Chancellor’s Council Tax bombshell: how Budget hits Croydon

Posted on October 29, 2021 by insidecroydon

Our new columnist ANDREW FISHER, pictured left, looks at what this week’s Budget will mean for Croydon’s residents, businesses and for the services provided by the local authority

Nearly 50,000 households in Croydon receive Universal Credit. The £20 per week cut in UC made by the government earlier this month has therefore taken almost £1million per week out of Croydon’s local economy, and left many of the poorest households more than £1,000 worse off per year.

For those on Universal Credit, this week’s Budget brought some amelioration for people in low-paid work through the cut in the taper rate – the deduction you get in your Universal Credit payment for each additional £1 you earn in work. The taper rate is being cut from 63 per cent to 55 per cent, meaning that after tax and National Insurance deductions, you’ll keep 45p of every £1, rather than 37p.

But most Universal Credit claimants are out of work, and will see no benefit at all. Continue reading →

Posted in Andrew Fisher, Business, Council Tax, Croydon Council, Education, LSBU campus | Tagged , , , , | 4 Comments

Director admits £12m sums on ANPR fines don’t add up

Posted on October 28, 2021 by insidecroydon

Fisher’s Folly’s answer to Baldrick has come up with a cunning plan to help fix the bankrupt borough’s finances: raise millions of pounds through penalty charges on Croydon’s drivers.
The trouble is, some drivers might simply follow the warning signs and the cash-strapped council won’t make as much as it needs. Town Hall correspondent KEN LEE reports

Big Brother is watching: but Croydon drivers are already learning how to avoid £65 fines

The council’s ambitious target of raising an extra £4million per year extra through fixed penalty notices charged on drivers caught committing offences by Big Brother-style Automatic Number Plate Recognition cameras could yet come unstuck – essentially because the borough’s motorists are not as stupid as a senior council official thought they might be.

Steve Iles is the council’s “director of public realm”, so is responsible for the tacky state of many of our streets, as well as the overflowing bins, the tons of residents’ carefully sorted recycling that is going straight to the incinerator, and the poorly implemented Low Traffic Neighbourhoods that have caused such angst and controversy. Continue reading →

Posted in Chris Buss, Croydon Council, Katherine Kerswell, Robert Canning, Steve Iles, TfL, Transport, Waddon | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 11 Comments

Tory Chancellor scores an own goal with London-lite Budget

Posted on October 28, 2021 by insidecroydon

Rishi Sunak took the capital for granted in his Budget speech yesterday, Mayor of London Sadiq Khan has said, and in doing so the Tory Chancellor scored an own goal for the nation’s economic recovery.

Empty box: Rishi Sunak had little for London in his Budget

Sunak allocated nearly £7billion to boost public transport in England’s city regions – but not a penny of new funding Transport for London, which was hard-hit when lockdown deprived it of all its fares revenue.

The government has paid nearly £4billion in bailouts to keep TfL services running during the coronavirus pandemic. The latest TfL funding settlement from government expires on December 11, creating yet more uncertainty just ahead of the busy Christmas period. Continue reading →

Posted in Housing, London Assembly, London-wide issues, Marina Ahmad, Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, TfL, Transport | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

I paid my LTN fine. I won’t be returning to the town centre soon

Posted on October 28, 2021 by insidecroydon

Signs of the times: the Parsons Mead LTN has adequate signage, according to an adjudicator ruling

CROYDON COMMENTARY: In an open letter to council leader Hamida Ali, Kenley resident RICHARD RUSSELL expresses his dismay with the current state of the borough

I received a penalty charge notice, fined £65 for driving into Parsons Mead low traffic zone.

I was taking my wife’s car to get it MOT’d at Motaplus Garage in Canterbury Road, a garage I have used for this purpose for about 30 years. Having now seen on the internet all the protests about the fines served on countless drivers and that an adjudicator has stated that the signage is adequate, clearly I made a mistake in using Parsons Mead, so I have paid up.

