Previous updates

January 2018 Update

The Queen's Hotel are holding a public consultation about their new expansion scheme on Monday 22 and Tuesday 23 January, at the Hotel between 4 - 7.30pm on Monday 22 and Tuesday 23rd January. Please do go along and see what you think of the plans and how they might affect you or your business.

We will ask them to extend this consultation to a weekend as well (as not many people will be able to make these times) but there is no guarantee this will happen.

December 2017 Update

London Hotel Group contacted us in November to say they are revising the scheme and to invite our input. We feel that any consultation should be available to all residents of Crystal Palace, and sent the below response. The more people that ask for effective public consultation, the greater the chance that the scheme will be better for Crystal Palace. If you would like to be in touch with LHG, please email: lhg@fourcommunications.com

Our response

Dear LHG

Following Croydon's refusal of the application 17/02192/FUL on 19 October 2017 we are pleased to hear that LHG are considering submitting a brand new scheme, and appreciate the wishes of the hotel owners and planners to take the views of local residents into consideration as they revise their proposal. We understand that development is desirable and reiterate that we are not opposed to this.

After much discussion we have come to the conclusion that a meeting between a few members of our forum and the team from LHG would not serve any useful purpose for either party. LHG and their team are already aware of the main issues for neighbouring residents - the negative impact of an expanded hotel on their day to day life, the likelihood of a substantial increase in on-street parking, the loss of privacy due to overlooking, the unsuitability of such a hotel in a Conservation Area, and the need to improve trust between the residents and the hotel - and it is difficult to see the helpfulness of a meeting in which these concerns are simply reiterated. They have been repeatedly voiced in previous meetings or in the many letters of objection received.

The councillors who voted to refuse the application examined this proposal, took into account the hundreds of letters of objection to it, and, at the Planning Committee meeting itself, were vehement in their rejection of it, describing the proposal as “a preposterous application” with one committee member saying “there are so many things that are really bad about this development, the fact that we've got this far appalls me”. The London Assembly member for Croydon and Sutton stated: “I admire the valiant attempts by the Planning Officer & Transport Officer to defend the indefensible”, whilst another councillor hoped that “something more thoughtful and caring will come forward”.

Residents hope that these comments have been considered and hope that “revisions to the design” are substantial. For a new scheme to be acceptable to the group of residents neighbouring the Queens Hotel, the following issues would have to be addressed:

(a) overdevelopment : that expansion preserves or enhances the Church Road Conservation Area and the size of the expansion is in keeping with its residential location

(b) overlooking : that no houses in neighbouring streets are overlooked

(c) parking : that the hotel car park is free rather than charged, to reduce the likelihood of guests parking on residential streets

(d) quality : that no additional rooms are subterranean and/or without windows

(e) transport : that a further - competent - Trip Generation is carried out as the method used so far by the applicant is considered faulty by the GLA

(f) heritage : that the history of the area is respected, and all local heritage groups properly consulted

(g) mews building : that there is renewed commitment to retain the Mews Building that shares the boundary with some homes on Wakefield Gardens

It is also important to acknowledge that objections to the proposal were raised not only by neighbouring residents but by many living in Crystal Palace and its environs. Many people have strong views about what happens to this building, one of the largest in Crystal Palace. The public consultation regarding the refused proposal was not effectively organised and we ask that the new scheme be opened up to the scrutiny of a much wider area. For example, despite their proximity to the Queens Hotel, the many businesses on the Crystal Palace Triangle were not specifically consulted by planners previously. A better and bigger public consultation is required for this site.

In view of this, we intend to make this letter public, so that others - beyond our small group - can make their opinion heard, to you directly, at this stage.

Many business-owners and residents in this area would like to see an improved Queens Hotel, a hotel which is not only a (financial) success for its owners but a success within its community. For trust to be created between the hotel, its immediate neighbours and those further afield, there needs to be an acknowledgement of the limits of the site, respect given to its heritage and the Conservation Area in which it sits, and proper attention paid to the positive impact it has the potential to bring to Crystal Palace.

We are objecting to the revised proposals

Earlier this year, the overwhelming opposition to the development from local residents and the wider Crystal Palace community resulted in a meeting attended by a selection of Wakefield and Fitzroy residents whose homes would be most affected by the proposals, Steve Reed MP, a representative of the hotel owners and his Communications Director, the developers GVA and an architect from Assael. Specific issues were raised at this meeting, along with reiterations of how the proposal was seen by the wider community as an unnecessary overdevelopment in a residential area. As a result of this meeting, the developers have submitted revised plans. Full details of the original application and the revised plans are published on the Croydon Council website.

The revised plans have taken into account some of the issues raised by objections. The most significant change is that an original mews building at the rear of the site will be retained, and that the excavations for the subterranean car park have been moved further away from a row of terraced houses in Wakefield Gardens: this is good news for a small number of residents although there are still questions to be asked regarding this building being used for hotel accommodation. The new Design & Access Statement Addendum below, which was submitted with the revised plans, covers the main changes:

Apart from other small changes (including minor architectural amendments in response to comments from Historic England), the proposal is fundamentally the same as it was.

Despite many objections concerning the size of the development, the number of rooms remains at 530. There has been an amendment to the structure of the large spine blocks (to slightly improve the view from Fitzroy Gardens), although drawing A below shows how little difference this change makes to the proposal as a whole. Drawing B illustrates how little the front facade has changed from the original plans.