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Banstead Rotary Village Fair, Banstead High Street, July 6
Posted in Activities, Charity, Reigate and Banstead Council, Surrey
Tagged Banstead, Banstead Village Fair
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‘All I see is a divided country, with more racism and more upset’
First-time voter CAITLIN CLIFFORD speaks to other General Election first-time voters about whether they will vote next Thursday, and about what issues really matter to them, discovering just how unpopular the son of a tool-maker is with sixth-formers
X marks the spot: some Croydon first-time voters have been put off taking part in the General Election
After weeks of politicians refusing to answer the questions they were asked, and ever-increasing numbers of Conservatives being investigated as part of the growing betting scandal, the election is now almost here.
And along with several million more young people who are now eligible to vote, though with many of them having a reputation for not being politically engaged, we set out to examine how Croydon’s newest voters are feeling about the process.
For anyone born between 2002 and 2006, this will be their first General Election in their lifetime when they have been old enough to vote. Yet many of them probably won’t bother.
Polls suggest 40% of under-35s have no intention to vote, with under-25s even less likely to vote. In contrast, 16% of 35-to-65-year-olds say they won’t vote – suggesting 84% will. The vast majority of over-60s do intend to vote.
Older voters turning out more than the young is a common trend and explains why many complain that the larger political parties only cater to pensioners, although they still have no clear plans regarding the ever-increasing social care crisis. Continue reading
Posted in 2024 General Election, Croydon East, Croydon South, Croydon West, Steve Reed MP, Streatham and Croydon North
Tagged 2024 General Election, Alastair Campbell, Caitlin Clifford, Conservative, Croydon, Croydon East, Croydon South, Croydon West, General Election, General Election 2024, Green Party, Keir Starmer, Labour, Liberal Democrats, Rory Stewart, Steve Reed OBE, Streatham and Croydon North, Tory
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Rejoice The Lamb by Britten, Croydon Minster, June 30
Posted in Croydon Minster, Music
Tagged Benjamin Britten, Choral Evensong, Croydon Minster
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Fire at Ponte Nuovo restaurant forces High Street closure
Explosive situation: fire fighters had to remove gas cannisters from the site when tackling last night’s blaze at a popular restaurant under the Croydon Flyover
Croydon High Street either side of the Flyover was closed off for hours last night, as fire crews from several stations battled a blaze in out-buildings connected to one of Croydon’s top restaurants, Ponte Nuovo, and its Fun House nightclub complex.
Part of a store room at the rear of the building was alight. There were no reports of any injuries. The cause of the fire is under investigation. Continue reading
Posted in London Fire Brigade, Restaurants
Tagged Croydon Flyover, Croydon High Street, LFB, London Fire Brigade, Ponte Nuovo
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More than 100 Croydon under-5s hospitalised by toxic air
Official figures show that Croydon’s air quality is so poor, 106 children aged five years old or younger had to be admitted to Croydon University Hospital with respiratory difficulties in 2023.
Toxic air: parts of Croydon have levels of pollution three times higher than international standards
The details were obtained through a Freedom of Information request to the Croydon Health Services NHS Trust.
Similar FoIs across 21 other London hospitals showed more than 15,000 children were admitted in 2023 with serious breathing difficulties.
The figures were obtained by air pollution campaigners, Mums for Lungs, who have called for the removal of all diesel vehicles by at least 2030. Continue reading
Posted in Community associations, Croydon Council, Environment, Mayor Jason Perry, Schools, Waste incinerator
Tagged Air pollution, Beddington incinerator, Beddington Lane incinerator, Conservative, Croydon, Croydon Council, Mayor Jason Perry, Mums for Lungs, Nitrogen dioxide, Toxic air, ULEZ, Viridor
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The fundamental dishonesty around this dog-whistle election
With Labour seeming certain to form the next government, with one week to go before the General Election, our columnist ANDREW FISHER argues that political engagement after July 4 is going to be even more important
If this was a boxing match, the referee would have stepped in by now to stop Rishi Sunak and his supporters suffering more damage. Several Tories have already thrown in the towel.
