Part-time Perry’s Leipzig dilemma as Mayor faces fixture clash

EXCLUSIVE: ‘Life-long’ Palace fan is going to have to do some work to earn his £86,000 council salary, as opposition parties refuse to change date of Town Hall’s annual meeting on the night that the Eagles will be making history in their first European final. By STEVEN DOWNES

Busted: Croydon’s £86,000 per year part-time Mayor, Jason Perry, pictured this week, making his application for a refund on his flight tickets to Germany

Almost the first act of Jason Perry since he was re-elected as Croydon’s £86,000 per year Mayor was to ask for a change of date of the council’s annual meeting, set for Wednesday, May 27 – in order that he can go instead to Leipzig to see Crystal Palace play in the UEFA Conference League final.

Opposition councillors have rejected Perry’s pathetic request, describing it as “wrong”.

“The Mayor’s immediate priority should be focusing on fixing the fly-tipping and pothole epidemic in Croydon, not how to get to a football match,” Stuart King, the Labour group leader, told Inside Croydon tonight. Continue reading

Posted in Claire Bonham, Croydon Council, Crystal Palace FC, Football, Mayor Jason Perry, Ria Patel, Stuart King | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Perry’s goons abandon threats against George Street homeless

All clear: a tram rattles past the George Street and North End junction, with the homeless people’s meagre possessions back in place, despite threats from council security contractors

Council security contractors may have failed to follow the law over their ‘thuggery’ and ‘bullying’ of what they called an ‘encampment’ in the town centre. By STEVEN DOWNES and KEN TOWL

Bullying: the offensive notice

Threats of enforcement action against what the council described as “an encampment” on George Street failed to materialise this morning, as the official notice plastered on to the wall of the Whitgift Almshouses had been removed and none of the uniformed private security goons made an appearance by the time of their own 8am deadline.

Inside Croydon reported yesterday how the enforcement notice “to person’s [sic] unknown”, had been posted on the corner of George Street and North End, threatening criminal prosecutions, confiscation of belongings, fines of up to £2,000 and exile from the borough of Croydon.

The council notice came from the Town Hall’s “anti-social behaviour team”, an initiative from “zero tolerance” Jason Perry, the failed Mayor of Croydon, who can now add threatening vulnerable people to his growing list of failures. Continue reading

Posted in Business, Community associations, Croydon BID, Croydon Council, Fairfield, Mayor Jason Perry, North End Quarter, Whitgift Foundation | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

King and Ben-Hassel win Labour’s Town Hall leadership votes

Political Editor WALTER CRONXITE on how the largest party group at the council is beginning to be reshuffled

One Labour leader, at least, has seen off all challengers this week.

Re-elected: Stuart King has the backing of 80% of Labour’s councillorse

In a secret meeting held last night at Croydon Town Hall, Stuart King was re-elected as leader of Labour’s council group, with a 24-6 vote of the party’s councillors.

King, a councillor for West Thornton ward since 2014, has been leader of the embattled Labour group at the Town Hall since 2022.

It means that King, backed by the borough’s largest party group of councillors, will continue the thankless task of leading the opposition to tin-eared Jason Perry, Croydon’s failed Mayor. Continue reading

Posted in Amy Foster, Catherine Wilson, Janet Campbell, Manju Shahul Hameed, Rowenna Davis, Selhurst, Stuart King | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Croydon’s charity lawyers invite you to join fund-raiser walk

The London Legal Walk takes place on June 9, raising tens of thousands of pounds to assist with legal bills for those that need qualified advice, and the team from the South West London Legal Centre are asking the Croydon public to join them on this stroll through London.

Legal walk: lawyers, clients and supporters will be striding out in central London on June 9

Every year, SWLLC supports thousands of people in Croydon and across south London who are facing serious legal problems affecting their housing, income, employment, immigration status, safety and wellbeing.

“Many come to us at moments of crisis and would struggle to access legal advice anywhere else,” SWLLC says.

“That is why the London Legal Walk matters. It is a chance to come together, raise funds, and show that access to justice should not depend on someone’s income or circumstances.” Continue reading

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Beddington Park river restoration talk, The Grange, May 19

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Council heavies move in on vulnerable people on George Street

Under-trained security officials, paid for with public money, are doing the bidding of Mayor’s favoured business group in ‘authoritarian thuggery and bullying’. By STEVEN DOWNES

Croydon Council has been accused of being tactless, uncaring and of persecuting homeless people, after slapping an exclusion order on the walls of one of the borough’s oldest buildings yesterday, the Whitgift Almshouses.

