Going with a bang! Government consults on quieter fireworks

Posted on August 6, 2026 by insidecroydon

Organised spectacle: not everyone enjoys the noise of Bonfire Night

PETER UNDERWOOD reports on the latest exercise to control the impact of a £500m retail business that keeps our firefighters and paramedics busy throughout the year

There are numerous rules, regulations, even laws, to prohibit the sale of dangerous weapons, knives and firearms, in this country. Yet every year, high street retailers, newsagents and corner shops sell half a billion pounds’ worth of explosive devices over the counter, in some cases to children as young as 16.

The government has just begun a consultation about controls on fireworks, giving the public a say over what changes are needed.

Serious questions about the inappropriate, and dangerous, use of fireworks have been raised again on Croydon social media in the past couple of weeks, as despite all warnings and appeals for commonsense, fireworks have blazed across the evening skies, to land, in many cases, smouldering, on our tinder-dry parks and open spaces. Continue reading →

Posted in Environment, London Fire Brigade, London-wide issues, Peter Underwood, Wildlife | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

New £5,000 fines for fly-tipping – but will Perry catch offenders?

Posted on August 6, 2026 by insidecroydon

Revenue earner: new government guidance will allow councils like Croydon to fine fly-tippers up to £5,000

Where there’s muck, there’s brass, as the old saying goes, and someone in government may have stumbled across a sure-fire way of Croydon Council paying off some of its debts.

Whitehall has approved hiking fines for fly-tipping to a new maximum of £5,000 a time.

With official figures showing Croydon to be the fly-tipping capital of England, with 1,000 fly-tips recorded on average every week, according to DEFRA’s most recent data, that could mean as much as £260million in fly-tip fines for the cash-strapped council in a year. Kerr-ching!

If only Croydon’s failed Mayor, Jason Perry, had a sure-fire way of catching the fly-tipping criminals, he might go a long way to easing the council’s financial problems while actually getting the borough’s streets cleaned up. Continue reading →

Posted in Community associations, Croydon Council, Fly tipping, London-wide issues, Mayor Jason Perry, Refuse collection, Veolia | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 7 Comments

Spitfire’s Battle of Britain Kenley fly-past booked for Aug 16

Posted on August 6, 2026 by insidecroydon

Reach for the sky: a Spitfire from the RAF Battle of Britain Memorial Flight will make a fly-past at Kenley on August 16

One of the real spectacles of the year, a fly-past of a Battle of Britain fighter aircraft, will this year be taking place – weather and good fortune permitting – over Kenley airfield on Sunday August 16, at 1pm.

A Spitfire from the RAF’s Battle of Britain Memorial Flight will be making the airborne visit, although as the volunteers at Kenley Revival, the custodians of the history of RAF Kenley, point out, “Please be aware that the aircraft and timings may change or be cancelled due to weather or technical issues.” Continue reading →

Posted in Activities, Community associations, History, KENDRA, Kenley, Kenley Airfield Friends Group | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

South End start-up that tackles scammers wins Innovate award

Posted on August 6, 2026 by insidecroydon

Verinity, a financial technology company based in South End, has won an Innovate UK Women in Innovation Award for its new approach to preventing authorised push payment fraud.

Verinity’s founder, Melody Williams, is one of 61 Innovate UK Women in Innovation award-winners, and receives a £75,000 grant and a 12-month business support package.

Williams was recognised for an approach that shifts the focus away from the person being manipulated and onto the scammer.

“Most solutions try to stop victims from being victims,” Williams said. Continue reading →

Posted in Business, South Croydon | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Perry drives a black cab through council’s consultation rules

Posted on August 5, 2026 by insidecroydon

The Croydon Mayor’s latest Trumpian edict, to ingratiate himself with London taxi drivers, is not quite what it seems, as our Town Hall correspondent, KEN LEE, reports

Join the queue: taxi drivers have welcomed an announcement on School Streets

Jason Perry, Croydon’s failed Mayor, is now pandering to black cab drivers, allowing them to drive their licensed vehicles through the borough’s School Streets.

There’s been no discussion or debate about the move at the Town Hall. If there’s an official council report about the proposal, there’s no sign of it on any meeting agenda.

