‘Unbelievable’: Barwell joins chorus of condemnation for PM

Posted on January 11, 2022 by insidecroydon

Tory grandees, and Gavin Barwell, have begun to turn on Prime Minister Boris Johnson over his and his wife’s attendance at what The Times was today describing as a “boozy shindig” in the Downing Street garden during the first covid lockdown.

Liar: Prime Minister Boris Johnson

The latest revelations, including an emailed invitation to 100 Downing Street staffers in May 2020, was broadcast last night by ITV News and offers incontrovertible evidence that while the nation tried to obey the rules to avoid the spread of the deadly virus, Johnson and his lackeys behaved as if they were above the very laws which they had just enacted. Chin! Chin!

Ruth Davidson, the former Scottish Conservative leader, was the latest senior Tory to turn on the prime minister this morning when she said he did not need an official inquiry to confirm whether he attended the event that was organised by Martin Reynolds, his principal private secretary.

She added that the public were “rightly furious” at the new revelations, which bring the total number of Downing Street parties being investigated to at least six. Continue reading →

Posted in Boris Johnson, Croydon Central, Gavin Barwell, Sarah Jones MP | Tagged , , , , , , , | 8 Comments

Coffee mornings, every Saturday, St Matthew’s, Chichester Rd

Posted on January 11, 2022 by insidecroydon

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Lunchtime music recitals, Croydon Minster, Feb 4-Mar 25

Posted on January 11, 2022 by insidecroydon

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Residents’ despair over vile fly-tips, including a pig’s head

Posted on January 10, 2022 by insidecroydon

Health hazard: Shamrock Road residents say that they have been reporting this fly-tip for more than three weeks

Residents of a quiet Thornton Heath street are becoming increasingly angry at Croydon Council for its lack of action over some persistent fly-tipping, which most recently has seen bin bags full of rotting animal parts, including a pig’s head, dumped three weeks ago.

Shamrock Road residents have been calling on the council for two years to equip their street with closed-circuit television cameras to monitor and deter the regular fly-tipping, which they say is being done by criminal gangs.

The residents say that they have contacted all the correct council contact points for reports of fly-tipping and environmental health concerns, but have had all their appeals for help ignored. Continue reading →

Posted in Croydon Council, Fly tipping, Refuse collection, Thornton Heath | Tagged , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

Help to Buy fuels London’s house price inflation say Lords

Posted on January 10, 2022 by insidecroydon

A parliamentary report out today underlines that £29bn-worth of housing subsidies have simply helped to boost several Tory donors’ profits, reports our housing correspondent, BARRATT HOLMES

Builders’ subsidy: a Lords committee has been critical of a costly Tory government scheme

The cost of an average home in Croydon increased by 4 per cent in the first 10 months of 2021, according to official government data, as some house prices in the capital soared at a rate of £10,000 per month in that same period.

According to figures from the Gov.uk House Price Index for January to October 2021 (the latest available data), the cost of an average home in Croydon increased from £380,866 to £397,215 – £16,348.

In Sutton, prices went from £393,920 to £417,545 – £23,544, or 5.9 per cent. In Bromley, the average house price went from £456,738 to £479,845 – £23,106, 5.0 per cent.

Such increases came despite the rate of house price inflation slowing at the start of the year, which analysts suggested was as much because of the impact of Brexit on the London housing market as covid.

Kensington and Chelsea (£101,171), Hammersmith and Fulham (£95,522) and Richmond upon Thames (£85,862) had the biggest average price increases of all London boroughs. In Newham, Brent, Southwark, Hackney and Tower Hamlets, average house prices fell during 2021, as the average house price across London increased by 3.3 per cent.

But a report published today by a House of Lords committee has accused the Tory government’s flagship Help to Buy scheme of fuelling such house price inflation while doing little to address the crying need to provide more social housing across the country. Continue reading →

Posted in Bromley Council, Housing, Lambeth Council, London-wide issues, Merton, Planning, Southwark Council, Sutton Council, Wandsworth Council | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Christmas presence: local NHS delivered 250,000 covid jabs

Posted on January 10, 2022 by insidecroydon

NHS staff and volunteers across the South West London Clinical Commissioning Group area worked long hours through the festive period, including on Christmas Day, administering nearly 250,000 jabs to help protect the public from covid-19 – the biggest vaccination programme across south-west London in the history of the NHS.

Across a three-week period, from December 13 to January 2, a total of 249,776 vaccines were administered.

