Category Archives: Shirley South
Shirley nursery wants your unused thingamajigs for the kids
The Butterfly Patch, a nursery group based in six locations across south London and Surrey, incliuding in Shirley, is asking the public to make donations of used cultural items. “And no,” they say, “we’re not doing this for a charity … Continue reading
Perry splashes the cash on publicity and mowing grass in May
Croydon’s pro-pollution Mayor has now declared war on wildlife, as he has ignored the #NoMowMay advice of none other than Sir David Attenborough. By PERCY FLAMETHROWER, our municipal horticultural correspondent So much for the sonnet’s “Darling buds of May”. Jason … Continue reading
Revealed: Croydon’s laziest and costliest local councillors
Across the country, outside London, people have been going to the polls in local elections today, often voting for the same tribe just as they always do, or voting on national issues over which the councillors they are voting for … Continue reading
Shirley care home celebrates the garden legacy of Rev Wilks
A special ceremony has been held at the MHA Hall Grange care home in Shirley to make the centenary of the death of the leading horticulturalist, and the person who created The Wilderness garden, Rev William Wilks. Rev Wilks arrived … Continue reading
Councillors agree to chase Negrini for golden handshake cash
CROYDON IN CRISIS: The same committee which met in August 2020 to agree the £437,000 payment to the departing CEO today decided to ignore the advice of senior lawyers and spend more council cash in trying to recover the pay-off. … 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
37-34: Mayor’s 15% Council Tax hike rejected in budget vote
ANDREW FISHER sat through the three-and-a-half hours of last night’s budget non-setting meeting, so that you didn’t have to Labour, Green and Liberal Democrat councillors voted together last night to reject the budget proposal from the borough’s Conservative Mayor, Jason … Continue reading
15% tax hike sends council hurtling into constitutional crisis
ANDREW PELLING on how Mayor Perry faces a humiliating defeat over his controversial first budget because of some less-than-clear legislation, while the borough’s councillors could be in for some very long nights in the Town Hall Chamber Cash-strapped Croydon Council … Continue reading
Government to write off £540m of council’s debts, as Croydon becomes the Northern Rock of England’s local authorities
Tory minister Michael Gove asked to agree deal that wipes half a billion pounds from council’s mountain of debt After spending months complaining about council’s ‘unsustainable’ debt, Mayor Jason Perry is seeking to borrow another £224m Perry’s 15% Council Tax … Continue reading
Kerswell finally prepares to publish long withheld #PennReport
CROYDON IN CRISIS: The council’s £193,000 per year CEO has descended into the realms of Alice In Blunderland with her latest excuses for ignoring elected councillors and the public. By STEVEN DOWNES Katherine Kerswell, Croydon’s chief executive, claims that it … Continue reading
Fixing our ‘home grown’ problems has to start right here
CROYDON COMMENTARY: Having sought government permission to increase Council Tax from April by three times the nationally capped level, Conservative councillor JASON CUMMINGS sets out his reasons why We have all watched with a sense of horror over the last … Continue reading
The end is nigh: Brick by Brick’s final tower block is sold off
Our housing correspondent, BARRATT HOLMES, on the council’s increasingly desperate efforts to flog off the last developments from its inept house-builder Flyover Towers, the final development by Brick by Brick, Croydon Council’s bankrupting building firm, has been sold as a … Continue reading
Council boss admits road fine ANPR cameras not switched on
While Mayor Perry attacks the Tory government’s ULEZ policy, he’s still raking in millions in fines on bad drivers. Just not as much as he might have expected… From our Town Hall reporter, KEN LEE With calls for council boss … Continue reading
Conservative Mayor Perry loses 3 votes at Town Hall meeting
ANDREW PELLING reports from the Press Gallery on success for Labour, Green and LibDem councillors in opposing Tory moves to cut Council Tax benefits to old age pensioners and the poor Jason Perry, the Conservative Mayor of Croydon, lost three … Continue reading
Croydon is in a right Pickles and it is easy to work out why
Thurrock, Warrington, Nottingham, Slough, Liverpool, Sandwell… Croydon is far from alone among basket-case boroughs. ANDREW FISHER traces the common cause back to Whitehall Pay more, get less. That seems to have been the message from many councils across the country … Continue reading
Gove’s funding increases have come too late to save Croydon
London’s precept to add nearly £40 to average bills, as Mayor Perry asks government permission for increase of at least 10% for Croydon’s Council Tax, reports WALTER CRONXITE, political editor After 12 years of Tory austerity, the government has taken … Continue reading
Croydon needs deal that could set precedent for all councils
CROYDON IN CRISIS: A government-appointed inspector, council directors and senior councillors all agree that throwing millions more at the cash-strapped council won’t fix its deep-seated problems. EXCLUSIVE by STEVEN DOWNES The Tories who control Croydon Town Hall have already done … Continue reading
Tory Bains is forced to confess: planning is ‘all but broken’
Town Hall reporter KEN LEE on the latest confessions to emerge from the Conservative council’s cabinet The planning department at Croydon Council is “all but broken”, according to a Planning Advisory Service report. The Planning Advisory Service is part of … Continue reading
Tory blame game over bankruptcy points finger at Westminster
There was something archly cynical, and deliberately misleading, about how Croydon’s Conservatives turned Tuesday’s announcement of the borough’s bankruptcy into an exercise in political point-scoring. None of which will help the borough’s residents, writes ANDREW FISHER Croydon’s Conservative councillors were … Continue reading
Perry misses scrutiny meeting on council’s £19.3m overspend
CROYDON IN CRISIS: According to the borough’s part-time Mayor, the council budget is ‘just numbers on paper’. By KEN LEE Part-time Mayor Jason Perry didn’t bother to show up for last night’s scrutiny committee meeting at the Town Hall, where … Continue reading
Mayor makes rapid U-turn as report confirms £19.3m overspend
CROYDON IN CRISIS: A report to be discussed at the Town Hall tonight confirms the deepening financial problems facing the borough’s new Mayor. EXCLUSIVE by WALTER CRONXITE Part-time Mayor Jason Perry has been forced to admit that his Conservative administration … Continue reading
4 former council bosses charged by police… as Croydon waits
Investigations into wrongdoing in local government can take many years. A meeting at the Town Hall next week could provide a long-awaited chink of public accountability into the mismanagement – possibly worse – that led to Croydon Council’s financial collapse, … Continue reading
Tory government delays finance reports to help Mayor Perry
CROYDON IN CRISIS: It’s almost nine months since Whitehall released the last quarterly report from its Improvement Panel on the state of the cash-strapped council’s finances, prompting accusations of political favours for the Conservatives. EXCLUSIVE by STEVEN DOWNES It’s not … 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
