Cabinet member Lewis is cut adrift by New Addington selection

Posted on November 11, 2021 by insidecroydon

CROYDON IN CRISIS: A leading Newman Numpty was effectively deselected last night, as he and ceremonial deputy mayor failed even to make it on to his ward’s candidates shortlist; meanwhile, chaos in Norbury Park when Labour organisers book too small a room for selection meeting

Fairfield ‘fiasco’: Ollie ‘Shit Show’ Lewis, pictured left with council leader Tony Newman and Sadiq Khan, has presided over a series of cultural disasters at the council

Oliver “Shit Show” Lewis, the Labour-run council’s cabinet member responsible for trying to close the borough’s public libraries, signing off on the axing of the Purley Pool and who oversaw the shambles that was the Fairfield Halls “fiasco”, was effectively deselected by party members in New Addington last night.

Labour is laboriously going through a selection process for its candidates to stand in next May’s local elections. Labour has had control of Croydon Town Hall since 2014. But one year on since Tony Newman and his numpties bankrupted the borough, several key players in what has been described as “the biggest local authority failure since they invented local authorities” are certain not to stand for election again.

More than half of those who were Labour councillors this time last year have already been jettisoned, most opting not to bother the voters or the Returning Officer again.

But some notables, such as Lewis, have been scrambling desperately, looking for a political life raft, and failing abjectly. Continue reading →

Posted in 2022 council elections, Addiscombe West, Alisa Flemming, Chris Clark, Clive Fraser, Croydon North, Fairfield, Felicity Flynn, Jerry Fitzpatrick, Jose Joseph, Kola Agboola, Louisa Woodley, Mary Croos, New Addington, New Addington North, Norbury Park, Oliver Lewis, Patricia Hay-Justice, Sean Fitzsimons, Steve Reed MP, Waddon | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Windrush Reach advises on applying to compensation scheme

Posted on November 11, 2021 by insidecroydon

Continue reading →

Posted in Charity, Community associations, Croydon BME Forum | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

South Norwood Community Kitchen Fund-raising Quiz, Dec 7

Posted on November 11, 2021 by insidecroydon

Continue reading →

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

Names on Addiscombe war memorial; the real lives sacrificed

Posted on November 10, 2021 by insidecroydon

East Croydon Station, Aug 4, 1914: Days after the outbreak of war, and the 1st/4th Bn, Royal West Surrey Regiment leaving home. Two men on the memorials were among them

WE WILL REMEMBER THEM: Last year, while at an Addiscombe church on Remembrance Day, on hearing the roll call of the fallen, one of the congregation decided to find out more about those named. This is part of what STEPHANIE OFFER discovered

Last Remembrance Sunday, as I listened to the reading out of the names that are engraved on the war memorial at St Mary Magdalene Church on Canning Road, I felt curious about who they were, where they lived, what jobs they did, who their families were, what happened to them.

What each of those surnames truly represents.

So, I typed the first name on the memorial, “Atha, LE” into Ancestry.com, and the project began. Continue reading →

Posted in Addiscombe West, Church and religions, History | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Croydon at centre of racism allegations over council homes

Posted on November 10, 2021 by insidecroydon

The scandal surrounding Croydon’s council housing last night plumbed new depths, as ITV News – who first exposed the “appalling” conditions in flats in South Norwood – broadcast a report which strongly suggested that many social housing tenants are stigmatised because of their race.

Leroy McNally: claims he got a different response from council staff when he called himself ‘Mr McNally’, rather than ‘Leroy’

Croydon Council’s leaders have so far been silent over these latest, serious allegations of racism within their housing department and repairs contractors.

The allegations were first aired in the original television investigation in March, when one of the tenants living in a flooded flat in Regina Road explained his experiences.

Then, with four buckets strategically placed around his small living room to catch the water dripping from his ceiling, Leroy McNally explained how he had contacted Croydon Council countless times, but got little response.

“I got a feeling, when I used to ring up before, I’d say ‘my name’s Leroy, Leroy McNally’, and I got a feeling that puts them on the off-foot because straight away they’re ‘Leroy – black person, we don’t want to deal with this person’. I got a feeling it’s something like that.

“Eventually I started saying, ‘My name is Mr McNally’ – I wouldn’t say Leroy – and I got a better response.” Continue reading →

Posted in Croydon Council, Hamida Ali, Housing, London-wide issues, South Norwood | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Town Hall announces service details for Remembrance Day

Posted on November 10, 2021 by insidecroydon

As the civic authorities have done for more than 100 years, Croydon will tomorrow remember and honour those killed in service for the country in armed conflicts, at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month.

Conventions will be observed at 11am tomorrow with a two-minute silence at the Croydon Cenotaph outside the Town Hall on Katharine Street, followed by wreath-laying.

The council’s press office got round to issuing details of the 2021 Remembrance Services yesterday afternoon, November 9.

There will be a civic service of remembrance at 10.55am on Sunday, November 14 at Croydon Minster. Attendees are asked to be seated by 10.40am. Because of covid-19, there is a reduced capacity in the Minster and those attending are requested to wear a face covering and maintain social distancing to help keep everyone safe.

Continue reading →

Posted in Croydon Council, Croydon Minster, History | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Striking college lecturers claim victory over new pay offer

Posted on November 10, 2021 by insidecroydon

Pay battle: Croydon College has seen seven days of strike action this autumn term

The University and College Union – UCU – is this week claiming victory after strike action at further education institutions across south London, including Croydon College, won a significant pay rise for lecturers and other staff.

UCU members at Croydon College have voted to accept a new deal on pay and conditions. They have staged seven days of strike action so far during the autumn term, in response to a “derisory” offer of a 1 per cent pay increase. Continue reading →

Posted in Croydon College, Croydon School of Art, Education | Tagged , | 1 Comment

Covid Diaries art exhibition, SproutArts Gallery, from Nov 23

Posted on November 10, 2021 by insidecroydon

Continue reading →

Posted in Art | Tagged | Leave a comment

Tragedy continued to stalk Polhill family even after the war

Posted on November 9, 2021 by insidecroydon

WE WILL REMEMBER THEM: The Polhill family is listed twice on the Croydon Minster Roll of Honour of those who died in the 1914-1918 war. But as DAVID MORGAN’s researches have uncovered, even one of the sons who survived that First World War was soon to meet a tragic end

In 1918, Arthur and Ellen Polhill, who lived at 14 St John’s Grove, opposite Croydon Parish Church, were already in mourning for sons William and Herbert, who had lost their lives in the Great War. But the family’s capacity for grief was about to be tested all over again.

Even once the armistice was in place on November 11, 1918, the Polhill family would not avoid further tragedy.

Leonard, their eldest son, who was born in 1886, went out to Australia with two of his brothers in 1912. He worked on a farm in the north of New South Wales with Herbert. Continue reading →

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

Golden Ark’s laidback landlord meets Orwell’s demands

Posted on November 9, 2021 by insidecroydon

CROYDON PUB OF THE YEAR: Our man standing at the bar with a packet of pork scratchings nearby, a pint of pale ale in hand and a dog-eared paperback of Animal Farm poking out of his jacket pocket, KEN TOWL, discovers how an independent has managed to beat the chains

Golden couple: Maria and Matt Emmett keep winning awards for their micropub

Matt is one of those lucky people who does what he does because he enjoys it rather than because he has to. Matt Emmett, along with his wife, Maria, run the Golden Ark, a micropub on Addington Road, just around the corner from the 433/64 bus stop on Upper Selsdon Road.

The first pub you see on turning into Addington Road is, of course, The Julian Huxley, surely the only Wetherspoons pub to be named after a eugenicist. The only one in Croydon, at least. Walk past it. We are going somewhere much more interesting, a pub that, unlike any of the links in the Tim Martin chain, carried on working throughout the lockdowns and won recognition for doing so. Continue reading →

Posted in Ken Towl, Pubs, Selsdon and Addington Village | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Town Hall’s untrue claims about cuts to Council Tax Support

Posted on November 9, 2021 by insidecroydon

CROYDON COMMENTARY: Some of the borough’s poorest and most vulnerable are being expected to pay for the mismanagement and poor decision-taking which led  to the council going bankrupt, as this young mother* explains

When I heard of the Council Tax Support proposals, as first reported by Inside Croydon last month, with the proposals described by the council as “making it fairer for everyone” and “prioritising the most vulnerable”, I knew the borough was in trouble.