Rough sleeping: council enforcement staff have got tough with a small group of homeless people in the town centre

Inside Croydon understands that the Whitgift Foundation, which manages the almshouses and has its offices in the 16th-Century building, has even been providing hot meals for homeless people who have taken to settling down on the busy corner of George Street and North End.

The Foundation was completely unaware of the council’s intention to post the exclusion notice, which has ordered the homeless people to remove all their possessions from the location by 8am tomorrow, Friday May 15.

The council, with its new force of under-trained security guards, working together with Croydon BID, the business improvement district, and some North End shop-keepers, have been accused of unnecessarily heavy-handed treatment of homeless people who camp out in the town centre shopping area. Continue reading

Posted in "Hammersfield", Business, Centrale, Community associations, Croydon BID, North End Quarter, Whitgift Foundation | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

Just the job! Council hands £200,000 finance chief role to Hall

Town Hall reporter KEN LEE on the rushed recruitment of a Commissioner-approved appointee to a permanent role in Fisher’s Folly, helped with £30,000 in ‘danger money’

Master of Hall he surveys: Conrad Hall was forced on to the roof of Fisher’s Folly for the obligatory appointment publicity pic this morning

Croydon’s cash-strapped council under Tory Mayor Jason Perry is still able to find enough money to spend more than £1million per year on the salaries of just five members of staff.

The fifth permanent member of staff to be appointed on a stratospheric salary despite the council’s £1.7billion debt is Conrad Hall, who was announced this morning as the permanent “corporate director of resources”, the director of finance in plain English, responsible “for leading and directing financial strategy and operations for the council”.

Hall has been doing the job since January, after the government-appointed Commissioners had spent almost six months “butting heads”, as one insider put it, with Jane West, the Kerswell appointee who had signalled her exasperation with the borough’s insolvable financial problems on several occasions. Continue reading

Posted in 'Future Croydon', 2026 council elections, 2026 Croydon Mayor election, Commissioners, Conrad Hall, Council Tax, Croydon Council, Dean Shoesmith, Elaine Jackson, Jane West, Jenny Rowlands | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Stormzy film company to make movie of Ian Wright’s life story

‘There are hard-hitting moments but in the end I want it to give people hope and joy’ says Palace hero as the story of his growing up in south London is to be made into a biopic

Two of Croydon’s modern heroes, a musician and a sportsman, are teaming up to make a biopic which promises to be a blockbuster movie.

Double header: grime musician Stormzy (right) is co-producing the biopic of Palace hero Ian Wright

Rapper Stormzy’s production company Merky Films is to turn the life story of former Palace striker Ian Wright into a film.

South London-born Wright went on to be one of Arsenal’s all-time top goal-scorers, play for England, become a regular Match of the Day pundit, and one of the country’s most recognisable and admired television hosts. Last year, he was named as Britain’s second-most influential black person in the 2026 Powerlist (after finance exec Afua Kyei).

But Wright’s early years were often a struggle, and he has spoken about his difficult childhood and rejections from multiple clubs as a teenager. The film, which will have Stormzy as executive producer, will be the “first time we’re bringing it all together”, Wright said.

Stormzy said it is an “honour” to co-produce the film, helping to “bring such an important and powerful story to the screen”. Continue reading

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Perry’s cut-price carers support provider is failing to deliver

This is what “success” looks like under Jason Perry, Croydon’s failed Mayor.

It is now little more than a year since the Tory Mayor decided to end years of successful collaboration and hard work by dedicated local charities and volunteers at the Carers Support Centre and bring in outside contractors. In the past 12 months, under the new service supplier, official figures show the record of delivery looks to have fallen off a cliff.

Kent-based Carers First, a business with charity status, took over the council’s carers support service in March last year after what can only be described as a lip-service, self-fulfilling council public consultation. Continue reading

Posted in Adult Social Care, Business, Carers First, Charity, Croydon Council, Mayor Jason Perry, Whitgift Foundation | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

‘Wake up’ call from Croydon MP as she backs PM ‘Uncle Keir’

Defending the indefensible: having manoeuvred Keir Starmer into the Labour leadership and No10 through his shadowy organisation Labour Together, Croydon MP Steve Reed has been all over broadcast media trying to keep his placeman in place

As health secretary Wes Streeting considers resigning from government, possibly triggering a leadership challenge, Steve Reed, Sarah Jones and Natasha Irons are backing Starmer

‘Island of strangers’: Sir Keir Starmer may be choking on the thought of his many missteps as Prime Minister

“Uncle” Keir Starmer is clinging on to the job of Prime Minister, probably grateful for the hiatus caused by today’s State Opening of Parliament ceremonials, after three days of dissent and calls for his resignation, even from members of his own cabinet following last week’s disastrous local elections.