Time running out: the Weakly Standard sums up Sunak’s predicament
According to Ipsos Mori, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has the worst net satisfaction score of any PM tracked by the company since they started polling in 1979. That’s a period that has included Thatcher, John Major at his lowest ebb, Gordon Brown during a global economic crisis, Cameron, May, Johnson and even Liz Truss.
Forecasts show the Conservatives on course for a devastatingly bad result when the votes are all tallied up just over a week from now. YouGov forecasts Labour winning 425 seats to just 108 for the Tories.
It’s even worse with another pollster, Savanta, which predicts the Tories reduced to just 53 seats, only three ahead of the Lib Dems on 50, and Labour on 516. It would represent the fewest number of seats that the Conservatives have had in Parliament in almost 200 years, and is less than one-third of the seats held by the Tories after Tony Blair’s 1997 landslide.
Not that there is a groundswell of favourable opinion for our likely next Prome Minister, Keir Starmer, of whom Ipsos says, “his net satisfaction score (-19) would be the worst for a Leader of the Opposition entering No.10”.
Polling shows Starmer’s personal ratings are worse than Jeremy Corbyn’s at the same stage of the 2017 election campaign. Continue reading
Posted in 2024 General Election, Andrew Fisher
Tagged 2024 General Election, Andrew Fisher, Apsana Begum, Bangladesh, Conservative, Croydon, Dog-whistle, General Election, General Election 2024, Jonathan Ashworth, Keir Starmer, Labour, National Front, Nigel Farage, Reform UK, Rishi Sunak, Tory
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Flat fire in Milton Road caused by cigarette, Brigade says
A second-floor balcony was destroyed in a flat fire on Milton Road, central Croydon last night, which the London Fire Brigade believes was caused by the unsafe disposal of smoking materials.
Fire risk: of course, you could simply not smoke
There were no reports of any injuries.
A London Fire Brigade spokesperson said: “We’d rather you didn’t smoke at all, but if you are a smoker, it’s absolutely vital you ensure your cigarette is completely out when you’ve finished smoking it.
“If you don’t, you risk causing a fire which could not only destroy your home, but also cost you your life.
Posted in Fairfield, London Fire Brigade
Tagged Croydon, LFB, London Fire Brigade, MIlton Road
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NHS junior doctors walk out at start of latest five-day strike
Junior doctors working at hospitals across the NHS walked out this morning, at the start of their latest five-day strike in the ongoing pay dispute with the government.
Long-running dispute: NHS doctors are carrying out another round of strike action from this morning
Junior doctors make up around 50% of doctors in the NHS and, despite extensive planning and cover arrangements, the latest strikes by junior doctors are likely to cause widespread disruption. The strike is due to run until 7am on Tuesday July 2.
Rather than supporting the doctors’ union calls for better pay and conditions, Labour’s health spokesperson, Wes Streeting, issued an appeal to postpone the strike. This is the 11th strike action since the doctors began action, as they seek a 35% phased pay increase. The doctors say they have had no meaningful discussion with the employers’ side since last year.
Emergency care continues to be prioritised by NHS London during the industrial action. “People should still call 999 in life-threatening emergencies and contact NHS 111 for other health concerns, as well as local services including GPs and pharmacies,” NHS London advised in a statement today. Continue reading
Posted in Croydon NHS Trust, Health, Mayday Hospital, Purley Hospital
Tagged Croydon, London, Mayday Hospital, NHS London
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This is Tory Britain in 2024: ‘Sometimes you’ve got to be cruel’
ELECTION SKETCH: Beyond a Boundary is not only an excellent cricket book, but is what KEN TOWL did last night, going beyond Croydon, and beyond London, to see whether Labour’s candidate in Reigate really does have a sporting chance on July 4
Perhaps it was because it was in a church that it sounded so wrong. The congregation certainly seemed to bridle at the words. We were actually being asked to endorse cruelty. The speaker’s exact words – I took them down verbatim because I was so struck by them – were, “Sometimes you’ve got to be cruel in the short-term to get it right in the long-term.”
Brady Bunch?: Labour’s candidate, 6-4 second favourite Stuart Brady, left (naturally), together with the Greens’ Jonathan Essex, Tory Rebecca Paul, LibDem Mark Johnston and, far right (naturally) Joseph Fox
The speaker was Rebecca Paul, “the Conservative candidate standing for Reigate” as she had announced herself to a wall of silence. She was struggling to sell her government’s Rwanda policy to a packed St John’s Church in Redhill.
“We’ve got to create a deterrent,” she said, “We’ve got to recognise that these are illegal migrants!” This elicited a rare heckle from an otherwise polite, open-minded crowd. “You’re talking about asylum seekers, not illegal immigrants!” Continue reading
CronxWatch returns asking: ‘Where are Croydon’s police?’
CronxWatch is back with its latest YouTube report, this time on the trail of Croydon’s low-profile police force.
It’s another recommended, excellent video report – although we would say that, since much of it is based on previous news coverage published by Inside Croydon (you’ll recognise iC’s headlines being rolled across the screen at regular intervals). Continue reading
Posted in Andy Brittain, Business, Chris Philp MP, Crime, Inside Croydon, Local media, London-wide issues, Mayor Jason Perry, Policing, Rowenna Davis, Waddon
Tagged Burglaries, Ch Supt Andy Brittain, Chris Philp MP, Conservative, Crime, CronxWatch, Croydon, Croydon Council, Croydon South, David Weir, London Borough of Croydon, Mayor Jason Perry, Metropolitan Police, Raggio di Sole, Rowenna Davis, Superintendent Mitch Carr, Waddon
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Crisis in Lambeth as CEO’s arrest follows latest £50m bail-out
The neighbouring borough’s financial problems continue to mount, as amid reports of rows with the Labour-run council’s leader, the most senior employee at Brixton Town Hall has had his collar felt for drugs, booze and driving offences
Brixton Town Hall has been rocked by two new scandals in the past 24 hours.
Driven man: Bayo Dosunmu, Lambeth’s CEO since 2022
First, a former Labour councillor in neighbouring Lambeth has been caught up in the growing election day betting controversy, and today news emerged that that borough’s chief executive has been arrested by the police on drink and drugs charges.
Bayo Dosunmu has been Lambeth Council’s £190,000 per year chief executive since April 2022. Next week, he was expected to perform the duties of a Returning Officer for four constituencies in the General Election, including Streatham and Croydon North.
But The Municipal Journal is reporting today that Dosunmu was arrested on Sunday “after failing to stop at the scene of an accident”. Continue reading
Posted in 2024 General Election, Crime, Lambeth Council, Steve Reed MP, Streatham and Croydon North
Tagged 2024 General Election, Bayo Dosunmu, Brixton, Brixton Town Hall, Croydon, General Election, General Election 2024, Kate Hoey, Keir Starmer, Kevin Craig, Labour, Lambeth council, Steve Reed OBE, Streatham and Croydon North, Vauxhall
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South Croydon, Bromley and Beckenham on Aldi’s wish list
Aldi, the country’s fourth-largest supermarket chain, is looking to get even bigger, and is on the hunt for new store locations in South Croydon, as well as Beckenham and Bromley, as part of its rapid expansion drive.
Stocking up: could a new Aldi supermarket be coming to a main road near you?
Last month, Aldi conducted a bit of public research to discover where in Britain needs new Aldi stores most. Based on more than 4,000 responses, Aldi has identified priority areas in London, which also include Woodford and Surbiton, Notting Hill, Walthamstow and Barnet.
South Croydon has long had a site identified for building a new Lidl and flats (loads more flats), but that scheme has been stalled for several years. Further south along Brighton Road, in Purley, Marks and Spencer wants to convert an old dairy building into one of its new Food Hall things, but things there have been quiet for a while, too. Continue reading
Posted in Bromley Council, Business, Property, South Croydon
Tagged Aldi, Beckenham, Bromley, Lidl, Marks and Spencer, South Croydon
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A proper ‘Jeremy Hunt’: Mayor Perry breaks graffiti promises
KEN LEE reports from Thornton Heath on a piece of anti-social messaging that just won’t go away
Paint job: Mayor Jason Perry is quick to take credit for graffiti ‘blitzes’. But the reality on the streets is far different
Offensive graffiti on two council signs on Blakemore Road in Thornton Heath that include the “C” word, and which dozens of primary aged children have to walk past on their way to and from school each day, has been left uncleaned by Croydon Council despite being reported multiple times by residents and ward councillors over the course of almost two months.
