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A decade too late, even Sutton’s LibDems now turn on Viridor
No one wants the polluting Beddington incinerator to be allowed to increase its capacity for burning rubbish. So why is the Environment Agency ‘minded’ to approve the application? STEVEN DOWNES reports
Pollution plant: Viridor cannot manage its Beddington plant at its current capacity. So how can they be trusted to handle 10% more ‘fuel’
Tomorrow is the final day for submissions in a public consultation being run by the Environment Agency, surely the gummiest of toothless watchdogs.
Even before this stage of the consultation began, the EA said that “it is minded” to grant an application from Viridor to increase the burning capacity at their polluting incinerator on Beddington Lane, despite the plant breaking its existing licence conditions on more than 40 occasions over the course of the last couple of years.
In one episode in 2022, the incinerator went more than seven times over internationally recommended emissions levels for hydrogen chloride. Hydrogen chloride is the chemical normally used in the production of potentially deadly hydrochloric acid. Continue reading
Posted in Barry Lewis, Business, Croydon Council, Elliot Colburn, Environment, Kingston, London-wide issues, Merton, Planning, Refuse collection, Ruth Dombey, Sadiq Khan, Sutton Council, Waste incinerator
Tagged Barry Lewis, Beddington, Beddington Lane incinerator, Croydon, Croydon Council, Environment Agency, Kingston Council, KKR, Liberal Democrats, Merton Council, Ruth Dombey, SLWP, South London Waste Partnership, Sutton Council, Viridor
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Fires at two central Croydon pubs raise widespread suspicions
Double trouble: the two fires needed 100 firefighters called out from across south London this morning
The Crooked House Pub in the Midlands burns to the ground under highly suspicious circumstances and creates national headlines.
Croydon’s response? “Hold my beer”.
Two closed pubs in Croydon town centre were ablaze this morning, having caught fire within an hour of each other.
The inevitable conclusions were jumped at immediately. At least one of the pubs had been the subject of a recent planning application which had been refused by Croydon Council.
It took 14 fire engines and 100 firefighters, drawn from at least eight stations across south London, to tackle the blazes at The Windmill on St James’s Road and the Drum and Monkey on Gloucester Road. The pubs are little more than 200 yards apart. Continue reading
FREE!: Law centre is offering series of money advice webinars
The South West London Law Centres are staging a series of money advice webinars throughout September, with experts covering a range of common topics including disability benefits, Universal Credit and managing your money – and all are completely free of charge. Continue reading
Posted in Charity, South West London Law Centres
Tagged Money webinars, South West London Law Centre, SWLLC
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Perry is director of company handed £50,000 culture grant
EXCLUSIVE by STEVEN DOWNES
One of the biggest single grants handed out by Croydon Council for Borough of Culture projects has gone to a company where Mayor Jason Perry is a director.
While several long-established, recognised community arts groups had their bids for project grants for the Borough of Culture turned down by working parties set up by the council, Croydon Business Improvement District, Croydon BID, was given £50,000 to populate the streets around the town centre with fibreglass giraffes. Continue reading
Posted in Art, Borough of Culture 2023, Business, Croydon BID, Croydon Council, Mayor Jason Perry
Tagged 15% Council Tax hike, Borough of Culture, Conservative, Council Tax, Croydon, Croydon BID, Croydon Council, giraffes, London Borough of Croydon, Mayor Jason Perry, Mayor of London, Tory
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Purley’s cancer help centre all set to enjoy its purple patch
The 2023 Paint Purley Purple campaign starts next week, raising awareness – and funds – for South East Cancer Help Centre, based in the Tesco complex.
Purple Purley: the annual campaign, with ‘yarn bombing’ runs through September and October
SECHC is again calling on residents, local shops, businesses, schools and other organisations to get involved and share their purple pictures on social media using the hashtag #PaintPurleyPurple.
The purple yarn bombing display that began in 2017 with just five trees covered in purple knitting in Purley town centre has expanded so that more than 70 trees and benches will be covered in 2023. All the knitting has kindly been made with love by members and supporters of the Centre (it gets laundered and re-used every year), with new panels sewn on where the trees have grown. Continue reading
Oppenheimer, Barbie and Hitchcock: David Lean Cinema, Sep
Posted in Cinema, David Lean Cinema Campaign
Tagged Barbie, David Lean Cinema, David Lean Cinema Campaign, Oppenheimer
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ULEZ is here to stay and the health benefits are on the way
Opposition to the Ultra Low Emission Zone, which has been expanded to much of outer London today, has simply demonstrated where third-rate Conservative politicians’ priorities lie – and that’s not with the public nor the planet. By our environment correspondent, PAUL LUSHION
Air quality control: ULEZ reduces traffic, and pollution. Croydon’s Mayor Perry opposes that
Today marks the first day of the extension of ULEZ, the Ultra Low Emission Zone, to the majority of Greater London, including Bromley, Sutton and Croydon. And guess what? Despite all the dire warnings and doom-mongering, the world has not come to an end…
And yes, extending ULEZ to the outer fringes of the capital definitely will improve air quality.
Air pollution in Croydon has been particularly bad and getting worse throughout this century; the extension of ULEZ will force some of the most polluting vehicles off the road, or make the polluter pay, with £12.50 per day charges for those driving non-compliant vehicles. It’s no more of a “tax”, as the detractors claim, than the 10p carrier bag levy charged at supermarket check-outs which has vastly reduced demand for single-use plastic bags. Continue reading
Posted in 2024 London elections, Bexley, Boris Johnson, Bromley Council, Business, Coulsdon, Environment, Health, Kenley, London-wide issues, Mayor Jason Perry, Mayor of London, Purley, Sadiq Khan, Steve Reed MP, Surrey, Susan Hall, Sutton Council, TfL, Transport, ULEZ, ULEZ expansion
Tagged Boris Johnson, City Hall, Conservative, Coulsdon, Croydon, Kenley, Labour, London, London Assembly, London Borough of Croydon, Mayor, Mayor Jason Perry, Mayor Sadiq Khan, Purley, Steve Reed OBE, Susan Hall, Tory, ULEZ, Ultra Low Emission Zone
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Tories U-turn as they look at re-opening borough’s rat runs
Long-standing road closures which have often provided welcome traffic calming measures for decades could be under threat in the latest move by an increasingly desperate Prime Minister, reports JEREMY CLACKSON, transport correspondent
Tory targets: perfectly sensible measures are under threat
Rishi Sunak, the Prime Minister, is refusing to attend the United Nations General Assembly in New York next month because of its planned focus on UN Sustainable Development Goals. It is just the latest example of the Conservatives shifting right and turning their back on tackling climate change.
Last month, Sunak gave the green light to “maxing out” North Sea oil and gas reserves. This came after an IT firm founded by his father-in-law signed a $1.5billion deal with energy giant BP…
And it continues a trend by which the Tories are reliant on financial support from the fossil fuel industry and climate change deniers. Official figures show that between December 2019 and October 2021, these groups gave £1.3million in legalised bribes. Continue reading
Posted in Chris Philp MP, Croydon Central, Croydon North, Croydon South, Environment, Fairfield, Sarah Jones MP, Selhurst, Steve Reed MP, Transport, Waddon
Tagged Chris Philp MP, Conservative, Croydon, Croydon Central, Croydon North, Croydon South, Fairfield, Low Traffic Neighbourhood, LTNs, Rat runs, Rishi Sunak, Sarah Jones MP, Selhurst, Steve Reed OBE, Tory, Waddon
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Residents’ associations join calls to save rail ticket offices
The consultation over the future of the nation’s railway station ticket offices closes on September 1, so there is still time to try to influence the government over its plans to offer only machines for the purchase of tickets.
Busy: Purley Station is one of many across the borough which will have its ticket office closed under the government-imposed proposals
As Inside Croydon has reported, the only stations in the borough not under threat of losing their ticket offices altogether are Norwood Junction and West Croydon – stations which are both operated by Transport for London – while there are plans to maintain some limited staffing for ticket assistance at East Croydon.
Although the consultation is being run on behalf of the rail operators, the closures have been exposed as a cost-cutting measure imposed from the Tory Government’s Department for Transport.
In the Tory-voting Croydon South constituency, 11 station ticket offices are set for closure under the controversial proposals. Continue reading
A22 Godstone Road closure lifted one week ahead of schedule
The water board’s road works on the A22 Godstone Road at Purley Cross have finished – a week ahead of schedule.
