Plans for a new supermarket in Coulsdon have been put on hold, sparking fresh anger about parking provision in the area.

Croydon Council closed the 200-space car park in Lion Green Road in July to make way for the construction of a Waitrose store, originally slated to open in 2017.

Nov 19: Aldi backs down on plans to restrict parking at Coulsdon store in Brighton Road

The new store would have provided 190 car spaces.

But it emerged this week that the original proposal has been scrapped, after officers from the Croydon Council Urban Regeneration Vehicle (CCURV) decided it was "no longer a viable option."

The council has said it is "exploring alternative development options" for the site.

Parking has long been a contentious issue in Coulsdon. In November, Aldi backed down from plans stop providing free parking at its store after sustained pressure from Conservative politicians.

Chris Philp, Conservative MP for Croydon South, said: "I was alarmed to hear that the Waitrose development will no longer be going ahead on the Lion Green Road car park site. The loss of this car park caused parking chaos in Coulsdon. The effects of this closure are still causing very serious problems."

Visiting the page about parking on Croydon Council's website today, it states the Lion Green Road car park "will cease operating on Sunday 19 July 2015, to allow for redevelopment work to start on site on Monday 20 July 2015".

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Mr Philp added: "Clearly this was totally untrue, as work never started. The car park would have been incredibly useful, instead there has just been a dormant piece of land for the last six months.

"The car park should be reinstated immediately and not closed until they have a proper plan. This occurrence is a strong parallel to what could happen with the Fairfield Halls site."

The Lion Green Road development was also supposed to include a community centre and storage space for the First Coulsdon Scouts.

A spokeswoman for Croydon Council said: "The council will no longer be progressing the proposed development of the Lion Green Road site, in Coulsdon in its current form. The decision was made following agreement with the developer CCURV that the current project was no longer a viable option.

"We are still committed to developing the site and are currently exploring alternative development options. We remain in discussion with Waitrose who are still keen to be part of the scheme."

Mario Creatura, Conservative councillor for Coulsdon West, said: "It couldn’t be clearer: Labour have failed the people of Coulsdon.

"There has been a lot of pain, and now Croydon Council has ensured that there is no gain for my residents.

"We need to open up Lion Green Road car park as soon as possible to mitigate the damage that this administration is inflicting on Coulsdon. We need the Council to live up to its ‘open and transparent’ hyperbole and tell us why this was allowed to happen, when they first learned the scheme had failed, why they kept this news from me and my residents."

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