Coroner to allow majority verdict at tram crash inquest

Posted on July 20, 2021 by insidecroydon

Sarah Ormond-Walshe, the Coroner in the inquest into the deaths of seven people in the Sandilands tram crash in November 2016, has today directed the jury that they can deliver a majority verdict.

There is to be a memorial service next week to mark the third anniversary of the crash

The inquest at Croydon Town Hall had been long delayed, first because of lengthy investigations by British Transport Police and then, last year, because of the covid-19 pandemic.

The coroner’s court was originally expected to spend 13 weeks hearing witness statements and other evidence, but the jury was sent out to consider its verdict after less than two months.

Ormond-Walshe told the jury on July 7 that they had a choice of verdict of either accidental death or unlawful killing. The jury – initially of eight men and three women – has been unable to come to a unanimous decision since then, after nearly two weeks.

Dane Chinnery 19, Philip Seary, 57, Dorota Rynkiewicz, 35, Robert Huxley, 63, and Philip Logan, all from New Addington, and Donald Collett, 62, and Mark Smith, 35, both from Croydon, were killed in the crash. Another 50 passengers suffered injuries, some life-changing. Continue reading →

Posted in Sandilands derailment, Tramlink | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Tory minister Scully accused of ‘bungling’ over covid app gaffe

Posted on July 20, 2021 by insidecroydon

Paul Scully, the Tory MP for Sutton and Cheam, was derided as “bungling” today over his failure to understand his own government’s laws on covid-19 and self-isolation.

Confused: Tory MP Paul Scully during his round of broadcast interviews today

In a live broadcast interview this morning, Scully claimed it was up to individuals to decide if they should self-isolate after being “pinged” by the NHS covid-19 app.

Thousands of firms have been sending workers home to self-isolate as a result of the “pingdemic” caused by soaring cases.

Scully’s unhelpful intervention is just the latest contradictory statement and U-turn from the Conservative government over the coronavirus pandemic, in which more than 128,000 people in Britain have died – one of the worst death rates from covid-19 in the world. Continue reading →

Posted in Health, Paul Scully MP | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Mystery of the ‘lost’ £600,000 expert report into Fairfield Halls

Posted on July 20, 2021 by insidecroydon

Sound stage: a report into the planned refurbishment of the Fairfield Halls, commissioned from construction consultants Mott MacDonald in 2016, cannot be found by the council

CROYDON IN CRISIS: Suspicions mount over the business of Brick by Brick and the scandal surrounding the Fairfield Halls refurbishment. But even members of the Town Hall’s scrutiny committee are being denied vital information by council directors. By STEVEN DOWNES

Senior executives appointed by council CEO Katherine Kerswell have told councillors on the scrutiny committee that they can’t have a vital consultants’ report into the £69million refurbishment of the Fairfield Halls – because they don’t know where to find it.

The facts behind the failure of council-owned Brick by Brick, the house-builders who were supposed to deliver tens of millions to the council but who ended up costing Council Tax-payers hundreds of millions, remain a mystery, even to elected councillors serving on the scrutiny committee.

Why Brick by Brick’s flagship project to refurbish the Fairfield Halls took so long, and managed to spend so much public money, and who is going to be held responsible, are among the questions which remain stubbornly unanswered. Continue reading →

Posted in Asmat Hussain, Brick by Brick, Croydon Council, Fairfield Halls, Robert Ward, Sarah Hayward, Sean Fitzsimons | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | 24 Comments

Whitgift care homes bring a smile back to children’s faces

Posted on July 20, 2021 by insidecroydon

Whitgift Care has announced that it is partnering with the children’s cleft charity, Smile Train UK, writes Sanjana Idnani.

Whitgift Care Homes are run by one of the borough’s largest charity foundations

Smile Train UK helps locate children who need treatment for cleft palates and provides training and financial support for local medical professionals so they can perform surgery and related care.