The latest resignation threat has come this morning from Wes Streeting, the erstwhile health secretary.

But as he stages what he has described, as a “battle for the soul of our nation”, Starmer at least has the consolation that he has the support of Croydon’s three Labour MPs. For the time being, anyway. Continue reading

Posted in 2026 council elections, Croydon East, Croydon West, Natasha Irons, Sarah Jones MP, Steve Reed MP, Streatham and Croydon North | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Latest fridge fly-tip breaks barriers in Norwood Junction Station

Even by Croydon’s standards as the “fly-tip capital of London”, this latest example excels all previous dumps.

Fridge magnet: the dump spotted in the Norwood Junction underpass has not, yet, attracted other rubbish

A discarded fridge had been left in the foot tunnel beneath the platforms of Norwood Junction railway station, just by the stairs up to Platform 4.

But just how did it get there?

The achievement of getting it there was greeted with disbelief by South Norwood locals on social media, with one even asking if it was another art installation by Banksy.

There was an average of more than 1,000 fly-tips reported every week around Croydon last year, according to official figures published in February – at a time when the Croydon Council had no enforcement staff. The data published by DEFRA, the environment department, made Croydon officially the worst place in the country for fly-tipping.

The Norwood Junction fridge just adds to those sorry statistics. Continue reading

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Jimmy Regal and The Royals, The Oval Tavern, Sun May 17

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Riddlesdown up for a cup double – and all in ‘bizarre’ 14 hours

Up for the cup, and then up for the cup again: Riddlesdown look to be penalised for their success by having to play back-to-back finals

Riddlesdown Collegiate’s under-15s might be the best football team of their age in the country – but English schools football bosses have presented them with the daunting task of playing two end-of-season finals within 14 hours later this month.

The English Schools’ Football Association’s scheduling of the finals of two competitions, both to be played at Stoke City’s home ground, has raised serious welfare safeguarding issues for the physical well-being of the young Riddlesdown squad.

The Croydon secondary’s footballers have won the right to play in the ESFA EA Sports FC Futures Boys’ Under-15 Schools’ Cup, which attracted entries from 663 schools nationwide, as well as the ESFA EA Sports FC Futures Boys’ Under-15 Elite Schools’ Cup. Continue reading

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Election podcast: How did 33% tax hike Perry manage to win?

It could yet go down as the biggest mugging ever seen in Croydon – the day that nearly 36,000 people were conned into voting for Conservative Mayor Jason Perry.

So just how did Perry, the incompetent Mayor who hiked your Council Tax by 33% and still managed to increase council debt to £1.7billion, manage to scramble together enough votes to get re-elected last week?

That’s the underlying question that our panel of readers, joined by former BBC London politics editor Tim Donovan, try to answer in our local elections special edition of the Croydon Insider. Continue reading

Posted in 2026 council elections, 2026 Croydon Mayor election, Croydon Insider, Inside Croydon, Mayor Jason Perry, Rowenna Davis, Under The Flyover | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 6 Comments

Artist Emin makes big announcement for Priority Seating Week

Transport staff will be at Norwood Junction Station on Thursday, handing out free “Please Offer Me a Seat”, “Baby on Board” and “Babies on Board” badges, as part of activities around TfL’s Priority Seating Week.

It’s the eighth year that Transport for London has staged such an awareness week, and this year it has Turner Prize-winning artist Tracey Emin providing specially recorded announcements for Tube and bus stations.

The announcements encourage people to be mindful of non-visible conditions and to give up their seat if they can to those with greater need.

Priority Seating Week (which runs until May 17) recognises that 13% of Londoners identify as disabled. “It is vital that the capital’s transport network is as fair, accessible and inclusive as possible,” TfL says. Continue reading

Posted in Art, Commuting, Health, Norwood Junction, South Norwood, TfL, Transport | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Touch rugby taster day at Warlingham RFC, Sat Jun 6

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Earthquake election but Croydon only felt some small tremors

TV and radio politics pundit ANDREW FISHER, right, looks at Croydon’s local election results in the context of the seismic elections that took place across Britain

Across England, Wales and Scotland, the 2026 elections delivered a political earthquake that rocked the two main parties, Labour and Conservative, which both suffered substantial losses.

The Labour Party lost control of Wales for the first time in nearly 100 years, lost seats in the Scottish Parliament, and saw a wipeout of 1,500 councillors across England.