Jason Perry, Croydon’s Tory Mayor, had promised that offensive graffiti, especially if found on sensitive sites (such as close to a primary school), would be removed within just 48 hours.
Perry’s special contractors, FM Conway, have had at least one attempt at removing the wording in question, but have so far failed in their task, managing just to smudge the recognisable four-letter word. The latest effort to resolve the issue, this week has been to use a black bin bag to cover the offending words, which include “Ass” and a word that rhymes with the surname of Jeremy Hunt, the Conservative Chancellor. Continue reading
I’d like to see if I can save my deposit. We’ll see what happens
CROYDON ELECTION QUESTIONS
For this General Election, Inside Croydon has been offering a platform to candidates from across the political spectrum, from across the borough’s four constituencies. Much the same questions, their answers published at length. Here, we speak with MARK SAMUEL, pictured right, the seemingly perpetual independent candidate in Croydon South
Interviews by VIMAL VIVEGANANDA
Q Why should we trust you?
I would like to be seen as a true independent without any recourse to party political stuff.
I’m trying to represent, as I have done for a number of years, my friends, my neighbours and Croydon and in particular Croydon South at parliamentary elections.
So I can be trusted because I don’t have any allegiance and I’m only reporting to the tax-payer. Continue reading
Council’s multi-million consultant deals to make more cuts
CROYDON IN CRISIS: Staff in Fisher’s Folly have already dubbed the plan ‘No Future Croydon’. After cuts of £100m from council budgets in four years, now the chief exec is forking out public money to find more ways of axing services for children, older people and SEND. By our Town Hall reporter KEN LEE
Pointless: Croydon residents should be demanding to know what their Council Tax is spent on – as their services face even further cuts
Cash-strapped Croydon Council under Tory Mayor Jason Perry might not have enough money to run its public services, to keep its public libraries open or to continue operating some of its pre-school nurseries, but he’s managed to find millions of pounds to hire-in consultants to advise on how to cut back services even more.
Not one firm of consultants.
Not two.
But three firms of consultants are being hired in by chief executive Katherine Kerswell under the typically unaware project title for the latest round of cuts of “Future Croydon”. Or what the council’s demoralised staff have already dubbed “No Future Croydon”.
This is all part of what Kerswell – who is paid £192,000 per year for whatever it is she is supposed to be doing – euphemistically calls “transformation”. It is, in reality, what looks to be a final hollowing out of the local authority, which already demonstrates on a daily basis that it is incapable any longer of delivering even the most basic services.
According to a Freedom of Information request from Inside Croydon, we know that one of the appointed consultants, Newton, are to be paid £1million for an initial six months’ work on finding more cuts in the council’s Adult Social Care and Health directorate. Continue reading
Posted in 'Future Croydon', Adult Social Care, Children's Services, Council Tax, Croydon Council, Katherine Kerswell, Mayor Jason Perry, SEND
Tagged 'Future Croydon', Adult Social Care, Boston Consulting Group, Children's Services, Conservative, Croydon, Croydon Council, Digital Croydon, Impower, Katherine Kerswell, London Borough of Croydon, Mayor Jason Perry, Newton, No Future Croydon, SEND, Special Educational Needs and Disabilities, Tory
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Latest podcast on town centre, Rivers Week and the election
Our latest episode of The Croydon Insider, the news podcast exclusively for paid subscribers to Inside Croydon is now available to download from Patreon or Spotify.
Our guests this episode are Oumesh Sauba and Paul Ainscough.
Oumesh uses the programme to announce the establishment of a new association for businesses based in Croydon town centre, a response to years of neglect and mismanagement which has seen the area become increasingly run-down and less attractive to visit for locals and shoppers.
Of course, there’s a General Election just days away. Will they discuss the election? You can bet on it… Continue reading
London Fire Brigade issues safety alerts ahead of heatwave
Following tragic drownings and multiple grass fires during hot spells in and around Croydon in recent summers, the emergency services are urging the public to act safely and responsibly during this week’s forecast heatwave.
Spreading like wildfire: the London Fire Brigade has already had to deal with roadside blazes
They have even warned residents in flats not to use disposable barbecues on their balconies, as these areas are often constructed of flammable materials which can lead to an uncontrollable blaze, as happened at a block of flats on Whitehorse Road last year.
“Yellow” heat health alerts are in place for most of England this week, as daytime temperatures look set to reach 30C. The alerts from the UK Health Security Agency indicate that weather conditions could pose a risk to those who are particularly vulnerable. Continue reading
Posted in Croydon parks, Environment, London Fire Brigade, London-wide issues
Tagged Drownings, Grassfires, heatwave, LFB, London Fire Brigade, Met Office
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Man in ‘life-threatening condition’ after Oakbank shooting
A 28-year-old man is in a “life-threatening condition” in hospital after a shooting in Oakbank, New Addington, in the early hours of Saturday morning.
The Metropolitan Police was called to Oakbank, just off Fieldway, at around 4.30am on June 22, where the man was found with shot wounds.
“Police were called at 04.31hrs to Oakbank, New Addington, following reports of a firearms discharge,” a Scotland Yard spokesperson said.
“Officers responded with the [London Ambulance Service] and London’s Air Ambulance. Continue reading
Posted in Andy Brittain, Crime, New Addington, Policing
Tagged Metropolitan Police, New Addington, New Addington shooting, Oakbank, Police
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Strike to disrupt trams during Wimbledon tennis fortnight
The long-lingering industrial dispute between tram engineers and Transport for London over “a massive pay disparity” remains unresolved and looks set to enter a new phase later this week with more strike action coming down the track, starting from late on Sunday night. The disruption is likely to affect many tennis fans who might have otherwise travelled to Wimbledon by tram.
All change: there will be disruption to the tram service to Wimbledon throughout the fortnight of the tennis championships
TfL is also conducting some more of its “essential maintenance work” over the next three weeks, which will add further disruption to passengers’ journeys.
Strike action previously took place in May, after which the lack of routine maintenance work to the network’s ageing rolling stock saw two-thirds of the trams sidelined for safety reasons. Yet despite almost two months passing since the previous engineers’ strike, no resolution to the dispute has been found. Continue reading
Latest poll predicts the implausible with Philp doing Houdini act
Labour candidates have been briefed to say nothing or to claim ‘Nuffink to do wiv me, Guv’ is their best way of dodging questions about their party’s bankrupting the borough, as the campaign crawls its way towards its final week.
By WALTER CRONXITE, political editor
Piece of cake: Chris Philp, centre, on regional telly yesterday morning, being given a pre-election visibility denied his challengers in Croydon South
There might be a reason for Tory minister Chris Philp appearing more chipper over the prospect of his chomping down on some chocolate cake on regional telly yesterday morning: he may have just seen the latest, large-scale opinion poll results, which suggests that he is within 2% of his Labour rival in the contest to be Croydon South’s next MP.
That may seem like grasping at straws for someone who had a 12,000-vote majority at the 2019 General Election, but this time around, that 2% figure is the closest that Croydon Tories have had to “good news” for many months.
