Housing is set to be built on a Coulsdon car park controversially closed to make way for a supermarket.

Croydon Council shut the 200-space Lion Green Road car park in July last year to allow for the construction of a Waitrose store, originally slated to open in 2017.

But in February the car park re-opened as it emerged the council had scrapped the supermarket proposal having decided it was "no longer a viable option”.

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Fresh plans for the site are likely to include a smaller Waitrose as well as homes, raising fears among Coulsdon councillors about a shortage of parking spaces – a long-running bugbear of locals.

Details of the proposals are contained within a Croydon Croydon Urban Regeneration Vehicle (CCURV) report, released on Monday to Conservative opposition councillors, who had called for information on plans for the site after the supermarket stalled.

Mario Creatura, councillor for Coulsdon West, declined to discuss some details of the report because it contained “commercially sensitive information,” but said: “What I can tell you is the council is actively looking at putting housing on the site.

“My biggest concern is: is the housing going to take up car-parking space and how do you design the site for that – is the Waitrose going to have to be smaller?

“This will mean that there are an increased number of people in the town centre moving in to an already congested and highly populated area with not enough parking, not enough doctor’s surgeries, not enough school places and on a road that is almost jammed 24-hours-a-day.

He added: “I am really sceptical about putting housing on the site, where would they go?”

Council leader Tony Newman, who has previously described the original Waitrose plans as "bonkers,” confirmed the in-house developers were now looking at alternative proposals for the site.

He said any new development would still include a Waitrose but it was likely to a smaller store than originally envisaged.

Cllr Newman added: “We are looking at a balance of housing and parking but we also, as a council, have a responsibility to make sure there is enough housing provided across the borough for the people who are looking for new houses.

“It is absolutely a balance and I would hope that local councillors would support that.

“There is always a need to look at the other services and we are working with the NHS and other services providers but the amount of housing we are looking at on that car park isn’t significant enough in that sense.

“It is not going to be a great big new town or an estate.”

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Maureen Levy, secretary of East Couldson Residents Association, said: “What we have to have on that site is at least 100 long-term parking spaces. Out of anything else, that is a must.

“What we would ideally like is the promised leisure centre or a doctor’s surgery, which I think is probably pie in the sky but that is what we would really like.

“Lion Green car park is for community use so that’s what it should be for.

“They are putting 700 houses at Cane Hill, another 90 flats to come near the station but no infrastructure put in. Think of all of the traffic this is going to generate.

“You saw what happened when they shut it for seven months. It nearly killed the town, so we have to have at least 100 parking spaces, possibly 200.”

The original CCURV proposal, which also included a community centre, would have provided 190 parking spaces.

CCURV is a 28-year joint venture between the council and developer John Laing with the aim of regenerating key sites across the borough.