Local Planning

The Future of the Cane Hill
At last - something to report! The South London & Maudsley NHS Trust has announced that they will have no further NHS use of the site beyond March 2008, by which date the medium secure unit will close; it may close before then! The Government quango English Partnerships [EP], that will control the site, has told the Coulsdon Neighbourhood Partnership (next meeting open to the public Wed. 8th March 2006) that it wants to listen to local people's views on how the site is developed. Whilst EP was working on making decisions by 2010, the indications now are that this date will be advanced. EP’s priority is for housing.
All developments on the site will, of course, need to satisfy Croydon Council as the planning authority. It is currently updating the Croydon Plan, to finalise this Spring. Hitherto the Council have favoured seeing a Science Park on the site. There is much scepticism about the viability of a Science Park - the Council's assessment is, they admit, mainly based on work some 10 years old, which has not been shared with the public. Last Spring the Croydon Plan was subject to scrutiny by the Government's Planning Inspector and he questioned the need for a Science Park; however, his latest response to the Council in October does not rule out a Science Park. It focuses on controlling the location, height & floor area of any development, preserving the landscape, providing public access, provision of public transport to the site & measures to encourage its use rather than cars and, finally, the need for a master plan for the whole site. These are all matters that CWRA have been pressing for the last 10 years. With local elections in May the future of Cane Hill may also become a party political issue as well!
As always, we welcome your views, to any Committee member. CWRA Chairman, David Rothberg

Proof Readers Needed
Could anyone spare a couple of hours, one every 3 months to assist our Newsletter Editors with a little Proof Reading. Spell-Check removes most of the spelling errors, but we could do with someone to check details like Phone Numbers etc. Please contact Chris & Geoff Hunt if you can help.

Local Planning

Definitions of Science Park on the Web
From Wikipedia:
A Science Park is a property development, designed for a concentration of high tech or science related businesses. Examples include the Cambridge Science Park in England and the Hsinchu Science Park in Taiwan. Not all property developments that concentrate high tech or science related business are Science Parks. The success of the Science Park depends very much on not emphasizing the property development dimension but the high tech and science related business dimensions.
From the UK Science Park Association (UKSPA)
A business support and technology transfer initiative that:
*Encourages and supports the start-up and incubation of innovation-led, high-growth, knowledge-based businesses;
*Provides an environment where larger and international businesses can develop specific and close interactions with a particular centre of knowledge creation for their mutual benefit;
*Has formal and operational links with centres of knowledge creation such as universities, higher education institutes and research organisations.

Coulsdon Town Centre Improvement Scheme
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A Possible Chance for Real Entry-Level Housing?
How many people agree with me that they would hate to be young and having to try entering the housing market nowadays? What chance do our kids have, and at what cost?
With future housing being an absolute certainty for at least some percentage of the Cane Hill Site, perhaps the Council and English Partnerships could consider being real trail-blazers, with at least some of this being entry-level housing for the younger local residents, who need the independence and responsibility that only their own homes could give them. My thoughts would go along the lines of Park-style Homes on a leasehold site where purchase / rental held limits conditional on an upper age limit, behavioural restraints, local residence and local employment. If all this land at Cane Hill is to be going for development, it would be so good tosee some real benefits for local residents.
CWRA Committee Rep, Chris Hunt