With new timetable, 400 just needs the right turn at Caterham

Posted on April 18, 2024 by insidecroydon

One of Croydon’s many holes in the borough’s roads might yet be playing an unintended part in improving bus services in the area.

Better route: the Metrobus 400 is about to get a new timetable

Recent road closures on Coulsdon Common to unclog the soakaways have forced the highways department at Surrey County Council to make “special arrangements” for big business, because Tesco’s HGVs can’t make the right turn from Guards Avenue to supply their Caterham supermarket.

And a local transport users’ committee is hopeful that this could seta precedent for the otherwise reluctant county council to fund permanent road changes to allow for an improved route 400 bus service. Continue reading →

Posted in Caterham, Community associations, Coulsdon, Environment, London-wide issues, Outside Croydon, Redhill, Reigate and Banstead Council, Selsdon and Addington Village, Selsdon Vale and Forestdale, Surrey, Transport | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Obasa’s goal wins the Trams their first silverware in 15 years

Posted on April 18, 2024 by insidecroydon

Up for the London Senior Trophy: the Trams squad celebrate their win last night

NON-LEAGUE NEWS by ANDREW SINCLAIR at the War Memorial Sports Ground

Croydon FC are cup-winners!

Croydon won the London Senior Trophy last night, beating Wimbledon Casuals 1-0 in an often tense encounter staged at Carshalton Athletic’s ground. Continue reading →

Posted in Andrew Sinclair, Croydon FC, Football | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Council chief Kerswell has doubled up on £140,000+ executives

Posted on April 17, 2024 by insidecroydon

CROYDON IN CRISIS: While more than 400 frontline jobs have been axed since 2020, the executive suite in Fisher’s Folly has barely been touched. But the council CEO is spending even more on ‘cost-cutting’ consultants.
EXCLUSIVE by STEVEN DOWNES

Empire-building: council CEO Katherine Kerswell has increased the number of exec directors

Katherine Kerswell, the cash-strapped council’s £192,000 per year chief exec, now has almost twice as many executive, or what she has re-titled as “corporate”, directors, each earning more than £140,000 per year, as when Jo Negrini was in charge at Fisher’s Folly five years ago.

That’s the astonishing finding following a Freedom of Information request by this website.

According to official council figures, there are now seven “corporate” directors working for Croydon Council.

In an official report to last month’s annual budget-setting meeting at the Town Hall, it showed that five of these senior staff are paid between £151,000 and £160,000 per year. Continue reading →

Posted in Council Tax, Croydon Council, Improvement Board, Jo Negrini, Katherine Kerswell, Mayor Jason Perry, Section 114 notice | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 6 Comments

Purley’s 14-foot sinkhole could take council four weeks to fix

Posted on April 17, 2024 by insidecroydon

The roads in and around Croydon have more holes in them than a slab of Swiss cheese, with works being undertaken, and then postponed, on Coulsdon Road near The Fox pub, and a dangerously deep sinkhole opening up last week on Hartley Hill in Purley.

Hole in the ground, Croydon style: soakaway works near Coulsdon Common will have to be done again in the summer

The works on the road beside Coulsdon Common started earlier this month with the objective of improving soakaways that had become ineffective, leading to deep, long-lasting puddling and flooding on the busy road. The works caused extensive diversions for buses between Old Coulsdon and Caterham, and were originally due to be completed by last weekend.

But as the excavations went down, the positioning of utilities piping meant that the new drainage measures could not be undertaken. Residents have been told that the works have had to be abandoned for now, the holes filled in, with the intention of the contractors returning to the site to complete the works during the school summer holidays.

The cavernous Purley sinkhole requires urgent safety works to be carried out immediately, which has caused concerns for one local councillor, who has been critical about the length of time it is taking for Croydon Council to ensure “that proper road diversions and signage needs to be put in place”. Continue reading →

Posted in Coulsdon, Croydon Council, Environment, Old Coulsdon, Purley, Samir Dwesar | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Second M25 closure confirmed for weekend of May 10 to 13

Posted on April 17, 2024 by insidecroydon

National Highways has confirmed that the M25 will be subject to another closure for major works between Friday May 10 and Monday May 13.

