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Category Archives: Merton
Fewer than 100 votes in it between Perry and Davis for Mayor
Two weeks today, Croydon voters go to the polls to elect the Mayor of Croydon, with the bookies and pundits saying that in this corner of the capital, the race is just too close to call. Political Editor WALTER CRONXITE … Continue reading
Posted in 2026 council elections, 2026 Croydon Mayor election, Chris Philp MP, Council Tax, Croydon Greens, Croydon South, London-wide issues, Mayor Jason Perry, Merton, New Addington, Peter Underwood, Richard Howard, Rick Howard, Rowenna Davis, Steve Reed MP, Sutton Council, Waddon, Zack Polanski
Tagged 2026 council elections, 2026 Croydon mayoral election, 2026 local elections, Ben Flook, Conservative, Council Tax, Croydon, Croydon Council, Green Party, Labour, Liberal Democrats, London, Major Richard Howard, Mayor Jason Perry, Peter Underwood, Reform Ltd, Richard Howard, Rowenna Davis, Tory
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Election countdown: splintered voting could see Davis win
Less than one month until election day, our Political Editor, WALTER CRONXITE, looks at the latest polls and by-elections to assess – or guess – how the Croydon electorate will vote for executive Mayor on May 7 While the government … Continue reading
Posted in 2026 council elections, 2026 Croydon Mayor election, Ben Flook, Council Tax, Croydon Greens, Croydon South, London-wide issues, Merton, Peter Underwood, Richard Howard, Rick Howard, Shirley North, Sutton Council, Tony Newman, Zack Polanski
Tagged 2026 council elections, 2026 Croydon mayoral election, 2026 local elections, Ben Flook, Cllr Ria Patel, Conservative, Council Tax, Croydon, Croydon Council, Croydon South, Green Party, Labour, Liberal Democrats, London, Major Richard Howard, Mayor Jason Perry, Peter Underwood, Reform Ltd, Richard Howard, Rowenna Davis, Tory
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GMB to hold strike ballot over weighting pay in Merton schools
Support staff working at schools in Merton are to be balloted for strike action over a long-standing pay discrepancy. Teaching Assistants and school support staff in Merton receive London Weighting at the Outer London rate. Yet their teacher colleagues in … Continue reading
Posted in Education, Merton, Schools
Tagged GMB, GMB Union, Labour, London, London weighting, Merton, Merton Council, Ross Garrod
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‘If you think parks are protected, think again’ says CPRE report
Despite receiving £23m in grants for the up-keep of Croydon’s parks, only eight of the council’s 127 open spaces have Green Flag status. GIANELLA A BASILE looks over a new report which details more than 50 green spaces under threat … Continue reading
Posted in Ashburton Park, Bromley Council, Croydon Council, Croydon parks, Environment, Gianella A Basile, Heathfield House, Housing, Lambeth Council, Lloyd Park, London-wide issues, Mayor Jason Perry, Merton, Norwood Grove, Refuse collection, Ria Patel, Steve Reed MP, Uncategorized
Tagged CPRE London, Croydon, Croydon Council, Dame Judi Dench, Friends of Lloyd Park, Gianella A Basile, Green Belt, Heathfield House, Lloyd Park, London Borough of Croydon, Metropolitan Open Land, Norwood Grove, Steve Reed OBE, TCV, The Conservation Volunteers
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Drivers in Bromley and Sutton put on red alert over potholes
Road users in Bromley and Sutton need to exercise extra care to avoid troublesome pot holes. That’s according to a register of poorly-maintained roads issued over the weekend by the Department for Transport, which has both south London boroughs given … Continue reading
Posted in Bromley Council, Cycling, Kingston, Merton, Sutton Council, TfL, Transport
Tagged Bromley, Bromley Council, Conservative, Croydon, Croydon Council, Department for Transport, DfT, Edmund King, Heidi Alexander, Labour, Liberal Democrats, Mayor Jason Perry, Merton, Merton Council, Potholes, Sutton, Sutton Council, TfL, The AA, Tory, Transport for London
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Build, baby! Build! 626 flats in Mitcham and none ‘affordable’
Housing correspondent, BARRATT HOLMES, on a developer-friendly decision which might yet set the trend for all of London This is what you get when you “Build, baby! Build!” Merton Council has granted planning approval for 626 homes on the Mitcham … Continue reading
Posted in "Hammersfield", Business, Housing, London-wide issues, Merton, Mitcham, Property, Steve Reed MP, Whitgift Centre
Tagged Berkeley Homes, Build Baby Build, GLA, Greater London Authority, Hammersfield, Housing secretary, Labour, Meron, Merton Council, Mitcham, Mitcham Gasworks, St William, Steve Reed OBE, Westfield, Whitgift Centre
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Eight people held as slaves for months at Mitcham car wash
Police used Google Translate to speak with captives when they carried out a raid following information from a 15-year-old who was in a group being held against their will A man has been jailed after a police investigation into modern-day … Continue reading
Posted in Crime, Mitcham
Tagged Hewa Margai, Metropolitan Police, Mitcham, Mitcham car wash, Modern Day Slavery, Modern Slavery Unit
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Croydon’s 6.6% unemployment rate is among worst in capital
Croydon has one of the worst unemployment rates in London, according to the latest figures. There are 1.8million unemployed across the country, which the Office for National Statistics said, outside the covid pandemic, is the highest level nationally since August … Continue reading
Posted in Bromley Council, Business, Lambeth Council, London-wide issues, Merton, Southwark Council, Sutton Council
Tagged Bromley, Budget, Budget 2025, Chancellor Rachel Reeves, Conservative, Croydon, Department of Work and Pensions, DWP, Jobseekers Allowance, Labour, Lambeth, London, Merton, Office for National Statistics, ONS, Rachel Reeves, Southwark, Sutton, Tory, Underemployment, unemployment
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Two Merton police stations to close in latest Met cut-backs
Croydon, Sutton and Bromley stations among those to operate on reduced opening hours in future under the latest police budget cuts Wimbledon and Mitcham are among 10 London police stations facing permanent closure under the latest version of cost-cutting measures … Continue reading
Posted in Bexley, Boris Johnson, Bromley Council, Crime, Kingston, Lewisham, London-wide issues, Mayor of London, Merton, Policing, Sadiq Khan, Sutton Council
Tagged Assistant Commissioner Matt Twist, Bexley, Bexleyheath, Brixton, Bromley, Croydon, Croydon Police Station, Kingston, Lavender Hill, London, London Assembly, Mayor, Mayor Khan, Mayor Sadiq Khan, Mayor Sir Sadiq Khan, Metropolitan Police, Mitcham Police Station, Plumstead, Sir Sadiq Khan, Sutton Police Station, Walworth, Wimbledon Police Station
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Help turn the tide for our waterways with the Big River Watch
Environmental charity wants the public to join in with an important citizen science survey this month While multi-national water monopolies and the government continue to fail the environment and the people by allowing millions of gallons of sewage and effluent … Continue reading
Posted in Activities, Croydon parks, Education, Environment, London-wide issues, Merton, Mitcham, Sutton Council, Wandle Park, Wandsworth Council, Wildlife
Tagged Big River Watch, Carshalton, Carshalton Ponds, Croydon, London, Mitcham, River Wandle, Rivers Trust, South Croydon, Sutton, Waddon Ponds, Wandle, Wandle Park
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Charity transfers Mitcham almshouses to ensure best care
Croydon Almshouses, a charity which traces its history to 1447, has announced that it has transferred some of the almshouses in its care to Mitcham Garden Village, another housing charity. Mary Tate’s Almshouses in Mitcham have provided homes since the … Continue reading
Blue-light call out as pet tortoise causes fire in Mitcham flat
There was no mystery about the cause of a fire in a block of flats on London Road, Mitcham, last week: the London Fire Brigade is saying that a pet tortoise started it. The Brigade rescued the tortoise and a … Continue reading
Posted in London Fire Brigade, Mitcham
Tagged LFB, London Fire Brigade, London Road, Mitcham
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Water supplies returning to normal after Mitcham burst main
Thames Water say that supplies to households affected by yesterday’s burst water main in Mitcham should be back to normal today. Thousands of homes and businesses in postcodes CR0, CR2, CR4, CR7 and SW16 were affected by the supply outage … Continue reading
Posted in Mitcham, Thames Water
Tagged Croydon, Mitcham, Norbury, Streatham, Thames Water, Thornton Heath
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Five postcodes affected by burst water main in Mitcham
A burst water main in Mitcham this morning disrupted water supplies to households across five postcodes in Croydon and Streatham. Croydon Council described the burst main as “a major incident”. The water main burst was on Commonside East, near Mitcham … Continue reading
Police name Leon Anderson as the victim of Mitcham murder
The police have named the man killed in a stabbing at his home in Maple Close, Mitcham, on Monday night as Leon Anderson. He was 39. The man charged with his murder, Kemuel Gambicky-Forbes, 24, of Deer Park Gardens, appeared in … Continue reading
Posted in Crime, Knife crime, Merton, Mitcham, Policing
Tagged Eastfields, Kemuel Gambicky-Forbes, knife crime, Leon Anderson, Maple Close, Metropolitan Police, Mitcham
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Police arrest 24-year-old man in connection to Mitcham murder
A 24-year-old man has been arrested following a fatal stabbing in Mitcham on Monday night. Around 7.30pm on Monday, police were called to an address in Maple Close, off Oakleigh Way, Eastfields. A 39-year-old man was treated at the scene … Continue reading
Posted in Crime, Knife crime, Merton, Mitcham, Policing
Tagged Eastfields, knife crime, Maple Close, Metropolitan Police, Mitcham
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Fond sporting memories played out on Norbury’s fine pitches
NEIL BENNETT, the former BBC News reporter, hopes that plans for the redevelopment of a sports ground in Norbury will at least restore some of its past sporting glories It was just the Westminter Bank Sports Ground in the 1950s … Continue reading
Posted in Business, Housing, Lambeth Council, Merton, Neil Bennett, Norbury, Planning
Tagged Merton Council, NatWest Sports Ground, Neil Bennett, Norbury, Peter Loader, Surrey cricket, Turle Road
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Councillor slams ‘shameful and deceitful’ waste figures
DODGY LEAFLETS: Local elections are still more than a year away, but the colourful flyers with carefully crafted weasel words are already beginning to appear on residents’ doormats. Not all are overtly from political parties, but as BELLE MONT reports, … Continue reading
Posted in 2026 council elections, Business, Croydon Council, Environment, Kingston, Merton, Nick Mattey, Refuse collection, Suez waste treatment plant, Sutton Council, Veolia, Waste incinerator
Tagged Beddington, Beddington incinerator, Beddington Lane incinerator, Croydon, Croydon Council, Kingston, Kingston Council, Liberal Democrats, Merton, Merton Council, Nick Mattey, South London Waste Partnership, Sutton, Sutton Council, Tim Martin, Veolia, Viridor, Waste recycling
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‘Environmental disaster’ on Wandle after diesel spills into river
A Sutton MP has called the latest pollution spill into the River Wandle an “environmental disaster”, after an estimated 4,000 litres of diesel was released into the rare chalk stream yesterday. Officials from Merton Council, crews from the London Fire … Continue reading
Plans submitted for 288 homes on Norbury sports ground
Housing correspondent, BARRATT HOLMES, looks at a planning application for a £75m scheme that the developers hoped you might never notice What do you mean, you had no idea that there have been plans submitted for a massive development of … Continue reading
Posted in Business, Environment, Housing, Lambeth Council, London-wide issues, Merton, Nicola Townsend, Norbury, Norbury Park, Planning, Uncategorized
Tagged Angela Rayner, Croydon, Dorothea Hodge, Housing, Merton Council, NatWest Sports Ground, Norbury, Norbury and Pollards Hill, Ruach City Church, Streatham Vale, Turle Road
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#Binmageddon: Now Croydon named worst in UK for fly-tipping
CROYDON IN CRISIS: Just weeks after the borough was named ‘the filthiest in London’ because of its poor bin collection rate, further data shows the cash-strapped council forking out £1m to clear nearly 40,000 reported incidents of fly-tipping in the … Continue reading
Posted in Business, Croydon Council, Environment, Fly tipping, Kingston, Merton, Refuse collection, Sutton Council, Veolia, Waste incinerator
Tagged #Binmageddon, Conservative, Croydon, Croydon Council, Fly-tipping, Labour, Mayor Jason Perry, SLWP, South London Waste Partnership, Tory, Veolia
14 Comments
Children’s theatre receives £50,000 grant for new play garden
Wimbledon, the spiritual home of British tennis, strawberries and cream, Pimm’s and Henman Hill, has donated £50,000 to the nearby Polka children’s theatre to instal special sensory play equipment in their garden. The Wimbledon Foundation Garden at the theatre has … Continue reading
Posted in Art, Education, Merton, Outside Croydon, Schools, Theatre, Uncategorized
Tagged London, Polka Theatre, Wimbledon, Wimbledon tennis
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