Town Hall meeting recommends review for councillor payments

Posted on May 23, 2018 by

Town Hall reporter KEN LEE on the latest dropped bollock by the council’s administration

Tonight’s annual council meeting will include a recommendation to review councillors’ payments

Jo Negrini, the Croydon Council chief executive, has refused to answer questions about her failure to have published promptly the papers for tonight’s annual meeting in the Town Hall chamber.

The agenda, list of appointments and other paperwork for council meetings is routinely supposed to be made available at least seven days before the meeting takes place.

The paperwork for the first meeting of the new administration only appeared on the council’s website this afternoon, less than six hours before tonight’s event.

The agenda includes a move for the council to conduct a review of the allowances paid to its 70 councillors.

Between them, Croydon’s councillors receive a grand total of £1,456,862 per year in payments from the council, the highest figure paid out among all London boroughs.

Continue reading →

Advertisements
Posted in Croydon Council, Jo Negrini, Tony Newman | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

The race to replace ‘Silent’ Steve O’Connell has already begun

Posted on May 23, 2018 by

Just when you thought it was safe to go out on to the streets without risk of being button-holed by political activists, WALTER CRONXITE reports that preparations are already being made for the next round of elections

The people of Croydon have been to the polling booths seven times in less than four years

Weekend reports that the “brains trust” at No10 Downing Street – which would include former Croydon MP Gavin Barwell – were preparing for a snap General Election (another one) this autumn will have done nothing for the voting fatigue clearly evident in so many Croydon residents this month.

After local elections earlier this month, and following last year’s General Election, the referendum on the European Union, the London-wide Assembly and Mayoral ballots, the European parliament elections staged with the 2014 local elections, and the 2015 General Election, the Croydon electorate will have been asked to cast their votes nine times in less than five years. Continue reading →

Posted in 2018 council elections, 2020 London elections, Heidi Alexander, London Assembly, London-wide issues, Mayor of London, Paul Scully MP, Sadiq Khan, Steve O'Connell, Sutton Council | Tagged , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Store closures spark more concern for £1.4bn Westfield plans

Posted on May 23, 2018 by

Our retailing correspondent, MT WALLETTE, on the latest dire news for plans to base the regeneration of Croydon on the building a shopping mall

Today’s announcement to the London Stock Exchange of a two-thirds fall in annual profits for Marks and Spencer is just the latest piece of hard data from the retail sector to stoke growing fears over the prospects for the £1.4billion Westfield and Hammerson scheme to redevelop Croydon’s Whitgift and Centrale shopping centres.

“Hammersfield” was granted planning permission by Croydon Council – for a second time – six months ago. What was originally devised as a supermall with some flats tacked on was now being proposed as a 1,000-homes residential development, with a shopping centre tacked on.

But traders and shop-keepers in the increasingly run-down Whitgift Centre have been given no updates on when the bulldozers are likely to move in since planning permission was granted, fuelling speculation that any prospect of a start in “early 2019” is becoming more remote. Continue reading →

Posted in "Hammersfield", Business, Centrale, Whitgift Centre | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 14 Comments

Old Coulsdon Village Fair, Grange Park, Jul 7

Posted on May 23, 2018 by

Continue reading →

Posted in Charity, Coulsdon | Tagged | Leave a comment

Bensham Manor Allotments Plant and Cake Sale, May 26

Posted on May 22, 2018 by

PLANT & CAKE SALE
Bensham Manor Allotments

Saturday May 26, 10am to 1pm
Lion Road, off Pawsons Road
CR0 2QB

Continue reading →

Posted in Bensham Manor, Gardening | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Controversial chair of planning Scott gets promoted to cabinet

Posted on May 22, 2018 by

WALTER CRONXITE reports on the latest egregious example of Town Hall patronage, and all done at your expense – including one of ‘Tony’s Cronies’ getting £6,000 per committee meeting

Promoted: Paul Scott will now have a cabinet job as well as chairing the planning committee

Despite managing to bring together 17 residents’ groups in opposition to his bombastic style of chairmanship of the planning committee, and with the council facing the risk of being dragged into the High Court over his potential conflicts of interest, Paul Scott is to be promoted to the Town Hall cabinet tomorrow night, when he will be given a job which will surely only prompt further outcry.

Tony Newman, the leader of the Labour-run council and Scott’s big mate, has used his post-local election cabinet appointments as an opportunity for further patronage, doling out tens of thousands of pounds in “special responsibility allowances” to a handful of his most loyal councillors, while stretching, and possibly even breaking, the council’s constitution.

In an unusual, for him, outbreak of openness and transparency, Newman actually tweeted his list of cabinet appointments, though his choices of deputy cabinet members were kept under wraps until shortly before last week’s meeting of the Labour council group. Continue reading →

Posted in Alisa Flemming, Alison Butler, Brick by Brick, Children's Services, Croydon Council, Hamida Ali, Housing, Jane Avis, Louisa Woodley, Manju Shahul Hameed, Mark Watson, Oliver Lewis, Paul Scott, Planning, Simon Hall, Stuart Collins, Stuart King, Tony Newman | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | 7 Comments

Croydon Environmental Fair, Wandle Park, Jun 9

Posted on May 22, 2018 by

Continue reading →

Posted in Activities, Croydon parks, Environment, Wandle Park, Wildlife | Tagged , | Leave a comment