Tory council loses £20m over Coulsdon collapsed property deal

Flats out: nearly four years after the blocks built on the site of the Lion Green Road car park in Coulsdon were completed, Tory Mayor Perry’s council is nursing a £20m hole in its accounts from a property deal gone badly wrong

It is almost three years since this website warned that a ‘complicated, opaque lease-back arrangement’ conducted with a property firm with no real track record, for the disposal of blocks of flats at Red Clover Gardens, all looked just a bit iffy.
Guess what happened next…?
EXCLUSIVE by STEVEN DOWNES

In the week that the council needed a £119million bail-out to balance its latest budget, Inside Croydon has uncovered a £20million hole in the council’s finances, caused by the collapse of a property deal over one of Brick by Brick’s final developments.

Three years ago, Conservative Mayor Jason Perry pushed through a dodgy-looking sale and lease-back deal for three of the five “architect-designed” blocks of flats at Red Clover Gardens, built on the Lion Green Road car park in Coulsdon.

Taken together, the 157 flats were reckoned to have a market value approaching £50million. Mayor Perry’s crack negotiators at the council only managed to get a sale price of £38million, in a convoluted deal with Regen Capital, a little-known company that some suggested did not have the financial clout to undertake such a deal. Continue reading

Posted in Brick by Brick, Business, Coulsdon, Coulsdon East, Coulsdon Town, Croydon Council, East Coulsdon Residents' Association, Housing, Jason Cummings, Mayor Jason Perry, Mears, Stuart King | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Police use stop-and-search powers to counter ‘Croydon Wars’

There were no arrests across London yesterday, as the threatened youth violence prompted by social media messaging failed to materialise. Now  some suggest the ‘Red v Blue’ messages are all a hoax

Increased police presence: by 5pm yesterday, officers were being stood down from their patrols around the town centre. Pic: Gianella A Basile

A large police presence in Croydon town centre yesterday afternoon eventually saw officers stood down without there being any outbreak of the “Croydon Wars” fights between school groups, which had been promoted via TikTok, Instagram, Snapchat and WhatsApp.

“Police were not called to any incidents relating to this matter yesterday – in Croydon or elsewhere,” a Metropolitan Police spokesperson told Inside Croydon.

“No incidents and therefore no arrests.”

Police, schools and community groups had been put on alert after social media messages encouraged pupils as young as 11 to turn up at certain locations and times and to “Be violent”, and to video their clashes with rival school groups.

The messages divided schools into two groups, the “Reds” and the “Blues”, and showed men in red and blue balaclavas, as worn by the Los Angeles street gangs the Bloods and Crips.

Some of the messaging told children to carry weapons, including fireworks and “bladez”. Continue reading

Posted in Business, Centrale, Coloma, Coombe Wood School, Crime, Harris Academy Beulah Hill, Harris Academy South Norwood, London-wide issues, Norbury Manor, Oasis Academy, Orchard Park High, Policing, Schools, Whitgift Centre | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Perry agrees to pay £½m to reclaim flats at Red Clover Gardens

Inside Croydon has obtained a top-secret, ‘Part B’ council report providing key financial details on the collapsed property deal for Red Clover Gardens  – all because someone at Croydon’s cash-strapped and incompetent council posted it on their own website
EXCLUSIVE by STEVEN DOWNES

Croydon Council has been forced to pay half-a-million pounds of “hush money” to a property firm just to be able to repossess three blocks of flats in Coulsdon after the buyers failed to come up with the promised £22million to complete the deal.

That’s according to a confidential “Part B” agenda report, which Inside Croydon has obtained because Croydon’s incompetent council published it on their own website, despite its supposedly “secret” status.

The report clarifies the amount that the council has been stiffed for over blocks B, D and E at Red Clover Gardens: £22million. That’s £2million more than was included in previous council reports published before Christmas.

Inside Croydon has today revealed the collapsed property deal with Regen Capital for Red Clover Gardens, which Conservative Mayor Jason Perry has been trying to cover up for the past year.

