Organisers reach out as Wireless returns to Crystal Palace

Posted on April 4, 2022 by insidecroydon

Loud and proud: the 2021 Wireless Festival in Crystal Palace Park got a mixed reception

A large section of Crystal Palace Park will be fenced off from the public for around three weeks this summer, as the Wireless Festival returns at the start of July.

Wireless was staged in south London for the first time last year, the three-night “turbo-twerking” rap event featuring 50 different acts and drawing 150,000 concert-goers, paying around £70 a time. But the event also attracted controversy, when one star was arrested by police before they went on stage and it was connected to reports of shots being fired at another rapper’s after-party.

It was the traffic chaos caused that exercised Crystal Palace residents over the Wireless weekend, making almost the first task in their job as the Crystal Palace Park Trust’s new chief executive to be the issuing of an apology to residents and local businesses affected by the disruption. Continue reading →

Posted in Activities, Business, Charity, Croydon parks, Crystal Palace and Upper Norwood, Crystal Palace Park, Crystal Palace Park Trust, Music | Tagged , , , , , , | 3 Comments

CareDogs taking the lead on helping the elderly go walking

Posted on April 4, 2022 by insidecroydon

A south London-based dog charity based is launching a befriending service with a twist this spring after a successful pilot last year.

Walkies: Colin says that meeting Fiona and her CareDog Ellie has been a big help to him

CareDogs operates in Lambeth, Southwark, Croydon, Bromley and Lewisham. The charity aims to solve social isolation in the elderly through a range of services centred around the positive impact dogs can have on people’s lives.

CareDogs is welcoming volunteers and their pets to befriend an older person in need. Whether they’re housebound, living with dementia or going through bereavement, CareDogs is giving dog owners an opportunity to do good by making bespoke pairings between volunteers and clients. The simple aim is to encourage human connection through canine companionship.

As a nation of dog-lovers, the pilot project has already made a huge impact for the six volunteer pairings taking part, helping to build confidence and new friendships. Continue reading →

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Victorian doctor’s Australian journey that ended tragically

Posted on April 3, 2022 by insidecroydon

SUNDAY SUPPLEMENT: Memorials placed in Croydon Minster are often just the beginnings of DAVID MORGAN’s historical research

Croydon servant: Henry Whitling worked as a doctor in the town for 25 years

Visitors to Croydon Minster often comment on the number of brass memorials on the walls. Some ask whether the people remembered on them are buried in the church.

“This person can’t be buried here because it says he died at sea,” one eagle-eyed youngster observed on a recent school visit.

The memorial to Henry Townsend Whitling was erected by people who “valued his friendship and in token of the high esteem in which they held him and of their sorrow for his loss”.

The brass is dated Christmas 1889. Whitling had died on March 30 that year.

Whitling had been a well known and respected professional in Croydon. He was a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons and his medical practice was located at 53 High Street.

In the 1866 directory, he was one of 29 surgeons named in Croydon. Carpenter, Whitling and Lancaster were the three doctors who shared the High Street practice, with Whitling also giving that address as his private residence. Continue reading →

Posted in Church and religions, Croydon Minster, David Morgan, History | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

The grand scandal at the centre of Fairfield’s absurd saga

Posted on April 3, 2022 by insidecroydon

Centre stage: last night’s concert performers had to provide their own Bechstein grand piano, costing £1,400 to rent for the night. Pic: Simon Bentley

Arts correspondent BELLA BARTOCK solves the mystery of the vanishing grand pianos, and discovers more scandal at the council-owned arts venue

The Fairfield Halls, following its shambolic and costly refurbishment, is now an arts centre without an art gallery, with a concert hall without a concert piano.

Last night’s gala performance of “Carmina Burana” by the Croydon Philharmonic and the Docklands Sinfonia was accompanied by a grand piano that the performing choir had to rent for the night, and pay more than £1,400 for the privilege.