Continue reading →

Posted in Broad Green, Croydon Council, Environment, Hamida Ali, TfL, Transport | Tagged , , , , | 20 Comments

Veteran Car Run free community event, Southbridge Rd, Nov 7

Posted on October 28, 2021 by insidecroydon

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Council leader Ali rules herself out of running to be Mayor

Posted on October 27, 2021 by insidecroydon

EXCLUSIVE: Newman’s protégé makes a call for ‘a break from the recent past’ at the Town Hall. Plus another sitting Labour councillor decides against standing in 2022.  By STEVEN DOWNES

Time limit: Hamida Ali has abandoned any thought of leading the council after next May’s Town Hall elections

The Tony Newman era at Croydon Town Hall should really, finally, come to an end in seven months’ time, on May 4, after Hamida Ali, the discredited ex-leader’s protégé and then successor, last night told colleagues that she would not be seeking selection by the Labour Party to be its candidate to become Croydon mayor.

Ali made the announcement to officials in Woodside, the ward that the Coulsdon resident was first elected to represent, alongside Newman, in 2014.

Her letter came just ahead of that Labour branch’s meeting to draw up a shortlist of acceptable candidates to stand for its three safe council seats in the local elections on May 5.

“Campaigning for the mayoral candidacy would be a distraction,” Ali told colleagues, as she insisted that she will focus on her tasks as council leader in the borough that she and the majority of her cabinet helped to bankrupt.

And Ali appeared to rule out any mayoral candidates coming from her administration. Ali wrote that Labour needs to choose a candidate “who has the best chance of rebuilding trust with local people and [who] represents a break from the recent past”.

Continue reading →

Posted in 2022 council elections, 2022 Croydon Mayor election, Addiscombe West, Hamida Ali, Jerry Fitzpatrick, Tony Newman, Woodside | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Ombudsman demands culture change after council flats ‘shock’

Posted on October 27, 2021 by insidecroydon

Shocking: it was damp and mould in flats such as this one in the council-owned blocks on Regina Road in South Norwood which prompted the Ombudsman to commission a report

Croydon Council’s housing department and repairs contractors need to change their ways, following the publication of an official report into “appalling” conditions endured by council tenants, many of whom have been found to be ignored by their landlords and even blamed for the damp and mould in their homes.

The Housing Ombudsman is demanding a culture change from social housing landlords, including local authorities such as Croydon. The report was commissioned following television news reports earlier this year which exposed the dangerous living conditions of flats in a council block in South Norwood, where families were forced to live in uninhabitable conditions, in homes riddled with mould, damp, leaks and collapsing ceilings. Continue reading →

Posted in Community associations, Croydon Council, Housing, Regina Road Residents' Support Group, South Norwood | Tagged , , , , , | 3 Comments

Roadworks on Green Belt cause worries for Addington villagers

Posted on October 27, 2021 by insidecroydon

Road works ahead: it took council officials three weeks before they arrived to order works to stop on this site in Addington

There’s agitation among Addington villagers, after a local landowner erected gates to block public access to a large field and has started to build an access road through Green Belt land, all apparently without any planning permission or agreement with the council.

The works have been going on for the past three weeks at the junction of Huntingfield, Falconwood and Lodge Lane, not far from one of the Addington Court golf courses.  The new roadway leads to a field at the bottom of Gravel Hill.

Land has been cleared, vegetation stripped bare, trees felled, hardcore bedded down, possibly to be tarmacked over, and residents allege that a council-owned verge has been destroyed.

Planning Officers attended the site yesterday to warn the contractors that work must cease. Continue reading →

Posted in Addington, Addington Residents' Association, Community associations, Croydon Central, Environment, Planning, Property, Robert Ward, Sarah Jones MP, Selsdon and Addington Village | Tagged , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Former City Hall chief Shawcross enters Croydon Mayor race

Posted on October 27, 2021 by insidecroydon

By WALTER CRONXITE, political editor

Serious politician: Valerie Shawcross CBE

Valerie Shawcross, a former deputy mayor of London and widely acknowledged as one of the best leaders of the council Croydon has ever had, wants to be Labour’s candidate to run in the election for the borough’s first directly-elected mayor.

“I want to come back to this new updated role of mayor because I know I can make a difference,” Shawcross said this morning.

“There’s work to do on improving the way Croydon runs and building better relationships between the council and the community.”

Upper Norwood resident Shawcross is the first serious political figure with a London-wide profile to declare their interest in running. She is seeking election to the new office, which she says she has supported and voted for in this month’s referendum.

Shawcross was a London Assembly Member for 16 years after having been a Croydon councillor in New Addington between 1994 and 2000. She was made CBE in 2002 for services to local government.

