Whitgift Centre pop-up museum provides a tribute and legacy

Posted on August 28, 2021 by insidecroydon

On display: the pop-up museum is worth seeking out in the Whitgift Centre

A vacant unit in a shopping centre is the venue for an exhibition which celebrates the history of the Windrush generation. KEN TOWL was impressed by what he found there

Deighton flew from Barbados to England in 1961 with the intention of working here for five years before returning home with his savings.

He knew there were jobs: the NHS, British Rail and London Transport all recruited workers in Barbados. On arrival in London, Deighton soon landed a job as a train guard on the Bakerloo Line and then Tube driver on the District Line.

Dorothy flew to England from Jamaica and worked as a domestic and cook, and then at the Kenco factory.

They met at a social event, married and stayed in England. Continue reading →

Posted in Charity, Community associations, History, Ken Towl, Whitgift Centre | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Residents’ meeting agrees to start legal battle with developer

Posted on August 28, 2021 by insidecroydon

In Upper Norwood, residents are working together to take a profit-hungry property developer to court over what they see as a broken covenant over the land in a road of 1920s-built bungalows and cottages.

Residents of Downsview Road are united in their opposition to the developers

Neighbours on Downsview Road, off Beulah Hill, claim that their homes are subject to a legal restriction that ought to prevent overdevelopment.

But after the council’s planning department ignored the covenant, one rapacious developer went ahead and demolished a perfectly sound bungalow, in order to build a three-storey block of flats.

This week, nearly 100 neighbours came together in a meeting where it was explained that, since the developer has continued to proceed with their planning application at 19 Downsview Road to develop a block consisting of nine flats, “our only choice now is court proceedings”, according to Caroline Fenech, one of the meeting’s organisers.

“We discussed our evidence, read a statement from Croydon Council planning department, and answered concerns raised by the public regarding this and other future developments,” she said.

According to Fenech, everyone at the meeting “agreed that we should act against the developer”. Continue reading →

Posted in Community associations, Croydon Council, Crystal Palace and Upper Norwood, Planning | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

CODA’s Old Time Musical Hall, Sanderstead, Sep 24-25

Posted on August 28, 2021 by insidecroydon

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£14.7m upgrade to hospital’s intensive care unit set to begin

Posted on August 27, 2021 by insidecroydon

Croydon is to get a new hospital.

Intensive: Mayday is about to get a £14.7m upgrade

Well, of course not.

Although it probably won’t be too long before Chris Philp and Croydon’s Tories are hailing a £14.7million extension of the intensive care unit at Mayday as a “new hospital”, thus keeping in line with the government’s playbook script.

The ICU at Mayday has been in the frontline of not only Croydon’s but the whole of south London’s battle with coronavirus over the past 18 months, and the £14.7million new funding to improve and expand it will undoubtedly be very welcome by staff and locals. Continue reading →

Posted in Health, Matthew Kershaw, Mayday Hospital | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

South Norwood’s ‘brutalist’ library in Top 10 attractions

Posted on August 27, 2021 by insidecroydon

Yet more sphincter-clenching embarrassment for the Blairites who control Croydon’s Labour Party, as the public library which their local council wants to flog off, for possible demolition and redevelopment, is to feature in September’s Open House London celebration of all that is admirable in the capital’s architecture.

‘Anti-council’: the brutalist South Norwood Library is part of Open House London next month. Local Blairite MP Steve Reed OBE will be soooo proud

Inside Croydon reported earlier this month how Labour had blocked the candidate application of a university lecturer simply because he had supported a community campaign to save the under-threat South Norwood Library. The library campaign was described by the disapproving Blairites as “anti-council”.

But now South Norwood Library is one of just a handful of venues in Croydon which have been included on the roster of places to visit in 2021’s post-lockdown Open House week, which runs from September 4 to 12 – inviting the public from around the world to come along and admire “the brutalist library” which Croydon Council wants to close.

Croydon, in case you have forgotten, is London’s Borough of Culture 2023… Continue reading →

Posted in Activities, Art, Brick by Brick, Croydon Council, Libraries, London-wide issues, Mayor of London, South Norwood | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Anspach and Hobday’s Croydon Oktoberfest, Sep 18

Posted on August 27, 2021 by insidecroydon

A D V E R T I S E M E N T

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Purley local hits out: ‘It’s always developers before residents’

Posted on August 26, 2021 by insidecroydon

The Higher Drive road block lasted six days, finally being removed yesterday

CROYDON COMMENTARY: This week BRIAN WATSON, a leading member of the Foxley Residents’ Association, vented his frustrations at the inappropriate building works and overdevelopment being allowed in his corner of the borough by writing a letter to the council leader, Hamida Ali, and CEO Katherine Kerswell.
He invited us to share the correspondence with you…

Sitting in the middle of a building site has become the norm for the residents of the south of the borough of Croydon.

