CROYDON COMMENTARY: After almost five years of incompetence and failure under a Tory Mayor, it is now possible for Croydon residents to abolish the role. ANDREW PELLING explains the changes, and the predicament for the borough’s political classes.
PLUS: Take part in our exclusive opinion poll on whether you want to get rid of the borough’s mayor
Not what was wanted: Jason Perry, for 28 years a local councillor, has not been the dynamic figure that residents in the south of the borough campaigned for
You may not have noticed – not many did – but in April, the government passed the English Devolution and Community Empowerment Act 2026.
Under this legislation, Labour made it impossible for other borough-level local authorities in England to create a directly elected mayor, as Croydon had done in 2021 with the referendum secured by the DEMOC campaign.
While Whitehall decided to try to save billions from local government spending by abolishing a swathe of district councils and merging them into single tier authorities – such as with East and West Surrey – the Devolution Act contained an important caveat. “Legacy Mayors”, as in Croydon and 12 other councils (including London boroughs Hackney, Lewisham, Newham, and Tower Hamlets) would remain.
The original arrangement that existed when Croydon opted for a directly elected mayor – when 80% of those who voted rejected the “strong leader” and cabinet model – was that nothing could be done to change this decision for 10 years.
But this year, as well as halting some of the county council and district council mergers, something else has changed. Now, even the areas with “legacy mayors” can bin that system. And that includes Croydon. Continue reading
On the north wall of Croydon Minster hangs the parish Roll of Honour from the Great War of 1914 to 1918, what we tend to refer to today as World War I.
Visitors often look at the different names included on the list. Some quickly notice the name Major William Ashcroft. He was the father of Croydon’s Oscar-winning actress, Peggy Ashcroft (see Minster memorials that tell the terrible toll of World Wars).
A patient, deeper scroll through the list will arrive at Lieutenant Alexander Conrad Cuthbertson Pendrigh.
Pendrigh was commissioned as an officer in the 6th Battalion Devonshire Regiment, the battalion for territorial volunteers. He died of his wounds on August 17 1917. He had only just had his 19th birthday.
Pendrigh’s story is typical of the time. A young man, talented in several ways, cut down on the battlefield in a grim and bloody conflict. Continue reading
Red light: the temporary traffic lights on South End caused concern for the veteran car drivers caught in the resulting traffic jam
PHOTOSTORY EXCLUSIVE
By our motoring correspondent JEREMY CLACKSON
Intervention: officials were forced to put the veteran car run on diversion in Croydon
The world’s oldest annual rally of veteran cars was brought to a near-standstill in Croydon this morning, with dozens of pre-1905 vehicles spluttering and overheating in a traffic jam on South End when they encountered the reality of 21st-Century motoring: temporary traffic lights.
An estimated 60 vehicles from this year’s entry of 400 cars for the RM Sotheby’s London to Brighton Veteran Car Run were sent on diversion, only to then encounter another set of temporary lights within 200 yards, halting their progress towards the south coast. Continue reading
Preservation project: Lloyd Park’s ancient oak is fenced off. It’s sentinel saplings are not doing so well, however, after a summer of heatwaves that left their mark on the park
THAT’S WHAT FRIENDS ARE FOR: The long, dry summer had an impact on many of the borough’s parks and open spaces. KEN TOWL meets the Friends of Lloyd Park to hear about the work they are doing in the middle of a climate emergency
Long way down: the children’s playground is set in an old chalk pit
I climbed over the fence. I wanted to get a good photo of the “unique feature”, as Owen Williams had described it: a children’s slide whose highest point is at ground level and whose lowest is at the bottom of a deep crater.
The metal fence surrounds the steep-sided crater – thought to be a disused chalk pit, rather than a bomb crater from the 1940s – and you are supposed to enter the playground by gates situated at the flatter parts of the perimeter.
But I wanted my photograph, and at a little after nine on a rainy weekday morning, there was no one else around. So I started to descend. Almost immediately I began to slide on the wet clay surface. I fell on my backside and continued to slide, almost to the bottom. The fence is there for a reason. Continue reading
CROYDON IN CRISIS: A ‘collapsed’ payments system has seen the council stiff hundreds of casual workers – highly trained translators and interpreters – for tens of thousands of pounds. And Mayor Perry knew nothing about it.
EXCLUSIVE by STEVEN DOWNES
Mayor Jason Perry’s omnishambles council could find itself dragged through the small claims court by dozens of angry service providers because a faulty payments system has failed to make payments to around 200 freelance translators and interpreters for three months.