Continue reading →

Posted in 2022 Croydon Mayor election, Ken Livingstone, London Assembly, London-wide issues, Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, Val Shawcross | Tagged , , , , | 9 Comments

Len Phillips Swing Orchestra concert, Fairfield Halls, Dec 21

Posted on October 27, 2021 by insidecroydon

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Posted in Fairfield Halls, Music | Tagged , | 1 Comment

Opposition renews call for full-scale fraud probe into SDEN

Posted on October 26, 2021 by insidecroydon

Independent review finds that the loss-making, council-owned district heating network has less of a business case, and is more of a basket case, reports CARL SHILTON

Over-heated: LibDem councillors Jayne McCoy (left) and Ruth Dombey have little comfort from the CIPFA review

Richard Simpson, the senior council official who helped unleash the £200million disaster that is Brick by Brick on Croydon, is now faced with the prospect of clearing up the mess caused at Sutton Council by their ill-advised dodgy heating network, SDEN.

Sutton Council, where Simpson now works as its finance director, last night finally released the review of SDEN, the Sutton Decentralised Energy Network Ltd, drafted for them by the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy.

And while the LibDem-controlled council’s leader, Ruth Dombey, was quick to use the council’s press office to proclaim that the review had found no evidence of fraud, the naturally cautious bean-counters from CIPFA made it abundantly clear in their report that their terms of reference – drawn up by Dombey and Sutton CEO Helen Bailey – deliberately ordered them to not look for evidence of fraud.

CIPFA’s conclusions, though, were no less damning of the “below standard” levels of governance in evidence surrounding the establishment of the heat network, which was set up to “greenwash” the building of the Viridor incinerator at Beddington Lane. Continue reading →

Posted in Helen Bailey, Jayne McCoy, Nick Mattey, Richard Simpson, Ruth Dombey, Sutton Council, Tim Crowley, Tom Drummond, Waste incinerator | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

MP McDonnell: invest in councils to help to restore services

Posted on October 26, 2021 by insidecroydon

Senior London MP John McDonnell has called on the Tory Chancellor Rishi Sunak to abandon misleading rhetoric such as “levelling up”, saying that tomorrow’s Budget speech should be used as an opportunity to “level back”, and put funding to local government back to the levels they were before it was slashed under Conservative austerity measures.

Offering an alternative: John McDonnell, with MP Sarah Jones and candidate Olga Fitzroy at a campaign launch in Croydon

McDonnell, Labour’s shadow Chancellor under Jeremy Corbyn, wrote in the i newspaper, “Let’s get real… Since 2010, Conservative governments have taken away over £100billion in funding for local councils. Council funding from government this year is £16billion lower than it was a decade ago.”

In Croydon, our bankrupt council is receiving £58million less in central government funding a year compared with 2015-2016 – a 40 per cent cut.

It is, to a large extent, one of the reasons that the Labour-controlled council is considering plans to slash another £38million from its own operating budget for 2022-2023 – including axing benefits for 20,000 of the borough’s poorest households and removing all funding from Croydon’s voluntary sector.

Continue reading →

Posted in Croydon Council | Tagged , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Shop at the Co-op and you can help local disabilities charity

Posted on October 26, 2021 by insidecroydon

Shop smart: buying Co-op products will help the Garwood Foundation

A South Croydon-based charity has been selected to be part of a fund-raising scheme, and is appealing to shoppers to buy more from their local Co-op branch to help raise more money for their essential work.

The Garwood Foundation, based on Bramley Hill, works with people with disabilities. It has been selected as one of the charities to benefit from the Co-op Local Community Fund.

When members buy selected Co-op branded products and services, 1p from every £1 spent goes to support selected local causes, like the Garwood Foundation. Continue reading →

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Nothing to see here: police back down over Palace banner

Posted on October 26, 2021 by insidecroydon

As the old saying goes, tweet in haste, repent at your leisure.

Banner game: the police were criticised for their response  to the fans’ very accurate protest

Croydon’s police are certainly repenting that tweet they sent out on Saturday evening after Crystal Palace’s match against Saudi-owned Newcastle United, following a backlash from fans who reminded the boys in blue about freedoms of speech and what is, and what is definitely not, racist.

Inside Croydon reported yesterday how the Met Police had tweeted that it had received a complaint about a protest banner at the Holmesdale End and was investigating. There was more than a suspicion of virtue-signalling going on, as the constabulary seek to demonstrate that they are taking hate crime seriously – but this time, they picked the wrong target. Continue reading →

Posted in Andy Brittain, Chris Philp MP, Crime, Croydon South, Crystal Palace FC, Football, Policing | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

West End at The Library, Upper Norwood Library, Oct 31

Posted on October 26, 2021 by insidecroydon

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Posted in Art, Crystal Palace and Upper Norwood, Music, Theatre, Upper Norwood Library Trust | Leave a comment

Labour to pick their Mayor candidate just in time for Christmas

Posted on October 25, 2021 by insidecroydon

EXCLUSIVE: Political editor WALTER CRONXITE reveals how Labour is giving potential mayoral candidates barely a week to put themselves forward for a selection process which appears to have Steve Reed’s fingerprints all over it

Anyone wanting to be considered as Labour’s candidate to stand for election to be Croydon’s first executive mayor has just a week to submit an application.

It’s been six months since it was agreed to stage the borough-wide mayoral referendum, and from that point it was always highly probable that the political parties would need to come up with likely candidates for the post.

The referendum held earlier this month voted 4-to-1 in switching to the mayoral system next May. While the Tories were ready to pick their candidate, by lunchtime today Labour –  who have controlled the Town Hall since 2014 – had not got around to announce how they will select theirs. Continue reading →

Posted in 2022 Croydon Mayor election, Alisa Flemming, Carole Bonner, Croydon Central, Croydon Council, Croydon North, Hamida Ali, Jamie Audsley, Jason Perry, Leila Ben-Hassel, Sarah Jones MP, Steve Reed MP, Tony Newman, Val Shawcross | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

NHS alliance staging consultations in Coulsdon, Nov 4 and 5

Posted on October 25, 2021 by insidecroydon

A health services alliance organisation is to stage two consultation sessions next week to outline plans for the medical centre planned for Coulsdon town centre.

The sessions will be held at Coulsdon Methodist Church on Thursday November 4 and Friday November 5 from 1pm to 6pm. Matthew Kershaw, the CEO of Croydon NHS Health Services Trust, will introduce the plans at 4.30pm each day.

“These events offer residents a chance to find out more and help shape the future of health services in our community,” say the event organisers. Continue reading →

Posted in Coulsdon, Coulsdon East, Coulsdon Town, Croydon NHS Trust, East Coulsdon Residents' Association, Health, Kenley, Matthew Kershaw, Old Coulsdon, Purley, Purley Oaks and Riddlesdown, Sanderstead | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Met Police score spectacular own goal over Saudi banner

Posted on October 25, 2021 by insidecroydon

Palace fans united: Holmesdale Fanatics spoke up for many with their criticism of the Saudi takeover of Newcastle

Palace fans’ group accuses the Premier League of choosing ‘money over morals’ on £300m Newcastle takeover deal and doing ‘business with one of the world’s most bloody and repressive regimes’

Croydon’s police invited scorn and ridicule on Saturday, when they announced on social media that they had “received a report of an offensive banner displayed by Crystal Palace fans”.

The Met Police’s Croydon Twitter account stated that officers were “assessing the information and carrying out enquiries. Any allegations of racist abuse will be taken very seriously”. Continue reading →

Posted in Andy Brittain, Crime, Crystal Palace FC, Football, Holmesdale Fanatics, Policing | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

How Corporal Luff’s cross became a symbol for all Croydon

Posted on October 24, 2021 by insidecroydon

The Queen’s Screen in Croydon Minster is a striking tribute to the men of one WWI army unit that was based nearby. DAVID MORGAN traces the war record of one hero who is remembered in his village, is buried in France and has his battlefield cross in Croydon 

We will remember them: the memorial arch in the Minster for the West Surreys

The ornate wooden arch through which you pass as you enter Croydon Minster is a memorial to the soldiers of the 2nd and 4th Battalions The Queen’s Royal West Surrey Regiment who never returned from their battles in the Great War.

On the right, a carving of a private stands on eternal lookout. On the left an officer, standing, planning, anxious for the return of his men.

On the wall in the south porch are wooden battens with all the names of the fallen from those two battalions inscribed upon them. Albert Ernest Luff’s name is there.

