A development company behind a controversial housing project in South Norwood has failed to pay Croydon Council more than £10,000 in required community improvement contributions, despite work already starting on the site.

Greathall Ltd began construction at the Railway Buildings plot next to Norwood Junction station at the end of last year, following a bitter 13-year legal battle to evict mechanic Richard Hough from his Autoclutch car workshop.

When planning permission for the 11-unit residential block was approved on appeal in 2011, the developer pledged to pay Croydon Council a total of £12,200 as Section 106 (S106) agreement contributions to fund “off-site public open space enhancement”, “sustainable transport improvement”, and education in the area.

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But despite payment being due “upon the commencement of development”, Croydon Council confirmed this week it was yet to receive any Section 106 contribution for the Railway Buildings project, which also includes two commercial units.

The Planning Advisory Service defines S106 agreements as “mechanism[s] which make a development proposal acceptable in planning terms, that would not otherwise be acceptable”.

Greathall Ltd director Xhevat Lita could not be reached for comment yesterday.

When the Croydon Guardian spoke to a member of staff at another of Mr Lita’s companies, Access Building Contractors, she refused to provide a comment and said the newspaper “[did not] have any business inquiring about any of our projects”.

A council spokesman said: “The section 106 contribution for this scheme is now overdue, and as part of our quarterly debt recovery process we are now writing to the developer to ask for payment within 14 days.”

In July, the Croydon Guardian reported the two original developers behind the project, James Groux and Serena Drake, had resigned as directors of Greathall Limited last December, just two months after Mr Hough, 54, was evicted from the site.

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Mr Lita was appointed as a director of Greathall Limited in November 2013, two months after the company lodged papers with Croydon Council that would have seen a large swathe of the Station Road site sold to Access Building Contractors for £450,000.

A month before his appointment, Mr Lita registered a new company, Norwood Station Road Limited, with Companies House.

During a May 2014 hearing at Croydon County Court to decide the fate of Mr Hough’s garage, Mr Groux testified the contract of sale between Greathall and Mr Access Building Contractors had been drawn up as the company “explored” its options because of difficult market conditions.

It later emerged that the developer’s 2002 sale agreement with Railtrack stipulated that no part of the land could be sold for 20 years.

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Mr Hough, who had worked at Autoclutch since he was 12 years old until his eviction last October, said he was “not surprised” Greathall Limited had not paid its S106 contributions.

The mechanic claimed the company had also failed to honour a pledge, made at a Croydon Council planning hearing, to employ local young people on training schemes at the site.

He added: “When they [Greathall] turned around and said, ‘We’re doing this for the people of South Norwood’, I wonder if the people of South Norwood believe that. Because I don’t.”

A council spokesman said the authority took S106 non-payments “very seriously” and would pursue any outstanding fees.