Category Archives: Tim Crowley

Investigators apologise after sending reports to wrong person

CARL SHILTON, our Sutton investigations editor, on the latest self-inflicted crisis to hit LibDem council leader Ruth Dombey and her increasingly rattled sidekick Jayne McCoy A director at a company specialising in investigating complaints over the conduct of local authority … Continue reading

Posted in Barry Lewis, Environment, Jayne McCoy, Marian James, Nick Mattey, Planning, Ruth Dombey, Sutton Council, Tim Crowley, Waste incinerator | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Council error sees £250,000 in benefits overpaid since 2016

Incompetence from Sutton Housing Partnership and their law department has seen bailiffs pay a visit to Sutton Council offices over an unpaid bill. By our Sutton investigations reporter, CARL SHILTON Sutton’s usually sedate council budget-setting meeting took place on Monday, … Continue reading

Posted in Sutton Council, Tim Crowley | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Dombey survives but Sutton results leave LibDems scarred

CARL SHILTON at the election count reports on how senior Liberal Democrats lost their council positions while their party clung on to power, as Labour won their first seats for 20 years The election fight in Sutton turned feral as … Continue reading

Posted in 2022 council elections, Catherine Gray, Jayne McCoy, Jenny Batt, Luke Taylor, Marian James, Neil Garratt, Nick Mattey, Ruth Dombey, Sutton Council, Tim Crowley, Tom Drummond, Waste incinerator | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Half of Sutton LibDem councillors quitting at May’s elections

Defending the indefensible, whether it is the dodgy deals over the council’s SDEN heat network, the appalling treatment of families with SEND children, or some of the ruling group’s more under-hand conduct, has taken its toll, writes our Civic Offices … Continue reading

Posted in 2022 council elections, Catherine Gray, Charlie Mansell, Elliot Colburn, Jayne McCoy, Jenny Batt, Neil Garratt, Nick Mattey, Outside Croydon, Ruth Dombey, Sutton Council, Tim Crowley, Tom Drummond | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Sutton firm puts SEND children to back of lessons queue

Loss-making council company prioritises profit-generating clients over legal responsibilities for the education of some of the borough’s most vulnerable children. By CARL SHILTON Parents of Sutton children with SEND have been lied to by their local council, as it has … Continue reading

Posted in Education, Marian James, Schools, SEND, Sutton Council, Tim Crowley | Tagged , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Man behind failing SDEN’s plan is re-hired on £800 per day

EXCLUSIVE: LibDem-controlled council accused of ‘double dipping’ after it reveals it ‘won’ £310,000 grant to fund work on extending its misfiring heating network… even though that work has already been completed. CARL SHILTON, investigations editor, reports Last week, Sutton Council … Continue reading

Posted in Jayne McCoy, Neil Garratt, Niall Bolger, Sutton Council, Tim Crowley, Waste incinerator | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Opposition renews call for full-scale fraud probe into SDEN

Independent review finds that the loss-making, council-owned district heating network has less of a business case, and is more of a basket case, reports CARL SHILTON Richard Simpson, the senior council official who helped unleash the £200million disaster that is … Continue reading

Posted in Helen Bailey, Jayne McCoy, Nick Mattey, Richard Simpson, Ruth Dombey, Sutton Council, Tim Crowley, Tom Drummond, Waste incinerator | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Sutton chiefs block opposition from seeing fraud report

Our Sutton investigations editor, CARL SHILTON, on the latest strokes being pulled by the LibDem-controlled council Tonight, there is a meeting of the Sutton Shareholdings Board, the committee that exercises the corporate shareholder and governance responsibilities of Sutton Council’s privately-held … Continue reading

Posted in Business, Helen Bailey, Jayne McCoy, Neil Garratt, Nick Mattey, Ruth Dombey, Sutton Council, Tim Crowley, Tom Drummond, Waste incinerator | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

SDEN’s business plan ‘dishonest at best, fraudulent at worst’

Sutton’s LibDem council was last night forced to agree to an independent investigation into its failing heating company. CARL SHILTON reports Sutton Council’s controlling Liberal Democrats, after spending six years trying to deny that there was anything even vaguely suspicious … Continue reading

Posted in Jayne McCoy, Nick Mattey, Sutton Council, Tim Crowley, Waste incinerator | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Appeal Court has Sutton in hot water over dodgy discount deal

BELLE MONT reports on the latest costly embarrassment for the LibDem council, caught withholding service discounts from social tenants Sutton could be liable to pay out millions of pounds in compensation to its council tenants after more than a decade … Continue reading

Posted in Jayne McCoy, Nick Mattey, Sutton Council, Tim Crowley | Tagged , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Sutton Tories unanimous as they elect Drummond as leader

Our Sutton correspondent, BERTIE WORCESTER-PARK, on the new leader of that council’s opposition group Tom Drummond is the new leader of the Conservative opposition on Sutton Council. Drummond succeeds Tim Crowley, who stood down on Friday after nearly seven years … Continue reading

Posted in Sutton Council, Tim Crowley, Tom Drummond | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Crowley stands down as Tory opposition leader in Sutton

EXCLUSIVE: Our Sutton reporter CARL SHILTON on the latest leadership change in a south London borough All change! Tim Crowley today became the fourth leader of a Town Hall political group in south London in the past few weeks to … Continue reading

Posted in London Assembly, London-wide issues, Neil Garratt, Ruth Dombey, Sutton Council, Tim Crowley | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Sutton opposition leader ‘ashamed’ over Tories’ A-Level failure

BELLE MONT, our Sutton reporter, on a remarkable outburst over the government’s shambolic handling of this week’s exam results Tim Crowley, the leader of the opposition Tories on Sutton Council, has said that the shambolic handling of England’s A-Level results … Continue reading