These included:

  • 221, 649 booster vaccines
  • 14,408 second doses
  • 13,719 first doses

Continue reading →

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£3m renovation for historic Crystal Palace Subway to go ahead

Posted on January 10, 2022 by insidecroydon

An ambitious £3million project to restore and re-open one of the last vestiges of the grand Crystal Palace has been given a green light.

One of the wonders of south London: the Crystal Palace Subway, now set for £3m renovation

Bromley Council last week granted planning permission for a restoration project for the Crystal Palace Subway, the walkway under Crystal Palace Parade that used to link the old Higher Level railway station for first-class passengers visiting the great glass attraction, but which has laid derelict and almost forgotten for 70 years.

The scheme is backed by Historic England and has received grants from the City of London Strategic Investment. The project has been driven by the energetic Friends of Crystal Palace Subway.

The restored Subway, with a new weatherproof roof, could be open for visitors as soon as next year.

What is now known as Crystal Palace railway station was once one of two stations which served one of the wonders of the Victorian age, following Palace’s reconstruction on top of Sydenham  Hill in 1854. The current station – itself a monument to fine Victorian brickwork – was originally the “Low Level Station”, which left alighting passengers with a quarter-mile walk up Anerley Hill to the Palace. Continue reading →

Posted in Crystal Palace and Upper Norwood, Crystal Palace Park, History | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Under The Flyover: star actor Joanna Scanlan interviewed

Posted on January 9, 2022 by insidecroydon

Joanna Scanlan is the South Croydon-based award-winning actor who has starred in hit TV series including The Thick Of It,  Doc Martin and The Larkins, and who this week was at the David Lean Cinema for a screening of her acclaimed film, After Love. Continue reading →

Posted in Art, Cinema, David Lean Cinema Campaign, Inside Croydon, Under The Flyover | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

The Danish queen’s favours could not save this family at war

Posted on January 9, 2022 by insidecroydon

MARVELS OF THE MINSTER: Croydon’s connections with the monarchy go long and deep, and as DAVID MORGAN outlines here, not always well

The last sign: all that remains of a once rich and influential family in Addiscombe

Two short entries in the burial register of Croydon Parish Church from the middle of the 17th century provide us with a starting point to explore the history of another family with Royal connections.

“1650 February Sir John Tonstall buryed”
“1651 February My Lady Tonstall buryed”

Sir John Tonstall and his wife, Lady Penelope, lived at Addiscombe House, having bought the estate from the Heron Family in 1624. The family name still lives on in Croydon today, as Tunstall Road in Addiscombe.

Tonstall was very well-connected and his name appears in many different historical sources. Court Papers of King James I, dated July 27, 1613, might only provide a line or two but within them there can be found a great deal of information. A warrant to advance the sum of £200 was issued to him “as a Gentleman Usher to the Queen for her expenses in going to Bath for the waters”. Continue reading →

Posted in Addiscombe East, Addiscombe West, Church and religions, Croydon Minster, David Morgan, History | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Did the ‘South Croydon poisoner’ really get away with murder?

Posted on January 8, 2022 by insidecroydon

True crime author JEANETTE HENSBY on how a series of six mysterious deaths around a well-off family in the inter-war years drew her to investigate

When I was a child, my grandma told me how a friend of hers had confided that in the 1930s,her brother had murdered a girl.

I found an account of the crime in a book and was horrified to read that they appeared to have hanged the wrong man. I researched the case, uncovered a miscarriage of justice and wrote my first book The Rotherham Trunk Murder. That was it: I had caught the writing bug. The only problem I had was what to write about next.

After a bit of searching I found a very intriguing case that appeared to suggest that if you are a woman of great beauty and charm (and you know how to use it) who belongs to the upper-middle classes, you can get away with a string of murders which would see your average working-class labourer heading straight for an appointment with the hangman.

This would be the subject of my second book: The South Croydon Poisonings. Continue reading →

Posted in History, South Croydon | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

Monument planned for man behind monumental disaster

Posted on January 7, 2022 by insidecroydon

Our housing correspondent, BARRATT HOLMES, has found proposals for a piece of public art which proves that some involved in the Brick by Brick scandal and Fairfield Halls fiasco really have no shame

Vanity project: former Brick by Brick chair Martyn Evans

A firm of developers wants to place a giant statue on top of its latest south London mega-development, the artwork apparently featuring one of the company’s directors and a key figure in the crashing of Croydon Council’s finances.

Martyn Evans works as the “creative director” of struggling developers U+I.

Until November 2020, Evans was also the chairman of Brick by Brick, Croydon’s loss-making house-builders.

Last month, Inside Croydon received a tip-off about the proposals for a massive statue that looked very much like Evans. A check of the office calendar here at Inside Croydon Towers, though, quickly confirmed that it was not the first day of April. Even the likes of Evans and his mates could not be quite so gargantuanly hubristic, could they?

Apparently, they very much are, as another hyperlocal news site, 853 London, which covers the Greenwich beat, has managed to confirm that a statue which has clearly used Evans as its model is being lined up for the multi-million-pound development. Continue reading →

Posted in Brick by Brick, Business, Colm Lacey, Jo Negrini, Martyn Evans | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 9 Comments

E-scooters’ ‘risk of significant harm’, says Assembly Member

Posted on January 7, 2022 by insidecroydon

Illegal: private and usually uninsured e-scooters cannot be ridden on public roads or footpaths

Pedestrians and road users in Croydon and across the capital are “at risk of significant harm” from the illegal use of electric scooters, according to a Member of the London Assembly today.

Unmesh Desai was responding to the release of police figures that show 258 collisions involving e-scooters in London in just the first six months of 2021, compared to only nine during the whole of 2018. Continue reading →

Posted in Commuting, London Assembly, London-wide issues, Policing, TfL, Transport, Unmesh Desai | Tagged , , , , , , | 6 Comments

The Buck stops here: Labour campaign disarray after fixer quits

Posted on January 7, 2022 by insidecroydon

CROYDON LABOUR IN CRISIS: The party’s local organiser has quit his job just months before council elections after a row over how much backing to give to Val Shawcross’s Mayoral campaign. And there’s only a short-term plan for a replacement. EXCLUSIVE by STEVEN DOWNES

Buck off: Croydon’s Labour party ‘organiser’ announced his resignation a month ago

Croydon Labour have gone into the New Year without a borough organiser and without much of a campaign strategy, with the local elections now just four months away.

Jack Buck, the local party’s professional (in the broadest use of the word) campaign organiser announced last month that he would be standing down from the job that he has held for seven years.

Labour won control of Croydon Town Hall from the Conservatives in 2014, and in 2017 they landed a notable victory when Sarah Jones won the Croydon Central marginal seat from Tory Gavin Barwell.

In 2018, at the last local elections, Labour won an increased number of councillor seats. But those heady days for Croydon Labour appear over… Continue reading →

Posted in 2022 council elections, 2022 Croydon Mayor election, Croydon Central, Paul Scott, Sarah Jones MP, Stuart Collins, Tony Newman, Val Shawcross | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 7 Comments

Eye! Eye! Croydon gets two gongs in Rotten Boroughs awards

Posted on January 6, 2022 by insidecroydon

The annual round-up of greed, venality and incompetence among the country’s local authorities has seen our council out-perform many others, yet again. But did satirical fortnightly magazine Private Eye miss a trick over one former ‘award-winner’?

Perhaps the governance and finances at Croydon Council really are improving. Or maybe 2020 was the kind of year that could never be matched as far as the scandalised council’s appearances in Private Eye magazine is concerned?

The 2021 Rotten Borough Awards have been announced in the latest issue of Lord Gnome’s august organ, and while Croydon appears to have slipped from the top spot it won in 2020, this time around its chief executives have done sterling service to ensure that the borough gets no fewer than TWO accolades for their conduct over the last 12 months. Continue reading →

Posted in 2022 council elections, Alison Butler, Brick by Brick, Croydon Council, Jo Negrini, Katherine Kerswell, Paul Scott, Tony Newman | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

After wasted decade, Mayoral candidates need town centre plan

Posted on January 6, 2022 by insidecroydon

Times are tough: what do the Mayoral candidates offer as solutions for the town centre?

How do you replace a long-promised but never delivered £1.4bn redevelopment in the town centre? In his first column of 2022, ANDREW FISHER (left) offers some suggestions

Croydon’s town centre has suffered a torrid time of late. The biggest queues at Centrale over the Christmas shopping period were for booster jabs.

It has been clear for 20 years that there is a shift from the high street to online for the retail sector, and the pandemic and its lockdowns have simply accelerated that process.
Continue reading →

Posted in "Hammersfield", 2022 Croydon Mayor election, Andrew Fisher, Boris Johnson, Business, Centrale, Croydon College, Croydon Council, Education, Gavin Barwell, Housing, London-wide issues, LSBU campus, Planning, Property, Timothy Godfrey, Transport, Whitgift Centre, Whitgift Foundation | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 12 Comments

A chance to cause Bedlam with Strictly Come Morris Dancing

Posted on January 6, 2022 by insidecroydon

All bells and whistles: Morris sides are gearing up for a May Day to remember

An appeal has gone out for locals to sign up for a version of Strictly Come Dancing that has some same-sex couples and can sometimes make a deafening noise, and is promising to put on a grand show that’s all bells and whistles on May Day.

The Wild Hunt Bedlam Morris team from Croydon is looking to expand its team after a couple of disappointing lockdowns years, and is recruiting dancers and musicians to be ready to perform at the start of the festival season.

No partners are required, but if you have one, they’re welcome too! The Wild Hunt’s recruitment evening is being held next Tuesday, January 11.

Continue reading →

Posted in Activities, Dance, Pubs | Tagged , | 8 Comments

Windermere Road house fire claims the lives of two people

Posted on January 6, 2022 by insidecroydon

A couple died last night, despite the efforts of firefighters and other emergency services, at a house fire on Windermere Road, Addiscombe.

Tragedy: the cause of the fire is under investigation

Firefighters wearing breathing apparatus found one man and one woman inside the property. They were pronounced dead at the scene. The victims have not yet been named.

The ground floor of the building was damaged by the fire. The cause is under investigation by the London Fire Brigade and the Metropolitan Police. Continue reading →

Posted in Addiscombe East, Addiscombe West, London Fire Brigade | Tagged , | Leave a comment

5-bed Ashburton Lodge to be auctioned for price of a flat

Posted on January 5, 2022 by insidecroydon

CROYDON IN CRISIS: Developers and property speculators look set to profit as more public-owned property is to be sold on the cheap.
EXCLUSIVE by STEVEN DOWNES

The Croydon fire-sale, with public property being flogged off in a rush at bargain-basement prices, continues next month with a property auction run by Savills in which a four- or even five-bedroom house set in acres of parkland is going under the hammer at a guide price that’s less than the cost of most one-bed flats in the borough.

Bargain: Ashburton Lodge, for auction from £320,000

The Lodge in Ashburton Park will be auctioned on February 9.

The auctioners’ guide price is just £320,000, representing another potentially huge financial loss to the people of Croydon in the aftermath of the council’s financial collapse in 2020. Smaller four-bedroom houses nearby are on the open market for at least twice that price.

According to the auctioneer’s blurb, Addiscombe Lodge is, “a unique opportunity to acquire an attractive former park keeper’s lodge house situated within Ashburton Park. The property is in need of modernisation and provides an opportunity to reconfigure and extend subject to consents. Surrounding gardens, off-street parking and a garage. Vacant.

“By order of Croydon Council.” Continue reading →

Posted in Addiscombe East, Ashburton, Croydon Council, Croydon parks, Environment, Friends of Ashburton Park | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Resolutions are just rules. Here’s my 22 suggestions for 2022

Posted on January 5, 2022 by insidecroydon

CROYDON COMMENTARY: How’s your New Year’s resolution going? PETER UNDERWOOD (pictured right) doesn’t do them, saying ‘they always seem to be just rules that get broken and forgotten about too quickly’.
Instead, here, in no particular order, he offers 22 suggestions for 2022

I do understand the feeling at this time of year that it’s time to start afresh and make some changes. But instead of resolutions, here are some suggestions for things you might want to try this year.

You don’t have to start all of them straight away. You could have a go at some and then try others later in the year – only one of them is focused on a specific date. It’s 2022, so these are my 22 suggestions… Continue reading →

Posted in 2022 council elections, 2022 Croydon Mayor election, Croydon Greens, Peter Underwood | Tagged | 5 Comments

Croydon BME Forum Family Tree Making, from Jan 12

Posted on January 5, 2022 by insidecroydon

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Govia now announces train cancellations ‘until further notice’

Posted on January 4, 2022 by insidecroydon

Insiders suspect that poor driver recruitment and a desire to avoid fines are behind the latest service cancellations.
PLUS: Full details of the Southern, Thameslink and Gatwick Express cancelled services

Commuters, shoppers and tourists wanting to travel into central London via Victoria could have a very long wait, after rail operator Govia Thameslink Railway announced the cancellation of hundreds of services daily – and for an indefinite period.

Long waits: Southern services are being axed because of staff illness, the operator says

Services into Victoria from stations in Croydon and across southern England were stopped on Christmas Eve, apparently for planned engineering and signalling work.

Services were due to return to a covid-sort-of-normal today, the first working day after all the Christmas period bank holidays, at the start of the week when schools are set to re-open.

Last week, on New Year’s Eve, Govia issued an update on their closures, stating that Victoria would remain closed for a further week, until January 10, with service reductions due to staff either catching covid or having to self-isolate because of the virus.

But the Rail Delivery Group, which represents the railway companies, says that fewer than 1-in-10 workers are off work due to the pandemic. Continue reading →

Posted in Commuting, East Croydon, Norwood Junction, TfL, Transport, West Croydon | Tagged , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

Liability Johnson could see Tories lose Wandsworth – and more

Posted on January 4, 2022 by insidecroydon

Political editor WALTER CRONXITE reports on some extraordinary polling for the Conservatives which exposes how deeply unpopular their bungling Prime Minister has really become

Election liability: buffoon Boris Johnson

A senior Conservative peer is predicting that his party will lose the flagship boroughs of Wandsworth and Westminster in May’s local elections – and, extraordinarily given everything that has gone on here in the past five years, that could also mean that the Tories fail to win back Croydon, despite the council’s financial collapse under Labour.

Lord Hayward is a noted pollster who correctly predicted the outcomes of the 1992 and 2015 general elections and the Leave victory in the 2016 EU referendum.

In an interview in today’s Evening Standard, Hayward says that the Tories under Prime Minister Boris Johnson are heading for their worst local election results for 50 years. Continue reading →

Posted in 2022 council elections, 2022 Croydon Mayor election, Bexley, Boris Johnson, Bromley Council, Jason Perry, London-wide issues, Sutton Council, Val Shawcross, Wandsworth Council | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Trams’ New Year game hits back of the net for local community

Posted on January 4, 2022 by insidecroydon

Football heroes: just some of the donations collected for the South Norwood Community Kitchen at yesterday’s match

Croydon FC might have lost their first game of 2022 to an unlucky injury-time goal at the Arena yesterday, but the people of South Norwood turned out as the real winners after an impressively generous donations day held for the local community kitchen and food bank.

The Trams, under their new chair, Gavin English, have progressive and community-based plans, with the ambition of getting the club back to the Isthmian League in four years.

The organisers of the South Norwood Community Kitchen described yesterday’s collection as “epic”. Continue reading →

Posted in Charity, Community associations, Croydon FC, Football, South Norwood, South Norwood Community Kitchen, South Norwood Tourist Board, Sport | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Council rejects ‘ominous’ 60ft 5G tower in conservation area

Posted on January 4, 2022 by insidecroydon

Croydon Council has refused permission to build a 60-foot tall 5G mast on Fitzroy Gardens in Upper Norwood’s Church Road conservation area, following objections that included that the tower would be a dangerous distraction to car drivers and pedestrians.

Poles apart: Hutchison’s application for a mast like this on Church Road was made without a site visit

The application was made without the engineers for Hutchisons, one of the world’s biggest and most profitable mobile phone operating companies, even bothering to conduct a site visit.

The council’s decision was published just before Christmas, and was reached following objections from Transport for London and the Norwood Society.

The application, on behalf of CK Hutchison Networks, the multi-billion international commercial operators of the 3 mobile phone network, wanted to plonk the massive pole and associated cabinets on the corner of Church Road and Fitzroy Gardens, adjacent to 124 Church Street and opposite the locally listed Queen’s Hotel.

Objectors noted that the tower would “overshadow ominously” the two oldest and unique listed buildings in the conservation area, hunting lodges built in the Great North Wood in 1832 and 1833. Continue reading →

Posted in Business, Community associations, Crystal Palace and Upper Norwood, Norwood Society, Planning, TfL | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments

Addiscombe’s book readers to club together via Zoom

Posted on January 4, 2022 by insidecroydon

The Addiscombe Reading Room is open.

A new book club has been established, initially to meet remotely via Zoom, at least until the worst of the winter weather is over and the latest covid uncertainties resolved.

The organisers say, “If you like reading, discussing books or even hearing about books then the Addiscombe Reading Room is for you.

“The Addiscombe Reading Room is all about books, characters, twists and plots as we venture into the literary world.

“We will meet once a month to think and talk about one book to be chosen by the group. From time to time there will be local authors who will join our group. The meetings will be in the evening for at least an hour. Continue reading →

Posted in Activities, Addiscombe East, Addiscombe West | Tagged , | Leave a comment