Today marks 10 days to go until election day on July 4, and the most recent poll from YouGov suggests that Philp might yet pull off a Houdini escape act and hold on to his Croydon South seat – just as his party is facing an electoral wipe-out, including Tory colleagues (and staffers) slumping to embarrassing defeats in Croydon and Sutton, some even at risk of losing their deposits. Continue reading
Posted in 2024 General Election, Andrew Pelling, Ben Taylor, Bobby Dean, Chris Philp MP, Croydon East, Croydon South, Croydon West, Ellie Reeves MP, Elliot Colburn, Luke Taylor MP, Natasha Irons, Paul Scully MP, Sarah Jones MP, Sutton and Cheam
Tagged 2024 General Election, Andrew Pelling, Ben Taylor, Brick by Brick, Carshalton and Wallington, Chris Philp MP, Conservative, Coulsdon, Council Tax, Croydon, Croydon East, Croydon South, Croydon West, Elliot Colburn, General Election, General Election 2024, Iain Dale, Jason Cummings, Labour, Lambeth, Liberal Democrats, Natasha Irons, Nigel Farage, Paul Scully, Peter Underwood, Reform UK, Ria Patel, Sarah Jones MP, Scott Holman, Steve Reed OBE, Streatham and Croydon North, Sutton, Sutton and Cheam, Tony Newman, YouGov
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How Croydon alderman saved ‘Golden Book’ from the Vikings
Bloody slaughter: imagine one of the big, set-piece scenes from Game of Thrones (minus the dragons and giants), and you get an idea of what the Battle of Aclea might have looked like. The exact site of the battle in the Surrey Hills remains a mystery lost to history
SUNDAY SUPPLEMENT: Danish invaders on the rampage, a Wessex king winning a huge battle and the most opulent of all the surviving English Medieval manuscripts are all traced back to the role of a nobleman with land in Selsdon by DAVID MORGAN
Precious: the Codex Aureus is a marvel of Medieval England
The National Library of Stockholm has a vast collection of treasured books. One of them, now kept in a darkened room to avoid light damage, is the Codex Aureus – the “Golden Book”. This fragile tome is well over 1,200 years old, thought to have been completed around the year 750.
The Codex Aureus was made with 400 pages of carefully prepared calf vellum – cured animal hide – of which every other sheet is dyed purple. It is one of the most opulent of all the surviving English Medieval manuscripts and is thought to have been made by monks either in the scriptorium at Canterbury or by the nuns of the convent of Minster-in-Thanet.
In this Golden Book, the beginning of Matthew’s Gospel has rare and precious gold leaf lettering.
An entry on the endleaf, however, which was added in the 9th century, provides us with a clue that this magnificent tome could have been housed right here in Croydon, and for some time, too. Continue reading
Posted in Church and religions, David Morgan, History
Tagged Alfred, Anglo-Saxon, Anglo-Saxon Chronicles, Battle of Aclea, Canterbury, Canterbury Cathedral, Codex Aureus, David Morgan, Gospel of St Matthew, King Aethelwulf, Mercia, Stockholm, Stockholm Museum, The Golden Book, Vikings, Wessex
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LibDems have gone all parochial in Sutton, just as they like it
The national election campaign as it is being conducted in neighbouring Sutton has a very local feel to it, according to NICK MATTEY, Beddington’s independent councillor
Here in Sutton, the campaign leading up to polling day on July 4 in our two parliamentary constituencies is essentially a local council election. The Liberal Democrats have put forward two Sutton councillors as their parliamentary candidates and they are up against one Conservative councillor and a former councillor who has been the MP for Carshalton and Wallington since 2019.
Not a pretty sight: Sutton’s General Election campaign is a bit parochial
It is also a local election because neither the Liberal Democrats nor the Conservatives are likely to form or be part of any national government formed after July 5.
Labour, who most pundits agree will form the new government, are not expected to do well in Sutton’s two constituencies, Sutton and Cheam and Carshalton and Wallington. On Sutton council, they have just two councillors.
Labour did have three councillors but they failed to retain St Helier West in a council by-election in May after the resignation of Sheila Berry. The size of that defeat, when the party nationally has been riding high in opinion polls, and the fact that they lost the council seat to the Conservatives may have convinced Labour not to bother taking Sutton seriously in the General Election. Continue reading
Posted in 2024 General Election, Bobby Dean, Carshalton and Wallington, David Campanale, Elliot Colburn, Luke Taylor MP, Paul Scully MP, Sutton and Cheam, Sutton Council, Waste incinerator
Tagged 2024 General Election, Beddington, Beddington incinerator, Bobby Dean, Carshalton and Wallington, Chrishni Reshekaron, Conservative, Elliot Colburn, General Election, General Election 2024, Labour, Liberal Democrats, Luke Taylor, Nick Mattey, Paul Scully, Sutton, Sutton and Cheam, Sutton Council, Tom Drummond, Tory
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