RESIDENTS lost a long battle to stop the expansion of a high dependency care home in their street last week.
Foxley Residents' Association (FRA) said they felt "betrayed" after they failed to stop plans to increase Highfield House, at 92 – 94 Higher Drive, from 30 bedrooms to 48.
Six of ten councillors voted in favour of the application at a meeting of Croydon Council planning committee last Thursday. It is the third time Fairlie Healthcare, who runs the home, has applied to develop the site.
But FRA chair Lolade Onabolu said residents felt the outcome was a "forgone conclusion", and criticised the committee's chair, Councillor Paul Scott for the lack of "honest debate".
"We all feel betrayed." she said. "Even if the decision is not what we want the process was wrong, there was no honest debate.
"That's upset me a lot more than the outcome. We are very disappointed and we don't have very many options. We think the planning application is not that different to the last one."
FRA fought the application on the grounds Higher Drive is not the right location for an "industrial" sized development like that proposed for Highfield House, which cares for people with serious physical and neurological needs.
Fairlie Healthcare will add a two-story building at 94, joined to the existing building at 92, providing 18 extra bedrooms along with more parking space to the current facility. The frontage will increase from 30 metres to about 70.
But applicant Ian Coomber said the development came after an urgent request from the NHS for bed space. "There is limited space on wards and this disperses care within residential areas."
Objecting at the meeting Steve O'Connell, ward member for Kenley, said there is "no doubt" that Croydon needs more high-dependency care units, but he said this is not the right place.
Cllr O'Connell said: "If we looked at this application a fresh we would not agree to something of this size in this residential area."
Voting in favour of the application, Cllr Scott acknowledged that the site has "generated concern and emotion", but said residential areas are the "right place" for this type of care.
And he dismissed residents' concerns that staff and visitors parking on the street causes traffic problems.
"The photos show cars parking on the other side of the road to other cars, but that happens everywhere," he said.
The planning permission is subject to a number of planning conditions around parking and transport, including stopping large lorries from delivery to the property. Cllr Stephen Mann, who also voted in favour of the expansion, criticised the use of the word "industrial" to describe the home.
"It sounds like disabled people live in a factory. They don't, they live in a residential area," said Cllr Mann.
But Cllr Jason Perry was keen to remind the committee that the existing building at Highfield House was initially refused by the council and allowed on appeal.
He said: "It's clear to see from the photographs from the residents the impact it is having on the area. It is a small hospital in a residential road."
Cllr Scott rebuked Ms Onabolu's claims that the meeting of the planning committee was unfair.
"I think they are somewhat unfounded," he said. "If she had proof to back it up there might be something to answer."
