Officers back two rival schemes for the same empty plot on Brighton Road, South Croydon: 25 flats, or a six-storey hotel of up to 91 rooms. Decided 3 September.

Croydon’s Planning Committee is being asked to approve two different buildings for the same empty plot in South Croydon on the same night.

Item 6.1 on the agenda for Thursday 3 September is a five-storey block of 25 flats and two commercial units. Item 6.2 is a six-storey hotel of up to 91 rooms with a basement. Both are at 1A Brighton Road, CR2 6EA. Both are outline applications from the same applicant, 1a CR2 Ltd. Officers recommend granting both.

Neither would be the first permission on this plot. It already holds three, granted in September 2024, May 2025 and April 2026, and none of them has been built.

A plot with a long planning history

The site is on the eastern side of Brighton Road, just south of the junction with Warham Road and Selsdon Road. It held a one and two storey showroom until 2021, when prior approval 21/04322/PAD allowed the buildings to be demolished. They were. Nothing has replaced them.

Immediately north is the locally listed former Swan and Sugar Loaf Hotel, now in use as a supermarket with flats above. Immediately south is a restaurant at 3 Brighton Road.

The officer’s report lists sixteen outline applications on the plot since November 2022 alone. Reading it in order gives a picture of a site nobody can settle:

  • 22/04985/OUT, four storeys and 22 flats, refused
  • 22/04995/OUT, five storeys and up to 28 homes, refused on eight grounds and dismissed at appeal
  • 23/03736/OUT and 23/03787/OUT, both refused in January 2024
  • 24/01003/OUT, refused July 2024
  • 24/01006/OUT, five storeys and 25 homes, granted September 2024
  • 24/03390/OUT, six storeys and 31 homes at 17.1 metres, granted May 2025
  • 24/04012/OUT, refused March 2025, appeal dismissed October 2025
  • 25/01253/OUT, four storeys and 17 homes, granted April 2026
  • 25/01679/OUT and 25/01858/OUT, both refused, one dismissed at appeal
  • 26/00074/OUT, six storeys and 31 homes, now at appeal because the council did not determine it in time
  • 26/00076/OUT, eight storeys, refused 8 June 2026
  • 26/00077/OUT, six storeys, refused 10 June 2026
  • 26/00075/OUT and 26/00079/OUT, the two now before the committee

Two earlier permissions, from 2019 and 2022, were also granted and never built out.

The recurring reasons for refusal are the same three things: the building’s height and bulk next to the Swan and Sugar Loaf, the amount of affordable housing, and flood risk. The whole site sits in Flood Zone 3(a) and is modelled as at high risk of surface water flooding.

The flats: 25 homes, four of them discounted

Application 26/00075/OUT is for a five-storey block comprising 25 flats and two commercial units, with access reserved for later.

The mix is four one-bedroom, thirteen two-bedroom and eight three-bedroom homes. Twenty-one would be sold on the open market.

The affordable offer is four First Homes, each sold at a 30% discount from market value, plus a £30,000 payment towards affordable housing elsewhere. That package came out of a viability assessment independently reviewed by BNP Paribas in August 2024. Officers say it is the maximum the scheme can reasonably support, and that market conditions have not improved since.

The applicant approached housing associations about buying affordable rented homes on the site. The report says they replied that they were either not buying at present or that the number of units was too small to bother with.

Because First Homes clauses are not compatible with the London Plan’s review mechanisms, no early or late stage viability review is being recommended. In plain terms, if the flats sell for more than the appraisal assumed, there is no trigger to revisit the affordable housing.

The block would be car-free, with 42 long-stay cycle spaces against a requirement of 30.4, and a shortfall of two residential and four commercial short-stay cycle spaces. The developer would pay £37,500 towards sustainable transport.

The hotel: up to 91 rooms, 90-day limit

Application 26/00079/OUT is for a six-storey hotel above ground level with ancillary dining and a basement. Only scale is being decided now; everything else is reserved.

The applicant’s planning statement puts the maximum at 91 rooms, and officers recommend a condition locking that in, because a bigger hotel has not been assessed. A second condition would cap any individual stay at 90 days in any 12 months, to stop the building becoming long-term accommodation by the back door.

Other recommended conditions reflect the flood risk: no sleeping accommodation on the ground or basement floors, and a basement threshold 600mm above ground level. Officers say the scheme passes the sequential and exception tests on that basis.

There would be no takeaway from the dining space, and the developer would pay an air quality contribution of £100 per 500 square metres.

Officers note the indicative designs are “poor”, but appearance is a reserved matter and not for decision now.

Who objected

Both applications drew two objections each, from 115 and 76 notified neighbours respectively.

Ward councillor Danielle Denton objected to both, on height, bulk, scale and massing, over-densification, and the effect on the locally listed Swan and Sugar Loaf. On the hotel she also objected that the site is under-optimised and could deliver family-sized homes instead, and on flood risk.

Officers answer that the flats block is smaller in height and scale than the six-storey permission already granted in May 2025, and that the hotel is the same height above ground as that permission. On the family homes point, they say visitor accommodation has policy support, and that each application is judged on its own merits. Their report puts it plainly: “Whilst there may be a scheme that was considered preferable, this would not form a sufficient reason for refusal, when the proposed use/scheme is policy compliant.”

The council’s own Lead Local Flood Authority has a holding objection on both, pending more evidence on site levels, overland flow paths, discharge rates, drainage design and how the development stays safe and operational given the surface water risk.

What it means for you

If the committee follows the recommendation, the plot will hold permission for a block of flats and for a hotel at the same time, on top of the three residential permissions it already has. Only one building can be put up. Which one, if any, is a commercial decision rather than a planning one.

The meeting is on Thursday 3 September 2026 at 6.30pm in the Council Chamber at the Town Hall, Katharine Street, CR0 1NX. It is open to the public and webcast live. To ask to speak, the agenda says to email Democratic.Services@croydon.gov.uk or phone 020 8726 6000 by 4pm on Tuesday 1 September.

Both applications are past their formal comment stage, but you can still read every document on the council’s register. Our guide to Croydon planning applications explains how to search it and what happens after a committee resolution.

Also on the agenda that night: a pre-application presentation on 268 homes at Ruskin Square. Straight after, at 7.15pm, the Planning Sub-Committee considers a single two-bedroom bungalow behind 47 Graham Road in Purley, which drew 24 objections even though only 18 neighbouring properties were notified. It is also recommended for approval.

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