Bingo! No notice as parking in South Croydon goes digital-only

Posted on June 21, 2023 by insidecroydon

Unsanctioned: the council has done little to penalise illegal parking on Selsdon Road

A digital-only parking trial that has been described by residents as “idiotic” and “unfair to anyone who doesn’t own a smartphone” has been launched this week in South Croydon – the ward which Croydon’s piss-poor Mayor, Jason Perry, represented as a councillor for 28 years.

The council has shut down all its parking meters in the misnamed Restaurant Quarter and nearby Selsdon Road, and expects all drivers to use the RingGo app.

The council announced the digital parking “trial” for South End and Selsdon Road only on Monday, the same day it was the scheme was brought in, claiming that it “is set to make it easier for more people to visit the area and support local businesses”.

But residents and the self-same local businesses dispute that, saying that using RingGo is clunky for those who have the online app, and impossible for anyone who cannot afford a smartphone. Continue reading →

Posted in Business, Croydon Council, Environment, Mayor Jason Perry, Parking, South Croydon, Steve Iles | Tagged , , , , | 20 Comments

Cakes, bakes and BBQs at Community Farm Open Day, Jul 1

Posted on June 21, 2023 by insidecroydon

Open for business: the Sutton Community Farm is open to the public on July 1

Sutton Community Farm will open its gates to welcome the public for its summer Open Day on Saturday July 1.

Sutton Community Farm, off Woodmansterne Lane in Wallington, is the only community-owned fruit and veg farm in the whole of London. Continue reading →

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Repairs and advice at Thornton Heath Sustainable Living Hub

Posted on June 21, 2023 by insidecroydon

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Getting Johnson out: lying ex-PM exposes Sunak’s weakness

Posted on June 20, 2023 by insidecroydon

‘World King’s’ new clothes: how Boris Johnson’s ignominious exit was portrayed by Chris Riddell in Sunday’s Observer

354-7: last night, Parliament had its say on the Privileges Committee’s damning report into Boris Johnson’s misconduct. ANDREW FISHER, pictured right, on how Croydon and Sutton’s MPs voted, and why the ex-PM is running scared of scrutiny

In the House of Commons last night, it was a tale of two Prime Ministers – one a disgraced ex-Prime Minister, whose lies throughout his career (remember his promises when to extend the tram network to Crystal Palace?) have finally caught up with him; the second the cowardly current Prime Minister, who hid away rather than cast a vote.

The House of Commons is a strange place, where all MPs have to be referred to as “honourable”, or “right honourable”. Such decorum has to be upheld at all times, and it is not permitted for one Member of Parliament to accuse another of lying – even if those accused blatantly have been deliberately telling falsehoods. Continue reading →

Posted in Andrew Fisher, Boris Johnson, Chris Philp MP, Croydon Central, Croydon North, Croydon South, Sarah Jones MP, Steve Reed MP | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Time has come for real answers over the Croydon tram crash

Posted on June 20, 2023 by insidecroydon

Long-lasting tragedy: after an inquest and an Old Baily trial, families of the victims say that they have been denied justice

Yesterday’s acquittal of the driver of the Croydon tram which overturned on a tight bend at Sandilands in November 2016, killing seven people, is welcome, says transport expert CHRISTIAN WOLMAR

Of course, some of those bereaved by the Croydon tram crash may be disappointed by yesterday’s Old Bailey verdict, for not getting what they felt was justice. But, in fact, it would have been a far greater injustice had driver Alfred Dorris been convicted

There has, historically, been a tendency for individuals to be blamed for causing rail accidents, but for the most part such disasters have been the result of systemic and organisational failings, rather than the fault of a single individual.

Even the most cursory investigation of the Croydon crash will show that this was certainly the case at Sandilands. It was the prosecution in the Dorris trial who told the court at the Old Bailey that the operator had created “an accident waiting to happen”. Continue reading →

Posted in Sandilands derailment, TfL, Tramlink, Transport | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 11 Comments

Free tour and rooftop gallery, Penge Street Art, Jun 25

Posted on June 20, 2023 by insidecroydon

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Thornton Heath murder victim named as Usmaan Mahmood

Posted on June 19, 2023 by insidecroydon

The police today identified the murder victim of last week’s Thornton Heath stabbing as 20-year-old Usmaan Mahmood, who lived in the area.