The noise. The mess. The influx of commercial vehicles. The disruption. The inconvenience. The utter disrespect afforded to us.

Our incompetent, bankrupt council still favours the property developers over local residents, and we are paying for the privilege! How much longer will we be paying? Continue reading →

Posted in Croydon Council, Hamida Ali, Katherine Kerswell, Kenley, Planning, Property, Purley | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 19 Comments

Town Hall axeman is now let loose on Shrublands’ trees

Posted on August 26, 2021 by insidecroydon

Timber: Croydon’s cash-strapped council found the money to fell Shrublands’ trees

It is looking like Croydon’s Labour council’s already dubious “green” credentials have suffered another blow, in the midst of their own climate emergency, with that blow being delivered by a well-oiled and over-used chainsaw.

If the council has its way, Shrublands could soon be left without any shrubs. Continue reading →

Posted in Croydon Council, Environment, Shirley North, Wildlife | Tagged , , , , , | 5 Comments

After eight-year wait, Croydon delivers homes on Taberner site

Posted on August 26, 2021 by insidecroydon

Blocking off: Bloom House is one of four blocks on the Taberner House site that is finally nearing completion

Eight years since the old council offices, Taberner House, that stood on the site, was vacated, and many months later than the council’s chosen developers had planned for the build to be complete, the ribbon was cut this week on some of the first new council homes to be built in the borough since 2014.

The Labour-controlled council has chosen to call the building Malcolm Wicks House, named after the MP for Croydon North who died in 2012. Wicks’ widow, Margaret, was the guest of honour at the opening ceremony, alongside the Mayor of Croydon, Sherwan Chowdhury. Continue reading →

Posted in Croydon Council, Housing, London-wide issues, Malcolm Wicks MP, Mayor of London, Planning, Property, Taberner House, Tom Copley | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

£700,000: Croydon counting the costs of council failures

Posted on August 26, 2021 by insidecroydon

CROYDON IN CRISIS: The Town Hall has been hit with ‘penalty fines’ of its own since its financial collapse 12 months ago.
EXCLUSIVE by STEVEN DOWNES

£697,300

Broke: officials in Fisher’s Folly have been paying high bills as a consequence of the borough’s bankruptcy

And rising…

That’s how much Croydon Council says it has paid so far, or expects to pay, for consultants and expert reports into its financial collapse and the many failures of Brick by Brick. And it may not end there.

The figures have been provided in an answer to a councillor question, and cover the punitive costs of the government-imposed “improvement and assurance panel” imposed on the borough through to 2024, as well as work from auditors Grant Thornton and consultants Price Waterhouse Coopers for their efforts towards untangling the financial mess caused by the council’s loss-making house-builders.

It all represents possibly the biggest bill for an exercise in public self-flagellation ever paid in south London.

The formal response, on behalf of council leader Hamida Ali, suggests that there are other bills still to pay, all arising from the mismanagement of the Labour-run council administration, of which she had been a part since 2016. Continue reading →

Posted in Brick by Brick, Croydon Council, Hamida Ali, Improvement Board, Report in the Public Interest, Robert Canning, Section 114 notice, Tony McArdle, Tony Newman | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Signs of the times, as Sanderstead look to celebrate jubilee

Posted on August 25, 2021 by insidecroydon

Next year’s 70th anniversary of Queen acceding to the throne in 1952 will see celebrations across the realm,  and even in some parts of Croydon.

Worse for wear: the Sanderstead village sign

Though in Sanderstead, one landmark tribute that is seen by thousands every day is beginning to look its age somewhat, which is a bit of a delicate problem for the local residents’ association. The Sanderstead village sign has been deemed to be beyond repair.

The Sanderstead sign, on a post in front of Rectory Court, on the corner of Limpsfield Road and Rectory Park, has stood there at least since 1953, the year of the Coronation, but according to the RA and Lynne Hale, a ward councillor, is now “looking in rather a sorry state”.