Around 200,000 babies are born with a cleft worldwide every year, Cleft lip and palate is the most common facial difference in the UK. More than 90 per cent of these children will die if they do not receive treatment. To tackle this issue, Smile Train has supported more than 1.5 million cleft surgeries worldwide. Continue reading →

Posted in Charity, Whitgift Foundation | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Cyclists still forced to ride on dangerous roads to nowhere

Posted on July 19, 2021 by insidecroydon

Split decision: Croydon’s cycling provision remains woeful

CROYDON COMMENTARY: A recent report on the state of the borough’s  unhealthy streets has caused dismay for DAN MAERTENS

Dismay.

That was my first thought when reading the report on Inside Croydon about our borough’s poor rating as far as “healthy” streets.

My dismay was not because of what the article contained, but because it is all so depressingly familiar.

The links to previous articles on that page demonstrate that well: “A once in a generation to opportunity to shape a new Croydon“; “£20m for cycling strategy could get Croydon on their bikes“; and “Cyclists’ manifesto wants an end to carnage on Croydon’s roads“.

We still have the opportunity, but not the strategy, at least not in terms of anything that brings real change on the street, as opposed to wordy aspirations.

What is going wrong? Continue reading →

Posted in Boris Bikes, Commuting, Cycling, Environment, TfL, Transport | Tagged , , , , , | 6 Comments

Croydon Labour spread the word – and a risk of the virus

Posted on July 19, 2021 by insidecroydon

Croydon’s group of inept Labour councillors is back doing what they do best: being inept. Political editor WALTER CRONXITE reports

Gormless: Stuart Collins, right, council deputy leader under Tony Newman, enjoying Saturday’s canvass with Maddie and Mark Henson

As a third wave of covid lets rip (nearly 1,200 new cases of infection in the last seven days in the borough, with more than 300 cases per 100,000 population), Croydon’s Labour councillors were out at the weekend, going from door to door potentially risking spreading death and disease.

The borough’s councillors, who all receive at least £11,000 per year in publicly funded allowances, seem never happier than when conducting political lobbying, rather than doing the dull and boring work of holding the council’s paid executives to account and conducting meetings to manage the borough’s affairs.

But with the nation in the continuing grip of a pandemic, and the council still wrestling with the consequences of its financial collapse, for the vast majority of Croydon’s councillors there is little, if any, official business at the Town Hall for nearly three months. The next meeting of full council is not until October 11, a gap of 14 weeks.

So instead, the councillors are using the time to spread their “message” (such as it is), and possibly also coronavirus. Continue reading →

Posted in 2022 council elections, Addiscombe East, Addiscombe West, Croydon Council, Hamida Ali, Maddie Henson, Sean Fitzsimons, Stuart Collins | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Three-quarters of iC readers say they will still wear masks

Posted on July 19, 2021 by insidecroydon

More than three-quarters of Inside Croydon readers say that they will continue to wear a face covering in public places, despite today’s government relaxation of precautions against the spread of covid-19.

Today marks what some have tried to characterise as “Freedom Day”, with the lifting of a range of lockdown measures, while others, concerned at the rapidly rising rates of infection in a third wave of coronavirus, point to recent trials of unmasked mass gatherings as super-spreader events.

The latest figures from the Office for National Statistics show more than 48,000 new cases of covid-19 in the last 24 hours, 25 per cent higher than seven days earlier. The majority of new cases are from the Johnson variant,  known by some as the Delta variant. So much for “data before dates”. Continue reading →

Posted in Health, Inside Croydon | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

The show must go on: theatre groups prepare for reopening

Posted on July 18, 2021 by insidecroydon

SANJANA IDNANI reports on how local theatrical venues and amdram groups have been dealing with the covid lockdown as they prepare to put on their summer shows

Library performance: next week’s concert has been rehearsed under covid rules

Theatre companies and performers across the borough have faced their fair share of uncertainty and difficulty over the past 15 months of the covid-19 pandemic, and ensuring that the show can go on this summer has come with its own set of exceptional circumstances.

Theatre Workshop Coulsdon and Daniel Stockton Productions are both working to put on live shows in the next few weeks.

