The fate of a shop in Purley town centre which has sat empty for almost two years remained unclear this week following a dispute over a lack of parking provision.
Developer Monmouth Properties wants to keep the old British Gas shop next to Purley United Reformed Church on Brighton Road for commercial use and turn the rest of the site into flats.
The development would be in line with the Government's aims to encourage people to live in town centres, but it would have no extra parking facilities.
Croydon councillors rejected the application at a recent meeting of the development control committee, on the grounds that new residents would clog-up the town centre's parking spaces and make Purley's already dire parking situation even worse.
In April this year Monmouth was granted permission to build the same three-storey development of 14 flats but the plans included an expensive 16-space high-tech basement car park.
But Monmouth has now stated that the provision of a basement car park would be neither "viable nor implementable".
October 23, 2001 17:00
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