Regarding the rumour about the proposed opening up of Dunmail Drive by development by Laing.

It was recently reported that the residents of Honister Heights and Grisedale Gardens are opposing the development of Dunmail Drive by Laing.

They are not representative of local feeling. Dunmail Drive, at least the western side SHOULD be developed as soon as possible because:

Its is the main thoroughfare to Riddlesdown school for hundreds of children every day, with the long history of sex attacks on the common it would provide much improved safety for them

Secondly, Riddlesdown school has a huge traffic circulation problem, that the opening up of this road would solve.

Thirdly, planning gain could be extracted from Laing (or whichever developer) for some key worker housing near the school, to address the huge teacher turnover problems in the area.

Fourthly, the scrubby, litter strewn land has no recreational or aesthetic merit, there is enough land to screen the houses from Rectory Park and they are contiguous with Honister Heights anyway.

Dunmail Drive is an anomaly - it was laid out for development before WW2 - it is pure fluke that the highly visible, smack in the middle of the greenbelt, Honister Heights was developed and Dunmail Drive was not.

I'm sure this will not appeal to local NIMBYs and those who do not have children at Riddlesdown School, but think about the wider benefits.

I urge all residents to support any application by Laings to improve the safety of local schoolchildren and as a victory for common sense.

I agree that Dunmail Drive should be opened, even at the expense of some modest Laing development. To my mind, the main benefit would be to divert the traffic and ease the school-day chaos around Honister Heights and nearby.
However I am a resident on the other side of Mitchley Avenue and am not directly affected by the traffic, although I have been caught up in it once or twice. I now know better.
I think that affected residents, a group of whom at a meeting  I understand opposed the idea virtually unanimously, should have a major say in the debate. But are they fully representative? In any case, they should listen to the other viewpoint, may be at a more widely-represented residents' meeting.
Also, the more views we get on the Message Board the better.

JJX Martin

unfortunately, we're already losing the beautiful area we live in to traffic. ingleboro drive is a nightmare in the morning and afternoons. the school keeps increasing it's intake and applying for permission to build more classrooms. things can only get worse.

dunmail drive is a grotty "track", unlit at night, poorly surfaced (IMO, dangerous), heavily littered. it's our local eyesore. nobody lives down there. opening up dunmail drive as a properly surfaced and properly lit route to the school will reduce traffic and increase safety in surrounding streets. the handful of walkers that use dunmail drive would (hopefully) be provided for with pavements. everyone wins.

would tailbacks deter drivers? no. they never do. an article in the croydon advertise, december 27th, talked of the 12 hour rush hour we have in croydon .......

Dunmail Drive should definitely be opened up.

The school congestion argument alone is unanswerable.

As to the previous point on all the surrounding area being swallowed up, this won't happen. The Green Belt regulations are so strict that even this bit of commonsense joining up of the existing estate with Mitchley Hill (and incidently the original planned entrance to the school) has taken 50 years. Any further development has no chance.

Sensitively designed housing below the treeline would ensure the children had a safe passage into the school, relieve congestion and provide some badly needed new local housing - hopefully for teachers.

Nobody really wants to use the horribly narrow, hairpin bends and hills currently needed to get to Honister Heights. It would make the Riddlesdown roads so much quieter if school traffic was routed via Dunmail Drive.

Surely its time to lobby councillors to get this development the green light now!

Quote:


partially correct - should really be "...an alternative to proper disposal".
there are sometimes old settees dumped at the bottom gate - the council can collect large furniture. there are sometimes lorryloads of junk dumped at the bottom gate - lorryloads are not accepted at the purley council tip, they have to go elsewhere (beddington lane??).
strangely, we don't seem to get old settees or lorryloads of junk dumped at the bottom of dalegarth, buttermere, or any of the other developed roads ....

Quote:

alas, there are no litter bins in dunmail drive. and with dunmail drive being closed off by gates top and bottom, the roadsweeping lorries cannot clean up either.

Should Dunmail Drive ever be opened as a public highway would this not open the flood gates to development of the area . Many of us I expect moved to Riddlesdown and surrounding area because of what it has to offer regarding green open space. As to the litter / rubbish it does not get there on it's own. I would expect if this path was openened up not only would the litter still remain but I would expect fly tipping  becoming a major issue.

It seems the major issue here is the school and the traffic it generates in the mornings and afternoons. It seems the school no longer serves the local community, due to expansion is looking further afield to fill it's classrooms. The car users would still use the most convieniant route which would not necessarly mean Dunmail Drive.

I feel that Dunmail Drive should be opened up as a one-way road upto or down from the school.
Regarding litter, I have seen the small bins overflowing which is a good sign. So why doesn't the council provide bigger, trough size bins ?
Ed

Sorry to bump an old thread. I was just browsing the board and noticed this... I am interested as, having been born in Sanderstead and now living in South Croydon I find myself doing the school run up Buttermere to do a drop off on my way to work each morning.

Did anything ever come of the proposed (?) developement?

For what it's worth I think the traffic isn't too bad around the school, and it is only for a small window in the morning and evening.

The thought of cars racing up and down through the old woods is terrible!