Waterlogged: traffic congestion at Purley Cross was constant for the past month while the A22 was closed
SES Water closed off the A22 at the junction close to Purley Tesco’s last month for what they described as “essential” water main replacement works, to maintain their supplies to three-quarters of a million people. The works had been in the planning for more than three years.
Although the works affected only a 300-yard-long stretch of the Godstone Road, it cut off the direct route between South Croydon and Purley to Kenley and Whyteleafe. Official diversions for journeys of less than one mile recommended routes of around 20 miles, and once the works began, traffic congestion around Purley Cross was constant.
The works were expected to take six weeks, scheduled to run until September 3, but last night councillors confirmed that the road closure had been lifted. Continue reading
Posted in Business, Kenley, Purley, Purley Oaks and Riddlesdown, Samir Dwesar
Tagged A22, Godstone Road, Kenley, Purley, Purley Cross, Samir Dwesar, SES Water, South Croydon, Whyteleafe
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Go Nads! Barwell enters row over right-wing MP’s resignation
Absentee peer has a pop at nine-carat ex-MP Nadine Dorries in a Twitter spat likely to spark further rows as the Conservatives look to select their parliamentary candidate for new Croydon East constituency, reports our political editor WALTER CRONXITE
Not very good: Nadine Dorries has a vastly inflated view of her abilities
Gavin Barwell, the former Croydon MP and government minister, leaped into the political row over the long-delayed resignation of Nadine Dorries at the weekend, attracting a full-blooded attack on social media.
Dorries, a full-time presenter on a little-watched, far-right TV station and part-time MP for Mid-Bedfordshire, finally got around to filing her formal resignation via a Tory-supporting newspaper’s pay-walled subscription service over the weekend.
Dorries, an arch-supporter of Brexit and Boris Johnson, had been absent from her job as an MP for most of the past year, although that did not prevent her pocketing her salary and making sure a family member was also well-paid out of tax-payers’ money. Her resignation, when it finally came, followed a decision last week to double the severance payment to retiring and resigning MPs. Kerrr-ching! Continue reading
80 years on the stage – taking Croydon from the Blitz to Narnia
SUNDAY SUPPLEMENT: This year marks the 80th anniversary of the first performances by CODA, the Croydon Operatic and Dramatic Association, making it one of the longest-lasting community arts organisations in the borough. DAVID MORGAN looks into how the group came to be formed in the middle of World War II
Grand designs: Harry Carter and friends got Croydon’s Grand Theatre and Opera House reopened for performances in 1942
In 1942, when the Second World War was raging all around them, and with German bombs still streaming down on London on an almost nightly basis, Harry Carter and two friends made a decision which might surprise people today. They decided to start up the Croydon Operatic and Dramatic Society – CODA.
“It will occupy the minds of the people during the air raids,” Carter said at the time.
Carter was also the chairman of the Croypur Arts Society which presented the Croydon Repertory Players each week at the Grand Theatre, a particularly grand, as you might expect, Victorian era theatre on the High Street (a little to the south of where the Flyover stands today; the Grand Theatre and Opera House would be demolished in 1959 to make way for an office block).
Back in 1942, after the Blitz and with El Alamein offering some shred of hope for Britain’s war-time campaigns, the Grand had managed to re-open. There were a few amateur dramatic groups managing to continue to stage shows, the ARP Players being a notable example. Most societies, though, were being closed down or mothballed, so it really was an unusual move by Carter to start up a new one. Continue reading
Posted in Art, Ashcroft Theatre, CODA, David Morgan, History, Theatre
Tagged Ashcroft Theatre, CODA, Croydon Operatic and Dramatic Association, David Morgan, Fairfield Halls, Grand Theatre, Grand Theatre and Opera House, Kenneth Horne, Narnia, Russell Grant, Second World War, Simon Le Bon, The Blitz, The Lion The Witch and The Wardrobe, World War II, World War Two
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Dance Festival Croydon, Shoestring Theatre, Sep 9
Posted in Art, CYTO, Dance
Tagged CYTO, Dance Festival Croydon, Shoestring Theatre, South Norwood
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Nae Pasaran! at Ruskin House Film Screen, Sep 8
Posted in Cinema, Ruskin House
Tagged Chile, General Pinochet, Nae Pasaran!, Rolls Royce, Ruskin House, Ruskin House Screen Club
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‘Staggering’ number of animal cruelty cases reported to RSPCA
They may be man’s best friend, but there were 3,752 reports made to the RSPCA last year about cruelty towards dogs in London, figures released by the animal charity show.
Dog’s chance: the RSPCA is receiving an increase in reports of cruelty to dogs
That represented a 6per cent increase in reports, up from 3,536 in 2021.
This means in 2022, 10 dogs a day on average were cruelly treated in London.
The heartbreaking figures include reports made about intentional harm, neglect and abandonments.
The type of incidents which come under intentional harm are attempted killing, poisoning, beating, improper killing, mutilation and suspicious circumstances. Shockingly, there were 994 reports of intentional harm to dogs in London.
Nationally, the number of reports made to the RSPCA about dogs – including intentional harm, neglect and abandonments – in 2022 was 42,690, a 7per cent increase from 2021.
In summer months cases of cruelty rise and the charity is braced for its busiest time of the year. Continue reading
Official opening of Maggie’s Garden, Norbury, Sep 2
Posted in Community associations, Gardening, Maggie Mansell, Norbury
Tagged Maggie Mansell, Maggie's Garden, Norbury
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Mayor Perry accepted hundreds of pounds of gifts in first year
CROYDON IN CRISIS: Recently published declarations of interest from the borough’s elected Mayor show someone who enjoys a free lunch and just doesn’t know when to say ‘No’. EXCLUSIVE by STEVEN DOWNES
Medallion man: Jason Perry likes a free lunch
There’s hardly an official opening or a charity visit that goes by at which Croydon’s elected Mayor, Jason Perry, won’t accept a gift, a free meal or a bottle of gin, it seems…
Freebie tickets to Selhurst Park to see Crystal Palace play, a meal for four (for four!) at Croydon’s poshest restaurant, lavish entertainment courtesy of one of the country’s most notorious developer lobbyists, and a neck tie from a former Labour councillor are among the various gifts that Mayor Perry has declared in the time since his election, according to official documents released by the council this month.
Croydon’s first elected Mayor, who gets paid £84,000 per year for the job, has accepted gifts worth hundreds of pounds during his first months in office.
While there’s understandable shock and anger over the latest Westminster row about how MPs greedily accept invitations to prestige events or generous donations (though why anyone should be surprised at all is a mystery), here in deepest south London, Croydon’s part-time Mayor is doing his best to show that, when it comes to sticking his snout in the trough, he’s as bad as the next politician. Continue reading
Simmonds’ Tribunal ruling prompts national alert to councils
Croydon Council is being used as an object lesson to local authorities across the country. But not in a good way. Again.
In the dock: Croydon Council is an object lesson to everyone
An Employment Tribunal case successfully taken against Croydon Council by a former senior employee for unlawfully reducing her pay has prompted a national warning to all other local authorities.
The civic trade magazine The Municipal Journal is reporting today that the Joint Negotiating Committee for chief officers – the national organisation which settles pay claims for council execs – has “urged local authorities to check their policies and contracts to avoid falling foul of the same ruling”.
A judge found that Croydon acted unlawfully when it denied full pay to its director for localities, Hazel Simmonds, while she was suspended.
“The council argued she was entitled to ‘normal’ pay, meaning it could be reduced on the basis she was off sick,” the MJ reports. Continue reading
Perry’s parking proposal to impose smartphone apps on drivers
A consultation is expected next month that will halve the free period allowed on most on-street bays
Croydon motorists will regard ULEZ expansion as a mere picnic once they grasp what Mayor Jason Perry has in store for them over new, money-grabbing parking arrangements around the borough.
Museum piece: council parking meters like this could soon all be removed
The council is looking at proposals which could see the removal of all parking meters, to be replaced by a system where people are only able to use council-run car parks or parking bays if they have their personal details logged with a Town Hall version of Big Brother, and they check in and out with a mobile phone on every occasion that they park their car.
This Orwellian dystopia is already being trialed in South Croydon, and Mayor Perry is promising a public “consultation” next month on borough-wide proposals.
But some residents have got wind of the scheme, and they don’t like it one little bit.
“Whose dreadful idea was this?” one concerned reader said. “What of those who do not have mobile phones? It’s not fair on those who do not have smartphones and do not understand technology.
“Even those who do have smartphones don’t want to use them to be tracked everywhere they go.” Continue reading