That was on top of the £3,540 charge by BHLive for putting on a concert in the under-used concert hall. At their supposedly discounted rate for “community events”. Continue reading →

Posted in Art, Ashcroft Theatre, BH Live, Borough of Culture 2023, Croydon Philharmonic Choir, Fairfield Halls, Music, The Wreck | Tagged , , , , , , , | 17 Comments

Up the JunkAction: artists pitch to clean up South Norwood

Posted on April 3, 2022 by insidecroydon

What calls itself an “eco-community art project” has been started in South Norwood, setting out to “transform litter into art”, with sculptures to be exhibited on the same streets from where the rubbish that was dumped had been collected.

The Norwood JunkAction project is working with residents and the Litter Picking Friends of South Norwood.

Artists are being given two months’ studio space rent-free to transform litter into sculpture, which will culminate with a three-day open-air exhibition and street festival to be staged with the council and the Stanley Halls arts centre.

“Besides developing and exercising their creativity and inner artistic skills, participants will also build transferable professional training, skills and confidence to construct and deliver workshops on their own in the future,” the project organisers say. Continue reading →

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Russell & Bromley give away £500,000-worth of kids’ shoes

Posted on April 2, 2022 by insidecroydon

For some parents and carers trying to manage on ever-tighter household budgets in Croydon, there’s been a small ray of kindness amid all the pressures of the cost of living crisis after a major shoe retailer donated more than 41,000 pairs of children’s shoes to a national charity.

Boxing clever: Home-Start Croydon took delivery of dozens of children’s shoes

Charity Home-Start UK have described the gesture by shoe retailer Russell and Bromley as “an incredible package of kindness”.

Independent estimates of the value of the donation, based on average retail prices, reckon it amounts to close to £500,000-worth of goods.

Derek Terrell from Home-Start Croydon told Inside Croydon, “The families we support are so grateful for this wonderful donation of shoes. It will make such a difference.”

Russell and Bromley approached the charity asking if they would like the gift of shoes, which range in sizes to fit children from infants to adolescents.

Vivien Waterfield, the deputy chief executive of Home-Start UK, said: “It is a really tough time for parents right now. Families who would otherwise struggle to afford new shoes, or have to purchase on a buy now pay later arrangement, can enjoy seeing their children wearing a new pair of shoes without any worry. Continue reading →

Posted in Business, Charity | Tagged , | 1 Comment

Countdown to election gets underway with poll card dispatch

Posted on April 2, 2022 by insidecroydon

The poll cards for Croydon’s first Mayoral election on May 5 have been despatched, the council has announced.

On May 5, residents will vote for an elected Mayor of Croydon for the first time. They will also vote for 70 ward councillors to represent their local area.

The full list of candidates standing in the elections is expected to be published by the council on Tuesday on www.croydon.gov.uk/elections2022.

Information about the role and responsibilities of an elected Mayor is already on the council website.

Residents must be registered to take part and vote in the election. The deadline for registration is midnight on April 14. You can register to vote at www.gov.uk/register-to-vote. Continue reading →

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NHS now begins roll-out of covid jabs for 5-to-11-year-olds

Posted on April 2, 2022 by insidecroydon

Nearly 1million under-11s in London are being offered covid-19 vaccines from this week.

New appointments: booking covid vaccines for younger children opened today

Parents and carers of children aged from five to 11 are able to book a jab for their children from today, as the biggest and most successful vaccination programme in NHS history expands again.

Appointments are available at sites across the capital from Monday, April 4, with more coming online throughout the week.

The move comes as infection rates across the whole population continue to rise, following the removal of most legal precaution measures. Yesterday, the government ended the provision of free covid testing kits.

Meanwhile, the NHS is making the vaccine available for all in the five-to-11 age group following updated guidance, which recommended all children would benefit from a non-urgent offer of the vaccine. Almost 5million in that age-group across the country are now eligible.

