CEO accused of spending public cash for Perry’s benefit

Posted on April 3, 2026 by insidecroydon

A banner in council colours has appeared outside the Purley Pool this week lauding Jason Perry’s role in the (non-)development of the site in what rival politicians have described as a clear breach of election law.
EXCLUSIVE by STEVEN DOWNES

Banned banner: council bosses cleared this Jason Perry promotion to appear one day before election ‘purdah’ began

Elaine Jackson, the council’s £210,000 interim chief executive, has been dragged into a pre-election political row after refusing to remove a large poster outside Purley Pool which promotes Tory Jason Perry in his campaign to be re-elected as Croydon Mayor.

Jackson is supposed to be a neutral public official who next month will be overseeing the conduct of local elections as Croydon’s Returning Officer.

Jackson was promoted by Perry as the council’s head of service after Katherine Kerswell quit Fisher’s Folly last October.

In February this year, Perry authorised an above-inflation pay rise for Jackson and other council directors. Continue reading →

Posted in 2026 council elections, 2026 Croydon Mayor election, Council Tax, Croydon Council, Croydon Greens, Local media, Mayor Jason Perry, Peter Underwood, Polaska, Property, Purley, Purley Pool, Richard Howard, Stuart King | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Councillors wave through 676 flats with just 20% affordable

Posted on April 3, 2026 by insidecroydon

Ugly, even by Croydon standards:

Housing correspondent BARRATT HOLMES on the latest tall towers coming to the skyline of central Croydon

Deep in the middle of a housing crisis, Croydon Council has broken its own rules by granting planning permission to a £200million housing scheme which will provide only 20% affordable homes.

And even by Croydon standards, the three towers proposed for what is being called Tapestry Croydon, sited between the Fairfield Halls and Croydon College, are remarkably ugly, if the architects’ CGIs are anywhere near accurate. Continue reading →

Posted in Brick by Brick, Business, College Green, Croydon Council, Delta Properties, Delta Properties Ltd, Fairfield, Housing, Planning, Property, Tapestry Croydon | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Time running out to register to vote in Croydon local elections

Posted on April 3, 2026 by insidecroydon

Residents reminded that they will need to show photo ID when attending their polling station for the local elections next month

Many Croydon residents will have already received their polling cards, with detailed information of where they can cast their votes in the local elections on Thursday, May 7.

If you have not yet received a polling card, or if you know you are not yet registered to vote, you still have time to register as a voter to have your say in who Croydon’s executive Mayor will be between now and 2030, and to elect up to three councillors for the area where you live.

The deadline to register to vote is midnight on Monday, April 20.

According to Croydon Council: “Registering to vote is quick and easy – it only takes minutes.” Continue reading →

Posted in 2026 council elections, 2026 Croydon Mayor election, Croydon Council | Tagged , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Tooting Common Bio Blitz, Woodfield Pavilion, Sun Apr 26

Posted on April 3, 2026 by insidecroydon

C O M M U N I T Y
A D V E R T I S E M E N T

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Perry dodges scrutiny as council delays refunds of LTN fines

Posted on April 2, 2026 by insidecroydon

On the way out: Croydon has been forced to scrap six unlawful low traffic neighbourhoods. But don’t expect the council to email you offering to refund any fines you might have incurred

CROYDON IN CRISIS: What do you mean, you can’t easily find how to claim a refund of the unlawful low traffic neighbourhood fine you were forced to pay? Do you expect the council to make the repayments system simple and easy?
EXCLUSIVE by STEVEN DOWNES 

A council scrutiny meeting, held last week, was the first opportunity for public debate on the £10million cost of refunding thousands of motorists who were fined for driving through six Croydon low traffic neighbourhood streets that a High Court judge declared to be “unlawful”.

AWOL: part-time Perry did not show up for scrutiny meeting on LTNs

But at the meeting in the Town Hall Chamber, the council director responsible for the borough’s roads, Venetia Reid-Baptiste, was missing. She’s been given the night off, according to one of her colleagues, because she had been at a meeting earlier that day and late the previous night. Those meetings were clearly far more important that being scrutinised over a £10million hole in her departmental budget.

