in the past 12 months. You should be able to find the team's contact details on your council website, usually within the housing . The hardest part of being at Croydon council is the uncertainty when there are cuts in budget or changes to services. There doesnt seem to be any accountability so how will things change? Complaints should be made to the Council within 12 months from when a customer feels that something has gone wrong. 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. You have rejected additional cookies. Taxpayers seem happy to allow their money to be thrown around paid to service providers without any regard for whether suppliers are doing a good job.We need tighter controls to improve standards. Births, deaths, marriages and citizenship, Support is available for you or someone you're worried about, contact our Single Point of Contact (SPOC) team, Report and request removal of offensive graffiti, If you are a Housing Association tenant, please report the issues to your Housing Association, If you are a Council tenant or leaseholder please contact your Tenancy Officer or call 0208 726 6000. The types of neighbourly behaviour which seem to generate the most complaints, and which are also behind most of the decisions to move house are: aggressive behaviour (60%) Noise Pollution. 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. They remain so. Who says slapstick is dead? 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. No public servant has understood their responsibility or how to show contrition since. Camron Smith died after being stabbed inside a residential address in Bracken Avenue, part of the Shrublands Estate in Croydon, on July 1. Their reports are deliberately written in a dry, officialese. why dont the council just get a decent building firm/plumbers round to fix the place? Posted. The Inner West Comprehensive Development Control Plan (DCP) 2016 for Ashbury, Ashfield, Croydon, Croydon Park, Haberfield, Hurlstone Park and Summer Hill came into effect on on 10 January 2017.. Support is available for you or someone you're worried about. The HRA was the source of the money used to pay Dr Alison Knight her 800 per day fees when she swanned into Croydon as an emergency interim head of housing, only to leave after less than six months without any obvious sign of actually achieving anything. 11 hours ago 11h. STREET parties over the Platinum Jubilee weekend could be shut down if organisers dont have the correct permission. If the noise persists, we will attempt to visit your property at the times the noise normally occurs to witness a nuisance. South Croydon wasteland. Aside from Croydon Council's mega 15% hike planned, London councils can increase bills by 10%. The council can also apply to the magistrate's court for a warrant to enter premises and seize equipment that is causing a nuisance. 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. If you live in a House in Multiple Occupation (HMO) please contact your landlord or managing agent. He disputes that the number of complaints he sends to the council is unreasonable, and says the emotion he can sometimes show when sending them is a symptom of his frustration at feeling ignored by the local authority. We are committed to making our website accessible to all visitors. Block by block: Quantums proposed five-storey block of flats for Hyde Road, a street of two-storey homes. How to make a complaint. Over a hundred years, maybe 33% of the countrys existing properties would come up for renewal. Sadly there isnt a bottomless pit in which to cast the lot of them. You can change your cookie settings at any time. Croydon Council. We also use cookies set by other sites to help us deliver content from their services. 3 1 March 2021. A number of drug dens which caused residents to "live in fear" have been shut down in Croydon. If you have a story to share about housing conditions, email housingstories@itv.com. Mr X and Mr Y contested Ms Zs garage encroached on land in their ownership. 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. 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. At just after 4pm on July 7, I received an email from a corporate resolution officer at Croydon Council telling me that in order to progress the complaint investigation, the planning team needed to be sent signed authorisation that the Newlands had asked me to act on their behalf in the complaint. This latest Ombudsmans decision against Cheesbroughs department would appear to contradict that contention. Most councils have yet to confirm plans, with about a third indicating they may propose a 3% increase. Click here, https://insidecroydon.com/2021/10/05/director-of-plannings-bogus-claim-over-institute-membership/, 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. You can help us keep the borough looking clean and tidy by reporting untidy or eyesore gardens. 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 . Read more: Feeble planners allow builders to get away with (tree) murder. 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. 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. The resident made further complaint s on 21 August 2020 and the landlord issued a formal letter about the problem to the neighbour in line with its complaints policy. 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. The closure, which lasts until March 2017, follows a nine-month investigation into complaints of ASB and nuisance. Got away with it. . On that basis, on June 17 I added to the complaint claiming that the s106 contribution described does not satisfy the legal requirements. All bad enough, you might think, but there was more to come on the day, this time from the council. The council said it would reply before the end of December. The Town and Country Planning (General Permitted Development) (England) Order 2015, https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2015/596/contents, particularly as set out under SCHEDULE 2 Posted. Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email. We can then serve a legal notice under the Environmental Protection Act 1990 requiring the offender to stop causing a nuisance. Stalling: the Newlands letter to Heather Cheesbrough, after the council somehow managed to ignore their formal complaint for three months. Location. Once this form has been completed, the information will be forwarded to the relevant team for action. But it said this was a civil issue and as such not a relevant planning consideration. We do not provide anout of hours service for complaints about parties. Read more: Croydon shamed over dangerous squalor in council flats A curved boundary can be very difficult to establish unless there are features shown on the Title map which are still in existence on the ground. (19%) And theres a culture of not actually listening to what theyre saying. Having revoked the decision and before issuing any new decision notice, it would now be expedient for the council to fully reconsider its original decision, before a perfectly good family home is demolished, before more unwelcome and undue stress is caused to neighbours and before more abortive costs are incurred by the applicant. And there are worrying signs that little has yet changed. Find out what to do if you are having problems with loud music and parties, alarms, dogs barking and construction noise. Overall the workplace culture is one of progression and collaborative . It will take only 2 minutes to fill in. Hope Thrift Bellgrade, The council generally adopts an escalating approach to noise enforcement and can deal with unreasonable .
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