Victim: Usmaan Mahmood is the fourth person murdered in Croydon in less than three months

The fatal stabbing occurred in broad daylight near Thornton Heath Rec last Tuesday afternoon. No arrests have been made. It is the fourth murder case in and around Croydon since the start of April.

Officers on patrol in the area on June 13 found Mahmood at around 4.15pm at the junction of Melfort Road and Sandfield Road.

“Mr Mahmood was found with stab injuries,” according to the Metropolitan Police.

“Officers performed CPR and requested support from the London Ambulance Service. He was taken to hospital but sadly died there in the early hours of Wednesday, June 14.” Continue reading →

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Old Bailey jury delivers ‘not guilty’ verdict in tram crash trial

Posted on June 19, 2023 by insidecroydon

Alfred Dorris, the driver of the tram which crashed at Sandilands in November 2016 when seven people died, was in tears in the dock at the Old Bailey at lunchtime today as a trial jury returned a not guilty verdict on the charge of failing to take reasonable care at work.

Acquitted: Alfred Dorris

The jury took less than two hours this morning to reach its verdict at the end of the month-long trial.

Dorris, 49, had been charged under the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 over the derailment. There were 69 passengers on the tram when it toppled over on a sharp bend.

Those who died were Dane Chinnery, Donald Collett, Robert Huxley, Philip Logan, Dorota Rynkiewicz, Philip Seary and Mark Smith. Another 19 suffered life-changing injuries.

The criminal case was bought by the Office of Rail and Road. Continue reading →

Posted in Commuting, Sandilands derailment, TfL, Tramlink, Transport | Tagged , , , , | 6 Comments

Hospital workers to march on Downing Street for better terms

Posted on June 19, 2023 by insidecroydon

Cleaners and caterers across South London and Maudsley NHS Trust are taking a week of strike action as they escalate their dispute.

The workers, members of the GMB trades union and employees of ISS, are also planning to march on Downing Street.

South London and Maudsley, or SLaM, is a grouping of NHS psychiatric centres based at the Bethlem Royal Hospital on Monks Orchard Road in Beckenham, Lambeth Hospital, Maudsley Hospital, the Ladywell Unit at Lewisham Hospital, as well as more than 100 community sites. Continue reading →

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Council surveys public for views on Croydon housing policies

Posted on June 18, 2023 by insidecroydon

The council is holding a survey to seek residents’ views on plans for housing services – from providing homes, to raising living standards and providing good customer care.

Home service: residents from all parts of the borough are invited to participate in the council survey

Tenants, leaseholders, staff and community partners are being asked to tell the council what they think should be their priorities over the next five years.

“Responses will help to shape Croydon’s Housing Strategy 2023-2028,” the council said.

“This will build on the extensive work already underway to transform council homes, listen to residents and make sure they are provided with good core services. Continue reading →

Posted in Croydon Council, Housing | Tagged , , , | 4 Comments

Cougars Basketball summer camp, Monks Hill, Jul 24-Aug 25

Posted on June 18, 2023 by insidecroydon

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Accidental Death of an Anarchist, Ruskin House, Jun 30

Posted on June 18, 2023 by insidecroydon

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‘Grand National’-sized field in the running for Croydon East

Posted on June 17, 2023 by insidecroydon

Political editor WALTER CRONXITE on the short memories and absence of shame among Newman’s numpties seeking selection for ‘higher’ office

No shame: Labour leader Starmer at a recent fund-raiser with Manju Shahul-Hameed, one of the councillors who crashed Croydon’s finances

Boris Johnson is not the only politician with no shame.

One of the numptiest of Newman’s numpties, Manju Shahul-Hameed, continues to trawl the country in search of a Constituency Labour Party with members so gormless that they might actually select as their prospective parliamentary candidate one of the people responsible for bankrupting Croydon. Continue reading →

Posted in Alisa Flemming, Alison Butler, Amy Foster, Chrishni Reshekaron, Croydon Central, Croydon East, David Evans, Maddie Henson, Manju Shahul Hameed, Olga Fitzroy, Patsy Cummings, Paul Scott, Sarah Jones MP, Sherwan Chowdhury, Stella Nabukeera, Tony Newman | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Regina Coeli Summer Fair, South Croydon, Jul 8

Posted on June 17, 2023 by insidecroydon

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Croydon FC 70th anniversary fundraiser, Croydon Arena, Jul 29

Posted on June 17, 2023 by insidecroydon

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Doctors and scientists warn PM of conspiracy theory dangers

Posted on June 16, 2023 by insidecroydon

Deadly cloud of pollution: Croydon and the rest of London has been under an air pollution red alert this week

‘Politicians have been attending rallies run by conspiracy theorists. They have dismissed our science on social media…. Facts have been questioned and scientists have been discredited in an attack on the very essence of our scientific community’

Discrediting science: PM Rishi Sunak has been warned by climate scientists and NHS medical staff this week

More than 200 health professionals have written to Prime Minister Rishi Sunak urging him to take firmer action to tackle air pollution, after a week when high temperatures and winds from continental Europe have seen Londoners placed on red alert because of toxic air.

Earlier this week, dozens of the country’s top scientists also lobbied No10 to warn of the dangers of allowing Conservative MPs and London Assembly Members to discredit scientific evidence around the global climate crisis and air pollution.

In a letter, the scientists accused politicians in Parliament and the London Assembly of “not believing the science”. Continue reading →

Posted in Environment, London Assembly, London-wide issues, Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Sutton- and Croydon-based pupils up for BAFTA awards

Posted on June 16, 2023 by insidecroydon

Game time: a screenshot taken from the BAFTA award-nominated One Life game devised  by 15-year-old Brit School pupil Ethan Dale

A pupil from the Brit School and another who attends Carshalton Boys are both up for a BAFTA after being named as finalists for the Young Game Designers awards.

Ethan Dale, 15, who lives in Sutton and goes to the Brit School, has been shortlisted for the Game Making Award category. “I can’t believe I got nominated for the BAFTA YGD Award!

“It really boosted my confidence and showed me that my games can make it in the world. I’d like to develop and expand my game One Life in the future. I want to polish the graphics with more effects and add a level editor. That way, gamers around the world can use their imagination and build new levels for themselves.”

Julian Tanca is 14. He submitted a game titled Potato Ninjas vs. Coconuts 2. Continue reading →

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Beats & Eats Fathers Day Feast, Jolly Farmer’s Purley, Jun 18

Posted on June 16, 2023 by insidecroydon

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Council’s rubbish director is set to take early retirement

Posted on June 15, 2023 by insidecroydon

KEN LEE, our Town Hall reporter, on an announcement which has been greeted warmly by many of the council’s frontline staff

On the way out: council director Steve Iles

Steve Iles, one of the most controversial senior figures working for Croydon Council, is taking early retirement and leaving Fisher’s Folly at the end of the summer.

Unconfirmed estimates suggest he could walk away from the cash-strapped council with a pension package worth close to £130,000.

Iles’s current job title is “director of sustainable communities”, which carries with it a salary of close to £150,000 per year.

For the best part of a quarter of a century, Iles has been in charge of the state of the borough’s roads, responsible for the introduction of ANPR cameras and LTNs around Croydon, and also overseeing the botched imposition of Binmageddon on the borough through contracts with rubbish contractors Veolia.

Continue reading →

Posted in Croydon Council, Refuse collection, Steve Iles, Veolia | Tagged , , , , , , | 16 Comments

Now German shoe retailer decides to give Croydon the boot

Posted on June 15, 2023 by insidecroydon

Shoe retailer Deichmann is the latest business to decide to close their store in central Croydon.

Closing down sale: Deichmann on North End will be closing on July 1

As Inside Croydon reported exclusively earlier this week, the Sainsbury’s supermarket in the Whitgift Centre, which has traded there ever since the shopping mall opened in 1969, will be closing its doors for a final time in September.

Sainsbury’s departure is regarded as a hammer blow to the fortunes of the sadly declining town centre, and is part of an exodus of businesses from the Whitgift Centre caused by the development blight of more than a decade’s uncertainty over Westfield’s promised, but undelivered, regeneration. Continue reading →

Posted in Business, Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield, Whitgift Centre | Tagged , , , , , | 16 Comments

Police seek witnesses in Thornton Heath murder investigation

Posted on June 15, 2023 by insidecroydon

The Metropolitan Police are appealing for witnesses to a stabbing in Thornton Heath on Tuesday which left a 20-year-old man with fatal injuries.

It is the fourth murder investigation launched in the Croydon area in less than three months.

The victim, who has not yet been named by police, died in hospital in the early hours of yesterday morning.

In a statement issued by the Met, they said, “At 16:16hrs on Tuesday, 13 June, officers on patrol in Thornton Heath were made aware of a man who had been injured at the junction of Melfort Road and Sandfield Road.

“The man, aged 20, was found with stab injuries. Officers performed CPR and requested support from the London Ambulance Service. Continue reading →

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Q&A with Dean Headley, Beddington Cricket Club, Jul 12

Posted on June 15, 2023 by insidecroydon

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‘Heartbroken’ Hallam Court residents in call for urgent action

Posted on June 14, 2023 by insidecroydon

Selhurst residents who saw their homes on fire last week say that they have known since 2020 that the materials used on the building’s exterior were unsafe. Today, the sixth anniversary of the Grenfell disaster, they said: ‘We cannot risk one more life due to unsafe building materials or poor management of blocks’. By STEVEN DOWNES

Devastated: how one of the flats was left after last week’s fire

Residents of a block on Whitehorse Road who last week escaped with their lives when a fire caught hold on the building’s wooden balconies say that they have known since 2020 about the flammable materials used, but that managers Southern Housing have done nothing to ensure their building meets fire safety standards.

The fire at Hallam Court in Selhurst saw 80 people evacuated, and fortunately, no one suffered any serious injury. Continue reading →

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Grenfell six years on: 80% of social blocks still lack sprinklers

Posted on June 14, 2023 by insidecroydon

Research published by Inside Housing shows that, six years since the Grenfell Tower fire, fewer than 1-in-5 high-rise social housing blocks have been fitted with sprinklers and only 1-in-8 with fire alarms, key pieces of equipment which the fire services confirm do save lives.

National tragedy: few of the obvious lessons of Grenfell have been put into practice, six years since the fire

The report’s publication, ahead of today’s sixth anniversary of the fire at the 24-storey tower in North Kensington in which 72 people were killed, also comes just a week since a blaze at a social housing block in Selhurst where there was no fire alarm and the residents had been given the same “stay put” emergency advice that had such a catastrophic effect at Grenfell.

That no one was killed or seriously hurt in last week’s fire at Hallam Court appears to be down only to the residents’ good sense, and a great deal of good fortune. Hallam Court residents had written to the building’s owners, Southern Housing, in May to express their strong concerns about safety, and the building’s flammable cladding.

Continue reading →

Posted in Housing, London Fire Brigade, Property, Selhurst | Tagged , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Mayday Hospital issues A&E advice as NHS feels the heat

Posted on June 14, 2023 by insidecroydon

Croydon’s NHS hospitals are having to cope with a “perfect storm” this week of hot weather, dangerously toxic air pollution and a junior doctors’ strike, with NHS London issuing a reminder: “No one wants an avoidable trip to A&E”.

Under pressure: the NHS has plans in place, but heat and air pollution have increased demand

Matthew Kershaw, the chief executive of Croydon Health Services NHS Trust which runs Mayday and Purley hospitals, sent an email to colleagues and partners this morning in which he said, “We are already seeing attendance for emergency treatment rise due to the current heatwave.

“To help us care for patients needing urgent and emergency treatment, we are urging Croydon residents to only use A&E in serious emergencies… Continue reading →

Posted in Croydon NHS Trust, Health, Matthew Kershaw, Mayday Hospital, Purley Hospital | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment