Phoenix plans for 63 homes at Catford police station approved
The former police station will be converted into 100% affordable homes, after the plans were unanimously approved by Lewisham planning committee.
Phoenix Community Housing, the resident-led housing association, submitted plans to partially demolish Catford Police Station on Bromley Road and develop 63 new homes.
Lewisham planning committee unanimously voted to grant planning permission at the meeting on 25 November.
Catford Police Station closed at the end of 2017. Since its closure, the building has been occupied by live in guardians, who are allowed to live in disused buildings at a reduced rent in exchange for ‘guarding’ the vacant property.
In February 2022, Phoenix announced that it had purchased the site and initially planned to build 65 new homes, but this has now been reduced to 63.
All of the homes will be affordable and they are split into 29 social rent flats and 34 intermediate rent flats.
"Intermediate rent" is defined in this case as priced at around 65-70% of the open market price, while renting from a housing provider not a private landlord.
The accommodation mix consists of 26 one-bedroom, 29 two-bedroom and 8 three-bedroom units. All of the three-bedroom flats will fall under social rent tenure.
Phoenix will retain and convert the locally listed main police station building, while the other ancillary buildings will be demolished and replaced with one block five storeys tall (at the back of the development, bordering on Connisborough Crescent) and one of six storeys (in the middle of the development).
Steve Connor, Development Manager at Phoenix, said: “We are very excited about the proposals for Catford Police Station and we have worked hard over the last couple of years to provide a design that retains part of the locally listed police station building fronting Bromley Road – whilst responding to the local context and providing 63 affordable homes.
“As part of this, Phoenix takes the views of its residents and the local community seriously and we are committed to working collaboratively on our new homes programme.”
During the public consultation stage, the plans received 10 objections and a petition (objecting) which had 37 signatures.
There were no objections from Transport for London, Thames Water, Historic England, the Met Police’s Designing Out Crime team, the London Fire Brigade, the Environment Agency, Historic England or Active Travel England.
Some of the local residents who had objected to the plans were present at the meeting. Residents spoke out against the proposed height of the six-storey block, arguing it will invade their privacy and is “completely out of scale” with the area.
They also raised concerns over the height and density of the building, and requested that no block is taller than four storeys.
Later on in the meeting, a planning officer referred to other buildings in the area that were five storeys tall such as the Passfields Estate.
He said: “It can’t be seen as out-of-character when you’ve got a five-storey block literally at the end of the road [which is] next to two-storey houses .. so officers felt when we were looking at this that this scheme wasn’t out of scale with the immediate area.”
Councillor Jack Lavery, chair of the planning committee, called the scheme “fantastic” and highlighted that it was 100% affordable housing, before the plans were unanimously approved.
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