It was Perry who, in 2023, pushed through the dodgy-looking sale and lease-back arrangements for three of the five “architect-designed” blocks of flats built on the Lion Green Road car park in Coulsdon. Continue reading

Posted in Brick by Brick, Business, Coulsdon, Coulsdon East, Coulsdon Town, Croydon Council, East Coulsdon Residents' Association, Housing, Jason Cummings, Mayor Jason Perry | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Labour councillor finally apologises over vile online slurs

INSIDE SUTTON: The long adios of Sheldon Vestey, the Valencia-based councillor for… checks notes … Hackbridge, has seen him once again hauled before a council disciplinary panel – albeit via video link – after an investigation that has cost the council £14,000. CARL SHILTON reports

Bib and tucker: Labour’s Sheldon Vestey waged a two-year harassment campaign

Señor Sheldon Vestey, the Labour councillor for Hackbridge who has lived in southern Spain for more than a year, has finally complied with instructions from a Sutton Council panel and issued an admission of misconduct and an apology, albeit grudgingly.

The councillor on the Costas waged a two-year harassment campaign against another member of Sutton Council, which included allegations of paedophilia, illegal pornography, racism, sexual predation and incitement to murder. None of Vestey’s vile allegations were ever substantiated.

As a consequence, Vestey was subject of formal complaints which led to a hearing before the council’s code of conduct panel in July last year. The panel upheld three complaints against the leader of the two-member Labour group in Sutton, and ordered Vestey to issue an apology to Conservative councillor Steve Alvarez, the target of his campaign, as well as to Sutton’s other councillors who Vestey had emailed. Vestey was also to undergo a training course. Continue reading

Posted in Helen Bailey, Sadiq Khan, Sheldon Vestey, Steve Alvarez, Sutton Council | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Starmer shocker: could Gorton and Denton happen here?

Polanski’s pooches: the Green Party leader with Hannah Spencer and her hounds in Gorton and Denton. The result there could be seen by disaffected Labour voters as providing a realistic alternative to Starmer’s authoritarianism

Our resident psephologist, WALTER CRONXITE, crunches the numbers after a disastrous by-election result at Gorton and Denton for the Labour Prime Minister, with local elections across London, including in Croydon, just 70 days away

The Green Party’s historic parliamentary by-election victory in Greater Manchester yesterday could utterly transform how local elections across London play out on May 7, especially in Croydon, and if repeated at scale might even force Keir Starmer out of No10 Downing Street.

Plumber and greyhound owner Hannah Spencer was declared the winner of the Gorton and Denton by-election in the small hours of this morning, becoming the Green Party’s fifth MP with 40.7% of the vote, relegating Starmer’s Labour into third place in a seat which they had won as recently as July 2024 with a 50% vote share. Continue reading

Posted in 2026 council elections, 2026 Croydon Mayor election, Croydon East, Croydon West, Natasha Irons, Rowenna Davis, Sarah Jones MP, Steve Reed MP, Streatham and Croydon North | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 12 Comments

David Lean Cinema, March 2026 listings: H Is For Hawk special

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Perry has stabilised council finances in state of perpetual crisis

Poor value for money: Croydon’s £87,000 per year lame duck Mayor, Jason Perry, at last night’s council budget meeting maintained that he has Croydon ‘on track’. Few believe him

TV and radio politics pundit ANDREW FISHER, right, sat through three hours of false claims and spin at the Town Hall last night, as Croydon’s £87,000 per year lame duck Mayor still says he has done a decent job

“I have stabilised the finances of this council,” Mayor Jason Perry delusionally claimed at Croydon Council’s budget meeting last night. According to Perry, the finances are “back on a stable footing”.

Perry resisted the urge to echo the “strong and stable” slogan of Theresa May, but there was something reminiscent in the way that, the more the Mayor made claims of stability, the less plausible it seemed. Continue reading

Posted in 2026 council elections, 2026 Croydon Mayor election, Andrew Fisher, Commissioners, Council Tax, Croydon Council, Housing, London-wide issues, Mayor Jason Perry, SEND | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 9 Comments

‘Normal service’ on Windrush despite safety workers’ strike

Transport for London says it is operating a “normal timetable” on the Windrush line today, despite a one-day strike by staff providing maintenance for signalling, communications and other essential safety features.

‘Normal service’: TfL says the Windrush line is operating today, despite an RMT strike

The Overground line from West Croydon and Norwood Junction that serves Crystal Palace, New Cross, and north into east London, has been hit by industrial action by members of the RMT rail workers’ union employed by outsourcing firm Cleshar CS Ltd.

