We are working to provide additional parking, a new community hall and shop, new homes and other improvements on the Spitals Cross estate, Edenbridge.
The Fircroft Tenants’ & Residents’ Association (FTRA) club building and the shop were built in the 1960s and have served the community well for many years. But both are now in need of improvement. Parking has also become a problem in recent years. Few people owed a car when the London County Council built the estate 60 years ago. Now the area is congested with many residents struggling to park their vehicles.
Following two consultations in 2022, we produced a planning application that took on board residents’ comments, including fewer new homes than first proposed and providing more parking spaces.
The application proposed:
- Parking for 41 vehicles with some electric charging points. The parking spaces will be located on the Four Elms Road, Foxglove Close, Wayside Drive and Field Drive
- A modern community hall with a fit-for purpose multi-use hall, kitchen and improved storage so it could once again become a community and events space at the hub of the estate for clubs, charities and groups of all ages
- A modern shop to provide a valuable retail offering to local residents and the wider community
- Cycle parking
- Better signage
- Enhanced landscaping
- A new play area, which could be managed by Edenbridge Town Council
- 23 new high-quality, environmentally-friendly and energy efficient homes that would help pay towards the improvements. Each home will have its own dedicated parking space (these are in addition to the 41 new communal parking spaces on the estate). Fifteen of the homes will be terrace properties and maisonettes between two and three storeys high with low pitch roofs to match the rest of the estate. The remaining eight flats would be built over the new community shop.
Our Development Control Committee agreed to grant planning permission, subject to a legal agreement, at its meeting on 17 August 2023.
A building contractor is expected to be appointed in the autumn of 2023 with works beginning before the end of the year.