Every fear we first had when learning of Croydon Council being bankrupt is gradually materialising, with the money lost seemingly being recouped from residents on low incomes.

Council Tax Support is a benefit provided by the council, a discount on people’s monthly Council Tax bill. At the start of this month, I received an email saying the council has opened a consultation into its proposed changes, a consultation which will run until December 9.  A lawyer friend of mine suggested that we really ought to have at least three months for the public to have our say on the biggest welfare change our borough has seen in years.

The proposals have been tainted with contradictions and false claims. Continue reading →

Posted in Council Tax, Croydon Council, Section 114 notice | Tagged , , , , , | 3 Comments

Big Local Broad Green Winter Grotto, Keeley Road, Dec 11

Posted on November 9, 2021 by insidecroydon

Continue reading →

Posted in Broad Green, Business, Charity | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Lighting Up South Croydon ceremony, St Peter’s, Dec 12

Posted on November 9, 2021 by insidecroydon

Continue reading →

Posted in Activities, Church and religions, South Croydon | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Shawcross leads the way in first Labour Mayor nominations

Posted on November 8, 2021 by insidecroydon

WALTER CRONXITE, political editor, on a night of embarrassing snubs for the three Newman’s numpties who are seeking selection to be their party’s candidate in next year’s mayoral election

Val Shawcross: convincing

Val Shawcross last night stormed to a decisive victory at the first constituency nomination meeting held to help determine who could be the Labour Party’s candidate to become Croydon’s first elected Mayor next May.

Shawcross got the backing of nearly two-thirds of the Croydon Central CLP members attending the special meeting and therefore will have one of their two nominations going forward to the selection panel.

But officials could yet face some awkward deliberations, as for their second nominee, Croydon Central members preferred the candidacy case of Jamie Audsley, the councillor who has been blocked by the party machine from seeking re-election next year’s Town Hall elections. Continue reading →

Posted in 2022 Croydon Mayor election, Alisa Flemming, Callton Young, Croydon Central, Jamie Audsley, Manju Shahul Hameed, Sarah Jones MP, Val Shawcross | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

£800 per day council director Knight quits housing top job

Posted on November 8, 2021 by insidecroydon

CROYDON IN CRISIS: ‘Troubleshooter’ hired to fix scandalous conditions in flats in South Norwood has left cash-strapped local authority after less than six months. EXCLUSIVE By STEVEN DOWNES

Alison Knight: £800 per day housing director failed to meet Regina Road residents

Alison Knight, the £800 per day director who was hired in May in the wake of the housing scandal surrounding tower blocks in South Norwood, has left Croydon Council.

Knight did not see out the full six-month term of her £104,000 appointment at the cash-strapped council, where she had been hand-picked as a troubleshooter by chief exec Katherine Kerswell.

When she was hired by Croydon, the council issued a statement saying that Knight would “co-ordinate widespread improvements to how council residents are listened to and looked after”. Continue reading →

Posted in Alison Knight, Community associations, Croydon Council, David Padfield, Housing, Katherine Kerswell, Regina Road Residents' Support Group, South Norwood | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

Waddon community comes together to enjoy veteran car run

Posted on November 8, 2021 by insidecroydon

A crowd of more than 50 people gathered by a road junction outside St Andrew’s Church on Southbridge Road over the course of Sunday morning, lured by the prospect of hot sausage rolls and the chance to view some historic vehicles close to hand.

The first of the old cars began to chunter along under the Croydon Flyover just after 8am

The community gathering –  promoted by Inside Croydon – was attended by councillors and council candidates, as well as neighbours young and old, some getting together for the first time since last year’s lockdowns, as hundreds of old cars pootled through the neighbourhood in the 125th anniversary London to Brighton  Veteran Car Run.