Cleshar provides track, signalling and telecoms maintenance on the Overground between Dalston Junction and New Cross Gate. Continue reading

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Croydon has worst fly-tipping record in whole of England

There was an average of more than 1,000 fly-tips reported every week around the borough last year, according to official figures published today – at a time when the council had no enforcement staff

Croydon has the worst record in the country for fly-tipping. That’s official, from data published today by DEFRA, the environment department.

Rubbish contractors: lack of enforcement since 2023 and poor performance by contractors Veolia leave Croydon streets strewn with rubbish

The announcement is appalling timing for Croydon’s Conservative Mayor Jason Perry, the man that handed a £40million contract to rubbish contractors Veolia two years after sacking them for poor service.

Tonight, Mayor Perry is expected to trot out his “back on track” schtick, before raising Croydon’s Council Tax and awarding himself a tidy pay rise.

According to DEFRA, on Perry’s watch, Croydon had 53,268 fly-tips in 2024-2025. That works out as more than 1,000 fly-tips every week reported around the borough.

The government figures relate to rubbish illegally dumped on public land.

Seven of the worst 10 fly-tip hotspots are London borough councils.

But Croydon’s fly-tipping tally dwarfs even the next worst-affected borough, Camden, where over the same period there were 36,216 cases. Continue reading

Posted in Community associations, Croydon Council, Fly tipping, London-wide issues, Mayor Jason Perry, Norbury, Refuse collection, Veolia | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | 11 Comments

£84,000 per year Tory Mayor approves his own pay rise

EXCLUSIVE: It’s trebles all-round for directors at Croydon’s cash-strapped council, as there’s a second generous pay rise in 12 months for council chiefs, while allowances paid to councillors are also to rise, and amount to £1.6m per year.
Yet long-suffering Croydon residents will now be paying Council Tax bills of more than £2,000 per year.  By STEVEN DOWNES

Jason Perry, Croydon’s £84,000 per year executive Mayor, will tonight award himself a £2,700 pay rise – less than 48 hours after he was given a warning from Westminster following the latest multi-million-pound bail-out for his basketcase, cash-strapped council.

In the red: Jason Perry’s given himself a pay rise. Another one

For the avoidance of any doubt, Katharine Street sources have confirmed that part-time Perry’s pay increase is not performance-related.

Yesterday, Alison McGovern, the local government minister, handed Croydon its latest chunk of “emergency financial support”, this time £119million, just so that Perry and his interim CEO, Elaine Jackson, can make their budget balance.

“Given the support we have agreed to today, it is my clear expectation that your council… will take the action needed to deliver better and more efficient services, as part of your financial recovery,” McGovern wrote in her formal notice to Mayor Perry.

Tonight in the Town Hall Chamber, Perry will preside over the last full council budget meeting of his four-year term in office. Meanwhile, external auditors are poring over the books trying to locate £15million that has gone “missing” from the council’s education budget for SEND families – Special Educational Needs and Disabilities – and at the same time special debt-collection measures are being taken to chase an unpaid £20million for the purchase of Brick by Brick’s final properties.

Yet according to Tory Perry, he’s got Croydon’s finances “back on track”. Continue reading

Posted in 2026 council elections, 2026 Croydon Mayor election, Commissioners, Council Tax, Croydon Council, Housing, Katherine Kerswell, London-wide issues, Mayor Jason Perry, Section 114 notice, SEND | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Minister Reed challenged to release his Mandelson messages

The former DEFRA minister ignored all calls to nationalise the water industry. Now campaigners want to know why, and whether lobbying firm Global Counsel had any role in the matter

TV shocker: Channel 4’s docu-drama Dirty Business has left millions of people angry over water companies

Steve Reed, the MP for Streatham (and Croydon North, when he can be bothered), who is already up to his neck in the Labour Together scandal that has engulfed the Labour Party in disgrace, is now being dragged back into the swamp of sewage that surrounds the water industry.

Reed has been challenged to release all his private messages and correspondence with Peter Mandelson, the co-founder of a lobbying firm which was working for the water industry when the Croydon MP was the minister in charge of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. Continue reading

Posted in Business, Lambeth Council, South West Water, Steve Reed MP, Streatham and Croydon North, Sutton and East Surrey Water, Thames Water | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Sports store Decathlon opts to co-habit with Ikea’s homeware

Decathlon is to close its sports and lifestyle store on the Purley Way, as the business downsizes to relocate in a purpose-built standalone unit within Croydon’s Ikea in Valley Retail Park.

