Regeneration plans for vacant Crawley town centre site approved

Plans to demolish buildings on the eastern side of The Broadway and replace them with six storeys of 78 flats above shops on the ground floor were approved by Crawley Borough Council’s Development Control Committee on Monday.

Objections from councillors centred on the fact that the scheme provides no parking spaces, but a similar scheme approved in 2013 - but never implemented - also had no parking provision.

Duncan Crow (Con, Furnace Green) described proposals as an improvement to ‘what is quite frankly a run down part of the town centre’.

But he added: “Thinking that zero car parking spaces is not going to store up problems for the future is quite frankly naive.”

But Kim Jaggard (Con, Maidenbower) suggested that providing homes above shops in town centres was a good thing and people occupying the flats would occupy them knowing they would not be able to park close to the building.

Peter Smith (Lab, Ifield), cabinet member for planning, said: “It’s an excellent scheme and I hope this one will be built as opposed to the previous one which was not.”

Stephen Joyce (Lab, Langley Green), deputy leader of the council and cabinet member for housing, added: “It’s not what we would necessarily pick as our first choice but it’s a start and a better application than the previous one and let’s hope they build this one.”

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