The La Sporta site opposite Mitcham Parish Church provides one of the most important gateways to the Cricket Green Conservation Area.

A maternity and child welfare centre was built around 1940 and it became a community centre in the 1990s ahead of being sold for £300,000 in 2012 to a property developer.

There is a history of anti-social uses of the building and now the whole site has fallen into a state of disrepair.

The building is derelict and run down, the land is overgrown and it is a magnet for fly tipping.

Merton Council has a number of legal powers to require the owner to restore the site and we have asked it to take action.

We would love to know more about the history of the building and your ideas for how it can best be brought back to life. Please get in touch – info@mitchamcricketgreen.org.uk

Date Valley School occupies the locally listed Mitcham Court in a prominent location overlooking Mitcham’s historic cricket ground.

It has found itself in breach of planning laws by building a major shelter in the Conservation Area without seeking planning permission.

A planning application has now been submitted and we have objected on the grounds of its impact on views across to Mitcham Court and the cricket ground from both London Road and Chatsworth Place.

We have asked for the shelter to be lowered and this could be achieved without compromising its use by the school.

Read our response to Merton Council – Date Valley shelter – Feb 16

Merton Council gave planning permission for a four storey block of flats on the former Kwik Fit site in January.

This was despite our strong objections and the protests of local residents. The Council’s own Design Review Panel gave the building an amber rating and a Cricket Green ward councillor also spoke against the development at the Planning Committee meeting.

The development site is in and will damage the Cricket Green Conservation Area.

As the Council’s own policies state that new developments in a conservation area should ‘preserve or enhance’ it this could have damaging consequences for development proposals elsewhere in Cricket Green Conservation Area and for other Conservation Areas in Merton.

We have organised a petition, which will be presented to Council, asking that the area of the development be removed from Cricket Green Conservation Area because it is not fit to be included.

If you share our concern then please support us by signing the petition.

You can sign in one of two ways:

1. Print out the KwikFit site petition, sign it and return it to us at Mitcham Cricket Green Community & Heritage c/o MVSC, Vestry Hall, 336/338 London Road, Mitcham, Surrey, CR4 3UD by 14 February at the very latest. You can post it or drop it in. We must have the original sheets for the signatories to count! Please also consider asking others to sign and if you need more than one sheet then please print additional copies rather than asking signatories to use a blank sheet of paper.

2. Sign up via our online petition here https://www.change.org/p/councillor-andrew-judge-save-cricket-green-conservation-area-from-damaging-development

Thank you. Your support will help protect Cricket Green Conservation Area for everyone to enjoy.

The former KwikFit site on London Road is in desperate need of redevelopment. It is all the more disappointing therefore that the latest plans are proving so controversial.

This is a sensitive site at the gateway to the Conservation Area and in clear view of Mitcham’s historic cricket ground. A four storey block of 22 flats overshadowing nearby buildings is never going to be acceptable.

All the more disappointing is that the plans have been amended without Merton Council informing the local community.

The latest scheme is even higher and introduces a jagged roof line that is alien to the area. We have objected and ask the developers Caerus to think again and come to the table to discuss how we can agree on the much needed development of this eyesore site.

See below for two images showing the original and revised plans, and click the link to read our representation.

If you agree with us, consider writing your own letter to

All the details you need about the application are at bit.ly/1OjVPpf and the information on how to submit comments is at www.merton.gov.uk/environment/planning/planningapplications/representations.htm

Our submitted comments: Kwik Fit site redevelopment – our comments on amended planning application

Initial design:

Revised design:

Read our Winter 2016 Bulletin, packed with the latest information and news.

MCGCH newsletter Winter 2016