CROYDON IN CRISIS: From the council that brought us housing scandals Brick by Brick and Regina Road, now we have temporary accommodation being provided 10 miles away in an abandoned pub which last year was being used as an illegal cannabis farm. By STEVEN DOWNES
Waste tip: the White Swan pub’s beer garden has become layered in rubbish. Croydon Council is paying to accommodate homeless people here
While “architect-designed” “luxury” apartments, built in Coulsdon with public money by Brick by Brick are being rented for £2,400 per month, cash-strapped Croydon Council under Tory Mayor Jason Perry is providing accommodation for homeless families amid squalor above a disused pub in Charlton which last year was being used a squat and an illegal cannabis farm.
An investigation by local news site The Greenwich Wire has confirmed that Croydon Council has taken rooms above The White Swan pub in Charlton in SE7 – 10 miles from the Town Hall.
The pub has been closed and boarded up since 2020, when the rent demands from its Isle of Man-based landlords became unaffordable. The White Swan, in an area called The Village, has been the subject of various redevelopment planning applications, all unsuccessful (so far).
The White Swan is on Greenwich’s list of heritage buildings, and is in what is supposed to be a conservation area.
The owners, a company called Mendoza, bought The White Swan for £900,000 in 2015. They have applied to convert the rooms above the pub into flats, but in March 2023, Greenwich Council’s planners refused permission.
The Greenwich Wire reports: “Work went ahead anyway, and the rooms were squatted.” The following September, a cannabis farm was discovered in the pub’s bar and cellar. “Locals voiced frustration at a lack of action from the police and Greenwich Council,” the website reports.
Closed for business: The White Swan, in The Village conservation area in Charlton, has been closed and boarded up since 2020. Pics: The Greenwich Wire
It seems that Croydon Council is nonetheless using public money to rent rooms at the disused pub, possibly for at least two families – according to locals who have noticed letter boxes installed and wheelie bins marked “Flat 1” and “Flat 2” appeared outside this week.
“Neighbours say there have been signs of people living at the pub, including Deliveroo deliveries, for the past two months,” the Greenwich Wire reports. The neighbours have also reported piles of rubbish dumped in the pub’s beer garden while people were living there.
The website says: “Local people have set up a campaign to save the pub, and a number of neighbours have been keeping an eye on what is going on. One photo shared with The Greenwich Wire this month showed piles of rubbish said to have been dumped in the old beer garden while people were living on the premises, although at least some of it appears to have been cleaned up since.”
Drug den: the rooms above the pub were being used as a squat, while a cannabis farm was discovered in the cellar last year
An email from Greenwich Council planners said that a surprise inspection had been carried out at The White Swan at the end of March.
The council official said that one household had been placed by Croydon in ground-floor accommodation that had been “’traditionally used as a residential unit’,” the Wire says, “thought to be an outbuilding in the beer garden”.
The website quotes one concerned neighbour questioning whether the rooms are fit for human habitation. “You can tell there are people living above the pub because there are lights on and off at night, and the bins give it away now,” they said.
Croydon Council says that the “matter is being investigated”.
A spokesperson told The Greenwich Wire: “We are reviewing our property procurement processes to ensure that we continue to offer our residents properties that are good quality and compliant with current standards and legal requirements.”
All of which the Council Tax-payers of Croydon might have expected our council officials ought to have done before putting residents, some potentially vulnerable, in such dubious accommodation.
“We will work closely with our local authority partner and take actions as needed,” the spokesperson from Croydon’s propaganda department said.
Greenwich Council says that it is sending in its environmental health team to conduct an urgent inspection.
Read more: Court condemns council’s ‘inhuman’ treatment of disabled man
Read more: Brick by Brick’s unsold homes are costing Croydon a fortune
Read more: Feeling the heat as residents are stung with 775% price hike
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ROTTEN BOROUGH AWARDS: In January 2024, Croydon was named among the country’s rottenest boroughs for a SEVENTH successive year in the annual round-up of civic cock-ups in Private Eye magazine
Perry and the Conservatives were obsessed about moving homeless people out of the town centre but when they’ve been asked where those people were moved to, they have refused to answer. Good investigative journalism appears to have uncovered what little care was shown about where people were sent by this Council.
It’s quite clear that the Conservatives don’t really care about people, just how things look. Homeless people on the streets of Croydon remind everyone of the awful suffering resulting from years of Conservative Government – and they are desperate to hide that away, especially during an election campaign.
Horatio Nelson – I see no ships
Jason Perry – I see no homeless
This situation is much bigger than everyone thinks , I myself had to stay in temp accommodation which was not fit for humans and fire safety snd electrical problems along with roof leaks . These premises are owned by rich landlords.