Centre and site development update – March 2018

As you may know by now, Croydon Council’s arms-length development company, Brick by Brick Ltd, has now gained planning permission from the council to move ahead with related schemes to redevelop the existing Coulsdon Community Centre site for new housing, and to redevelop the old Smitham Junior School site (in the town centre), to provide a new, improved community centre facility.

What does this mean for us?

In the long term, we expect to get a bigger and better community centre, with an extra function room, and a new-build main hall – fully accessible, energy efficient, and central to the area.
At present, nothing will change in the short term. The agreement with Brick by Brick Ltd, is that the new community centre will be completed to the agreed plan and specification, and only then will we, Coulsdon Community Centre Association, together with all our operations, equipment and user groups, relocate to the new site and buildings. Once we have vacated the existing site, it will then be redeveloped. We therefore anticipate that the move will take place mid – late 2019, but obviously much depends on the pace of work, and getting all the necessary final agreements in place.

We now need to work closely with the architects, surveyors, and with Brick by Brick Ltd., to finalise the detailed plans for the new centre, and to agree the lease and contract that will form the basis of our occupation. In the meantime, we continue operating as usual, on the site we’ve known and loved for the last 83 years.