Also conspicuous by their absence was Stephen Lawrence-Orumwense, the council’s senior legal official, and therefore the person ultimately responsible for the omnishambles that saw Croydon spend two years defending the indefensible (what Mayor Jason Perry had said in public).

Lawrence-Orumwense is notorious as the council lawyer who took this website to the High Court after we published “confidential” correspondence that the council had already published on its own website. Lawrence-Orumwense was backed in that futile and costly failure of legal advice by Mayor Jason Perry. Continue reading →

Posted in Alasdair Stewart, Broad Green, Croydon Council, Crystal Palace and Upper Norwood, Environment, Leila Ben-Hassel, London-wide issues, Mayor Jason Perry, Stephen Lawrence-Orumwense, Venetia Reid-Baptiste | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Frith Street stabbing: jury gives guilty verdict on ‘devious killer’

Posted on April 2, 2026 by insidecroydon

Simon Ghebremedhin has been found guilty of the murder of Marjama Osman, who he stabbed in her home on Frith Road in May last year.

Murderer: Simon Ghebremedhin

Ghebremedhin, 33, of Streatham High Road, was found guilty by a jury at Inner London Crown Court. The police described him as “a devious killer”.

Police and emergency services were called to Frith Road, off Church Street in Croydon town centre, just after 9am on Saturday, May 31 last year, following reports of a stabbing.

A passer-by had found the victim unconscious outside the property. Ghebremedhin was also present, with a knife injury to his abdomen.

Police attended with the London Ambulance Service. Ghebremedhin was taken to hospital and subsequently arrested on suspicion of murder.

Osman, 26, was declared dead at the scene from a single stab wound. Continue reading →

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Backpay victory for healthcare assistants at St Helier Hospital

Posted on April 2, 2026 by insidecroydon

Healthcare assistants working at St Helier Hospital in Carshalton and two other hospitals in the area have secured a pay victory and have voted to accept an offer from their employers, with some to receive as much as £7,000 compensation for past underpayments.

St Helier Hospital

Pay deal: healthcare assistants at St Helier and two other hospitals have settled their dispute

Staff at St Helier, at St George’s Hospital, Tooting, and Epsom Hospital took strike action over two days in January, after years of being underpaid for their duties.

“Following the walkouts and renewed negotiations, the hospital employers have now agreed a significant back-pay deal that will see some healthcare assistants receiving more than £7,000 in compensation for work they carried out while on the wrong pay grade,” Unison said.

Those with two or more years’ service will also see an additional £2,204 on their annual salary. Continue reading →

Posted in Health, St Helier Hospital | Tagged , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Town centre multiplex cinema to close in latest blow for Perry

Posted on April 1, 2026 by insidecroydon

KEN LEE, Town Hall reporter, on how Croydon’s failed Mayor has been blindsided, again, by another major loss to the High Street

Blank screens: the Vue multiplex has operated 10 screens in the town centre since 2000

The latest hammerblow to Jason Perry’s bogus election claims that he has Croydon “back on track” and that “the Town Centre is coming back” arrived in voters’ inboxes yesterday, with the announcement that the Vue cinema in Grants, close to the Town Hall on Croydon High Street, is to close next week.

The 10-screen multiplex, with cinemas ranging in size from 88 to 396 seats, has been a feature of the entertainment centre since it opened in 2000.

Vue is behind the listed frontage of Croydon’s “other” department store, Grant’s, or what was once known as “the Harrod’s of south London”. The store closed in 1985, but the entertainment centre that eventually replaced it, after several years of the building standing vacant, helped to retain a vestige of town centre amenity, even after Allders closed and Westfield laid waste to the rest of the town centre with their development blight. Continue reading →

Posted in "Hammersfield", Business, Cinema, Grants, Tokia Square, Whitgift Centre | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 24 Comments

Reed’s £2,400-a-seat cosy curry night with building lobbyists

Posted on April 1, 2026 by insidecroydon

Bob the builder: Steve Reed ((left) sits down for some nosh with housing lobbyists. Here he chats with Paul Brocklehurst, chair of the Land, Planning and Development Foundation

BARRATT HOLMES reports on the Croydon Labour councillors who enjoyed a networking night out with the housing minister 

Steve Reed OBE, the MP for Streatham (and Croydon North if he can ever be bothered), who has previously exhibited an appetite for generous hospitality at football matches, all paid for by the water industry (he was Labour’s lead on environmental matters at the time), has been enjoying curry dinners alongside housing and development lobbyists who happily paid £2,400 per seat.

Reed is the cabinet member in Keir Starmer’s corrupted government in charge of… housing.

Wearing ridiculous, Bob The Builder-style “Build, baby build” helmets, Reed has had his photo smeared across social media by the lobbyists, a signal that they, at least, think that they have the housing minister on their side over issues such as weakening planning rules, removing local council powers and handing property speculators greater freedoms to build on the Green Belt.

Vicky Spratt, the housing correspondent at the i newspaper, reported on the dodgy-looking corporate bash yesterday. Continue reading →

Posted in Chrishni Reshekaron, Christopher Herman, Housing, Steve Reed MP, Streatham and Croydon North, Stuart King, West Thornton | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | 8 Comments

Derren Brown has the tricks to bring the magic back to Croydon

Posted on April 1, 2026 by insidecroydon

Return of the native: might Derren Brown magic up some improvement for Croydon?

Continue reading →

Posted in "Hammersfield", Inside Croydon, Whitgift Centre | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Our news podcast looks at bins, cold cases, LTNs and Reform

Posted on March 31, 2026 by insidecroydon

Ego trip: Saturday’s Reform rally was mostly about Nigel Farage. No questions were allowed from the floor

The new episode of The Croydon Insider, our regular round-table, news panel discussion podcast thingy, looks at recent events in Croydon, including the Reform party’s rally at the Fairfield Halls, where they revealed their candidate for Croydon Mayor – and sparked a storm which has seen around a dozen members quit the party over the imposition of Ben Flook without any local selection process.

The Croydon Insider is premium content for paying subscribers to Inside Croydon, with a panel of guests drawn from our subscribers and contributors. Continue reading →

Posted in 2026 council elections, 2026 Croydon Mayor election, Ben Flook, Community associations, Croydon Insider, Fairfield Halls, Fly tipping, Inside Croydon, Litter Free Norbury, Nadia Azizuddin, Neil Bennett, Refuse collection, Tony Hooker, Under The Flyover, Veolia | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Crowley joins Beddington Independents for election campaign

Posted on March 31, 2026 by insidecroydon

INSIDE SUTTON: The former leader of the Conservative group at the Civic Centre has deferred his retirement to help see off challenges from LibDems and Reform, as ROSE HILL reports

New start: incinerator critic Tim Crowley has switched to the Beddington Independents

Tim Crowley, for seven years the leader of the Conservative opposition on Sutton Council, has abandoned plans for retirement and will be standing for election on May 7 – with the Beddington Independents.

“Independence means I can speak forthrightly, work constructively with councillors of all parties, and deliver the scrutiny and accountability Beddington deserves,” Crowley said today.

Crowley will be standing in Beddington together with incinerator opponents Nick Mattey and Tim Foster. Jillian Green, a Beddington Independent councillor since 2018, is standing down from the council. Green’s intended replacement, Pamela Marsh, died recently after a short illness. Continue reading →

Posted in 2026 council elections, Bobby Dean, Carshalton and Wallington, Nick Mattey, Ruth Dombey, Sutton Council, Tim Crowley, Tim Foster | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Rising costs push Frant Road rugby club ‘to brink’ of closure

Posted on March 31, 2026 by insidecroydon

Streatham and Croydon RFC, one of the oldest rugby clubs in the world, has launched an “emergency appeal” for funds to keep the organisation going.

World Cup-winner: England’s Sadia Kabeya’s first club is at risk of folding

The club has its own ground on Frant Road in Thornton Heath, but is a victim of the cost of living crisis at a time when its membership numbers are not generating the kind of income required to keep the club’s activities viable.

After a couple of encouraging seasons, this term their first XV is planted close to the bottom of their league, Counties 3 Surrey, without a single win or point. They lost their last game 78-0, just the latest of a series of bone-shaking big defeats.

But the biggest match now facing Streatham and Croydon is one for the very survival of the club itself. Continue reading →

Posted in Rugby Union, Sadeya Kabeya, Streatham and Croydon North, Streatham-Croydon RFC, Thornton Heath | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Streatham Choral: Haydn’s The Creation, Cadogan Hall, Apr 11

Posted on March 31, 2026 by insidecroydon

C O M M U N I T Y
A D V E R T I S E M E N T

Continue reading →

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It’s no Flook: dozen Reform members resign over candidate

Posted on March 30, 2026 by insidecroydon

Lies and deceit: Nigel Farage on stage at his Reform rally in the Fairfield Halls on Saturday night. Behind the scenes Reform members were resigning from the grifters’ party

ELECTION EXCLUSIVE: Reform in Croydon is in meltdown, with members resigning over top-down decisions from Farage HQ. WALTER CRONXITE, Political Editor, reports on the Fairfield Halls exercise in onanism, where the real fireworks were going off backstage 

Grifter-in-chief Nigel Farage launched Reform’s London election campaign at the Fairfield Halls on Saturday amid pyrotechnics and his usual, self-regarding rhetoric.

But the real fireworks were going off behind the scenes in Reform’s Croydon branch, with mass resignations over Farage HQ’s imposed mayoral candidate, the ex-Tory Ben Flook.

Dan Milner-Tebbutt, who until last Monday was the local party’s chair and primed to be Reform’s first mayoral candidate in Croydon, yesterday announced that he had quit the party altogether, saying, “Croydon deserves serious politics – politics driven by a love for the borough, not by career ambition.”

Tebbutt’s resignation has been followed by around 10 other disgruntled members quitting, angry at how Farage’s party HQ has imposed Flook on them as their Croydon mayoral candidate. Most of those resigning were to have stood as council candidates in the local elections on May 7. They have left a gaping hole in Reform’s candidate list, with the declaration deadline fast approaching. Continue reading →

Posted in 2026 council elections, 2026 Croydon Mayor election, Ben Flook, Dan Milner-Tebbutt, Jose Joseph, London-wide issues, Mayor Jason Perry, New Addington, New Addington North, Selsdon and Addington Village, Selsdon Vale and Forestdale, Shirley North, Shirley South, Waddon | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 16 Comments

Dance and taxes – Croydonites 2026 is open for applications

Posted on March 30, 2026 by insidecroydon

Are you a theatre maker or performer with an idea that you’ve been itching to present?

Now is your chance. The Croydonites Fringe is returning from July 1 to 5 in venues across Croydon and South Norwood, and they are looking for bold and exciting work from comedy, theatre, dance, music, poetry and more!

Plus there’s Arts Council-funded opportunities for dancers, and a new collaboration for creatives to help with all the mundane and boring stuff that goes with the greasepaint and stagecraft.

The Croydonites Festival celebrated its 10th anniversary in 2025, and featured several acts and shows that had come straight from success at the Edinburgh Festival. The Croydonites Fringe is a relatively recent, and slightly edgier, addition. Continue reading →

Posted in Art, Comedy, Croydonites Festival, Dance, Poetry, Stanley Halls, The Front Room, Theatre, Turf Projects | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

READER OFFER: Save £££s on tickets for the Ideal Home Show

Posted on March 30, 2026 by insidecroydon

The Ideal Home Show returns to Olympia London from April 10-19, bringing its most interactive and experience‑led edition yet to the capital.

And Inside Croydon’s paying subscribers can attend with special discount tickets, saving almost one-third of the entry fee!