It was just as bad for the Conservatives, who slumped to fifth place in Scotland, fourth place in Wales and lost 563 councillors in England, leaving them in fourth place in England, too.

But in Croydon, Tory Mayor Jason Perry was re-elected as Executive Mayor, and Labour remains the largest party, although government-appointed Commissioners remain in charge of the serially inept council. Continue reading

Posted in 2026 council elections, 2026 Croydon Mayor election, Andrew Fisher, Croydon Greens, Mayor Jason Perry, Peter Underwood, Richard Howard, Rowenna Davis | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 9 Comments

King faces possible leadership challenge after election defeats

All change: Cllr Stuart King’s shadow cabinet was stripped almost bare by his own party’s ineptitude and Croydon voters’ rejection of some of the less well-liked, even despied, members of his inner team

Our Town Hall reporter KEN LEE on the immediate fall-out from Labour’s Rowenna Davis failing to become Mayor of Croydon

Leadership material?: Cllr Rowenna Davis

There will be a Labour Party leadership contest this week – but in Katharine Street, rather than Downing Street.

While Bensham Manor councillor Ellie Sandover’s Uncle Keir clings on at No10, last week’s seismic mayoral and local election results in Croydon have left the Labour group at the Town Hall in a state of disarray as well as obvious dismay.

Only three of Labour’s nine-strong shadow cabinet survived their party’s own cull and the voters’ judgement on their time in office as councillors, with the widely disliked “Thirsty” Chris Clark, pompous Chris Herman and underwhelming Jess Hammersley-Rich (who?) the shadow cabinet members getting dispatched at the ballot box on Thursday.

Labour was declared as the winners of 30 council seats at Saturday’s ward count at the Fairfield Halls, losing four from their 2022 tally. But with several senior figures retiring or being blocked from seeking re-election by their own party, it has created huge gaps in Labour’s leadership team at the Town Hall. Continue reading

Posted in 2026 council elections, 2026 Croydon Mayor election, Amy Foster, Callton Young, Chris Clark, Chrishni Reshekaron, Christopher Herman, Janet Campbell, John Wentworth, Manju Shahul Hameed, Rowenna Davis, Stuart King | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 12 Comments

Mayor Khan offers ‘weekend whopper’ fare on trams and buses

Going places: fares on Croydon’s tram network and London buses are frozen until July

With fares on Croydon’s trams and London buses frozen until July, today Mayor Sir Sadiq Khan announced that the TfL Hopper fare is being extended over the summer to include unlimited journeys at weekends.

The promotion will operate throughout the school summer holidays, between July 25 and August 31, and will allow passengers to take as many trips by tram and bus as they want on weekends, all for the flat fare of £1.75. The existing Hopper fare’s one-hour limit will be dropped, and passengers will be able to travel by tram or bus all day for the single fare.

Transport for London says that more than 1billion Hopper journeys have been made since its launch.

The Hopper initiative, which usually allows unlimited journeys within an hour for a single fare on London’s buses and trams, was introduced in 2016, based on a policy proposed by journalist and transport expert Christian Wolmar during the Labour mayoral selection process. Continue reading

Posted in London-wide issues, Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, TfL, Tramlink, Transport | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

Kenley locals in campaign to save their local for the future

‘An example of beutiful Victorian architecture’: The Kenley Hotel, closed for almost a year, has left locals fearing for its fate and missing the heart of their community

Grand Victorian pub that served RAF heroes during the Battle of Britain and which has  a bar reputedly made for the doomed Titanic, is under threat of being sold off, possibly for redevelopment. But not if the residents’ association get their way

When Jason Perry waddles into Fisher’s Folly tomorrow morning for his first day at work in his second term of office, he ought to ensure that one matter in his in-tray gets attended to straight away: saving the Kenley Hotel.

The 19th Century building on Godstone Road is “a beautiful example of Victorian architecture”, according to locals. The pub closed, “temporarily”, in July last year, another signal of the decline of the borough under Mayor Perry, with businesses closing, and not just in the town centre.

