‘Travel misery’ won’t be over in south London any time soon. After a week of disruption on rail and the Tube, with airline strikes still to come, ANDREW FISHER, pictured left, appraises next week’s industrial action on Croydon’s Trams
After a week of disruptive rail strikes, Croydon’s tram services will shut down next week as drivers walk out on strike on Tuesday and Wednesday in a dispute over pay.
No go: the tram network faces shut-down by strikes next Tuesday and Wednesday
Last month, tram drivers voted 99.2per cent to strike, on a ballot turnout of 86per cent.
The workers are represented by the ASLEF trade union, which represents drivers on the tram network, railways and London Underground.
ASLEF organiser Finn Brennan said after the ballot result, “The ball is now in management’s court. They can either make a fair offer or face the prospect of hard-hitting and drawn-out strike action.”
Tram drivers had not received an offer by the time of the ballot, and even now have only been offered a measly 3per cent – less than one-third of the current rate of inflation. Continue reading
Having broken the borough’s political duopoly by winning council seats at the Town Hall elections last month, the Liberal Democrats and Greens will have both taken great encouragement from the results of yesterday’s two parliamentary by-elections, where the Tories lost seats in Tiverton and Honiton in Devon and in Wakefield, Yorkshire.
With nearly two-thirds of people in Croydon reporting that their mental health and wellbeing was affected by the covid pandemic, the counselling service located on the High Street in South Croydon, 
A Croydon-based charity that works to reduce youth knife crime has been forced to issue a public statement to distance itself from aggressive fund-raisers who are accused of harassing shoppers and passers-by on high streets across the country – though not in Croydon.
The incident was one of at least four stabbings in Croydon on Tuesday.
Croydon Council, the local authority that just a few weeks ago put up its council rents by 4.1per cent and took away Council Tax Support from 20,000 of the borough’s poorest households, has today announced that it is to hand out £3million to support “residents in greatest need”.
Jason Perry, the £81,000 per year part-time Mayor of Croydon, is giving Axis – the repairs contractors at the centre of the Regina Road council flats scandal – an additional year of work from the council, likely to cost the borough’s tax-payers at least £20million.
This Wednesday, the council cabinet will be asked to rubber-stamp a proposal that the Town Hall adopts the Croydon Residents’ Charter, drawn up by Yaw John Boateng, Les Parry and Kim Wakeley of the Croydon Council tenants and leaseholders panel. 
There’s a degree of trepidation in New Addington over proposals to erect a 5G telecoms mast next to a local primary school.