Now in its 118th year, the Ideal Home Show  brings together celebrity experts, live demos and hands‑on features across homes, interiors, food, gardening, tech and lifestyle, all under one roof. Continue reading →

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The four supplier risk signals that only AI can catch in time

Posted on March 30, 2026 by insidecroydon

SPONSORED CONTENT

Supplier relationships are central to how modern organisations operate. A single third-party failure, whether financial, regulatory or operational, can trigger consequences that ripple through an entire business.

However, many procurement and finance teams still rely on annual reviews and periodic questionnaires to keep tabs on their supplier base. That approach has its limits. There are four risk signals that AI is best-placed to recognise for resolution. Continue reading →

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From flames to fame, Waddon’s Knox family made their mark

Posted on March 29, 2026 by insidecroydon

Raging inferno: the 1867 fire at Croydon Parish Church destroyed hundreds of years of records, tombs and artefacts. Young Edmund Knox was among the first on the scene

CROYDON CHRONICLES: From the night of the Great Fire of Croydon, DAVID MORGAN tells the story of a family of vicars and bishops, of writers and editors, and Enigma codebreakers

The fire which destroyed Croydon Parish Church in 1867 had a lasting impact on many people. One of them was a teenager at the time who lived near the church and who saw the flames from his home and ran to see if there was anything he could do to help.

Edmund Knox was living in Waddon. He attended the Parish Church and quickly realised the significance of the event unfolding before his eyes. He is reported to have said that the vicar, Rev John Hodgson, would have to be woken and be told of the catastrophe.

Knox lived with his family in a house near the River Wandle and was brought up in a strict household, dominated by religious faith, “in a spartan fashion”.

His father was the Rev George Knox, and his mother was Frances Reynolds, the daughter of George Reynolds, a prominent local Quaker. It was Foster Reynolds, her grandfather, who had purchased an estate in Carshalton through which the River Wandle flowed. Continue reading →

Posted in Church and religions, Croydon Minster, David Morgan, History, Waddon | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Fourth man convicted for ‘brutal’ killing of Michael Afonso

Posted on March 29, 2026 by insidecroydon

More than two years after Michael Afonso was murdered in a brutal gang attack in Thornton Heath just before Christmas 2023, a fourth man has been convicted.

Killer: Ali Abdul Basit is to be sentenced in May

Ali Abdul Basit’s manslaughter and robbery conviction was largely down to forensic evidence, which found his DNA on a cigarette stub he’d left at the scene while waiting for Afonso with his fellow gang members.

The Met describe the conviction as being due to “relentless pursuit for justice”, after Basit fled to Pakistan following the killing.

Michael Patrick Afonso Peixoto was 27 when he was killed, and left a wife and young son. He was the 11th murder victim in Croydon in 2023.

He died after being attacked and stabbed by a group of men in Mayfield Crescent at around 10.30pm on Tuesday, December 19. The suspects drove off in the car Afonso had been driving, a grey Vauxhall Grand X Elite.

The police described the attack as “brutal”. Continue reading →

Posted in Crime, Knife crime, Thornton Heath | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Farm Fest annual fund-raiser, Deen City Farm, Merton, Jun 27

Posted on March 29, 2026 by insidecroydon

C O M M U N I T Y
A D V E R T I S E M E N T

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The Mayor’s record in office has worse delivery than Royal Mail

Posted on March 28, 2026 by insidecroydon

With Tory Jason Perry’s election pledges dropping on residents’ doormats this week and Labour candidate Rowenna Davis publishing her manifesto, the claims and promises of the two front-runners for Croydon Mayor are examined here by ANDREW FISHER

While incumbent Mayor Jason Perry hasn’t (yet) issued a manifesto, his election leaflet sets out what he considers the six key bits of his record, under the title “Lots done. Lots more to do.”

Top of the Mayor’s list is “fixing the finances”, which will be news to both Croydon residents and the government Commissioners alike. This year, the council requested £119million of Exceptional Financial Support, up from £110 million last year, and up from £50m in 2023-2024.

He’s fucked the finances, not fixed them!

And that’s despite hiking our Council Tax by 33% since 2023.

Next up on Perry’s list is “Croydon Town Centre”, about which Perry says, “Businesses are opening… slowly but surely, the town centre is coming back”. The new shops in the Allders building are certainly open, but five times as many shops closed in the Whitgift Centre in 2025 than Westfield opened on North End. Continue reading →

Posted in 2026 council elections, 2026 Croydon Mayor election, Andrew Fisher, Council Tax, Croydon Council, Croydon parks, Fly tipping, Mayor Jason Perry, Rowenna Davis | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 14 Comments

The election night in 1966 when I saw David Winnick win

Posted on March 28, 2026 by insidecroydon

DAVID WHITE pays tribute to the former Croydon Labour MP, David Winnick, who has died, aged 92

Veteran MP: David Winnick was elected in Croydon in 1966 and served another constituency for 38 years

David Winnick, who has died this week, aged 92, served as a Croydon Labour MP in the 1960s.

The very first election count I attended was at Croydon Town Hall on the occasion of the 1966 General Election. I met David Winnick there for the first time. He was the Labour candidate for Croydon South, basically the constituency which was later called Croydon Central.

The constituency had been represented by Sir Richard Thompson, a Tory businessman and baronet. Thompson was standing for re-election. On the first count Thompson was declared to be the winner by a slender margin of 100 votes or so. Winnick and his agent, Syed Shah, asked for a recount.

Shah owned a newsagents on Croydon High Street and had already established a reputation as an efficient Labour organiser. On the second count, Shah spotted a bundle of 100 votes for Winnick which had mistakenly been put in the pile for Thompson.

So the eventual outcome was a win for Winnick by 81 votes and a Labour gain in Harold Wilson’s landslide victory. Conservatives Bernard Wetherill (Croydon North East) and Fred Harris (Croydon North West) were the other Croydon MPs elected that day, almost exactly 60 years ago. Continue reading →

Posted in Croydon Central, Croydon South, David White | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

‘Modern-Day Art’ Exhibition at Croydon Art Space, to Apr 30

Posted on March 28, 2026 by insidecroydon

C O M M U N I T Y
A D V E R T I S E M E N T

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Reform’s candidate for Mayor bottles it ahead of Farage visit

Posted on March 27, 2026 by insidecroydon

ELECTION EXCLUSIVE: Less than 48 hours before he was due to be unveiled at the Fairfield Halls as his party’s pick to head their campaign in Croydon, Dan Milner-Tebbutt resigned. Political editor WALTER CRONXITE reveals his replacement, another Conservative defector to the party of grifters 

Just hours after this website published its report about Daniel Tebbutt switching roles at Croydon Reform, standing down as chair of the local party in order to take on a “new role”, than Dan Milner-Tebbutt (as he is now known following his recent marriage) announced on social media that he was resigning as the party’s candidate for Croydon Mayor.

Campaign in disarray: Nigel Farage’s party is on to its fourth mayoral candidate in barely a year

Reform’s grifter-in-chief Nigel Farage is expected in Croydon tomorrow, for a “walkabout” at Central Parade in New Addington from 3pm, before a £5-a-ticket “rally” at the council-owned arts centre, the Fairfield Halls.

There, Farage is to launch his party’s London local election campaign, and was also expected to reveal the identity of their Croydon mayoral candidate.

But with the party’s ratings in the polls slipping, and problems in finding people to stand as local election candidates, tomorrow Farage will arrive in a borough where Reform is in a state of disarray, its social media presence having been erased completely and around 10 of their selected council election candidates having quit, in addition to Milner-Tebbutt.

Reform Ltd in Croydon is now on to its fourth mayoral candidate in little more than a year, although the latest one does appear to have a pulse. Continue reading →

Posted in 2026 council elections, 2026 Croydon Mayor election, Ben Flook, Dan Milner-Tebbutt | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 8 Comments