Continue reading →

Posted in Health | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

Butler and Scott broke Code of Conduct over Fairfield meeting

Posted on April 1, 2022 by insidecroydon

CROYDON LABOUR IN CRISIS: Shawcross joins condemnation of senior Labour councillors after they are let off lightly for breaking ethics rules.
EXCLUSIVE by STEVEN DOWNES

Rule breakers: when both in Newman’s cabinet, Alison Butler and Paul Scott were receiving £93,000 a year in council allowances

Right to the bitter end, Paul Scott and Alison Butler, the couple who were at the core of the Croydon Labour cabal which bankrupted the borough, were bending the council rules to breaking point and beyond.

That has been confirmed by a ruling from the council’s most senior legal officer, released last night, which says that Butler and Scott broke the Town Hall Code of Conduct by attending, speaking at (in Scott’s case) and voting at a meeting to discuss the latest Report In The Public Interest to be slapped on their wretched administration, this time over the shambolic refurbishment of the Fairfield Halls.

Neither Butler nor Scott made any formal declaration of interests, even though Butler, as the former council cabinet member for homes, was criticised by the auditors who produced the RIPI as one of those responsible for the £67million Fairfield Halls fiasco, starting with the disastrous decision to hand the refurbishment work to in-house house-builders Brick by Brick.

Just as troubling, none of their councillor colleagues thought there might be anything a bit dodgy about allowing the husband of one of those singled out by auditors critical of the Fairfield refurbishment to speak at the meeting. Labour’s chief whip, Clive “Thirsty” Fraser, saw nothing wrong in including Scott as one of the councillors to cross-examine Grant Thornton.

But the disciplinary report, compiled by interim Monitoring Officer John Jones, reveals that Butler had spoken to him before the meeting, held in the Town Hall Chamber on February 3. But Jones allowed her to attend the meeting without any declaration of interest. Continue reading →

Posted in Alison Butler, Andrew Pelling, Bensham Manor, Brick by Brick, Croydon Council, Fairfield Halls, John Jones, Paul Scott, Planning, RIPI II: Fairfield Halls, Tony Newman, Val Shawcross, Woodside | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | 6 Comments

Sutton’s LibDems in meltdown as ‘betrayed’ deputy quits

Posted on April 1, 2022 by insidecroydon

A councillor called ‘Moral’ has taken a principled stance against her erstwhile party colleagues.
EXCLUSIVE by CARL SHILTON, investigations editor

Ruth Dombey’s deputy mayor on Sutton’s Liberal Democrat-controlled council is quitting at the local elections next month because she has been “betrayed, let down and hurt”.

Annie Moral has been a councillor for St Helier ward since 2018.

Moral is among 14, perhaps even as many as 15, LibDem councillors whose names won’t be on the finalised declaration sheets of candidates for the 2022 elections when they are formally released next Tuesday. The LibDems won 33 council seats at the last council elections in 2018.

The LibDems have been the majority group on Sutton Council for 36 years, but the 2022 exodus of nearly half their councillors suggests that could all be about to change in five weeks’ time.

Continue reading →

Posted in 2022 council elections, Elliot Colburn, Environment, Ruth Dombey, Sutton Council, Tom Brake MP, Waste incinerator | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

About turn! Trams’ town centre loop set to go in reverse

Posted on April 1, 2022 by insidecroydon

A leak from the Town Hall reveals the latest craziness from the planners that run Croydon.

All change: how the Dingwall Loop was first proposed. Now the scheme is being looked at again

Following the collapse of the Westfield dream, Transport for London pulled the plug on the scheme to put in new tramlines down Dingwall Road and Lansdowne Road. While the official reason in favour of it was to support Croydon’s £1.4billion town centre redevelopment, the real intention was to use public money to ferry shoppers arriving at East Croydon Station to within a stone’s throw of the temple of retail mammon.

That was seven years ago, well before the shopping mall bubble finally burst, and before the pandemic fuelled a massive and permanent increase in online shopping. Continue reading →

Posted in Inside Croydon | Tagged | 7 Comments

£67m arts centre – with no art gallery and few performances

Posted on March 31, 2022 by insidecroydon

EXCLUSIVE: The Fairfield Halls fiasco gets worse by the day, with Bournemouth-based venue operators BHLive staging shows on just 24% of available dates. Croydon is supposed to be London’s ‘Borough of Culture’ in 2023… By STEVEN DOWNES

Empty promises: Sadiq Khan attended the reopening of the Fairfield Halls with then council leader Tony Newman and Ollie ‘Shitshow’ Lewis in 2019. That was as good as it got

Croydon is London’s Borough of Culture in 2023, a supposedly feel-good scheme backed by hundreds of thousands of pounds in grants from the Mayor of London.

Croydon Council, which went bust in 2020 and has received £120million in a government bail-out, is stumping up £1million towards the Borough of Culture events.

But the ill-conceived venture is just the latest reminder of Tony Newman’s toxic time as council leader, when he left behind a borough bankrupted, morally as well as financially, where most of its libraries are now open for only two days a week and where its flagship arts centre is this year “dark” for three-quarters of the available dates. Continue reading →

Posted in Alison Butler, Arnhem Gallery, Art, Ashcroft Theatre, BH Live, Borough of Culture 2023, Business, Croydon Council, Fairfield Halls, Hamida Ali, Mayor of London, Neil Chandler, Oliver Lewis, RIPI II: Fairfield Halls, Sadiq Khan, Talawa Theatre Company, The Wreck, Theatre, Tony Newman | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 7 Comments

Aldi seeking 400 staff in London-wide recruitment drive

Posted on March 31, 2022 by insidecroydon

Aldi, the fifth-largest supermarket chain in Britain, has announced it is looking to hire nearly 400 new staff across London this year.

Recruitment drive: Aldi say they have a range of positions on offer

Aldi says that they are “looking for people of all levels of experience to fill roles at its stores across the region, with salaries of up to £63,245”. This includes full-time positions such as stock assistant and store assistant, all the way up to deputy manager.

Aldi operates stores in Croydon including on the Purley Way, at Selhurst and in Selsdon.

The recruitment push forms part of Aldi’s nationwide expansion drive, with the supermarket expecting to create more than 2,000 jobs nationwide, adding to the 7,000 permanent roles already created over the past two years.

Continue reading →

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Hospital strike called off after G4S offers 24% pay rise

Posted on March 31, 2022 by insidecroydon

Justice: the GMB union action has delivered a settlement for Mayday Hospital workers

Some of the lowest-paid workers at Croydon’s Mayday Hospital are today claiming victory – and a 24per cent pay increase – after a six-month-long battle with outsoucing giants G4S. And they didn’t even have to resort to strike action.

Cleaners and porters were due to walk out on Monday in a dispute over wages and sick pay. This included being able to claim sick pay when workers were forced to self-isolate, rather than come into to work and risk spreading covid-19 to colleagues and patients.

But now G4S has offered an immediate 24per cent pay rise with back pay and an occupational sick pay scheme.

GMB members have accepted the offer. Continue reading →

Posted in Croydon NHS Trust, Health | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

Your Park, Your Voice, Grangewood Park, Apr 10

Posted on March 31, 2022 by insidecroydon

Continue reading →

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Join us for an evening of Iconicons with author John Grindrod

Posted on March 30, 2022 by insidecroydon

Join us on Wednesday April 20 for an evening with author John Grindrod, to hear him talk about his acclaimed new book, Iconicon.

Put this down as “not to be missed”, but with limited seats available, make sure you book quickly. First come, first served!

From Thatcher to Brexit, Iconicon is a history of the country through some pretty good buildings and a vast number of awful ones.

“Be prepared for something darker, much more illuminating and rather sad,” The Guardian’s reviewer, Hugh Pearman, said of Iconicon.

“Chirpy though Grindrod’s prose style is, replete with pop references and hip asides, what he chronicles is the accelerating decline of the UK since 1980 as expressed through what we build. Continue reading →

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Tears among the hairspray as CODA takes on Steel Magnolias

Posted on March 30, 2022 by insidecroydon

Anyone who is anyone in Chiquapin, Louisiana – from the local curmudgeon to the prettiest girl in town – has a standing appointment at Truvy Jones’s beauty salon.