The Croydon branch of CAMRA suggests, with a touch of scepticism, that the pub’s bar was made for the Titanic, but never installed. They report that the Kenley Hotel is “closed until a new licensee can be found”, but also that the freehold was put up for sale last October. Continue reading

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Free SWLLC benefits and housing advice sessions, Selhurst

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NOTE the revised timings and venue details

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The Happy Bee Festival, Frylands Wood Scout Centre, Jun 28

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#LocalElections2026: Greens make bigger inroads than Reform

Final result (after 28 wards declared):
Lab 30 (-4), Cons 28 (-5), Grn 7 (+5), LibDem 2 (+1), Oth* 1, Ref 2 (+2)

  • Ellie Sandover, niece of Labour PM Keir Starmer, elected to council for Bensham Manor ward
  • Mark Adderley, suspended by the Green Party after Labour minister Steve Reed’s complaints, is nevertheless elected to council in Crystal Palace and Upper Norwood
  • Labour shadow cabinet member Chris Clark loses his town centre seat to Greens
  • LibDems take control of new East Surrey Council
  • Reform wins first Croydon Council seats in New Addington South
  • First results in just after 11am – Labour gain from Conservatives and Croydon’s laziest councillor
  • In Lambeth, Greens look set to take control of MP Steve Reed’s old council
  • Croydon is now run by its directly elected Mayor, with Conservative Jason Perry returned yesterday for a second four-year term. Today, the count at the Fairfield Halls will determine who the 70 councillors will be that join him at the Town Hall until 2030

Welcome to Inside Croydon’s unmatched coverage of the 2026 local election count in Croydon, and across south London.

We have reporters at the count at the Fairfield Halls today, the second day of election counts, this time to determine 70 councillors in 28 wards.

Bookmark this page and keep returning and refreshing the page for our live coverage, with updates on events throughout.

Each new post will be timestamped, with the most recent postings being right here at the top of the page.

We welcome your election-day pictures and news, your comments and your observations, which you can send to us (confidentially if you prefer) by email at inside.croydon@btinternet.com Continue reading

Posted in 2026 council elections, 2026 Croydon Mayor election, Addiscombe East, Addiscombe West, Adele Benson, Barry Lewis, Ben Flook, Bensham Manor, Broad Green, Chris Clark, Chris Philp MP, Claire Bonham, Coulsdon East, Coulsdon Town, Croydon Council, Croydon East, Croydon South, Croydon West, Crystal Palace and Upper Norwood, Dave Tchil, Elaine Jackson, Ellie Sandover, Fairfield, Graham Mitchell, Housing, Inside Croydon, Ken Towl, Kenley, Kola Agboola, Leila Ben-Hassel, London-wide issues, Mayor Jason Perry, Michael Pusey, Natasha Irons, New Addington North, Nick Mattey, Norbury, Norbury Park, Old Coulsdon, Park Hill and Whitgift, Paul Ainscough, Purley, Purley Oaks and Riddlesdown, Ria Patel, Rowenna Davis, Sadiq Khan, Sanderstead, Sarah Jones MP, Selhurst, Selsdon and Addington Village, Selsdon Vale and Forestdale, Shirley North, Shirley South, South Croydon, South Norwood, Steve Reed MP, Streatham and Croydon North, Sutton Council, Thornton Heath, Tim Foster, Tom Drummond, Tony Pearson, Waddon, West Thornton, Woodside | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 32 Comments

‘The vote on the left split more than the vote on the right’

Gang show at the Fairfield Halls: Jason Perry shortly after yesterday’s result. His Tory mates helped get him re-elected with lies and decpetion, and even broke the law

ELECTION COMMENTARY: Jason Perry, Croydon’s failed Mayor, may have been handed another four years in office, but the voting numbers declared yesterday spell trouble for the borough’s other Conservatives.
By STEVEN DOWNES, Editor, Inside Croydon

Jason Perry, Croydon’s failed Mayor, backed by his Conservative gang members, did not win the borough’s second mayoral election this week. Keir Starmer lost it.

By any reasonable assessment, Jason Perry’s four-year term from 2022 has been an unmitigated failure. Residents’ Council Tax is up by 33%, yet the cash-strapped council’s debt is up by £300million, to £1.7billion.

Perry’s latest budget, forced through with legal threats against opposition councillors, proved to be so unbalanced that the government-appointed Commissioners have ordered  Conrad Hall, the finance director called in to try to untangle the mess created by four years of bungling, to come up with a fresh financial plan for 2026-2027 by July. The next few weeks will be more than interesting.

Perry has failed in so many ways. Continue reading

Posted in 2026 council elections, 2026 Croydon Mayor election, Ben Flook, Chris Philp MP, Conrad Hall, Croydon Council, Croydon East, Croydon South, Croydon West, Elaine Jackson, London-wide issues, Mayor Jason Perry, Michael Pusey, Natasha Irons, Rowenna Davis, Sarah Jones MP, Steve Reed MP, Streatham and Croydon North | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 28 Comments

Blues at The Oval Tavern, May and June, free entry, 6pm start

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