There’s not even been a news story published by Perry’s propaganda department about the change in the road rules on the council’s own website. You know, so that parents and guardians, as well as school staff, might be aware of any changes when the new academic year starts next month. Continue reading →

Posted in Business, Croydon Council, London-wide issues, Mayor Jason Perry, Mayor of London, Schools | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 6 Comments

Hollywood superstar Chaplin takes his place on Coulsdon trail

Posted on August 5, 2026 by insidecroydon

Charlie Chaplin, one of the greatest movie stars of all time, is featured in the latest finial on the Coulsdon Art Trail.

Star quality: the Coulsdon finial of Charlie Chaplin and his mother, Hannah

Chaplin’s association with Coulsdon is, perhaps typically of his screen persona, a poignant one: his mother, Hannah, was among the thousands of patients kept in the former asylum at Cane Hill in the early years of the 20th Century.

Hannah Chaplin features alongside her famous film star son on the finial, which is situated on the new finger pole at the entrance to Cane Hill Drive at Marlpit Lane roundabout.

Finials are small, stylised metal models, and over the past six years a dozen have been placed at the top of signposts and lampposts around Coulsdon town centre, commemorating the history of Coulsdon and Smitham Bottom.

The subjects are selected from a list of suggestions that were put together from a public consultation by East Coulsdon Residents’ Association. Continue reading →

Posted in Art, Cinema, Comedy, Community associations, Coulsdon, Coulsdon East, East Coulsdon Residents' Association, History, Transport | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Children’s home firm based in New Addington fined £100,000

Posted on August 5, 2026 by insidecroydon

A care company based in New Addington has become the first to be successfully prosecuted and fined for running unregistered children’s homes.

Home from home: Ofsted brought the prosecution against a children’s home operator

Catalyst Care Ltd and its directors, Davidson Lynch-Shyllon and Miriam Ekathor, pleaded guilty to 10 charges at Croydon Magistrates’ Court in March. Yesterday they were fined £92,400 for operating three unregistered homes in Kent between October 2022 and April 2025, where they provided accommodation for nine children. They were also ordered to pay victim surcharges totalling £2,960 and costs of £17,250.

Lynch-Shyllon and Ekathor were disqualified from carrying on or managing or having a financial interest in a children’s home.

During the time they were operating the illegal care homes, the company received more than £1.8million in payments from local authorities. Continue reading →

Posted in Business, Children's Services, Crime | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments

Mini Beast Hunt with Roger Hawkins, Selsdon Wood, Aug 12

Posted on August 5, 2026 by insidecroydon

C O M M U N I T Y
A D V E R T I S E M E N T

Continue reading →

Posted in Activities, Advertisement, Advertisement features, Community associations, Croydon parks, Friends of Selsdon Woods | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Complaints against Perry’s council soar by 51% in two years

Posted on August 4, 2026 by insidecroydon

Croydon, under its Tory Mayor, is getting worse, not better, judging by the number of complaints upheld by the Local Government Ombudsman in the last year.
EXCLUSIVE by STEVEN DOWNES

Croydon continues to be among the country’s most rotten boroughs, and under Mayor Jason Perry the council is getting worse, based on figures from the watchdog, the Local Government Ombudsman.

According to the Ombudsman’s annual report, just released, there were

42

complaints upheld against piss-poor Perry’s increasingly piss-poor council following their investigations in the past year.

That’s an average of at least three complaints from residents being upheld every month. Continue reading →

Posted in Adult Social Care, Bromley Council, Children's Services, Croydon Council, Housing, Katherine Kerswell, Lambeth Council, London-wide issues, Mayor Jason Perry, Planning, SEND, Surrey, Sutton Council | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 6 Comments

Public outcry helps save Triangle trees from death by tarmac

Posted on August 4, 2026 by insidecroydon

Our environment correspondent PAUL LUSHION reports on the latest piece of sheer stupidity from Jason Perry’s council, carried out in the middle of a drought during the climate crisis, and while damaging a cherished conservation area

Work in progress: Croydon Council’s contractors returned to the Crystal Palace Triangle this morning to release the trees from their tarmac yokes

As the latest example of fuckwittery at Jason Perry’s Croydon Council, contractors were this morning removing the suffocating asphalt that had been laid just days ago around the bases of cherry trees in the Crystal Palace Triangle.