Barbershop sextet: the CODA cast get in the mood for Steel Magnolias

It’s the only place to be for the gossip.

But when the joy and excitement of a wedding turn to concern about the health of one of their number, the ladies must dig deep to find strength to meet life’s hurdles…

CODA, the Croydon Operatic and Dramatic Association, are hard at work learning their lines and rehearsing for their latest production, Robert Harling’s bittersweet comedy drama Steel Magnolias, being staged at the CryerArts Centre in Carshalton next month.

By turns heartwarming, hilarious and heart-breaking, Steel Magnolias will leave audiences with a smile on their face and a tear in their eye. Continue reading →

Posted in Art, CODA, Theatre | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

West End Gala final night for charity helping NSPCC Childline

Posted on March 30, 2022 by insidecroydon

A Sutton-based charity set up in memory of its founder’s brother is celebrating 10 years of fundraising with a gala dinner in central London.

Aaron Hearne founded The Liam Charity in 2012, two years after Aaron and his mother had found his younger brother, who had tragically taken his own life. Liam was just 14.

Ten years and £260,000 raised later, with the main beneficiary being the NSPCC’s Childline service, Aaron and his team’s main aims have been to educate young children in the community about speaking out through sharing Liam’s story and suicide prevention.

Continue reading →

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Grange Park Easter Eggstravaganza, Old Coulsdon, Apr 16

Posted on March 30, 2022 by insidecroydon

Continue reading →

Posted in Activities, Community associations, Coulsdon, Friends of Grange Park, Old Coulsdon | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Factsheet and Twitter: Gove’s answer to council housing crisis

Posted on March 29, 2022 by insidecroydon

Long way to go: the Regina Road council blocks shocked the nation with the leaks, damp and mould

Measures to improve the state of social housing and to guarantee tenants a decent place to live have been announced this morning by the government – 15 years after similar proposals were first agreed.

Michael Gove, as the Levelling Up minister, appears to have cleared a legislation blockage that was created by “Big” Eric Pickles and Grant Shapps soon after the Tory-led coalition government took office in 2010. Even something as shocking as the Grenfell tragedy in 2017 could not shame the Conservatives into more urgent action.

But one year on from Croydon being shamed over “the worst housing in Britain” in council flats in Regina Road, tenants ought not get too excited at the prospect of Gove leading the cavalry charging to their rescue. The measures introduced today include very modest targets, with the government stating it wants “to halve” the “number of non-decent homes” with a target date of only 2030, eight years away. That probably reflects the scale of the disrepair problems in the nation’s social housing stock.

But there is a factsheet. And social media. Continue reading →

Posted in Community associations, Housing, Regina Road Residents' Support Group | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Council planners urge developer to pre-empt Local Plan

Posted on March 29, 2022 by insidecroydon

Going in off the deep end: The listed diving board at the old Purley Way Lido may not be the tallest building in Bellway’s plans, if Croydon Council’s planners get their way

It isn’t only over suburban blocks of flats that the council planning department appears to work against the interests of the residents they are supposed to serve. Housing correspondent BARRATT HOLMES reveals how officials have been persuading one developer to ignore their own policy on tall buildings

Open for business: Bellway has begun its public consultation

Housebuilder Bellway has started a public consultation on proposals for 180 homes to be built on the site of the former Purley Way Lido on Waddon Way. The developers want to call their project “The Platform”.

The last splash from someone going in at the deep end from the lido’s Grade II-listed Art Deco diving board was heard in 1979, when the open-air pool closed for a final time, with the site used as a garden centre until Wyevale closed that in late 2018.

Bellway acquired the site, initially announcing the intention to build 168 homes alongside the Purley Way Playing Fields. The retail value of such a development is estimated at more than £50million.

But now it is Croydon Council planners who are taking the plunge, though they have only managed a massive belly-flop.

Anyone viewing the consultation paperwork, or attending the consultation events organised by the developer this week, will discover that Bellway is now inviting views on a larger scheme which also includes a 10-storey block of flats and very limited off-street parking in an area with notoriously poor public transport.

According to well-placed sources, Bellway were encouraged to take these steps after discussions with Croydon Council’s planning department. Continue reading →

Posted in Andrew Pelling, Business, Chris Philp MP, Croydon Council, Croydon parks, Croydon South, Environment, Heather Cheesbrough, Housing, Joy Prince, London-wide issues, Mayor of London, Neil Garratt, Planning, Property, Purley Way, Purley Way Lido, Robert Canning, Sadiq Khan, Waddon, Wing Yip | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

DEMOC Mayoral Hustings, Chichester Road, Apr 7

Posted on March 29, 2022 by insidecroydon

Continue reading →

Posted in 2022 Croydon Mayor election, Andrew Pelling, Jason Perry, Val Shawcross | Tagged , , , , | 3 Comments

Mystery surrounds new candidate Herman’s deleted tweets

Posted on March 28, 2022 by insidecroydon

CROYDON LABOUR IN CRISIS: Some fear it is a case of out of the frying pan into the fire with the imposed election candidate in South Norwood. By our political editor, WALTER CRONXITE

Nothing to see here: Christopher Herman has been busy trying to erase his Twitter past

The Local Campaign Forum, the committee at the centre of controversy for its bungled handling of Croydon Labour’s candidate selection process, is withholding the identity of the candidate it wants to impose on the people of South Norwood… while they check on a raft of recently deleted tweets.

Christopher Herman was selected last night at a somewhat perfunctory LCF meeting, which excluded Labour members in the ward from having any say in the choice of person to represent them at the Town Hall elections being held on May 5.

With the election candidate declaration deadlines looming, the crisis-hit LCF needed to replace 24-year-old Elliott-Jay Munroop, who had withdrawn on Friday. Continue reading →

Posted in 2022 council elections, Broad Green, Croydon North, Elliott-Jay Munroop, Oliver Lewis, South Norwood, Steve Reed MP | 6 Comments

Picking up where they left Orff: choir’s on song for Fairfield

Posted on March 28, 2022 by insidecroydon

The Croydon Philharmonic Choir is picking up where it left off, with a performance of Carl Orff’s classic piece, “Carmina Burana”, which they were forced to cancel at desperately short notice in March 2020 when the first covid lockdown was introduced.

On song: The Croydon Philharmonic Choir returns to the Fairfield Halls on Saturday

The choir has been undertaking its final rehearsals ahead of their concert at the Fairfield Halls this Saturday, April 2.

The resounding “Carmina Burana” is one of the most thrilling pieces in the choral repertoire, with its driving rhythms and thunderous choruses.

The choir is back in its stride again, working to perfect a concert that also includes two 1920s jazz-age pieces: “The Rio Grande” by Constant Lambert and Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue”, to be played by Docklands Sinfonia.

Continue reading →

Posted in Art, Croydon Philharmonic Choir, Fairfield Halls, Music | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Bumps and ‘bunkers’ to provide new homes for the small blue

Posted on March 27, 2022 by insidecroydon

Bleak March: in the week after the big storms, the blossom of a cherry tree on Roundshaw stood out against the grey Croydon backdrop

NATURE NOTES/MAR 2022: Be careful what you wish for, as the February storms saw nature perform a handbrake turn before the first guided walk of our year-long nature watch project. By STEVEN DOWNES

Road runner: even before we’d got to the Downs, a redwing was spotted alongside the busy A23

I’d muttered something about wanting the first group walk on Roundshaw Downs to be bleak, so that somehow, those not familiar with the place could get a sense of how hostile it can seem sometimes.

Careful what you wish for.

After the first few weeks of the year had seemed to have the flora and fauna around the downs hurtling towards spring, the arrival on our shores at the end of February of the vicious storms, Dudley, Franklin and Eunice, saw nature do the equivalent of a hand-brake turn. Continue reading →

Posted in Croydon parks, Environment, Nature Notes, Wildlife | Tagged , , | 2 Comments