The sign is a perhaps prosaic version of the kind of village signs once seen all over England, including in the suburbs. Other parts of Croydon, such as Old Coulsdon and Addiscombe, all have their own signs to reflect the identity of the area.  Continue reading →

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Ofgem called in to rule over SDEN’s unfair heating prices

Posted on August 25, 2021 by insidecroydon

Sutton’s deputy leader has much to account for over the ‘too complicated’ business model for the misfiring power network. CARL SHILTON reports

Jayne McCoy: did she mislead over SDEN’s business model?

Just days after appointing independent accountants to conduct a review into the business of Sutton’s controversial heating network, SDEN, and the council’s own finance director has given the clearest indication yet of his own lack of confidence in the work of his predecessors to prove that the local power business could ever be viable.

The comments, made by senior council official Richard Simpson to the chair of a local residents’ association, could prove to be very bad news indeed for the deputy leader of Sutton’s Liberal Democrat-controlled council, Jayne McCoy, who has been an enthusiastic supporter of SDEN over many years.

SDEN, the Sutton Decentralised Energy Network, was last week described by a local MP as a “catastrophic failure”, as it continues to stumble from crisis to crisis, with just one corporate customer for its over-priced heating and hot water, and with households in the blighted New Mill Quarter in Hackbridge still suffering power outages.

Inside Sutton has discovered that in addition to the council-commissioned review to be conducted by CIPFA (the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy), SDEN is now subject to a formal and lengthy complaint from a resident of New Mill Quarter to Ofgem, the heating regulator. Continue reading →

Posted in Environment, Jayne McCoy, Nick Mattey, Outside Croydon, Richard Simpson, Sutton Council, Waste incinerator | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

MP’s Kabul tweets: ‘I don’t know what will happen. It is awful’

Posted on August 25, 2021 by insidecroydon

Chaos in Kabul: even British MPs cannot achieve successful evacuations of British nationals trapped in Afghanistan as the Taliban move in

The clock is ticking for the international evacuation of Afghanistan, as the Taliban closes in on capital Kabul and its airport.

In the middle of all this, one Croydon MP has told of the heart-rending individual human stories of families torn apart as a consequence of the interventionist West’s latest foreign policy disaster. Thousands are to be left behind, abandoned to their fate.

Croydon Central MP Sarah Jones: admits she has not yet managed to secure a single evacuation

Last night, after Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s appeal to the White House to extend the deadline for extractions was ignored, and as reports suggested that British forces might be forced to pull out of Kabul Airport in just 24 hours, MP Sarah Jones revealed that her office’s efforts included one case in which she was attempting to reunite a five-year-old boy with his parents.

The couple, British nationals, are Jones’s constituents in London, the mother having recently undergone cancer treatment. Their son is seemingly trapped in Afghanistan, where he has been living with his grandmother.

“He needs to get to his parents,” Jones tweeted. “I hope they will be safe.” Continue reading →

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MyT bookkeeping: Take a picture, Approve, Done

Posted on August 25, 2021 by insidecroydon

A D V E R T I S E M E N T

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£800 per day housing chief fails to show for Regina Road meet

Posted on August 24, 2021 by insidecroydon

CROYDON IN CRISIS: After waiting six months, residents of what was described as some of the worst housing in the country finally got to meet senior officials. But the council’s head of housing had gone off on holiday.
EXCLUSIVE by STEVEN DOWNES

Holiday: despite residents calling for a meeting since March, Alison Knight  had taken the week off

After being promised a face-to-face meeting with council chiefs since ITV News exposed the “appalling conditions” which many of the residents in council-owned blocks in South Norwood are having to endure on a daily basis, Regina Road residents finally got to look senior officials and councillors in the eye last week.

More than 30 residents gathered at the Stanley Halls for the long-awaited meeting, organised by the recently formed Regina Residents’ Support Group.

But missing from the gathering was Alison Knight, the £800 per day interim director for homes, who was hired by the council chief executive, Katherine Kerswell in May with a brief to quickly fix the many and deep problems within the council’s housing stock.

Knight, the disappointed residents were told, was away “on annual leave”. Knight was appointed on a six-month contract… Continue reading →

Posted in Alison Knight, Croydon Council, Hamida Ali, Housing, Katherine Kerswell, Patricia Hay-Justice, Regina Road Residents' Support Group, South Norwood | Tagged , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Residents concern as South Norwood’s ‘culture war’ turns toxic

Posted on August 24, 2021 by insidecroydon

Shots have been fired, at least metaphorical ones, on the frontline of a “culture war” in South Norwood, as the latest council consultations over Low Traffic Neighbourhoods come to a close tonight.

Concrete blocks and steel bollards have already replaced planters on some Croydon LTNs

Residents who support the traffic-reducing schemes accuse the opponents of LTNs of deliberately damaging property and of intimidating behaviour, and express concerns that what might have been a survey of the views of people living locally has been hijacked by vested interests, motoring lobbyists and others from across south London and beyond.

“There’s a real toxic and intimidating atmosphere surrounding discussion on the subject of the LTNs,” a resident in one of the areas subject to council consultations told Inside Croydon. The resident is so afraid of recriminations from the anti-LTNers that they asked for the identity to be withheld.

“Anyone expressing the mildest support for LTNs and efforts to improve road safety in South Norwood and prevent our residential roads being used as rat runs is quickly shouted down and insulted in the local Facebook forums.

“The rage around the issue has turned the Facebook page into a bit of a no-go area,” they say. Continue reading →

Posted in Clive Fraser, Commuting, Croydon Council, Crystal Palace and Upper Norwood, Cycling, Pat Ryan, South Norwood, TfL, Transport | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Greenpeace are making waves over destructive supertrawlers

Posted on August 24, 2021 by insidecroydon

Greenpeace is demanding urgent action now by the British government to halt destructive supertrawlers operating in protected zones off our coasts

Greenpeace Croydon has this week helped to launch Operation Ocean Witness, which is making waves to confront destructive fishing methods and the use of supertrawlers.

At campaign stalls around Croydon, locals signed a petition calling on the government to ban supertrawlers, bottom trawlers and fly shooters from UK Marine Protected Areas. Continue reading →

Posted in Community associations, Environment, Wildlife | Tagged , , | 3 Comments

Duffus Cancer Foundation information day, Aug 28

Posted on August 24, 2021 by insidecroydon

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After billions in regeneration deals, might Bingle eye Croydon?

Posted on August 23, 2021 by insidecroydon

STEVEN DOWNES on the man behind one of London’s biggest lobbying firms, a former senior figure at ‘the PR firm for despots and rogues’

Cheers: Peter Bingle’s lunches have been behind deals with London councils that have been worth billions

In Southwark, activists who have been campaigning against a massive transfer of public property over to private developers have described their council offices as having “revolving doors”, seeing local authority staffers and councillors walking straight into the arms of lobbyists for big business.

The latest example to spin their way into potentially lucrative work for developers is Peter John, the leader of Labour-controlled Southwark from 2010 until 2020, and the chair of the pan-city organisation of local authorities, London Councils, from 2018 to 2020.

While he remains a councillor in Southwark, expected to represent the interests of the people of Champion Hill ward and the broader borough, John is now in the pay of the Terrapin Group as their chairman.

He is, therefore, also Croydon councillor Stuart King’s new boss. Continue reading →

Posted in Business, CPO, Croydon Council, Growth Zone, Paul Scott, Planning, Stuart King, Tony Newman, Whitgift Centre | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Council deputy leader gets new job working for lobbyists

Posted on August 23, 2021 by insidecroydon

CROYDON IN CRISIS: West Thornton councillor Stuart King says he intends to continue with his cabinet tasks overseeing potentially hundreds of millions of pounds of council assets. EXCLUSIVE by STEVEN DOWNES

Parked: Stuart King now works for one of London’s most notorious development lobbyists

Stuart King, the deputy leader of the Labour-run council, has landed himself a job in public relations, working for a developers’ lobbying firm. But he says that he intends to continue serving Croydon by working on his cabinet brief, which includes the cash-strapped council’s asset disposals, its capital programme and Growth Zone.

King, a former Labour parliamentary candidate, has been a councillor for West Thornton ward since 2014. He is generally regarded by Town Hall colleagues from both sides of the Croydon political duopoly as one of the less incompetent councillors from the group that bankrupted the borough.

In October last year, just days before the council issued a Section 114 notice to declare itself effectively bankrupt, King was chosen by fellow Labour councillors to become Hamida Ali’s deputy leader at the crisis-hit council. Continue reading →

Posted in Business, Croydon Council, Stuart King | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

Six fire engines deal swiftly with Norbury bungalow fire

Posted on August 23, 2021 by insidecroydon

Firefighters have tackled a blaze at a house on Pollards Hill South in Norbury this morning.