The dysfunctional council’s U-turn followed a massive public outcry at the sheer stupidity of the actions, which likely consigned the trees to long, lingering deaths.

“The trees are the only bit of greenery on the streetscape of the Triangle,” one local wrote after seeing the tarmac yokes being poured into the tree pits.

“They are glorious when in bloom. They are now being killed by our council. Croydon’s reverse Midas touch – where everything they touch turns to shit – strikes again.” Continue reading →

Posted in Croydon Council, Crystal Palace and Upper Norwood, Environment, Mark Adderley, Natalie Vestey, Tom Bowell | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 16 Comments

Croydon and Sutton are next to use Met’s anti-shoplifting tech

Posted on August 4, 2026 by insidecroydon

According to Scotland Yard’s own figures, fewer than one-third of reported shoplifting incidents using a new system result in cautions or convictions

Croydon’s high streets are to get new technology which allows the police to turn around CCTV footage of suspected shoplifting and use it as evidence to secure prosecutions more speedily.

Pick and mix: shops have vast collections of CCTV showing shoplifters in the act. But fewer than one-third of cases result in police action

A trial conducted in six other London boroughs has, according to the Met, “quadrupled the number of shoplifters being brought to justice in the capital”.

In fact, the “quadrupling” is really a relatively modest improvement in an area where usually petty criminals were rarely being prosecuted: up from an average of 7.3% before the new system was introduced to 29.4% of cases resulting in a caution (that is: no prosecution), charge or other criminal disposal, according to the Met’s own figures. Continue reading →

Posted in Business, Crime | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Passport to Chocolate, workshops at Cocoa Jones, from Aug 6

Posted on August 4, 2026 by insidecroydon

A D V E R T I S E M E N T

Continue reading →

Posted in Advertisement, Advertisement features, Business | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Ansari’s £90m property empire in collapse as receivers move in

Posted on August 3, 2026 by insidecroydon

For sale (again): the four flats above the former Leslie Arms go to auction later this month, valued at £650,000 The sale is on behalf of the receivers, not Anwar Ansari

In the latest sign of difficulties for businesses in Croydon, one of the borough’s biggest developers and landlords – a political donor to Sadiq Khan and Yvette Cooper in the past – is being forced to sell several properties. EXCLUSIVE by STEVEN DOWNES

Troubled business: Anwar Ansari has lost at least six companies to the receivers

The property empire of Croydon-based developer Dr Anwar Ansari appears to be close to collapse, with at least six companies in which he has an interest currently subject to “Receiver action”, according to public records at Companies House.

At its peak, properties owned by Ansari and members of his family were thought to be valued at at least £90million.

They include several former office blocks in Croydon town centre which Ansari’s development firms converted into flats under Permitted Development rules. Other Ansari companies would then manage the rental properties.

He also owns Coombe Farm in Lloyd Park, which is not currently subject to “Receiver action”, and The Leslie Arms, the listed Victorian pub on the junction of Cherry Orchard Road and Lower Addiscombe Road. Continue reading →

Posted in Addiscombe West, Business, Croydon Council, Housing, Leslie Arms, Planning, Property, Pubs | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 7 Comments

Lidl summer camp at Legacy zone provides thoughts for food

Posted on August 3, 2026 by insidecroydon

Going bananas: the summer foodie club at Croydon’s Legacy Youth Zone aims to improve children’s understanding of good food

NADIA AZIZUDDIN visited the Legacy Youth Zone to witness the launch of an innovative project to teach youngsters how to eat more healthily

Learning on the job: Legacy Youth Zone members pick up quickly how to prepare meals in the kitchen.                   Photos: Jack Hall/PA Media Assignments

Supermarket chain Lidl has joined forced with national youth charity Onside to provide free Summer Clubs for children over the holidays, with hands-on cooking sessions that focus on healthy, quick and easy recipes that kids can help recreate at home.

This is the second year of Lidl Foodies Summer Clubs, but their first alongside Onside, who operate the Legacy Youth Zone on Whitehorse Road in Selhurst.

Expanding outside of the classroom and into community centres like Legacy, they aim to manage the absence of routine over the school summer holidays by getting children curious and engaged with healthy eating. Continue reading →

Posted in Activities, Education, Legacy Youth Zone, Selhurst | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

After a month with no rain, London on new Amber health alert

Posted on August 3, 2026 by insidecroydon

Croydon Council echoes 1970s advice to ‘bath with a friend’ to save water, as drought in the capital enters its third month

An Amber health alert has come into force today, with temperatures expected to head above 30C again.