The council’s total debts to the hard-working suppliers is estimated to be tens of thousands of pounds.
It has emerged that Croydon Council’s internal payment system collapsed overnight at the end of July. Three months on, the translators are still waiting for their money and “pulling our hair out over the lack of communication”.
CTIS – the Croydon Translation and Interpretation Service – has ground to a halt, with important meetings with often vulnerable clients having to be cancelled due to non-payment of fees. CTIS personnel have been left out of pocket for amounts from a few hundred to several thousand pounds.
Despite numerous complaints from the translators and various assurances from senior council managers, a payment deadline of this week has come and gone with no money paid by Croydon’s cash-strapped council. Continue reading
Motoring history: the 2026 London to Brighton Veteran Car Run takes place this Sunday, November 1
Set your Sunday morning alarms early this weekend, and when you get up, grab a coffee and a bacon sandwich and get out on the streets of Croydon for an annual spectacular that’s free to enjoy.
The London to Brighton Veteran Car Run returns on Sunday November 1 with more than 400 pioneering pre-1905 cars expected to take part in what is one of the world’s most evocative celebrations of motoring history.
And the route to the south coast runs straight through Croydon. Continue reading
Lady of the dance: The Nutcracker is being performed at the Fairfield Halls next month
Folk rocker: Maddy Prior and Steeleye Span play the Ashcroft Theatre on November 5
Inside Croydon subscribers Brian Matthews and Mark Vaughan, plus their guests, will be enjoying big nights out at the Fairfield Halls next month, to see The Nutcracker and Steeleye Span respectively – all thanks to being the winners of exciting competitions on this website for our patrons.
Brian Matthews cracked our Nutcracker quiz because he – and dozens of others who entered the competition exclusively for iC supporters – knew that Pyotr Tchaikovsky’s middle name was Ilyich. Continue reading
CROYDON IN CRISIS: The cash-strapped council’s Tory leader had no answers when asked why he has failed to refund ‘money which rightfully belongs to hardworking residents’. By our Town Hall reporter, KEN LEE
Croydon’s failed Mayor Jason Perry is sitting on £8million of residents’ money that his council ought to have returned.
That’s the total of Council Tax overpayments from almost 30,000 households in the borough, all gathering interest in the cash-strapped council’s bank accounts. The amount is almost twice as much as was held on account before piss poor Perry became Croydon Mayor.
The £8million figure exposes Tory Mayor Perry as a thundering hypocrite.
Five years ago, as part of their campaign to get Perry elected, Croydon Conservatives ran one of their data-scraping petitions: “Croydon Labour: Return our Council Tax Overpayments!” The article remains published on the local Tories’ website today.
Then, in August 2021, the amount of overpaid Council Tax in the council coffers was £4.7million.
Croydon will pay solemn homage to those that died in two world wars and subsequent conflicts on Remembrance Sunday, which this year is on November 8.
There will also be a Remembrance ceremony outside the Town Hall at 11am on November 11, Armistice Day.
All are invited to attend.
The wreath-laying will take place at Croydon’s war memorial on Katharine Street, beginning at 10.30am.
There will be a two-minute silence, followed by a short service of remembrance. The Worshipful Civic Mayor of Croydon, Councillor Mohammed Islam, and the Deputy Lieutenant of Croydon, Colonel Ray Wilkinson, will lead the wreath-laying ceremony. They will be followed by the Royal British Legion, civic and faith representatives, members of the military and the public. Continue reading
Small Business Rate Relief is not the headline-grabber from yesterday’s Budget that a £100 payment to millions of households to help with fuel bills was. WALTER CRONXITE, Political Editor, reports how it is a measure that should help more than 1,000 SMEs in Croydon
Prudence v2: Chancellor John Healey was careful not to spook the bond markets in his Budget yesterday
Croydon’s small businesses, shops and bars look to benefit by around £4million next year because of changes in business rates announced in Chancellor John Healey’s Budget yesterday.
The change comes from the Budget’s increase in Small Business Rate Relief. From April 2027, shops, cafés, pubs, salons and other retail, hospitality and leisure businesses with a rateable value of up to £18,000 will pay no business rates at all. Today, full relief stops at £12,000.
Croydon is one of the areas where its SMEs – small and medium-sized businesses – appear to have done better than others.