Towering success: Ikea is about to welcome a lodger

Ikea Croydon will be the first in the country to host a Decathlon “lodger”, as the business’s owner, Ingka Group, seeks to increase the number of visitors to their stores and eke out more income from their property. It is suggested that this “co-habiting” arrangement will be the first of several with Decathlon and, potentially, other brands.

The new 1,188sqm Decathlon will be about one-fifth of the size of its existing Purley Way floorspace, contained within Ikea’s overall 25,000sqm.

Decathlon on Purley Way opened in 2015. The new, snug Decathlon store will be ready to open “this spring”, Ikea says.

Ikea will “become a one-stop shopping destination for lifestyle needs where customers can be inspired and design and create their dream home spaces at IKEA, alongside discovering new sporting passions and the joy of being active at Decathlon”, the Swedish retailers say, unusually without mentioning meatballs.

Continue reading

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Community Kitchen’s winning recipe recognised by Lottery

The South Norwood Community Kitchen, based at Socco Cheta on Portland Road, has been selected as one of London’s Loved and Wanted venues.

Winning recipe: some volunteers at South Norwood Community Kitchen, who have been boosted by the Lottery fund

The £1.8million Loved and Wanted Fund is supported by the Mayor of London and the National Lottery Community Fund to help organisations “run activities that bring communities together”.

More than 400 projects and venues across the capital applied for a share of the funding, but only 30 – including the always impressive SNCK – were successful.

“This funding means we can welcome even more people to our community space, help people through tough times, and keep South Norwood a place where everyone can feel welcomed,” said one of SNCK’s kitchen volunteers.

According to City Hall, “The fund focuses on helping Londoners from different backgrounds meet, connect and take part in local communities and the city’s life. Continue reading

Posted in Business, Community associations, Mayor of London, Restaurants, Sadiq Khan, Socco Cheta Community Hub, South Norwood, South Norwood Community Kitchen, South West London Law Centres | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Dozen social media sites ‘disabled’ over Croydon Wars stunt

Metropolitan Police says it is increasing number of officers patrolling around schools and town centre, ‘and we will respond firmly to any reports of violence or disorder’

Shutdown: the Met Police says it is acting against social media sites that are inciting Croydon Wars

A senior police officer based in Croydon has issued a statement seeking to offer some kind of reassurance to parents, carers, teaching staff and children themselves over the threat posed by a TikTok inspired mass meeting called “Croydon Wars” this Friday.

Inside Croydon was first to report the online “invitation”, which in some places was being aimed at children as young as 12 years old, to prepare for the gathering, this Friday, February 27. Other meetings were also listed for next week.

The messages circulated included calling on children to “Be violent”.

Children from Years 8 to 11 at a large number of Croydon schools have been urged to bring weapons, including rulers, metal combs and compasses, and to send their videos from the event to the TikTok inciter. Continue reading

Posted in Business, Centrale, Coloma, Coombe Wood School, Crime, Croydon Council, Harris Academy Beulah Hill, Harris Academy South Norwood, Norbury Manor, Oasis Academy, Orchard Park High, Schools, Whitgift Centre | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Perry begs for another £119m to balance his busted budget

Croydon’s Conservative Mayor, who has hiked Council Tax by 33% since 2023, still needs another £119m government bail-out to make his council budget balance. By STEVEN DOWNES

Jason Perry, Croydon’s Conservative Mayor, has got his begging bowl out again to government, this time for an extra £119million for the next financial year, just to make his latest busted budget balance.

Perry, who in May is seeking re-election for a second four-year term, will have received £317.3million in Exceptional Financial Support from Westminster since 2023, increasing the cash-strapped borough’s debt burden, but while also increasing residents’ Council Tax by 33% in the same period.

Perry’s 2026-2027 budget proposals, including his latest 5% Council Tax hike, are set to be debated in the Town Hall Chamber on Wednesday night.

Tory Perry has failed to deliver a balanced budget during his entire term, although he has been given a “free pass” and not had to issue any further Section 114 notices – admission of effective bankruptcy – since November 2022.

That S114 led to Perry’s first Council Tax increase, a record 15% in April 2023. Continue reading

Posted in 2026 council elections, 2026 Croydon Mayor election, Adult Social Care, Children's Services, Commissioners, Council Tax, Croydon Council, Housing, Lambeth Council, London-wide issues, Mayor Jason Perry, Section 114 notice, SEND | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 8 Comments

TV chef’s Jamaican menu is ride on the Windrush line away

Upscale kitsch chic: The Good Front Room is open for business in Dalston

Caribbean-style fine dining has returned to London, and is just a short train ride away, as PALOMA LACEY explains

Mentored: Dom Taylor had the help of celebrity chef Michel Roux Jr on C4’s Five Star Kitchen

There is a risk that loyal Croydon residents are overlooking one of the great benefits of having the Windrush line running through Norwood Junction and into the town centre. It offers us all a host of possibilities as a gateway to east London.

What we used to call the Overground takes just 46 minutes from West Croydon to Dalston Junction. Last week I was dining at The Good Front Room, next door to Dalston Tube station. South to east in under an hour – the connection is unbeatable.

The Good Front Room is the long-awaited comeback from chef Dom Taylor. He’s once again trying to bring Caribbean fine dining to London. Let’s hope it’s for good this time, because this man can really cook. Continue reading

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Junkyard Choir, plus support, The Oval Tavern, Fri Mar 6

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Bookings open for Scherzo Strings music courses: Apr and Jul

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Brakspear brewers set to move in to former pub The Store

Brakspear, the traditional brewers and country inn operators, are taking charge of a closed pub in Croydon.

Pumped up: Brakspear are about to oversee the re-opening of a pub in South Croydon

Henley-based Brakspear, who trace their company’s history back to 1769, are the freeholders of The Store, on South End, which closed in October last year.

A sign has been pasted to the window of The Store, stating that WH Brakspear and Sons Ltd took possession of the premises earlier this month. No further details of what the company is planning for the pub, or an opening date, have yet been made public, though the venue is now listed among Brakspear’s 125 pubs on the company’s website. Continue reading

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Gertrude Massey’s masterstrokes showed Royalty in best light

CROYDON CHRONICLES: A prize-winner at Croydon School of Art went on to become one of the most sought-after portrait artists in Edwardian London, and taught Evelyn Waugh and the Wizard of Oz’s Scarecrow.
DAVID MORGAN recalls the stellar career of Gertrude Massey

On an April evening in 1886, students of the Croydon School of Art, their friends and families, were gathered in the Croydon Public Hall for their annual prize giving ceremony,

The School of Art opened in 1868, above the Public Hall on the corner of George Street and Wellesley Road (where Norfolk House stands today), and it quickly gained a reputation for developing skilful artists. The prize-giving was an opportunity to recognise that year’s creative talents.

The air of anticipation and expectation was palpable. This was not only about who might receive recognition for their artistic prowess, but also about seeing the celebrity who was there to hand out the prizes.

Celebrity artist: Gertrude Massey, née Seth, was often commissioned by Queen Victoria and the Royal family

Lady de Grey was a prominent aristocrat, a close friend of Oscar Wilde and a keen supporter of the arts. Wilde would later dedicate his play, A Woman of No Importance, to socialite Lady de Grey. It was, perhaps, a typically Wildean, double-edged gesture.

Gertrude Seth was among those to collect a prize that night from Lady de Grey, and she would go on to forge a brilliant artistic career, becoming one of the greatest painters of miniatures in the country.

Seth received an honourable mention for her painting in monochrome and oils, and won a first prize for her still-life painting. Continue reading

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Croydon Bach Choir Magnificats, St Matthew’s, Mar 21

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Indoor Boot Sale, St Paul’s Church Hall, South Croydon, Mar 7

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Women are boxing clever to punch through the glass ceiling

It’s Victorian London, 1869. At the Angel Amphitheatre, four women are preparing for the battle of their lives.

Polly Stokes has always been a fighter, ever since she was abandoned on a doorstep in Blackburn.

Irish-born Mattie Blackwell lives on the streets, every day is a struggle to survive.

Violet Hunter protests to gain the vote, fights to become a doctor, but no man will agree to either.

Anna Lamb has it all, husband, house, children, servants… but in reality, she has nothing.

Descending into the shadowy world of women’s boxing has given these four the opportunity to break away from the lives that have been pre-ordained for them by society. Held in by corsets, held back by men, the violent release they find in the boxing ring brings them a freedom they have never known.

But at the final bell, there can only be one Ladies’ Boxing Champion of the World.

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Charity Quiz Night, St Peter’s Hall, South Croydon, Feb 28

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Book now for Pizza and Red Wine Night at The Builder’s Arms

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