Mercury rising: it is going to be hot out there this afternoon

This comes as Kew Gardens reports that it went the entire month of July without a drop of rain for the first time in its history. There’s been a scientific monitoring weather station at Kew since 1871.

Another weather station, run by the Environment Agency at the Hogsmill nature reserve in Surbiton, also registered zero rainfall for an entire calendar month. Parts of London have gone 41 days without a drop of rain, since June 23, as the city suffers its worst drought for decades.

The Environment Agency declared a drought across London and other parts of southern England on July 29. “While this doesn’t mean water has run out, it does mean we all need to use it carefully and help reduce the risk of wildfires,” according to Croydon Council.

Last week, the London Fire Brigade was responding to peaks of more than 1,000 incidents per day, including at least three grass fires in Croydon.

The council stopped short of the appeal to “bath with a friend” made by “the minister for drought”, Denis Howell, in 1976, but they did advise, “Take shorter showers” to save water. Continue reading →

Posted in Croydon Council, Environment, London-wide issues | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

How sci-fi author John Munro died as a hermit in Croydon

Posted on August 2, 2026 by insidecroydon

CROYDON CHRONICLES: There are times when life, and death, can be stranger than fiction. Archive research by DAVID MORGAN suggests that a ‘Verne-esque’ sci-fi writer died in Croydon 25 years earlier than previously recorded

Documents have come to light which show that a prominent science fiction writer of the Victorian era, a contemporary of HG Wells, who had his books compared to Jules Verne,  died in Croydon in 1905, more than 25 years earlier than suggested in other published accounts, including Wikipedia.

Newspaper reports from 1905 of the inquest into the death of John Munro, and a death certificate, confirm that the electrical engineer and author had died in his home on St John’s Grove, Croydon, in June 1905.

Only now can the real story of how John Munro died be told.

John Munro was a professor of mechanical engineering at Bristol who had written expert papers and books on electricity – which was quite the sensation in the later years of the 19th Century.

He used his scientific mind and considerable imagination to write a series of science fiction stories, too, tapping into another popular genre of the age. Munro’s books – Sun-Rise in the Moon, A Message from Mars and A Trip to Venus – were even described by their publishers as “Verne-esque”, comparing him to the great French author of Journey to the Centre of the Earth and Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea. Continue reading →

Posted in Croydon Minster, David Morgan, History | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

‘It put my family at great risk and under huge mental anguish’

Posted on August 2, 2026 by insidecroydon

CROYDON COMMENTARY: Croydon councillor MARK ADDERLEY, and his wife Nadia Sawalha, have won some vindication with the apology and legal settlement from the publishers of the Mail and Metro. Here, he explains how his support for Palestine was deliberately twisted in an effort to undermine him and his family 

Elected: Mark Adderley, supported by his wife, Nadia Sawahla, on election day in May

Being characterised as antisemitic or racist is beyond appalling, but sadly isn’t anything new when it comes to the now routine act of mischaracterising advocacy for Palestine or criticism of the Israeli regime as antisemitic.

I do, however, believe that the vast majority of rational-thinking people can now see through this deeply flawed and overused conflation; a conflation that actually cheapens the true scourge of antisemitism.

But… to be accused of supporting terrorism is possibly one of the worst things a person can be accused of. The fact that the Daily Mail and other publications felt it could do this without consequence was quite mind-boggling. It put me and my family at great personal risk and under huge mental and emotional anguish. Continue reading →

Posted in Crystal Palace and Upper Norwood, Mark Adderley, Steve Reed MP, Streatham and Croydon North | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Passport to Chocolate, workshops at Cocoa Jones, from Aug 6

Posted on August 2, 2026 by insidecroydon

A D V E R T I S E M E N T

Continue reading →

Posted in Advertisement, Advertisement features, Business | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Call Drainage and Plumbing Ltd for your drain unblocking

Posted on August 2, 2026 by insidecroydon

A D V E R T I S E M E N T

Continue reading →

Posted in Advertisement, Advertisement features, Business | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Councillor Adderley still left waiting for Green Party’s decision

Posted on August 1, 2026 by insidecroydon

WALTER CRONXITE, Political Editor, reports on the delayed internal party disciplinary process which has taken longer than it took the Daily Mail to capitulate into issuing its own apology and pay ‘substantial’ damages

Left in limbo: Cllr Mark Adderley

Mark Adderley, the newly elected Croydon councillor for Crystal Palace and Upper Norwood, has won “substantial damages” and legal costs from the Daily Mail for libellous articles published by that title and Metro.

Yet almost three months since the local elections, Adderley remains suspended as a member of the Green Party in relation to similar allegations of antisemitism levelled against him.

Green Party HQ was expected to have reviewed Adderley’s case “by July”, but no determination has yet been announced. Green Party sources suggest that officials may be meeting today to discuss the Adderley case. Continue reading →

Posted in Croydon Council, Crystal Palace and Upper Norwood, Mark Adderley, Steve Reed MP, Streatham and Croydon North | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

£2.49 for kids’ cinema tickets is definitely one for the album

Posted on August 1, 2026 by insidecroydon

With tickets for children from as little as £2.49 at the Vue cinema on the Purley Way this summer, families will have plenty of opportunities to spend quality time together as all-time favourites and animated adventures are heading to the big screen this summer holiday.

Minions: coming to a screen near you this summer

Vue’s Summer Family Passport Book is aimed at encouraging young film fans to enjoy more big-screen moments.

Under the Passport scheme, youngsters can collect stamps in their Summer Family Passport Book when visiting Vue for the latest family releases. They are also encouraged to share photos of their passport books and adventures on a dedicated Vue Facebook post for the chance to win a £25 Vue gift card.

All the biggest family titles of the summer holidays will come with a stamp for the Summer Family Passport, including the latest blockbusters, returning favourites and special screenings tailor-made for younger viewers. Continue reading →

Posted in Activities, Art, Business, Cinema, Purley Way, Valley Park | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Friends of Grangewood Park Picnic in the Park, Sun Sep 20

Posted on August 1, 2026 by insidecroydon

C O M M U N I T Y
A D V E R T I S E M E N T

Continue reading →

Posted in Activities, Advertisement, Advertisement features, Community associations, Croydon parks, Friends of Grangewood Park | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Fun and free workshops, Clocktower and Wilderness, Aug 4-13

Posted on August 1, 2026 by insidecroydon

C O M M U N I T Y
A D V E R T I S E M E N T

Continue reading →

Posted in Activities, Advertisement, Advertisement features, Art, CALAT, Education | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

‘Superstar’ Head loses appeal over Woodcote High dismissal

Posted on July 31, 2026 by insidecroydon

Paul Mundy-Castle has lost his Employment Tribunal appeal over his 2021 dismissal from a secondary school in Coulsdon for ‘gross misconduct’. It is at least the third time that the former basketball player had made claims to the tribunal. EXCLUSIVE by STEVEN DOWNES

‘Superstar’: before his latest sacking, for gross misconduct, Paul Mundy-Castle was often interviewed on national television

The self-proclaimed “superstar head teacher” who was dismissed from his job at Woodcote High School in 2021 for gross misconduct, has lost his appeal against the decision of the Employment Tribunal.

An investigation by this website has discovered that Paul Mundy-Castle’s claims against the secondary school in Coulsdon, including that he was the victim of racial discrimination, are at least the third time that he has brought a case to the Employment Tribunal. Continue reading →

Posted in Coulsdon, Education, Schools, Woodcote High | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Man arrested after staff member stabbed at Sanderstead Shell

Posted on July 31, 2026 by insidecroydon

The police have made an arrest in connection with a violent attack on a member of staff at the Shell petrol station in Sanderstead late on Wednesday night, in what is widely thought to have been an attempted armed robbery.

Crime scene: the Shell petrol station on Limpsfield Road remained taped off for much of Thursday morning

Scotland Yard today issued an appeal for witnesses, as the attack may have been made by more than one suspect.

Police incident tape remained in place around the petrol station on Limpsfield Road through Thursday morning.

Officers searched neighbouring streets, including Cranleigh Gardens, after receiving the 999 calls at around 11.20 pm on Wednesday. Continue reading →

Posted in Crime, Knife crime, Sanderstead | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment