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Category Archives: John Laing Integrated Services
Library deal questioned as council blacklists the blacklisters
Croydon Council is set to stop using building contractors that have blacklisted workers for their union affiliations, following Labour winning last week’s local elections, the trade magazine Building is reporting. The policy of the new council could also place Carillion, … Continue reading
Posted in Carillion, Libraries, URV
Tagged Carillion, CCURV, Croydon, John Laing, Labour, Libraries, Tony Newman
3 Comments
Let’s make our libraries the cornerstones of our communities
VOTE 2014: TIMOTHY GODFREY, spokesman on arts and culture for the local Labour group, outlines his party’s policy for the borough’s marginalised and privatised public library service Something has gone terribly wrong at Croydon libraries. When the then Labour Council … Continue reading
Posted in 2014 council elections, Art, Carillion, David Lean Cinema Campaign, John Laing Integrated Services, Libraries, Riesco Collection, Timothy Godfrey
Tagged Croydon, Croydon Central Library, Croydon Council, Crystal Palace and Upper Norwood, David Lean Cinema, Labour, Libraries, New Addington, Timothy Godfrey, Tory
2 Comments
Carillion cuts jobs just weeks after taking over libraries
Up to eight professionals working across Croydon’s network of 13 branch libraries face redundancy, just a few weeks after a firm of builders which had never pitched for the job took over the running of the borough’s libraries. Four of … Continue reading
Posted in Carillion, Croydon Council, John Laing Integrated Services, Libraries, Tim Pollard, Timothy Godfrey
Tagged Carillion, Conservative, Council Tax, Croydon, Croydon Central Library, Croydon Council, Fisher's Folly, JLIS, John Laing, John Laing Integrated Services, Labour, Libraries, Library, London Borough of Croydon, Tim Pollard, Timothy Godfrey, Tory
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Boris, the NFL, libraries and precious crockery: iC’s 2013
As we approach 2014 and all that may have to offer, here’s the 10 most-read iC articles of 2013 – an eclectic mix of politics, exclusive news stories, sport, arts reviews and controversy. With more than half a million page views … Continue reading
Posted in "Hammersfield", 2012 Olympics, 2014 council elections, 2015 General Election, Andrew Pelling, Art, Boris Johnson, Business, Cane Hill, Centrale, Croydon Council, Education, Housing, Inside Croydon, John Laing Integrated Services, Jon Rouse, Libraries, London-wide issues, Mayor of London, Museum of Croydon, Planning, Riesco Collection, Roke Primary, Schools, Tramlink, Transport, URV, Waddon, Whitgift Centre, Whitgift Foundation, Whitgift School
Tagged Andrew Pelling, Cane Hill Hospital, Croydon, Croydon Museum, Harris Federation, Lawrence Okoye, London Borough of Croydon, Whitgift School
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Leaks in £140m council offices cause more problems
Florid-faced Mike Fisher, the Conservative leader of Croydon Council, is likely to be more red-faced than usual at tonight’s Town Hall meeting, as it emerges that there is a leak in the roof of his flagship new council headquarters offices, … Continue reading
Library operators Carillion’s shady record on blacklistings
Angela Merkel, the Chancellor of Germany, is not alone in being spied upon by her “friends”. The practice has been happening a lot closer to home, even in the workplace, and conducted on behalf of one firm that is coming … Continue reading
Laing exit library business after taking over in Croydon
So, this is how Conservative-run Croydon Council does “business”… The council consults residents about library services. After receiving an overwhelming response that the people of Croydon want all their public libraries maintained and to continue to be run by the … Continue reading
£30m library deal referred for scrutiny – by report’s author
It was past 9pm last night, Bank Holiday Monday, when the official Croydon Council Twitter feed spluttered into life (double time for someone in the press office, perhaps?), offering a link to some new content on the official council website. … Continue reading
Pollard hands £30m library deal on a plate to builders Laings
Croydon’s secretive council is at it again, this time sneaking out a report just before the Bank Holiday weekend that announces that Tim Pollard, the deputy leader of the Conservative-run council, has decided that he will award an eight-year contract … Continue reading
It’s ordinary people who pay for council’s £43m incompetence
The Sage of Waddon, ARFUR TOWCRATE, on the injustices created by Croydon Council as its allows its mountain of uncollected Council Tax to grow ever larger A few years ago I received a court summons from Croydon Council for not … Continue reading
Redundancies and four-day opening at Upper Norwood library
So much for Croydon Council’s promises of no library closures. The Conservative-controlled council which has already axed the mobile library service and has decided to close New Addington’s purpose-built library to replace it with a few book shelves in the … Continue reading
Residents ill-served by Town Hall self-serving politics
CROYDON COMMENTARY: Council meetings at the Town Hall are poor theatre and rarely achieve much, despite considerable public cost, as this week’s emergency library meeting demonstrated, says STEVEN DOWNES What are Croydon Council meetings at the Town Hall for? What … Continue reading
Trebles all round? Croydon return pot-less from awards
Four tables booked at a five-star West End hotel. Around 40 councillors and council staff attending. Something like £28,000 spent on a night’s gala dinner, booze and jollity. And not a single award won. That is the summary of this … Continue reading
Council accused of being “out of control” over libraries
Croydon’s Conservative-run council was tonight accused of being “out of control” and mis-spending Council Tax money in an “obscene way”. Timothy Godfrey, the opposition Labour spokesman on libraries, took the opportunity of an emergency meeting at the Town Hall to … Continue reading
Questions Pollard must answer over libraries shambles
Tim “Yes but No but Yes” Pollard ought to come under intense pressure at an emergency meeting at Croydon Town Hall tonight over his handling of the tendering process for the outsourcing of the management of the borough’s libraries if … Continue reading
Emergency meeting called on sell-off of public libraries
There will be an emergency meeting of Croydon Council on Monday evening, when Tim Pollard will be called to account for the shambolic handling of the Conservative-led administration’s attempts to sell-off the borough’s libraries. The opposition Labour group has called … Continue reading
No debate and no questions, Tories exercise an abuse of power
Following Tuesday night’s bruising council budget meeting, in which he led a walk-out by the opposition Labour group, TONY NEWMAN, pictured, in an exclusive column, says something has to change Reflecting on the events in Croydon Town Hall this week … Continue reading
Posted in Council Tax, Croydon Council, John Laing Integrated Services, Libraries, Mike Fisher, Tony Newman
Tagged Conservatives, Council Tax, Croydon, England, Labour, Mayor, Tory
2 Comments
Library deal collapse leaves “£1m black hole” in budget
The last-minute cancellation by John Laing Integrated Services of the deal to privatise Croydon’s libraries has created a £1 million “black hole” in the Conservative-run council’s budget for the coming year, according to a senior opposition councillor. Timothy Godfrey, the … Continue reading
Laings quit £30m Croydon libraries privatisation deal
Croydon Council’s plan to privatise our public libraries was in ruins tonight, as its hand-picked partners were revealed to have walked away from the £30 million, eight-year deal. And Eddy Arram, the Tory mayor in charge of tonight’s meeting at … Continue reading
Council takes four tables at awards – against Pickles’ advice
Around 40 Conservative councillors, senior Croydon Council officials and their chums will be attending the annual binge of champagne-swilling and back-slapping at a five-star West End hotel next month that is the Local Government Chronicle Awards, all at a cost … Continue reading
What councillors say: gallery move is “improved service”
On the premise of cost-cutting, our council is about to move the local studies archive into an exhibition space at the Clocktower, thus managing to find a way to spend public money on compromising two aspects of cultural provision at … Continue reading
Posted in Activities, Art, Croydon Council, David Lean Cinema Campaign, History, John Laing Integrated Services, Libraries, Tim Pollard
Tagged Archive, Clocktower, Croydon, Monday
2 Comments
National Libraries Day: a pledge for Croydon
TIMOTHY GODFREY restates a commitment to hand the running of the borough’s libraries back to the communities Today is National Libraries Day. Croydon should be celebrating a renaissance in our libraries. Two years ago, the communities of Croydon defeated the … Continue reading
Council to get glitzy slap on the back from its contractors again
The leadership at Croydon Council – motto “Proud to Swerve” – has so little to celebrate in its mismanagement of the borough that it all-too-often goes out of its way to boast about often bogus accolades. Inside Croydon has highlighted … Continue reading
