Category Archives: Selsdon and Addington Village
Selsdon’s Michelin star chef Westcott pledges to try again
Lee Westcott, the Michelin star-winning chef who headed up the restaurants at the failed Birch hotel in Selsdon, has expressed his determination to reopenat a new location. Administrators pulled the plug on Birch Selsdon hotel and members’ club last week, … Continue reading
All bunged up: Thames Water’s concrete scheme for the sewers
Our transport correspondent, JEREMY CLACKSON, on the major road works in Selsdon that have sent buses on lengthy diversions The withdrawal of almost all bus routes in some parts of the south of the borough may be down to a … Continue reading
Open+’s CCTV gives Norbury Library few extra opening hours
Croydon, London’s Borough of Culture 2023, can afford to buy CCTV cameras and pay security guards, but it cannot afford the wages for trained librarians to open its public libraries for more than three days a week. The council has … Continue reading
Mayor Perry spends £140,000 on gym equipment for Monks Hill
Politics, they say, is all about priorities. So while Croydon Mayor Jason Perry takes away the £13,000 per year grant to the Selsdon Centre for the Retired and increases their rent, after hiking everyone’s Council Tax by 15%, up the … Continue reading
Supporters campaign to save under-threat Selsdon Centre
The trustees of an old people’s charity in Selsdon that is under threat of closure after Mayor Jason Perry axed their annual council grant have launched a petition appealing for public support. As Inside Croydon revealed last week, the Selsdon … Continue reading
Police investigating 300+ cases of ULEZ camera vandalism
Criminal damage to public property in Greater London could cost taxpayers tens of millions. The Metropolitan Police is investigating more than 300 cases of vandalism and theft of CCTV cameras, which have been installed as part of the expansion of … Continue reading
Crisis for Selsdon charity hard hit by council’s double-whammy
CROYDON IN CRISIS: Mayor Perry’s cuts are beginning to bite in his Tory heartlands, with the long-established Selsdon Centre for the Retired facing the prospect of closure next year. EXCLUSIVE by STEVEN DOWNES A respected and admired charity that supports … Continue reading
CODA table an amendment to Ayckbourn’s council satire
So you’ve just received your Council Tax bill and you want to get an idea of what all that money is paying for? You really want to know how local councils work..? Then you’d best get along to Selsdon Hall … Continue reading
Sampling some good Vybz from Selsdon’s Jamaican restaurant
A start-up business was recommended by their local councillor to seek some promotional publicity from Inside Croydon. KEN TOWL tried the food at Yaad Vybz and got a 5% off offer for this website’s readers Councillor Joseph Lee may have … Continue reading
Here’s the Mayor and 33 Croydon Tory councillors who THREE times voted in favour of hitting you with a 15% Council Tax hike
JASON PERRY. Mayor of Croydon Elected in May 2022 with a margin of fewer than 600 votes. Is paid £82,000 per year by the council. His office answers the phone just 20 hours per week. Stood on a election promise … Continue reading
New owners plan re-opening of Selsdon hotel for late March
What used to be known as the Selsdon Park Hotel, with its 200-acre golf course, is expected to open its doors to guests for the first time in more than a year at the end of March, with cattle and … Continue reading
Selsdon Guild makes Contact with £1,000 charity donation
Selsdon Afternoon Townswomen’s Guild has made a donation of £1,000 to the local Contact charity. The presentation was made after Guild members last year chose to support the charity in recognition of the help they had provided to locals during … Continue reading
19th century abolitionist Starbuck’s archive up for auction
An important historical archive of early 19th-century correspondence compiled by prominent abolitionist Samuel Starbuck could sell for at least £6,000 when it goes under the hammer at Catherine Southon’s latest auction at Farleigh Golf Club, Selsdon, on Wednesday, February 8. … Continue reading
Fatal dog attack prompts council to review licensing scheme
A week after the horrific death of a dog walker at a beauty spot near Caterham, the police are yet to name the victim, or to release any of the eight dogs that they seized following what was reported to … Continue reading
Selsdon Park Hotel prepares to reopen with recruitment fair
The Selsdon Park Hotel, once one of the leading country house hotels in Britain, is reopening early in 2023 as the second Birch Hotel, and the new management is staging a recruitment day next month. They have vacancies for receptionists, … Continue reading
Fairfield: £300k council fraud investigation and still no answers
EXCLUSIVE: Council says its specialist investigators have yet to find anything around the £67m botched refurbishment of the arts centre which needs to be reported to the police. By STEVEN DOWNES An investigation to discover if there was any fraud … Continue reading
Council rejects private school’s planning scheme for Heathfield
A planning application from a private education business to make extensive alterations to Heathfield House, a listed building owned by Croydon Council, has been refused. As Inside Croydon reported in June, Cressey College has been renting the building from the … Continue reading
Selsdon Park’s golfing paradise looks lost under new owners
It is looking very likely that the last 18-hole round of golf at Selsdon Park was played some time at the end of 2021. The new owners of the Selsdon Park Hotel and its accompanying 200 acres of parkland released … Continue reading
12 fire engines on call to blazes in tinder-dry Croydon hills
THE HOTTEST DAY: Fire Brigade gets wildfires at Addington Hills and Chapel View under control as London declares a major incident More than 100 firefighters were this afternoon battling to stop two potentially devastating grass fires spreading in the Addington … Continue reading
Alderman criticises handing Heathfield to profit-making school
A private school that charges £81,000 per year for some of its pupils is accused of doing work on the ‘cheap’ with its proposals, including ugly 9-foot-high fencing around a listed Victorian building A Croydon alderman, and former cabinet member … Continue reading
9ft fence for special school could ruin listed Heathfield House
Our south of the borough correspondent, PEARL LEE, on the disposal of another of Croydon’s heritage assets – with a listed building being rented out on the cheap to a multi-million-pound education company that charges its pupils up to £81,000 … Continue reading
Croydon High School appoints Davies as new headteacher
Croydon High, the £18,000 per year private girls’ school in Selsdon, has announced the appointment of Annabel Davies as its new headteacher, with effect from September 2022. Davies is to replace Emma Pattison, the head since 2016, who is leaving … Continue reading
Town Hall election reflections from a backbench councillor
CROYDON COMMENTARY: Among the candidates seeking election last Thursday was ROBERT WARD, right, who’s been a Conservative councillor for Selsdon and Addington Village since 2018. Here, he shares his thoughts on a tough campaign, and what the next Town Hall … Continue reading