No through road: March saw the first closure of the M25 since 1986. Now it will happen again in May

The London orbital motorway will be completely closed between Junctions 9 at Leatherhead and 10 at Wisley for major improvement works, the second time this has taken place this year.

The closures will have impact on other parts of the motorway, potentially with increased traffic and the possibility of jams. Journeys on the A23 and M23 and to Gatwick and Heathrow airports will likely be affected.

Motorists have been advised by National Highways to travel only “if absolutely necessary”. Continue reading →

Posted in Coulsdon, Transport | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Physics award-winner to give Astronomical Society talk

Posted on April 17, 2024 by insidecroydon

School star: prize-winner Arabi Karteepan

Arabi Karteepan, recently named as the winner of the Royal Astronomical Society’s prestigious education award, is to give a talk tomorrow night in Croydon: “A journey to reach the Stratosphere”.

Croydon High School’s head of physics will explain how the pupils’ club she established, called Astrogazers, launched high altitude balloons which touched the edge of space last year, and how they are now working on launching their own satellite.

Kartepaan’s talk is one of a series organised by the Croydon Astronomical Society.

It takes place at Trinity School, off Addiscombe Road (CR9 7AT), and is held in the staff canteen. The meeting starts at 7.30pm and all are welcome to attend. Continue reading →

Posted in Activities, Croydon High, Education, Schools | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Lunchtime recitals, Croydon Minster, Apr 19 to Jul 5

Posted on April 17, 2024 by insidecroydon

Continue reading →

Posted in Croydon Minster, Music | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Labour in Town Hall row over who gets to wear fancy dress

Posted on April 16, 2024 by insidecroydon

More squabbles among Croydon’s Labour councillors, but not over the cash-strapped council’s finances, library closures or the axing of other services to residents. The latest row was over who gets to wear the ridiculous robes and chain of the borough’s civic mayor – and the £27,591.96 allowance that goes with it. By our political editor, WALTER CRONXITE

Political genius: New Addington councillor Kola Agboola (left) out with Labour leader Stuart King doing what councillors are best suited for: delivering leaflets

Kola Agboola, elected as a councillor less than three years ago, looks likely to be installed next month as the borough’s ceremonial mayor, and pocket almost £28,000 in enhanced allowances as a result.

It’s Buggins’ turn at the Town Hall over who gets to ponce about wearing the ridiculous red robes and chain of office for the coming year and, after Tory Tony Pearson has spent the past 12 months all puffed up in a sense of his own self-importance, it’s Labour’s turn to nominate the next councillor to fulfil the vacuous and pointless role.

Since 2022, our cash-strapped council has been paying for the privilege of having two mayors: one that dresses up like a character off Trumpton and cuts ribbons at school fetes and not much else, and £82,000 per year for an executive mayor who doesn’t do very much, either. Continue reading →

Posted in 2024 General Election, 2026 council elections, Appu Srinivasan, Kola Agboola, New Addington, New Addington North, Norbury Park, Stella Nabukeera, Tony Pearson | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 6 Comments

Seth to start as Whitgift School’s new headmaster from 2025

Posted on April 16, 2024 by insidecroydon

Toby Seth is to take over as headmaster of Whitgift School, it has been announced.

Headmaster: Toby Seth, named today for Whitgift School’s top job

The financially challenged Whitgift Foundation, Croydon’s biggest landowners, made the announcement at lunchtime today, with Seth to take charge from September 2025.

The Foundation and the £51,000 per year fee-paying school were left in the lurch in January when the current head, Christopher Ramsey, announced that he was leaving at the end of the school year to take up a headship at an international school in Madrid.

Whitgift in South Croydon, which has nearly 1,500 pupils, boys aged from 10 to 18, is one of three large private schools run by the registered charity the Whitgift Foundation, which last year made the controversial decision to close its girls’ school, Old Palace, by July 2025, claiming that it was no longer viable. Continue reading →

Posted in Andrew Halls, Christopher Ramsey, Education, Schools, South Croydon, Toby Seth, Whitgift Foundation, Whitgift School | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

More than 2,500 sign petition to save Sanderstead Library

Posted on April 16, 2024 by insidecroydon

A petition to keep Sanderstead Library open has attracted more than 2,500 signatures.