Under control: the fire in Pollards Hill damaged the roof and first floor of the bungalow

The roof and a small part of the first floor of a detached chalet bungalow were damaged by the fire. One man left the building before the Brigade arrived. He was assessed at the scene by London Ambulance Service crews.

The Brigade was called just before 9am and the fire was under control not long after 10am.

Six fire engines and around 40 firefighters from Norbury, West Norwood, Croydon, Mitcham and Tooting fire stations were at the scene. Continue reading →

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Simpson feels heat from MP over SDEN ‘independent’ review

Posted on August 22, 2021 by insidecroydon

A Sutton MP has raised serious doubts whether a supposedly “independent” review into the controversial council-owned SDEN company will make any difference for the hundreds of Hackbridge residents whose homes and lives have been blighted by the expensive and unreliable heating network.

Tory MP Elliot Colburn: sceptical about terms for council’s SDEN review

“The SDEN project has been another catastrophic failure of the LibDem-run council,” according to Tory MP Elliot Colburn.

And some councillors are angry that the Liberal Democrat-run council’s review will prove to be a cover-up for what some claim has been a multi-million-pound shambles, and others allege has been a massive fraud.

“An independent investigation is not supposed to be a cherry-picking exercise to avoid getting to the truth,” one councillor said after the terms of reference for the review were released and it was announced that CIPFA is to conduct it.

The 400 homes in New Mill Quarter have now endured more than 20 heating and hot water outages since the start of 2020, thanks to the unreliable heating system provided by Sutton Decentralised Energy Network Ltd. Continue reading →

Posted in Elliot Colburn, London-wide issues, Nick Mattey, Outside Croydon, Richard Simpson, Sutton Council, Waste incinerator | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Underdog Kinlock now has his eyes on Olympic prizes

Posted on August 21, 2021 by insidecroydon

Croydon has produced another champion sprinter. ANDREW SINCLAIR caught up with Derek Kinlock to discover how the Thornton Heath teenager overcame covid and other barriers (literally) to become a European Junior gold medallist

In good company: Derek Kinlock joined some of the biggest names in British sprinting when he won the European Junior 200m in Tallinn

“It was just fun, man,”  Derek Kinlock said on answering the phone to Inside Croydon’s call last week.

“It was fun.

“It was a blessing to go out there and race other countries from Europe. It was the fastest in Europe – it is amazing being in that environment. Coming back to the UK, I feel I’ve gained so much experience.”

Yet because of covid, the finest moment yet in Derek Kinlock’s young sprinting career almost never happened. Continue reading →

Posted in Athletics, Croydon Harriers, Sport, Thomas More Purley, Thornton Heath | Leave a comment

Tea time among the tees: 10% off at Farleigh for our readers

Posted on August 21, 2021 by insidecroydon

Set among 350 acres of beautiful countryside, Farleigh Golf Club also boasts one of Croydon’s top restaurants.

And now, in partnership with Farleigh, Inside Croydon is delighted to offer our loyal readers a special 10 per cent off the cost of afternoon tea. And no, you won’t be expected to play 18 holes of golf beforehand…

Continue reading →

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#SouthernFail say they’re ‘very sorry’, they just can’t manage

Posted on August 21, 2021 by insidecroydon

Govia Thameslink Railway say they are “very sorry” for the shoddy service they have been providing all year, but particularly in August, on Southern and Thameslink trains, but they continue to blame the “Pingdemic” for driver shortages and short-notice cancellations.

Pinged: Govia claim that two covid positive tests among their staff caused 100 service cancellations per day

GTR this week revealed plans for increased service levels across their networks from September 6, reinstating many of the trains which they removed from the timetables as recently as July 26 in their latest round of cuts.

But the services provided from next month will remain considerably below February 2020, pre-pandemic levels – the service which GTR is contracted to the Department for Transport to provide – with railway officials warning this week there will not be a return to their old, rush-hour dominated timetables for “a very long time to come”.

In another letter to a senior City Hall official, notably sent from a member of Govia’s PR staff (rather than anyone in their operations team), the rail operators simpered, “The challenges facing my colleagues are not unique, and amended timetables are currently in operation across the UK… Continue reading →

Posted in Commuting, East Croydon, Norwood Junction, Transport, West Croydon | Tagged , , , , , , , | 4 Comments