It is a significant measure, and one aimed at keeping thousands of businesses in business, at a time when the cost of living crisis is an existential threat to so many traders, shopkeepers and pub licensees. Continue reading
Poppy appeal: on the 20th anniversary of London Poppy Day, TfL is hoping to beat last year’s record donation of £1.4m
Transport for London is marking the 20th anniversary of London Poppy Day today in efforts toraise record levels of donations to the Royal British Legion Poppy Appeal to support the needs of the Armed Forces community, past and present.
Singer Elaine Paige has recorded special announcements for stations across London’s transport network, encouraging donations to the London Poppy Appeal.
There is also poppy-themed roundels at Overground stations, at Victoria Coach Station and Tube stations including Balham and London Bridge. Continue reading
The 10th anniversary of the Croydon tram crash which claimed the lives of seven people will be marked with a solemn ceremony in New Addington on Monday, November 9.
Memorial: the stone and plaque on Central Parade has been restored ahead of the 10th anniversary
Dane Chinnery, Donald Collett, Robert Huxley, Philip Logan, Dorota Rynkiewicz, Philip Seary and Mark Smith died when their tram derailed near Sandilands on November 9, 2016.
They were among the passengers on the crowded early morning tram from New Addington heading towards East Croydon when it left the tracks at speed. More than 60 people were injured.
Families of those who died and survivors of the crash are expected to attend the annual public ceremony, held around the memorial that was erected on Central Parade in the aftermath.
The event will take place at Central Parade, New Addington, CR0 0JL at 11am on Monday November 9. Continue reading
Crashed out: the driver and a passenger were seen fleeing from the scene after they crashed their car into a house on Portland Road on Monday night. Photograph: Ashley Mills
PHOTOSTORY EXCLUSIVE by ASHLEY MILLS
A man from Dagenham has been charged after driving a car into a residential house on Portland Road, South Norwood, at around 11.30pm on Monday following a high-speed police chase.
Two men were seen running from the scene. The police caught one man on nearby Grasmere Road. There were at least six police vehicles and an ambulance at the scene, 353 Portland Road. Continue reading
Two mayors: opening new restaurants is supposed to be the job of civic mayor, Mohammed Islam (centre, with the gold chain). But somehow Executive Mayor Jason Perry is always available when there’s the chance of free food
A new bar-restaurant on South End has opened, and KEN TOWL definitely liked the lamb
Divine: AYL’s food, especially the suya lamb chops, is recommended
First things first. The suya lamb chops at Anything Yuh Like are divine.
The finely balanced spices complement rather than overwhelm the perfectly cooked, pink-in-the-middle meat.
The jerk chicken is good, too, and the jollof rice that comes with both dishes is perfectly executed and nicely presented.
The menu at AYL is reassuringly short, too, a good sign. After all, every series of Gordon Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares included Ramsay telling the restaurant owner to cut down the menu and focus on what they do best. AYL does the food very well.
Unfortunately, apart from a warm welcome from owner Kendra Marful, AYL gets a lot of things wrong.
Marful started Anything Yuh Like from her home kitchen. Having sold her meals through delivery services, and catering at weddings and corporate events, last Saturday she opened her first physical restaurant, at No1 South End, what is now called The Corner House. Continue reading
If you thought things were bad enough with half the tram network already closed for planned works to replace stretches of track, things have got even worse this morning, due to a power failure at Therapia Lane.
End of the line: the tram network has been hit by a power outage at Therapia Lane today
With no services from East Croydon to New Addington, Beckenham Junction and Elmers End until November 6, this morning the only operating tram service was a shuttle between Wimbledon and Therapia Lane.
Or as TfL would put it today: “No service between Therapia Lane and East Croydon due to a local power failure and no service between East Croydon and Beckenham Junction/Elmers End/New Addington due to planned engineering work. Good service on the rest of the line.” So that’s alright then.
The latest episode of the Croydon Insider podcast is now available – free for our paying subscribers as premium content via Patreon, or for purchase on our Spotify page.
It’s another jam-packed episode, with a panel of iC readers going behind the headlines to look into the stories that matter to you.
And it includes top politics pundit Andrew Fisher (the i paper, BBC television and radio and Sky News) previewing what to expect in John Healey’s Budget statement tomorrow. Continue reading
Inside Croydon is delighted to offer a pair of tickets to next week’s long-awaited concert return of Steeleye Span to Croydon as the prize in our latest exclusive subscriber competition.
Steeleye Span will be performing live at the Ashcroft Theatre next Thursday, November 5, and one lucky subscriber and their guest will be their courtesy of the band’s promoters, provided that they can answer one simple question in our prize competition.
Steeleye Span changed the face of folk music forever by taking it into the world of gold discs and international tours. Continue reading
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