His wooden battlefield cross, rescued from France after the end of World War I and brought back to England, is the centrepiece of this memorial. Continue reading →

Posted in Church and religions, Croydon Minster, David Morgan, History | Tagged , , | 6 Comments

Norbury Afterschool Club, Harlow Hall, term time Fridays

Posted on October 24, 2021 by insidecroydon

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Posted in Activities, Education, Norbury, SEND | Tagged | Leave a comment

Regina Road scandal sees two more councillors de-selected

Posted on October 23, 2021 by insidecroydon

WALTER CRONXITE, political editor, on the latest round of results in Labour’s sometimes shambolic local elections candidate selection process

Going, going… : Patsy Cummings (right) and Clive Fraser (second right) used to be key members of Labour’s Town Hall team under Tony Newman (left) and Hamida Ali

Labour members in South Norwood tonight de-selected two of Newman’s numpties, Clive Fraser and Patsy Cummings, senior councillors who had been key members of the discredited ex-leader of the council’s team that bankrupted the borough.

According to some who attended the meeting, the decision was, at least in part, a reaction to the scandal of the Regina Road tower blocks, which drew national criticism of the Labour-controlled council earlier this year because of the unhealthy damp and mould in the flats, as exposed on television news – after the ward councillors had failed to secure any repairs, improvements or new homes for the affected families.

The dumping of Fraser and Cummings brings to 19 the number of Labour councillors at the start of 2020 who won’t be standing as candidates in 2022 – nearly half of the current 41 ruling group at the Town Hall.

Continue reading →

Posted in 2022 council elections, Bensham Manor, Bernadette Khan, Broad Green, Clive Fraser, Croydon North, Humayun Kabir, Humayun Kabir, Jamie Audsley, Louis Carserides, Manju Shahul Hameed, Muhammad Ali, Patsy Cummings, Selhurst, South Norwood, Steve Reed MP, Stuart Collins, Tony Newman, West Thornton | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Time to ‘go on a journey’ as David Lean Cinema re-opens

Posted on October 23, 2021 by insidecroydon

Multiple Oscar-winning movie Nomadland will delight the audience when they return to the David Lean Cinema as it re-opens on Tuesday following 20 months of covid lockdown restrictions.

“We will be screening a range of award-winning films from the past year, such as Nomadland and Another Round, with new releases such as The French Dispatch and Last Night in Soho,” according to David Lavelli of the David Lean Cinema Campaign, the volunteer-run community interest company which operates the arthouse venue in the Croydon Clocktower.

The David Lean Cinema is feeling its way forward in this “new normal”, not-quite-post-covid world. A bit like Nomadland’s star Frances McDormand, and Timothy Spall in another film being shown in the next month, The Last Bus, they are “going on a journey”, to use the current marketingspeak terminology. Continue reading →

Posted in Art, Cinema, David Lean Cinema Campaign | Tagged , | 1 Comment

Angry Giles blows the whistle over dodgy penalty decision

Posted on October 23, 2021 by insidecroydon

NON-LEAGUE NEWS: As groundsharers Croydon Athletic and Balham get off to a slow start in their new league, ANDREW SINCLAIR reports on how their neighbours at the Arena are mounting a promotion challenge

Penalty notice: Croydon FC were not happy with the officiating last weekend

Croydon boss Liam Giles was left fuming over the performance of the officials following last weekend’s Kent Senior Trophy defeat to SCEFL Premier Division high-fliers Chatham Town.

Chatham were 2-0 winners at Croydon Arena, Jon Pilbeam adding the second in the dying seconds after Andy Pugh, the former Cambridge United striker, had opened the scoring on 42 minutes.

There was controversy on the half-hour mark when Trams forward Richard Pingling was raked down in the box but the referee failed to award a penalty. Continue reading →

Posted in AFC Croydon Athletic, Balham FC, Croydon FC, Football, Sport | Tagged , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Women of Colour Safer Community, Whitgift Centre, Oct 27

Posted on October 23, 2021 by insidecroydon

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

Schoolchildren’s half-term homework is to have their covid jab

Posted on October 22, 2021 by insidecroydon

Parents and carers can, for the first time, book a covid-19 vaccination for their 12-to-15-year-olds during the schools’ half-term this month using the national booking system.

Half-term project: parents and carers can book covid-19 vaccination appointments for their 12-to-15-year-olds

Starting tomorrow, October 23, parents and carers can book an appointment to take their child to a local vaccination centre at Centrale Shopping Centre, 21 North End, Croydon, CR0 1TY and Valley Park Surgery, Croydon, CR0 4YD, and so reduce the risk of them becoming seriously ill with the virus.

Those aged 12 to 15 can also get vaccinated in neighbouring boroughs during the half-term, when a parent or carer books their appointment. Continue reading →

Posted in Centrale, Health, Rachel Flowers, Schools | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment