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Cult Church of Bling wound-up over ‘suspicious’ operations
A Croydon-based church which worked closely with local Tories – and even got close to Boris Johnson – has been shut down after Charity Commission and Insolvency Service investigations found ‘suspicious or incorrect accounts’. By STEVEN DOWNES
SPAC Nation has been wound up after failing to account for more than £1.87million of outgoings and “operating with a lack of transparency”, the Insolvency Service announced this morning.
SPAC busted: Mario Creatura (right), and London Mayoral candidate Shaun Bailey (left), were prominent in supporting SPAC Nation’s Jayde Edwards (front, centre), when she was a candidate in Fairfield in 2019
SPAC Nation was the cult-like church based in Croydon which was accused of exploiting its young worshippers, as well as facing allegations of multiple business frauds.
They were also, until caught out, enthusiastic backers of leading Croydon Tory Mario Creatura when he was a candidate in the 2019 General Election campaign, after he had nurtured their support with visits to that year’s Conservative Party Conference, appearing alongside Boris Johnson.
Such was the seriousness of safeguarding issues that were raised over the way senior figures in SPAC Nation exploited vulnerable young Londoners that there were even questions asked in the House of Commons in early 2020.
Reports first published by Inside Croydon had raised serious concerns about the conduct of senior ministers in SPAC Nation, as well as its members’ involvement in the November 2019 Fairfield council by-election, where one of SPAC’s “pastors” was the Croydon Conservatives’ candidate.
The petition to wind-up the company was presented in the High Court on behalf of the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy in January this year under the provisions of section 124A of the Insolvency Act 1986, following confidential enquiries by a branch of the Insolvency Service under section 447 of the Companies Act 1985.
Boxpark terrace bar greets summer with Caribbean flavours
Serving up a Caribbean party: Big Mike’s is open on the Boxpark roof terrace this Sunday
Big Mike’s Rooftop BBQ returns this Sunday, June 19, to kick off a summer of good vibes and great food on the terrace at Boxpark Croydon.
Big Mike’s Calypso Kitchen’s food and delicious cocktails served on the terrace were one of the big hits of Croydon’s summer last year, and they are back for more through Sundays in 2022.
The Rooftop BBQs offer a relaxed social gathering, allowing friends to catch up, drink in hand over a bite to eat. Add in some magical music and customers are transported to the Caribbean with sights, smells and sounds of Barbados.
Chef Mike Springer has teamed up with Boxpark and Beefeater Gin so that the first 150 customers who buy a meal from Big Mike on the Beefeater Roof Terrace will receive a voucher for a free Beefeater Gin cocktail.
The NHS’s ‘top tips’ for families to stay safe in the heatwave
With temperatures in London and the south-east expected to soar above 30 degrees on Friday, the local NHS has issued a set of guidelines and advice to help you and your family ending up in hospital.
People are being admitted to A&E because of heat-related including severe sunburn, heat exhaustion and sun and heatstroke.
Pollen levels are also expected to be very high, with the potential to trigger allergies, with some people admitted to hospital due to the effects of hay fever. Then there are others who have been stung by wasps, hornets and other insects.
The risk of serious illness is much higher for the elderly, children and young people, and those who already have health conditions, including heart and breathing problems. Continue reading
Biggest rail strike for 30 years could see network in meltdown
Even Southern, a rail network where its workers are not striking, is asking passengers not to travel next week. By JEREMY CLACKSON, transport correspondent
Train operators are appealing to their regular passengers and commuters not to travel next week, when the biggest rail strike for 30 years is to be staged.
Expect the worse: passengers are being asked not to travel by train next week
An estimated 50,000 Network Rail and operating staff from 13 train operating companies are expected take to picket lines across the country in a row over pay and job losses.
The strikes could bring much of the nation’s railways to a halt for the whole week, with only skeleton services running in many areas and disruption having an impact on non-strike days.
The RMT union has called for industrial action over pay, conditions and to oppose compulsory redundancies, such as those being proposed for station staff as some networks look to close down ticket offices.
RMT members working on Thameslink, Southern and Gatwick Express lines which run through East Croydon, South Croydon and West Croydon, Norwood Junction, Purley and stations in and around Coulsdon will not be going on strike next week.
But these trains will still be affected by the effects of Network Rail strikes.
The three official strike days are Tuesday June 21, Thursday June 23 and Saturday June 25. Continue reading
Posted in Commuting, East Croydon, Norwood Junction, Tramlink, Transport, West Croydon
Tagged #SouthernFail, Coulsdon, East Croydon, Gatwick Airport, Gatwick Express, Govia Thameslink, London Bridge station, Norwood Junction, Purley, Southeastern Railway, Southern Rail, Thameslink, West Croydon station
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£81,000 part-time Mayor pulls a sickie for first scrutiny meeting
Town Hall reporter KEN LEE on the seemingly miraculous recovery from covid by Tory Jason Perry
Off sick: part-time Mayor Jason Perry
Croydon’s £81,000 part-time Mayor pulled out of his first scheduled appointment with the council’s scrutiny committee last night, citing covid as his excuse.
Yet just hours later, part-time plastic windows salesman Jason Perry was well enough to be out and about mixing with the nine- and 10-year-olds at an official engagement at the Robert Fitzroy primary school in Selhurst.
Tory Perry became Croydon’s first elected Mayor last month, with a majority of just 550 votes in the borough-wide elections. He and Croydon Conservatives had stood on a manifesto of greater accountability and scrutiny, following the bankrupting of the borough by the previous Labour-controlled administration.
Yet nearly six weeks into his term as Mayor, Perry appears to be ducking questions about his own plans for Croydon.
Whopper of embarrassment as Burger King bins offer
Massive embarrassment for multi-national fast-food brand Burger King in Norbury this week, where they were forced to bin a special introductory offer less than 24 hours before the scheduled grand opening of a delivery kitchen outlet in Norbury.
The new kitchen was all set to open today.
But what was billed as “Whopper Wednesday”, offering 1,000 free burgers to the first customers to book a delivered burger, turned into a whopper of an own-goal for Burger King. Continue reading
There be dragons in South Norwood Country Park this summer
A dragon has been asleep under the surface of South Norwood Country Park for hundreds of years. It’s been there for so long, a forest has grown up on its back.
Now, the dragon guardians are looking for recruits to help take care of her. Does your youngster have what it takes? Continue reading
Posted in Activities, Art, Stanley Halls, Theatre
Tagged South Norwood Country Park, Stanley Arts, Stanley Halls
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London Authority funds Croydon College’s digital skills hub
The Greater London Authority is to fund Croydon College to create the Croydon Digital Skills Hub, working together with John Ruskin College in Selsdon, working with 17 Croydon businesses and providing free courses to ensure residents have the digital skills needed to excel in their careers.
The courses on offer are free for learners who currently don’t hold a Level 3 or higher qualification.
The courses – BCS Level 3 Certificate in IT User Skills (ECDL Advanced) (ITQ); NCFE Level 3 Certificate in Cyber Security Practices (an absolute must for anyone working for Katherine Kerswell at Croydon Council); NCFE Level 3 Certificate in Coding Practices; and Gateway Level 3 Certificate in Systems Infrastructure – will, the College says, “support learners to gain access to tech training, apprenticeships, work placements, job opportunities and increase digital inclusion”.
John Ruskin College has received funding to deliver two courses – Nonregulated Level 2 ICT and a Certificate in IT User skills ECDL (ITQ). Continue reading
Posted in Croydon College, Education
Tagged Croydon College, Digital Skills Hub, John Ruskin College, Selsdon
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Surrey Street Market stops to remember pub landlord Knight
Respects: traders and stall-holders along Surrey Street will be remembering Mark Knight today
The funeral will take place later today of Mark Knight, the popular landlord of the Dog and Bull pub on Surrey Street.
Market traders and stall-holders, as well as regulars from the pub and market shoppers, will be paying their respects when the funeral cortege enters Surrey Street via Crown Hill at around 3pm, when it will stop briefly outside the pub, before exiting via Scarbrook Road.
Other vehicles connected with the funeral will also be entering Surrey Street during the course of the afternoon.
A message from Knight’s family asks that stall-holders and their customers take care and move off the road as the vehicles pass through. Continue reading
Posted in Pubs, Surrey Street
Tagged Dog and Bull, Mark Knight, Surrey Street, Surrey Street Market
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Grief Therapy Zoom session with Laura Pusey, Jun 30
Posted in Activities, Community associations, Croydon BME Forum
Tagged Croydon BME Forum, Laura Pusey
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Bins strike called off after Veolia agree to increase staff pay
The Croydon bins strike, due to start on Thursday in a dispute over “poverty pay”, has been called off after the council’s rubbish contractors, Veolia, finally agreed an improved pay deal for some of their poorest-paid workers.
Strike off: Veolia staff have agreed to a new pay deal
The strike was due to last for three weeks, in the hottest part of the year, but has been averted after the Unite union, which represents around 100 drivers, loaders and sweepers on the outsourced Croydon Council refuse contract, accepted a much-improved pay offer.
Veolia had been stalling on any agreement over 10 months of negotiations.
But this afternoon Unite announced that their members had voted to accept an improved pay offer worth 8.5per cent and an additional one-off payment £750 – worth an additional 3.4per cent for the lowest paid, to a total of 11.9per cent. Continue reading
‘We are enraged at government whose sole focus is profit’
Grenfell United, the group representing the bereaved and survivors, this morning issued the following statement, on the fifth anniversary of the tower block fire in London that claimed the lives of 72 people
72 lives lost: five years on, the bereaved and survivors feel badly let down
Today, we remember the 72 beautiful souls lost that night. To ensure their memories live on.
Those in power called them “nameless”. They were not nameless. They were treasured, loved and ours.
Today is about honouring the 72 innocent men, women and children who lost their lives that night.
We must never forget them. We must carry them with us forever, in our hearts.
Five years on, as much as we try to move on, how can we with the knowledge that this can still happen? How can we move on when next to nothing has changed?
Five years on, another Grenfell is still a very real possibility. This government should feel ashamed at its complete lack of action and continued carelessness for the 72 lives so needlessly lost. Continue reading
Posted in Charity, Community associations, Housing, London-wide issues
Tagged Grenfell Tower, Grenfell United
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RSPCA community dog event, Thornton Heath Rec, Jun 16
Posted in Activities, Charity, Thornton Heath
Tagged RSPCA, Thornton Heath, Thornton Heath Rec
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Five years after Grenfell tragedy, firefighters’ job cuts continue
Five years on: fire safety issues raised after the Grenfell Tower tragedy on June 14, 2017, have not been addressed
On the anniversary of the Grenfell Tower tragedy in which 72 people died in 2017, the Fire Brigades Union has revealed that another 221 firefighter positions have been cut.
The union says that these latest job cuts come after several years before Grenfell when the nation’s fire and rescue services had already suffered significant job cuts: more than 11,000 fire brigade roles were cut between 2010 and 2017. Continue reading
Posted in London Fire Brigade
Tagged FBU, Fire Brigades Union, Grenfell Tower, LFB, London Fire Brigade, Matt Wrack
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Time’s running out for Axis as new Mayor comes under scrutiny
The honeymoon period is over for Jason Perry, as the first reports of his administration are due to be published this week, reports KEN LEE, our Town Hall correspondent
Bland of hope and glory: Croydon’s building supplies salesman Mayor has been enjoying his higher profile during his first month in office
Jason Perry this week faces his first real tests as Croydon’s elected Mayor, after a month-long honeymoon period which has been heavy on rhetoric but light on any real actions.
Mayor Perry pulled out of public engagements at the weekend, including the first post-pandemic New Addington festival, citing covid precautions – sources suggest that the Mayor has actually escaped with just a heavy cold – but not before promising to take forward a number of (as yet unspecified) measures in cabinet reports this week.
The £81,000 per year Tory Mayor has already bowed to public pressure by giving an undertaking to pay the costs of staging the South Croydon ward by-election out of his own pocket.
The by-election, to be held on June 30, has been called because Perry opted to stand for election as a councillor as well as for Mayor. He is only allowed to fill one position, and the by-election is to fill the vacancy left by Perry. The by-election is estimated to cost Croydon’s tax-payers at least £20,000.
Posted in Business, Croydon Council, Housing, Mayor Jason Perry, Rowenna Davis, Sean Fitzsimons, South Croydon
Tagged Conservative, Croydon, Croydon Council, Croydon Mayor, Democratically Elected Mayor of Croydon, Green Party, Jason Perry, Labour, Liberal Democrats, Mayor Jason Perry, Mayor of Croydon, Regina Road, Rowenna Davis, Scrutiny and Overview Committee, South Norwood, Tory
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Whopper offer as Burger King opens Norbury delivery site
Burger King is offering 1,000 free Whoppers ordered via the Deliveroo app from its new delivery kitchen in Norbury as part of a “Whopper Wednesday” deal.
In addition to the signature flame-grilled beef burger being up for grabs as part of the giveaway, the Plant-based Whopper will also be available.
The permanent delivery-only location in Norbury has also created 15 jobs. Continue reading
Self-care Tool Kit session, Whitgift Wellness Centre, Jun 29
Posted in Activities, Community associations, Croydon BME Forum
Tagged Croydon, Croydon BME Forum, Whitgift Centre
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Dombey’s dodgy LibDems’ handbrake turn over dirty diesel
Burned: protestors, including independent councillor Nick Mattey, voicing their objections to the LibDem-backed Viridor expansion plan at this week’s Sutton planning committee
Viridor and Ruth Dombey’s dodgy Liberal Democrats are so worried about the latest attempts to increase the volume of rubbish burned at the Beddington Lane incinerator, and the use of vast amounts of dirty diesel to do so, that they pulled an application for a new storage tank that was due to be considered at a planning committee this week.
And Helen Bailey, the council’s chief executive, even sent LibDem councillors scurrying around to a back entrance to avoid a raucous anti-incinerator demo outside the Civic Offices in Sutton. Continue reading
Posted in Business, Environment, Helen Bailey, Nick Mattey, Refuse collection, Ruth Dombey, Sutton Council, Waste incinerator
Tagged Beddington, Beddington Farmlands, Beddington Lane incinerator, Conservative, Dave Tchiligirian, Labour, Liberal Democrats, Nick Mattey, Ruth Dombey, SDEN, Sheldon Vestey, SLWP, South London Waste Partnership, Sutton Council, Sutton Decentralised Energy Network, Tory, Viridor
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Brick by Brick abandons its planning consents and 23 sites
CROYDON IN CRISIS: The council this week set light to a ‘bonfire of the vanities’, abandoning planning applications on 477 homes around the borough in development proposals by their failed house builders.
EXCLUSIVE by STEVEN DOWNES
Gone: the planning permission for this Brick by Brick Stasi-era monstrosity to be inflicted on New Addington has been dropped, one of 23 projects which will not now be developed
Croydon Council has dumped the last remaining building schemes proposed by Brick by Brick, with the withdrawal of planning applications for 23 sites, all of which had been recommended to be granted permission two years ago.
Arrogant: Jo Negrini, former council CEO was behind the Brick by Brick idea
A total of 477 housing units across the two dozen sites had their planning applications formally withdrawn this week.
It is the ultimate bonfire of the vanities for the likes of Jo Negrini and Colm Lacey, the former council officials who oversaw the house-building disaster, and of local Labour politicians Alison Butler and Paul Scott, who schemed and bullied the project through, enabling the funnelling of hundreds of millions of pounds of public money into the ill-managed and unchecked Brick by Brick.
In the end, it all led to the bankrupting of the borough, and to Labour’s loss of control of the council at last month’s local elections.
Posted in Alison Butler, Brick by Brick, Business, Colm Lacey, Croydon Council, Environment, Housing, Jo Negrini, London-wide issues, New Addington, Norbury, Paul Scott, Planning, Property, Report in the Public Interest, Section 114 notice, Tony Newman, Waddon, Wildlife
Tagged Alison Butler, Brick by Brick, Colm Lacey, Croydon, Croydon Council, Jo Negrini, Labour, MIPIM, New Addington, Norbury, Paul Scott, Planning, Planning Committee, Planning permission, Tony Newman, Waddon
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Celebrities’ football match at Selhurst raises £25,000 for GOSH
In the pink: Members of the winning team, left to right, Jamie Groves, Paul Hayes, Yung Filly, Lianne Sanderson, Harry Cain (no, not the England captain) and Toby Aromolaran
Selhurst Park staged south London’s own version of Soccer Aid this week, raising £25,000 for Great Ormond Street children’s hospital.
Celebrities and ex-pro footballers took part in the Goals 4 GOSH tournament, where the Palace Pelicans faced the Crystal Koalas – the teams taking their names from wards at Great Ormond Street.
Former England women’s international Lianne Sanderson captained the winning team with ex-West Ham player Anton Ferdinand captaining the Koalas. Continue reading