There taking the pictures was LEE TOWNSEND Continue reading →

Posted in History, Transport, Waddon | Tagged , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

St Peter’s Church Christmas Market, South Croydon, Nov 27

Posted on November 8, 2021 by insidecroydon

Continue reading →

Posted in Activities, Church and religions, South Croydon | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Brothers in arms: Polhill family’s second sad wartime sacrifice

Posted on November 7, 2021 by insidecroydon

Edwardian bliss: a middle-class Croydon family around 1910. Father (centre back), mother (second right, front) and their four sons and four daughters. These were the Polhills: three of the sons would be dead by 1918

WE WILL REMEMBER THEM: What is often chilling about the Roll of Honour at Croydon Minster is how the same family name recurs. In the second instalment of this latest research, DAVID MORGAN tells of the loss of a second Polhill brother

Herbert Polhill, we have learned, met a tragic end half a world away from his family home in Croydon, and all before he had left the training camp in Australia for the battlefields of Europe.

William Henry Polhill was Herbert’s brother, and his name appears on the Roll of Honour of the war dead at Croydon Minster alongside that of his brother. Continue reading →

Posted in Croydon Minster, David Morgan, History | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Photographer ready to share her ‘wonky vision’ with Cronx art

Posted on November 7, 2021 by insidecroydon

Art from the heart of Croydon: one of Monica Gianniti Brookbank’s striking poster designs

A Croydon-based artist has launched a collection of Cronx-based posters for sale, offering perhaps the perfect Christmas gift ideas.

Monica Gianniti Brookbank was brought up in south London and describes herself as a “photo artist with wonky vision”.

“I have been designing for more than 15 years and I love tattoo art, Halloween, red wine, salami, chocolate and the moo cow smells of the countryside.”

She says that her “father charmed me into photography”, but in 2002, she lost the central sight in her left eye. Continue reading →

Posted in Art, Business | Tagged | Leave a comment

Sutton’s Simpson show can’t account for £2m SDEN subsidy

Posted on November 6, 2021 by insidecroydon

‘I can’t give you a guarantee there is no fraud’ – the words of an independent accountancy official at a meeting this week caused further dismay to Sutton’s ruling LibDems amid the growing controversy of their loss-making heat network. CARL SHILTON, our investigations editor, reports

Heated debate: Tory MP Elliot Colburn takes his chance to raise the scandal of SDEN in the Commons

This week’s  Prime Minister’s Questions were enlivened for Inside Sutton’s loyal reader when the MP for Carshalton and Wallington, Elliot Colburn, was given permission to get on to his hind legs and raise with Boris Johnson the matter of the failing district heat system, Sutton Decentralised Energy Network Ltd, or SDEN.

“Last week an independent enquiry into LibDem-run Sutton Council’s own heat network found that it was set up on false assumptions, including funding that was never attained and homes that do not exist,” Colburn told the packed Commons. “Now, my constituents are going to be left footing the bill.

“Does the Prime Minister agree with me that this latest failure shows that they are just not fit to govern and that those responsible should go?” Continue reading →

Posted in Barry Lewis, Elliot Colburn, Environment, Helen Bailey, Jayne McCoy, Neil Garratt, Nick Mattey, Richard Simpson, Ruth Dombey, Sutton Council, Tom Drummond, Waste incinerator | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Veteran councillor Ryan is deselected while in hospital bed

Posted on November 6, 2021 by insidecroydon

WALTER CRONXITE, political editor, on the latest casualties of the council’s financial collapse

Dumped: Pat Ryan

Pat Ryan, a Croydon councillor for nearly 30 years, was last night deselected by members at a Labour Party meeting in his home ward of Crystal Palace and Upper Norwood.

Ryan, who is 80 years old, was unable to attend the meeting as he was spending the night in hospital.

But according to eye-witness accounts, even the presence at the meeting of a handful of “entryists” – members of the Open Our Roads lobby group who had joined the Labour Party recently in an effort to support Ryan – was unable to provide him with the votes needed to be Labour candidate in the local elections next May, as he has been at every Town Hall election since 1992.

Ryan’s deselection means that at least half of the 41-strong Labour group who helped to bankrupt the borough under the discredited former leader Tony Newman have now either stood down or been dropped, as their party’s prolonged selection process enters its second month.

Continue reading →

Posted in 2022 council elections, Addiscombe East, Addiscombe West, Amy Foster, Bensham Manor, Crystal Palace and Upper Norwood, Felicity Flynn, Hamida Ali, Humayun Kabir, Jerry Fitzpatrick, John Wentworth, Kola Agboola, Leila Ben-Hassel, Mike Bonello, New Addington, New Addington North, Nina Degrads, Norbury, Pat Ryan, Patsy Cummings, Shafi Khan, South Norwood, Steve Reed MP, Woodside | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Five years on from tragedy: tram crash memorial service, Nov 9

Posted on November 6, 2021 by insidecroydon

The memorial for the victims of the tram crash. It is five years since the derailment, in which seven people were killed

The official civic memorial service to mark the fifth anniversary of the Croydon tram disaster will be held in New Addington next Tuesday, November 9.

More than 60 people were injured in the crash. Dane Chinnery, Donald Collett, Robert Huxley, Philip Logan, Dorota Rynkiewicz, Philip Seary and Mark Smith died when the tram derailed near Sandilands tram stop on November 9, 2016.

Continue reading →

Posted in New Addington, New Addington North, Sandilands derailment, Tramlink | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Housing’s free market free-for-all only benefits landlords

Posted on November 5, 2021 by insidecroydon

Homes, sweet homes: rented accommodation in London is unaffordable for most people – but there is not enough council housing available

There’s a simple way to solve the ‘housing crisis’, says ANDREW FISHER: build homes for the many, not investment opportunities for the few

Private renters in London are typically having to spend almost 40 per cent of their income on rent.

Wages may be higher in London, but housing costs are significantly more than in the rest of England, where according to figures from the Office for National Statistics, published last month, rent takes up 23 per cent of private tenants’ incomes. Continue reading →

Posted in Andrew Fisher, Brick by Brick, Croydon Council, Housing, London-wide issues, Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan | Tagged , , , | 13 Comments

Result! Trader gets his yellow line back… after iC report

Posted on November 5, 2021 by insidecroydon

Coincidence? You decide…

Before: how the faded yellow line outside Optilabs looked earlier this week

Within 24 hours of Inside Croydon reporting of a Waddon businessman’s year-long struggle to get the council simply to do their job by re-painting a faded bit of yellow line along the busy road outside his Stafford Road premises, and as if by magic… the council painting crew arrived and did what was needed.

It was on Wednesday that Inside Croydon reported how, on a short stretch of Stafford Road, next to the notoriously congested and dangerous Fiveways junction in Waddon, the owners of Optilabs were at their wits’ end after 12 months of dutifully making polite, repeat requests of the council’s roads department for a little dab of paint to ensure that the road markings are clear and unambiguous for everyone. Continue reading →

Posted in Business, Croydon Council, Robert Canning, Steve Iles, Waddon | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

Crystal Palace Christmas appeal needs £1,400 in just 7 days

Posted on November 5, 2021 by insidecroydon

Organisers of a crowdfunder for a Crystal Palace Christmas tree have less than a week to raise another £1,400 to secure further funding for the community festive season.

Jingle bells: a community group needs another £1,400 in the next week to pay for Christmas decorations

The community group, organised by the Crystal Palace Festival group, has managed to secure pledges of more than £2,000 from residents and a slew of local businesses.

But they need to hit a target of £3,500 by their deadline of noon next Friday to secure additional match funding towards the cost of a tree at Belvedere Road and Church Road junction, as well as twinkling lights around the Triangle and other festive activities, concerts and performances. Continue reading →

Posted in Community associations, Crystal Palace and Upper Norwood | Tagged , , | Leave a comment