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Category Archives: Libraries
Coulsdon residents call for more school places and new library
A Coulsdon residents’ group has called on the council to ensure that a new primary school is provided to cope with the anticipated increase in roll numbers as a result of developing nearly 700 family homes on the site of … Continue reading
It’s ordinary people who pay for council’s £43m incompetence
The Sage of Waddon, ARFUR TOWCRATE, on the injustices created by Croydon Council as its allows its mountain of uncollected Council Tax to grow ever larger A few years ago I received a court summons from Croydon Council for not … Continue reading
It gets worse: three-day week plus five jobs lost at UNJL
It was under Ted Heath’s Conservative government in the 1970s that Britain was reduced to a three-day week. Until, that is, Croydon’s 2013 Tories came along, because they have managed to reduce the operation at Upper Norwood Joint Library to … Continue reading
Posted in Lambeth Council, Libraries, Upper Norwood
Tagged Croydon, England, London, Religion, Ted Heath, Thornton Heath, Upper Norwood, Upper Norwood Library
Redundancies and four-day opening at Upper Norwood library
So much for Croydon Council’s promises of no library closures. The Conservative-controlled council which has already axed the mobile library service and has decided to close New Addington’s purpose-built library to replace it with a few book shelves in the … Continue reading
Residents ill-served by Town Hall self-serving politics
CROYDON COMMENTARY: Council meetings at the Town Hall are poor theatre and rarely achieve much, despite considerable public cost, as this week’s emergency library meeting demonstrated, says STEVEN DOWNES What are Croydon Council meetings at the Town Hall for? What … Continue reading
Steve Reed MP: “I’m taking police cuts issue to the very top”
After his first 100 days as MP for Croydon North, STEVE REED is getting on with the job at Westminster, and in Croydon I’ve just finished my first 100 days since I was elected last November. As a new MP, … Continue reading
Trebles all round? Croydon return pot-less from awards
Four tables booked at a five-star West End hotel. Around 40 councillors and council staff attending. Something like £28,000 spent on a night’s gala dinner, booze and jollity. And not a single award won. That is the summary of this … Continue reading
Council accused of being “out of control” over libraries
Croydon’s Conservative-run council was tonight accused of being “out of control” and mis-spending Council Tax money in an “obscene way”. Timothy Godfrey, the opposition Labour spokesman on libraries, took the opportunity of an emergency meeting at the Town Hall to … Continue reading
Questions Pollard must answer over libraries shambles
Tim “Yes but No but Yes” Pollard ought to come under intense pressure at an emergency meeting at Croydon Town Hall tonight over his handling of the tendering process for the outsourcing of the management of the borough’s libraries if … Continue reading
Posted in Greenwich Leisure, John Laing Integrated Services, Libraries, Sara Bashford, Tim Pollard, Wandsworth Council
Tagged Conservative, Council Tax, Croydon, European Union, Labour, London, Tory, Wandsworth
Emergency meeting called on sell-off of public libraries
There will be an emergency meeting of Croydon Council on Monday evening, when Tim Pollard will be called to account for the shambolic handling of the Conservative-led administration’s attempts to sell-off the borough’s libraries. The opposition Labour group has called … Continue reading
Off with their heads: time to cut back on councillors
CROYDON COMMENTARY: Politics is broken and we need to fix it, says DAVID CALLAM, as he offers some radical solutions to reduce the costs of democracy at the Town Hall and at City Hall Our institutions need some major surgery … Continue reading
No debate and no questions, Tories exercise an abuse of power
Following Tuesday night’s bruising council budget meeting, in which he led a walk-out by the opposition Labour group, TONY NEWMAN, pictured, in an exclusive column, says something has to change Reflecting on the events in Croydon Town Hall this week … Continue reading
Posted in Council Tax, Croydon Council, John Laing Integrated Services, Libraries, Mike Fisher, Tony Newman
Tagged Conservatives, Council Tax, Croydon, England, Labour, Mayor, Tory
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Library deal collapse leaves “£1m black hole” in council budget
The last-minute cancellation by John Laing Integrated Services of the deal to privatise Croydon’s libraries has created a £1 million “black hole” in the Conservative-run council’s budget for the coming year, according to a senior opposition councillor. Timothy Godfrey, the … Continue reading
Laings quit £30m Croydon libraries privatisation deal
Croydon Council’s plan to privatise our public libraries was in ruins tonight, as its hand-picked partners were revealed to have walked away from the £30 million, eight-year deal. And Eddy Arram, the Tory mayor in charge of tonight’s meeting at … Continue reading