Posted in Education, Schools, Sutton Council, Tim Crowley | Tagged , , , | 3 Comments

LibDem rebels block plan to build on Sheen Way playing fields

Our Sutton reporter, CARL SHILTON, on how the council leadership has suffered another damaging knockback A meeting held in Sutton last week proved that it really is possible for a committee to vote down a proposal for overdevelopment backed by … Continue reading

Posted in Elliot Colburn, Environment, Helen Bailey, Nick Mattey, Paul Scott, Planning, Purley Way, Ruth Dombey, Schools, Sutton Council, Tim Crowley | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Davey, Pidgeon, Umunna all cave-in over Twitter smears

CARL SHILTON on how support for the Sutton and Cheam LibDem candidate’s nasty smear campaign started to evaporate, following challenges through formal complaints and threats of libel action It started yesterday, around noon time. The first of the offending social … Continue reading

Posted in 2019 General Election, Caroline Russell, Hina Bokhari, Paul Scully MP, Sutton Council, Tim Crowley | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Hina Bokhari: election candidate with past shrouded in mystery

CARL SHILTON checks out the credentials of the controversial Liberal Democrat candidate seeking to win Sutton and Cheam from the Conservatives Hina Bokhari, the Liberal Democrat General Election candidate for Sutton and Cheam who has been accused of libel during … Continue reading

Posted in 2019 General Election, Hina Bokhari, Paul Scully MP, Sadiq Khan, Sutton Council, Tim Crowley | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Threats of libel action as Sutton election campaign turns nasty

EXCLUSIVE: Chuka Umunna, Jo Swinson, Caroline Lucas, even Bianca Jagger, have all taken at face value allegations made by a Liberal Democrat General Election candidate, and so now could now be dragged into a bitter legal action. Our Sutton investigations … Continue reading

Posted in 2019 General Election, Caroline Pidgeon, Hina Bokhari, Paul Burstow MP, Paul Scully MP, Ruth Dombey, Sutton Council, Tim Crowley, Tom Brake MP | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Only five Croydon Tory councillors listed as ‘Backing Boris’

Croydon Town Hall’s Conservatives are not backing Boris. That’s according to a listing published today by the Boris Johnson leadership campaign which includes just five of Croydon’s 29 Tory councillors, from among 1,000 Conservative elected representatives at local authorities around … Continue reading

Posted in Andrew Stranack, Boris Johnson, Jason Cummings, Mario Creatura, Neil Garratt, Steve O'Connell, Tim Crowley, Tim Pollard, Yvette Hopley | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

St Helier’s new boilers take steam out of Sutton’s heat network

CARL SHILTON, our Sutton investigations editor, discovers that the council’s troubled heating network scheme has suffered a massive blow – from St Helier Hospital Council leader Ruth Dombey’s plans for a lucrative “Phase 2” of the Sutton Decentralised Energy Network … Continue reading

Posted in Environment, Jayne McCoy, Planning, Ruth Dombey, St Helier Hospital, Sutton Council, Tim Crowley, Waste incinerator | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

By-election rivals say LibDem candidate unfit for public office

CARL SHILTON reports on the cross-party condemnations for a council by-election candidate who has overseen failed businesses that have left multi-million-pound debts Barry Lewis, the choice of Sutton’s Liberal Democrats to be parachuted in to Wallington North for the council … Continue reading

Posted in Barry Lewis, Charlie Mansell, Nick Mattey, Ruth Dombey, Sutton Council, Tim Crowley, Tom Brake MP | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

LibDem at centre of cronyism row is handed £150,000 top job

BELLE MONT, our Sutton reporter, on how history appears to be repeating itself over the appointment of a chief exec for a Liberal Democrat council Ruth Dombey, the Liberal Democrat council leader in Sutton, yesterday helpfully confirmed Inside Sutton’s report … Continue reading

Posted in Helen Bailey, Ruth Dombey, Sutton Council, Tim Crowley | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Belmont election shock #1: ‘I didn’t want to quit as councillor’

Our Sutton reporter, BERTIE WORCESTER-PARK, on a stunning admission which fuels speculation that some of the borough’s Tories were keen to find a way to get their deputy leader back on the council In a remarkable admission made to Inside … Continue reading

Posted in Neil Garratt, Ruth Dombey, Sutton Council, Tim Crowley | Tagged , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Transport report for £40m school ‘mysteriously’ disappears

Residents in Belmont go to the polls in a council by-election tomorrow, where Tory candidate Neil ‘Father Jack’ Garratt is expected to win. One factor could be the growing concerns over road safety around a new secondary school. Our Sutton … Continue reading

Posted in Education, Neil Garratt, Niall Bolger, Outside Croydon, Parking, Ruth Dombey, Schools, Sutton Council, TfL, Tim Crowley, Transport | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Carshalton’s studio theatre given new chance and fresh Hope

The Charles Cryer Theatre is to re-open with new operators after being ‘dark’ for more than two years. But Sutton Council still managed to mess up the announcement, as CARL SHILTON reports It has taken Sutton Council a little over … Continue reading

Posted in Art, Cryer Theatre, Outside Croydon, Sutton Council, Theatre, Tim Crowley, Tom Brake MP | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Arse! Feck! Drink! Belmont by-election’s own Father Jack

Sutton reporter BERTIE WORCESTER-PARK on how a Tory ex-councillor’s foul-mouthed tirades have come back to haunt him, just in time for a Halloween by-election The people of Belmont, one of the quieter, more refined suburbs of quiet and refined south … Continue reading

Posted in 2018 council elections, Neil Garratt, Paul Scully MP, Sutton Council, Tim Crowley | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments