Croydon Council's Planning Sub-Committee has refused planning permission for a development at 24 Churchill, Purley, which sought to create two additional residential units, bringing the total to five.
The committee made the decision on Thursday, 30 April 2026, after hearing from the applicant's agent, Graham Skipper, and ward councillor Samir Duwaza. Despite the officer's recommendation to grant permission, the committee voted to refuse the application.
Councillor Duwaza raised concerns about the development's conflict with transport policies and inadequate highway and drainage details. The development was deemed to conflict with London Plan policies H1, DM30, T4, and T6. The highway technical note was considered incomplete and does not represent a complete picture of traffic and parking pressure on this road
as it failed to account for St. Mark's Church and John Fisher's school. Furthermore, no adequate Sustainable Urban Drainage System (SUDS) details were submitted, and the officer report acknowledged this omission, noting that given the acknowledged groundwater flood risk on site, this is a matter of policy compliance, not just detail. There was also no reference to consultation with Thames Water regarding sewerage capacity, contrary to London Plan Policy SI17.
London Plan Policy H1 seeks to optimise housing delivery in PTAL 3 to 6 areas or within 800 metres of a train station or town centre boundary.
The site at 24 Churchill, Purley, has a PTAL rating of 1A and is approximately 1.1 miles from Pearly Station, a 25-minute walk, thus meets neither criterion.
Mr. Skipper presented the scheme as a multi-generational home designed to accommodate elderly family members, highlighting its compliance with national planning policies supporting accessible design and diverse housing needs. He noted that for a previous application in 2025, the massing and design were considered acceptable by a planning inspector, and this massing and design has been carried over to the current application. However, there were two dismissed appeals for similar applications at 24 Churchill, Purley prior to this.
Despite the officer's recommendation to grant permission, the committee's refusal focused on design grounds. Specifically, the committee cited the perceived poor quality design due to clutter in the forecourt and its implications for the street scene. The committee considered the clutter
to be the amount of car parking spaces, but the way in which the car parking and the bin storage, the cycle storage, all together in the front of the proposed building
. This was deemed to be an overdevelopment of the forecourt, very clustered area, which is out of character with the surrounding streets and homes.
This decision was made after considerable debate regarding the risk of appeal and potential costs. Officers advised caution against refusing on grounds that had previously been accepted by an inspector
due to the risk of appeal and potential costs
. Specifically, regarding the design grounds for refusal at 24 Churchill, Purley, the officers stated that the inspector's decisions hold significant weight. If we go against that, then we will, we probably will lose an appeal. We do have, we, we've got a reason for a refusal which stands, but our advice is not to refuse it on massing and design.
They further elaborated that the inspector has explicitly said that what is composed is acceptable. So, if we were to turn this application down for those reasons, there would be a very high risk of us losing appeal and also losing costs if the applicant were to apply.
For the application at 24 Churchill, Purley, Graham Skipper, the agent for the applicant, spoke, and Councillor Samir Duwaza, the ward councillor, also spoke. The meeting was held on Thursday, 30 April 2026, as detailed in the Agenda frontsheet. Further details can be found in the Public reports pack.