Under threat: Croydon’s cash-strapped council wants to close Sanderstead Library and sell the site to developers

Sanderstead is one of four libraries earmarked for closure as part of Mayor Jason Perry’s plans to “reorganise” Croydon’s library service.

The petition demands that Croydon Council should “retain a staffed library and invest in and develop the building with and for the local community”.

Ben Selvaratnam, who owns the Wine Cellar on Station Parade in Sanderstead has been collecting signatures for the petition since last month.

“I got a message on a local WhatsApp group including a flyer from our local residents’ association about how our library was under threat of closure,” Selvaratnam said. “I was really shocked – our library is a well-used resource for the whole community. The more I looked at the council’s arguments for the proposed closure, the weaker they seemed.”

Sanderstead Residents’ Association has been critical of the council’s case for closure because libraries are not as well used as they used to be. “This is because the council has cut the library budget by more than £800,000 and reduced the opening hours,” a SRA spokesperson said. Continue reading →

Posted in Broad Green, Community associations, Coulsdon, Croydon Council, Libraries, Old Coulsdon, Sanderstead, Sanderstead Residents Association, Shirley North, Shirley South | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Tories relieved as LibDems opt for lightweights in Sutton

Posted on April 16, 2024 by insidecroydon

The Liberal Democrats may have managed to hand the hotly contested Sutton and Cheam parliamentary seat to the Conservatives already with their short-of-talent candidate shortlist, reports BELLE MONT

Imagine the embarrassment for former BBC reporter John “Foghorn” Sweeney: all those hours of on-screen reporting from the war zone in Ukraine wearing that ridiculous-looking orange woolly hat, and still he couldn’t make the shortlist for Liberal Democrat candidate in the winnable Sutton and Cheam parliamentary seat.

Sutton’s accident-prone LibDems have, instead, been presented with a shortlist choice comprising only two, and two of the least inspiring candidates imaginable, even by their own party’s very dull standards: local councillor Luke Taylor and the party’s lacklustre previous London Mayoral candidate, Luisa Porritt, from a field of 16 eager applicants. Continue reading →

Posted in 2024 General Election, London-wide issues, Luke Taylor MP, Mayor of London, Outside Croydon, Paul Scully MP, Sutton Council, Tom Drummond | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Plumber convicted for converting toy guns into lethal weapons

Posted on April 15, 2024 by insidecroydon

Gun plumber: Evan Girdlestone was sentenced to seven years at Croydon Crown Court on Friday

A south London plumber who converted blank-firing replica guns into lethal weapons has been jailed for seven years and two months following a National Crime Agency investigation.

Evan Girdlestone, age 48, was arrested by officers from the NCA’s Armed Operations Unit on May 18 last year as he approached his parked car in Croydon.

Hidden under the passenger seat of the car was a converted gun with two magazines of ammunition.

Girdlestone, from Colliers Wood, was using an industrial unit in Wimbledon as a kind of factory, where he had a production line for the conversion of top-venting blank firers into lethal weapons. Continue reading →

Posted in Crime, London-wide issues, Policing | Tagged , , , , | 3 Comments

‘The dog that didn’t bite’: how ULEZ has become a non-issue

Posted on April 15, 2024 by insidecroydon

Just 1-in-200 Londoners are impacted by the extension of ULEZ to outer London and are paying a £12.50 fine for driving older, more-polluting vehicles in the capital.

That’s the findings of a Freedom of Information request conducted by BBC London, and comes eight months after the expansion of the air pollution-reducing measure to outer London, including Croydon.

Zack Polanski, who has been a London Assembly Member for the Green Party since 2021, in a podcast interview with Inside Croydon, described the ULEZ expansion as “the dog that didn’t bite”, a policy which has been framed as “controversial”, yet which the majority of Londoners have quickly realised does not affect their lifestyles whatsoever.
Continue reading →

Posted in 2024 London elections, Crime, Environment, Health, London Assembly, London-wide issues, Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, Susan Hall, TfL, Transport, ULEZ, ULEZ expansion, Under The Flyover | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 9 Comments

All you will ever need to know about the 2024 London elections

Posted on April 15, 2024 by insidecroydon

With the London elections, and two Croydon ward by-elections, just weeks away, our latest episode of the Croydon Insider, our monthly news podcast, discusses what your vote counts for, how the voting system has changed for London Mayor, which parts of Croydon will voters be getting four ballot papers, and what you should be looking for in a good local councillor.

And back by popular demand is our topical news quiz, Have I Got Croydon News For You!, in which all the answers are exactly the same and the Croydon public always loses…

Our guests for this episode include two Croydon Insider newcomers, both devoted iC readers, Rev Ruth Chapman and Brian Finegan, plus regular pundit, Andrew Fisher. Continue reading →

Posted in 2024 London elections, Andrew Fisher, Croydon Council, Croydon Insider, Inside Croydon, London Assembly, London-wide issues, Mayor of London, Park Hill and Whitgift, Under The Flyover, Woodside | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Prize for police dogs after six arrests at Croydon gun incident

Posted on April 15, 2024 by insidecroydon

High-flyer: police dog Remus, and his human handler, have received a special commendation for their part in dealing with a dangerous situation on a Croydon housing estate last year

Two police constables who work in and around Croydon, Colin Chappell and Dave Asquith, along with their loyal partners, police dogs Remus and Sherpa, have won this year’s National Police Chiefs’ Council Police Dog Action of the Year Award.

Commended: PCs Chappell and Asquity, with their dogs Remus and Sherpa

Six people were arrested, with a firearm and spent cartridges recovered, when PC Chappell and PC Asquith, along with Remus and Sherpa, were called to a Croydon housing estate in the middle of the night on July 7 last year following reports of gunshots.

PC Asquith and toy-obsessed Sherpa, along with PC Chappell and Remus, who love a snooze in front of the fire, put their months of training to the test. “They showed professionalism and courage in a dangerous and highly stressful policing environment to locate and detain armed suspects,” the citation said. Continue reading →

Posted in Andy Brittain, Crime, London-wide issues, Policing | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Hallowell’s voyage from Boston to Beddington, via Brickwood

Posted on April 14, 2024 by insidecroydon

SUNDAY SUPPLEMENT: The naval career of an American-born admiral who provided the hero of Trafalgar with his coffin, traced all the way to Croydon and then to Carew Manor by DAVID MORGAN

Admirable admiral: Sir Benjamin Hallowell Carew in later life

What is the most unusual gift that you have ever been given?

Admiral Horatio Nelson, the hero of Trafalgar, was presented with an unusual souvenir by a fellow naval officer, Benjamin Hallowell. It was a wooden coffin. Far from being shocked, Lord Nelson treasured the present and kept it in his cabin for years afterwards.

Hallowell served under Nelson and fought alongside him in several of the most significant battles of the Napoleonic wars, rising to become a Royal Navy admiral himself in 1830. Between 1823 and 1830, Hallowell rented a house in Croydon.

John Blake, who had a memorial window in Croydon Minster, was the owner of Brickwood House. This fine property in Addiscombe was purchased by him after the death of the man who built it, John Brickwood. Both Brickwood and Blake are remembered in Croydon today because roads were named after them. Blake never lived in his newly acquired property, renting it out to Hallowell.

Hallowell, though, wasn’t a typical English naval officer of his day. Continue reading →

Posted in Croydon Minster, David Morgan, History | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Police name Surrey Street murder victim as Rijkaard Siafa

Posted on April 14, 2024 by insidecroydon

The Metropolitan Police has named the victim of Friday’s murder on Surrey Street as 22-year-old Rijkaard Salu Siafa, from Croydon.

Murdered: Rijkaard Salu Siafa

Officers continue to support Rijkaard’s family.

A 20-year-old man who was arrested at the scene on suspicion of murder remains in custody.

As Inside Croydon reported, Siafa died in Fellmongers Yard, off Surrey Street, following an attack by at least three others, one of whom was armed with a machete. Siafa suffered at least two significant stab wounds, one to his chest.

According to witnesses, it took emergency services at least 20 minutes to respond to calls following the attack.

People on the market at just before 6pm on Friday related seeing a scooter or motorbike carrying two people, arrive near the scene with one carrying a large knife or machete. Others suggest that there may have been three attackers, all of them carrying bladed weapons. Continue reading →

Posted in Crime, Knife crime, London-wide issues, Policing, Surrey Street | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Illustrated talk: Croydon in old postcards, St Peter’s, May 19

Posted on April 14, 2024 by insidecroydon

Continue reading →

Posted in Activities, Charity, Church and religions, History | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

ECRA and Farthing Downs Friends Quiz Night, May 18

Posted on April 14, 2024 by insidecroydon

Continue reading →

Posted in Community associations, Coulsdon, East Coulsdon Residents' Association, Friends of Farthing Downs | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Rookery Market, Rookery Gardens SW16, Apr 20

Posted on April 14, 2024 by insidecroydon

Continue reading →

Posted in Activities, Business | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Bleak, dark and challenging – TWC’s Orca is a play with bite

Posted on April 13, 2024 by insidecroydon

All at sea: Theatre Workshop Coulsdon’s cast for the dramatic new production, Orca, which opens at the Coulsdon Community Centre next week

Theatre Workshop Coulsdon’s latest production, Orca, opens next weekend, and if you’ve followed TWC down the years, you’ll know this ambitious group like to ring the changes from their usual, lighthearted and irreverent fare, with the occasional more serious piece.

Plays that deliver a real emotional punch – a quality that Orca has in spades.

Midsummer. On a wind-whipped Atlantic island, the village prepares to enact its hallowed annual ritual.

They must choose a new “Daughter” to sail with the boats and bless the fishing grounds. To keep them safe from the roaming pods of orcas for another year. Continue reading →

Posted in Art, Coulsdon, Theatre, Theatre Workshop Coulsdon | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Murder on Surrey Street Market: police make one arrest

Posted on April 13, 2024 by insidecroydon

Murder scene: Surrey Street Market yesterday evening, soon after the fatal attack

A crime scene remained in place on Fellmonger’s Yard and parts of Surrey Street Market this morning, following the murder in broad daylight yesterday of a 20-year-old man.

People on the market at just before 6pm on Friday related seeing a scooter or motorbike carrying two people, arrive near the scene with one carrying a large knife or machete. Others suggest that there may have been three attackers, all of them carrying bladed weapons. Continue reading →

Posted in Crime, Knife crime, London-wide issues, Policing, Surrey Street | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Norbury Green Residents’ Assoc AGM, Norbury Library, Apr 20

Posted on April 13, 2024 by insidecroydon

Continue reading →

Posted in Community associations, Norbury, Norbury Green Residents' Association | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Ex-BBC broadcaster in running for Sutton LibDem selection

Posted on April 12, 2024 by insidecroydon

BELLE MONT, our Sutton political editor, on a selection race that might make the TV news

Former BBC Panorama and Newsnight reporter John Sweeney – known, unaffectionately, as “Foghorn” by the wags at Private Eye – is among the applicants hoping to make the shortlist for selection by the Liberal Democrats as their party’s parliamentary candidate for Sutton and Cheam.

The seat is a firm target for the LibDems, their having held it until 2015, but they are late in picking their candidate, after the Tories announced in midweek that Tom Drummond would be their name on the ballot paper, hopeful of replacing Paul Scully as the area’s MP. Continue reading →

Posted in 2024 General Election, London-wide issues, Paul Scully MP, Sutton Council, Tom Drummond | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Trams all set for challenge of two cup finals in just four days

Posted on April 12, 2024 by insidecroydon

NON-LEAGUE NEWS: As the football season enters ‘the business end’, both local clubs are in the mix for play-off places and even have a chance of winning some silverware, as ANDREW SINCLAIR reports

After 15 years without a cup win, Croydon FC have two chances in four days to add a silver lining to their season.

First up for the Trams is this Sunday’s Kent Senior Trophy final with Erith Town.

Erith are 21 places above Croydon in the league, sitting fifth in the Southern Counties East Football League Premier Division. Continue reading →

Posted in AFC Croydon Athletic, Andrew Sinclair, Balham FC, Croydon FC, Football, Sport, Wilfried Zaha | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment