Trams caught speeding 128 times since Sandilands crash

Posted on August 18, 2017 by

There were 128 speeding incidents recorded on the tram network little more than six months after the Sandilands derailment last November, according to official figures from City Hall.

The derailment at Sandilands last November was caused by the tram travelling too fast

Seven people were killed and 58 injured when a tram, going faster than the speed limit for that section of track, derailed and overturned on a tight bend near the Sandilands stop on November 9 last year.

Since the tram service resumed, new speed limits and additional speed monitoring has been introduced across the network, which comprises about 27 miles of track between Beckenham Junction, through Croydon and Mitcham, to Wimbledon.

According to figures provided by the Mayor of London to a question from London Assembly Member Caroline Pidgeon, the speeding incidents recorded between November 2016 and the end of June this year have resulted in four cases where disciplinary action has been taken against the drivers. Continue reading →

Posted in Addiscombe, Caroline Pidgeon, London Assembly, Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, Sandilands derailment, TfL, Tramlink, Transport | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Sutton pipes up with another £1m contract for binmen Veolia

Posted on August 18, 2017 by

BELLE MONT, our Sutton reporter, has been doing a bit of digging around a heating network’s pipes and uncovered millions of pounds of public cash

Not for the first time, there’s a bit of a stink coming from Sutton’s civic offices, and it’s not just the noxious smell of a rubbish-burning incinerator.

Sutton Council’s heat network company, set up to flog off the heating generated by the incinerator at Beddington Lane, has finally released the names of two companies that will construct and maintain its pipe network in deals which will be worth millions of pounds.

Simon Woodward: good at networks

Both of them have a connection with Simon Woodward, who until recently was hired by Sutton Council as a consultant to oversee the setting-up of the heating company, called SDEN (Sutton Decentralised Energy Network). Sources in Sutton have suggested that the day rate for consultants such as Woodward is north of £500 per day.

Last week, Inside Croydon reported how SDEN will be charging social housing tenants on a new estate 475 per cent more for their heat than anywhere else in the borough – the sky-high prices necessary in order to make the economic case for heating from the incinerator. Viridor’s Beddington incinerator will supply the heat, Sutton, Croydon and two other boroughs will deliver the rubbish (for “fuel”) as part of a £1billion, 25-year deal.

At a meeting as recently as last Friday, details of the contracts SDEN were to award were denied to members of the board of Opportunity Sutton, the LibDem-controlled council’s umbrella organisation which,  on behalf of the borough’s residents, is supposed to have an overview of all SDEN’s operations. Continue reading →

Posted in Croydon Council, London-wide issues, Refuse collection, Sutton Council, Veolia, Waste incinerator | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Women’s rugby training camp, Frant Road, Aug 22

Posted on August 18, 2017 by

Continue reading →

Posted in Rugby Union, Sport, Streatham-Croydon RFC | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Croydon just about ‘average’ for delivering ‘affordable’ homes

Posted on August 17, 2017 by

Croydon’s only just about average when it comes to delivering affordable housing.

Croydon Council is building 1,000 new homes, but not one of them is a council house

That’s according to figures from the Mayor of London, which shows Croydon outside the top 10 London boroughs for building housing that is “affordable” (which of itself is a misnomer, but more of that later) in the three years, 2013-2016.

Only 25 per cent of housing built in Croydon in that period was “affordable”. Continue reading →

Posted in Boris Johnson, Brick by Brick, Croydon Council, Housing, Jo Negrini, London-wide issues, Mayor of London, Planning, Sadiq Khan, Tony Newman | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Stanley invites you to bring a baby to meet old man Ove

Posted on August 17, 2017 by

Stanley’s Film Club has added another screening to their August programme for our Bring Along Baby strand.

They will be showing A Man Called Ove at 10.30am on Thursday, August 31 at Harris Academy, South Norwood (4 Cumberlow Ave, London, SE25 6AE).

Bring along baby screenings allow parents and carers with babies under the age of 12 months to discover quality independent cinema – without having to find a babysitter.

There’s appropriate sound levels, baby changing areas and plenty of space for prams and buggies.

Refreshments available onsite, including filter coffee, tea, water and popcorn. Adults without babies, and children over the age of one year, are not permitted to attend Bring Along Baby screenings. Continue reading →

Posted in Cinema, South Norwood, Stanley's Film Club | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Planners ignored equalities law for South Norwood flats

Posted on August 17, 2017 by

The council’s under-fire planning department may have broken the law in its rush to push through a controversial Brick by Brick development on a social housing estate in South Norwood.

The existing residents on Auckland Rise face two years of disruption as the council builds on their lawns

Residents around Church Road, Auckland Rise and Sylvan Hill maintain that the council failed to fulfill a legal duty to conduct an equalities consultation before granting planning permission for Brick by Brick – the council-owned housing developer – to build blocks of flats on grassed areas and garages around their estate.

One of the existing blocks on the estate consists of more than a dozen flats which are occupied by refugees, some elderly and disabled residents, and others with mental health issues.

According to the residents’ group, none were consulted by the council for the purposes of the application, as the planning authority is legally required to do. Continue reading →

Posted in Brick by Brick, Colm Lacey, Croydon Council, Jo Negrini, Paul Scott, Planning, Property, South Norwood | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Consultants’ parks plan to ‘manage them at less or no cost’

Posted on August 17, 2017 by

CROYDON COMMENTARY: The borough’s parks will soon only receive funding if they manage to make money, through running private events and clubs. PERCY (not their real name*), someone with close links to the council’s parks department, offers this insider’s point of view

Most of Croydon’s cherished parks are soon to be left in the care of private contractors and volunteers

Just prior to the 2014 council elections, the then Conservative-run council awarded the landscape management contract for the borough’s parks to the lowest bidder they could find. Unsurprisingly, the contractor turned out to be far better at cutting corners than they were at cutting grass.

This hasn’t stopped Croydon’s Conservative politicians blaming the now Labour-run council for the poor quality of service. But then that’s what passes for “politics” at Croydon Town Hall. Continue reading →

Posted in Croydon Council, Croydon parks, Environment, Quadron | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment