A South London town is planned to have a brand new neighbourhood of over 500 homes added to it, but locals say they are fed up with new builds in the area and want to move away.
Crayford is a town in Bexley borough sitting just north west of the Kent border.
Developer London Square announced last month that their purchase of the former Electrobase site in Crayford from Skillcrown and Purelake NewHomes had been finalised.
The company is planning to deliver a set of seven tower blocks up to eight storeys tall to the area, including 559 flats.
John Harris, 65, lives in Hawley in Dartford and often comes to Crayford to shop and wander around the town centre.
He said that developments in outer London towns such as Crayford have started to make them feel more like inner suburbs of the capital.
The local said he worries if local services and roads will be able to cope, and his family are now considering moving to the north of England to get away from the area.
Mr Harris told the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS): “I’m just fed up with seeing the whole area in general being overloaded with new homes.
"The infrastructure can’t cope now, roads are overcrowded. It’s just getting to be a joke. Recently, it took me an hour and three quarters to get from here in Crayford to Hawley, which is four miles away.”
He added: “You just watch it slowly getting swallowed by London. It’s going to become a London borough in time.
"It just spreads, doesn’t it? Now it’s gotten to the point when we’re actually considering moving away.”
Bexley Council documents said the £180million project from London Square hopes to add a new residential neighbourhood to the former Electrobase site.
The plans include adding children’s play areas and a new riverside walkway to the town.
London Square said in a statement that 240 homes in the project will be available for shared ownership and social rent.
A London Square spokesperson told the LDRS: “As part of the scheme, a riverside walk will be created along the River Cray, opening up the site for the first time for residents and local people to walk and cycle.
"London Square always takes a collaborative approach when delivering new homes and we are working with the London Borough of Bexley and residents in the area, to address any concerns raised by some local people.
"A dedicated liaison team will begin talking to residents in the area, in advance of construction getting underway next year.”
Kathy, who did not wish to give her second name, said she understood housing was needed in the borough but felt that the majority of open space in the area had been already built upon and looked at new builds in the area as “monstrosities”.
The 67-year-old said she has lived in Crayford for her whole life and claims the site of the new development from London Square faces flooding issues from the River Cray.
The resident told the LDRS: “That was a floodplain. We had flooding down there by the town hall. During my time as a child we used to push cars through the flood water.
"How can they be building on that floodplain?”
She added: “It’s not good enough. I used to see kingfishers on this river. I used to have a bullfinch in my garden.
"I don’t anymore because every wild space has been built on… This traffic system can’t cope as it is now, nor can the doctors. I go to a doctor in Dartford and it’s the same position there. This infrastructure will not support all those people. It won’t and it can’t.”
Katie Walker, 39, said she has spent most of her life in Crayford. Now living in Bexleyheath, she said she still visits the area up to three times a week to visit her grandparents.
She said she is also thinking about moving from Bexley borough after noticing the construction over recent years, and said her parents moved away from Peckham in the 1990s for a similar reason.
Ms Walker told the LDRS: “That’s a lot of people to be building for. This is just a little town. I know we need housing, but they don’t seem to think about doctors, schools, all that kind of stuff, and the congestion as well.”
She added: “Looking at Bexleyheath as well, with all the flats there, it’s just a totally different skyline to what it used to be.
"I personally want to move out because we want to go more into Kent where it’s greener again.”
Bexley Council officers addressed concerns from residents about the height of the blocks planned for the Electrobase site before the application was approved on April 13. They said the plans had been developed as a series of blocks of a similar height instead of a single tall building.
They added: “The buildings would be distinguished by different types of brickwork and gaps between the buildings would provide visual separation between the blocks.
It is considered that the buildings would sit well within the context provided by existing buildings in Crayford town centre and would not adversely affect the skyline.”
Another resident, who wished to remain anonymous, said she lives in Crayford and comes to the town centre once a week.
She said she agreed new homes had to go somewhere, but felt high-rise buildings didn’t suit the outer boroughs of the capital.
She said: “I’ve lived in Bexley borough for 21 years this year and bit by bit you can see the green and the open spaces are shrinking.
"I think it’d be nice if, when they built the things, they were a bit more sympathetic to what’s around them.”
She added: “I appreciate things do change and we have to move on, nothing stays the same forever. But because it’s south of the river, for a long while this was very kind of protected in the sense that, up to 30 years ago, it was still fairly rural. So it’s not for people who have been here all their lives to deal with.”
A London Square spokesperson told the LDRS: “The scheme received final planning consent from the London Borough of Bexley in August following extensive local consultation on every aspect.
"The development will transform a disused former factory site and will deliver a total of 559 high quality homes, with 240 much-needed affordable homes for social rent for local people and for shared ownership, as well as for private sale, in an attractive landscaped setting.”
They added: “The shared ownership homes will be made available first to people living in the area, giving them the opportunity to own a home of their own. The highest standards of design will be delivered across all homes, regardless of tenure.
"The affordable homes are the responsibility of the independent registered provider Square Roots, which has just won two top awards for the quality of its homes at its recently completed first scheme in Kingston.”
The councillors representing the Crayford ward for Bexley Council were approached for comment, but had not responded at the time of publication.
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