A resident living in a small block of flats has described Croydon Council's plans to install an estimated total £600,000 intercom system as a “needless project” that will save people “a four-metre walk”.

The man, who would like to remain anonymous, lives in a building on the Handcroft estate in Croydon and has criticised the council’s choice in spending as he does not believe that the intercom system is needed or useful in the context of the estate.

He explained that the tenants living on the first floor must walk down the stairs to open the door to allow guests in - deeming the intercom useless as the other downstairs flats are too close to the front door to justify the need for it.

He said: “As you see from the pictures of the front door - you can see who is at the door before you open it.

“It doesn’t make any sense for them to say that it is for security as you can see who is there anyway.

“You walk four or five metres to the front door for the three flats on the ground floor and then there are two flats upstairs - but we still have to walk downstairs to open our front door anyway.

“I don’t think I have ever seen a waste of money like this.”

Croydon Council has explained that these are early plans, but costs have not been finalised and there are no timescales at this stage.

The resident explained that he could understand if it was a huge tower block but this particular layout of the building means that the intercom system makes no sense to him.

There are more than 100 flats on the estate according to the flat owner – and he estimates that total costs will be around £600,000 for the whole estate going off a proposed cost sheet that was sent to him by the Council.

As he owns the flat, it has been proposed that he will have to pay £5,000-£6,000 for the intercom system to be installed but the majority of the flats on the estate are council owned and so those tenants will not be left with the fee.

He said: “I don’t mind paying for something like this if it makes sense, but this just doesn’t.”

The man added that there was a woman in her 90s living on the estate who was using a wheelchair and she had told him that accessing her property was very difficult.

The man said that “the council have no money to make her a ramp so that she can use her wheelchair to get in and out of her flat but they can spend money on things like this instead”.

He reiterated that Croydon Council is bankrupt.

The resident says he was sent a letter about the plans but explained that the consultation was not clear, and he thought it was a more general letter relating to all the properties in Croydon.

The letters have only been sent out to the leaseholders, which he estimates is only himself and one other person on his block – he estimates that only five per cent are leaseholds on the whole estate.

The other neighbours who do not own their flats are not aware of the plans at all and have not been consulted.

He added: “It just doesn’t make any sense.

“They haven’t even asked people about this or anything – nobody has asked for this.”