The Council had refused the planning application for the scheme last year because of concerns that the development would be detrimental to the visual amenity of the street scene and would cause loss of privacy and "visual intrusion" to occupiers in an adjacent building.
The Inspector said in her report (3-page / 96KB PDF) that the proposed development site was located within the Croydon Metropolitan Centre, where both local and National policy in principle actively encouraged new office development.
However, she noted that the National Planning Policy Framework states that good design is a "key aspect of sustainable development" and that it is "indivisible from good planning and should contribute positively to making places better for people".
The Inspector said that, although the road of the site was "characterised by tall multi-storey residential and commercial buildings", the proposed building would "project well over 20 metres into the existing open area" to the rear of two other buildings and would appear "out of context with the substantial nature and more ordered building lines of the adjacent buildings".
"Overall the proposed development would appear cramped, visually stark and uninspiring and out of keeping with the surrounding development," she said and concluded that it would "materially and unacceptably harm the character and appearance of the street scene".
The Inspector also said that the proposed building would cause harm to the living conditions of the occupiers in an adjacent building "due to its overbearing visual impact and loss of privacy".
