Controversial plan for flats rejected

3:26pm Friday 29th August 2008

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A CONTROVERSIAL planning application for flats in a town centre has been rejected.

The site lies next to a conservation area in Tweedy Road, Bromley, which contains Bromley College, a Grade I listed building.

Broomleigh Housing Association submitted a revised application to Bromley Council to build 72 flats in three blocks, three to four storeys high.

Fifty-three letters of objection were received, many arguing that the new development would overcrowd the surrounding area.

Eighteen of the flats were to be dedicated to a Foyer scheme which would provide social rented studio flats for vulnerable young people.

These 16 to 25-year-olds, who are homeless or leaving care, would have been allocated a flat as a stepping stone to independent living, but given support by people on site.

Councillor John Getgood who voted to approve the proposal at the meeting on August 26 said that the objections were exaggerated.

He said: "I thought the objections were unnecessary by people who were in a privileged position not understanding the needs of people who were very needy and vulnerable."

Nick Dudman, chief executive of Broomleigh Housing Association, said: "We are bitterly disappointed with the decision to refuse the planning application.

"This is a high quality development that meets the needs of a range of people who are often excluded from the traditional housing market and we await the formal decision notice before considering how to proceed."

A spokesman for the conservation group, the Bromley Civic Society, said: "The loss of the Foyer scheme to the town may be regrettable.

"But inclusion of social housing in a development cannot be used as an inducement in a development which is an unacceptable attack on the protected, historic environment."