For the first time since its Christmas 2019 production, TWC, one of the borough’s leading amdram groups, is returning to the stage for the Agatha Christie whodunnit And Then There Were None from July 31. Daniel Stockton Productions is bringing six professional performers together to Upper Norwood Library to perform musical classics in a production called West End at the Library next Sunday, July 25.

While the shows have been planned for after July 19, the date when almost all legal covid-19 restrictions will be lifted, the groups have had to rehearse under stricter social distancing rules, and also work out how to put their audience, performers and crew at ease once the curtains go up. Continue reading →

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

Fore! Golf course and hotel latest properties in council fire sale

Posted on July 18, 2021 by insidecroydon

Chipper: the Coulsdon Manor golf course is being sold by the council

CROYDON IN CRISIS: Four public-owned properties, not mentioned in the council’s original disposals list, are now being sold off as the Town Hall gets itself out of the hotels business. By PEARL LEE, our south of the borough correspondent

The cash-strapped council’s fire sale continues, with a former primary school, garages, a scout hut and a hotel and golf course among the latest public assets that are being flogged off to try to plug the gaping holes in the Town Hall finances caused by Tony Newman and his numpties.

Included on the same council report as the controversial plan to lease Heathfield House to a special needs school, last week’s cabinet meeting also rubber-stamped proposals for the sale of the former CALAT adult education centre in Coulsdon, as well as a garage site on Windmill Road (both had been sites earmarked for development by Brick by Brick) and the vacated scout hut on Peppermint Walk. Continue reading →

Posted in Brick by Brick, Business, Coulsdon, Coulsdon East, Croydon Council, Golf, Old Coulsdon, Sarah Hayward | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 8 Comments

Canon Harford found sweet music to be good for the souls

Posted on July 17, 2021 by insidecroydon

MARVELS OF THE MINSTER: A Victorian curate went on to carve a special niche in the use of music, as DAVID MORGAN explains

Frederick Harford had wide-ranging artistic skills. This portrait is now in the British Museum collection

What’s your favourite piece of music?

It might be one that you have enjoyed for many years or may be you recently encountered something new? Of course, it can depend on your mood.

Music has the ability to raise the spirit, soothe a troubled mind and, indeed, invoke many memories. Some people use calming music to settle them into a night’s slumber. We might disagree with each other’s choices but for the vast majority of us, music is an integral and important part of our lives. None more so than when we are feeling under the weather when music has the potential to lift us.

Over the last hundred years music, has played an increasingly important role in helping the healing process. It is widely acknowledged that music can help to bring you out of a dark place. Patients who have lost much of their ability to recall recent events can be stimulated to remember earlier times in their lives through songs of their youth.

One of the people responsible for realising the therapeutic and healing use of music was Rev F K Harford. He ended his ecclesiastical career as a Minor Canon at Westminster Abbey. Frederick Kill Harford had begun his career at Croydon Parish Church, where he served his curacy from 1856 to 1858. Continue reading →

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

Those in power are enabling a whole culture of racism

Posted on July 16, 2021 by insidecroydon

CROYDON COMMENTARY: The overt racism that was witnessed following last Sunday’s Euro 2020 penalty shoot-out did not come as any surprise.
By SANJANA IDNANI (right)

This week, the nation has been shocked by racist abuse directed at Marcus Rashford, Jadon Sancho and Bukayo Saka following England’s loss against Italy in the Euro 2020 football final.

Support: Bukayo Saka is comforted by Gareth Southgate. Within hours, he was a target for racists

The players missed penalties in the shoot-out and immediately faced a torrent of racial abuse on social media.

For many people of colour, such as me, this was devastatingly easy to predict.

The hate targeted at these players was another stark reminder that our English identity remains based on our ability to perform and assimilate to a certain standard.

If Sancho, Rashford and Saka had scored, they would have been lauded as champions and patriots,  just as they had been when England played their way through to their first tournament final in 55 years. But because they missed, “fans” now challenged their human dignity and Englishness, with some comments even telling the players to “Go back to their own country”. Continue reading →

Posted in Chris Philp MP, Crime | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 8 Comments

Children’s ‘Summer of Play’ gets delayed in Croydon by council

Posted on July 16, 2021 by insidecroydon

CROYDON IN CRISIS: Following a promise from a Labour cabinet member, volunteers are still waiting for permission to allow children to play on the streets where they live

Despite assurances from senior council officials that there would be no road blocks to play streets going ahead in the borough during London’s “Summer of Play”, volunteer neighbourhood organisers say that even though the threat of charges have been dropped, they continue to encounter administrative delays from Fisher’s Folly.

The award-winning play street in Love Lane has been placed at risk of ending because of council charges and delays

“No one at the council seems to want to take responsibility for signing off the road closures,” one of the organisers told Inside Croydon today.

The charity Play London emailed Croydon’s volunteer organisers with details of who they needed to contact at the council in order to get the permits and paperwork in order.

The charity had to take on this task for Croydon residents because the council failed – or refused – to do so. Even so, by the middle of this week, the council had still yet to identify the named official who would be a point of contact for the dozen or so play street organisers around the borough. Continue reading →

Posted in Charity, Community associations, Croydon Council, Croydon parks, Education, Hamida Ali, Muhammad Ali, South Norwood, Woodside | 1 Comment

Share your thoughts on national Windrush Memorial designs

Posted on July 16, 2021 by insidecroydon

A national memorial to the Windrush Generation will be unveiled next year

The government is commissioning a permanent national monument to the Windrush Generation to recognise how they have enriched our nation’s history. The monument will be positioned at Waterloo Station, the point of arrival in London for many, as a permanent tribute to a generation of arrivals from the Caribbean to this country – from the arrival of MV Empire Windrush in 1948 and in the decades that followed.

The finished monument is expected to be unveiled on Windrush Day, June 22 next year, and the public is now being asked for its views on four proposals. Continue reading →

Posted in Art, Black History Month, Education, History | Tagged , | 1 Comment

Scott and Butler among the ‘numpties’ looking to stand again

Posted on July 15, 2021 by insidecroydon

CROYDON IN CRISIS: No shame, no accountability, no remorse – Tony Newman’s ‘inner circle’ at the council who helped bankrupt the borough to seek selection to stand again. By STEVEN DOWNES

Paul Scott and Alison Butler, two of the leading Town Hall figures who helped to bankrupt the borough, are understood to be seeking re-selection by Labour in order to stand in next May’s council elections.

Alison Butler: is she ready to stand for election again?

And they are not alone.

Early indications suggest that most of “Newman’s numpties”, members of the unaccountable Labour leadership who were criticised publicly for their “corporate blindness” and bullying culture as the council finances careered out of control with debts of £1.5billion, have shown no shame at all about seeking another four years on taxpayer-funded allowances.

A government-commissioned report published in February was categorical where the blame lay for Croydon Council’s  financial collapse.

The report said that former leader Tony Newman’s “inner circle of a small number of cabinet members… have been very controlling in their management of the council and its finances.”

With Town Hall elections coming up in May 2022, all political parties are underging a recruitment process to find candidates to try to fill the 70 councillor vacancies that will arise. Despite the scandals uncovered in the borough over the past 18 months, Inside Croydon understands from sources across the borough’s three constituencies that many of the discredited former leader’s favourites having applied to be selected as candidates.

Of that “inner circle”, only Newman himself and former finance chief Simon Hall, who had their Labour memberships suspended, have resigned as councillors.

Others, while losing their front bench jobs and most of their generous allowances, have nonetheless retained a voice in the way that the Labour group, and the council, is run. There are strong suspicions that Newman retains some influence with his old mates. Continue reading →

Posted in Alison Butler, Bensham Manor, Clive Fraser, Croydon Central, Croydon South, Hamida Ali, Louis Carserides, Paul Scott, Sarah Jones MP, Sean Fitzsimons, Steve Reed MP, Stuart Collins, Tony Newman, Woodside | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 6 Comments

‘Croydon Council! Shame on you!’: protesters make their point

Posted on July 15, 2021 by insidecroydon

Taking to the streets: last night’s protest march raised attention to the state of council flats on Regina Road. Photo: Christopher Hope-Fitch

SANJANA IDNANI reports from South Norwood on the latest efforts by council tenants to secure decent living conditions for their families

Residents from across the borough took to the streets of South Norwood last night for a march and rally to protest the ongoing neglect and mismanagement of their homes by Croydon Council – four months after the “appalling” conditions endured by council tenants in blocks on Regina Road created a national scandal. Continue reading →

Posted in Croydon Council, Hamida Ali, Louis Carserides, Regina Road Residents' Support Group, South Norwood, South Norwood Community Kitchen, South Norwood Tourist Board | Tagged , , , , | 4 Comments

Police name teenager killed in Bensham Manor stabbing

Posted on July 15, 2021 by insidecroydon

Council’s cabinet member admits that crime strategy is still being ‘developed’, two years after an out-of-work Labour politician was put in charge of the borough’s ‘violent crime reduction network’

The police have named the second Croydon 16-year-old to have been fatally stabbed in the past fortnight as Damarie Omare Roye.

Damarie Roye: the second Croydon teenager to be killed in a fortnight

Roye died in hospital two days after being admitted with stab wounds last Friday, July 9.

He had been attacked on Bensham Manor Road near the junction with Swain Road, the Metropolitan Police said.

The police were already investigating the murder of Camron Smith in Shirley a week earlier.

Croydon politicians have reacted to the two killings by describing an “epidemic of violence” on our streets. According to Croydon Council, they are still working on developing a safety strategy.

In the Roye case, the Met is still seeking witnesses, after making two arrests in connection with his death, one remains in police custody and the other has been released under investigation.

Detective Chief Inspector Kate Blackburn, who is leading the investigation, said this morning: “Damarie was a young man who was popular among those that knew him. His death has caused unimaginable devastation to his family and friends. Continue reading →

Posted in Bensham Manor, Crime, Croydon Council, Knife crime, London-wide issues, Manju Shahul Hameed, Policing, Sarah Hayward, Sarah Jones MP, Tony Newman | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

‘Don’t let covid ruin your summer’, health chief warns Croydon

Posted on July 14, 2021 by insidecroydon

Coronavirus cases are rising rapidly and public health measures are not enough to contain the pandemic, according to leading academic

There were almost 194,000 new cases of covid-19 reported in England last week, up by more than one-third on the week before. Meanwhile, only 52 per cent of the UK population had been fully vaccinated.

As Christina Pagel, the director of University College London’s clinical operational research unit, writes in The Guardian, “If this level of population immunity was enough to contain the pandemic alongside public health measures, cases would be falling.

“They aren’t falling and it isn’t enough.”

Pagel writes that the ending of covid protections next week is a step too far and far too soon. “Cases will keep rising, currently doubling every fortnight or so, until either population immunity is high enough or public health measures are effective enough – or a combination of both – to halt covid’s spread.

“The government has announced a removal of all public health measures next Monday, meaning that population immunity has to do all the work. With millions of people still without the protection of full vaccination or previous infection, it is inevitable that a good chunk of that immunity will come from new infection rather than vaccination.” Continue reading →

Posted in Health | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Four London boroughs have no plans for waste reduction

Posted on July 14, 2021 by insidecroydon

CROYDON COMMENTARY: The boroughs of Croydon, Sutton, Merton and Kingston have a new draft South London Waste Plan and, according to PETER UNDERWOOD (right), it’s a load of rubbish

One of the most common issues people raise with me is waste.

Whether that’s litter, or fly-tipping, or bins available for people who live in flats, or bins not being collected at all, or what happens to our waste once it is collected.

Waste plan: the Veolia-dominated SLWP is making policies for you

So when I saw that a new South London Waste Plan had been drafted, I thought I would read through it to see what improvements they are planning to make.

They – the South London Waste Partnership, or SLWP – say that a new plan is needed from 2021 onwards because, “Neither the adopted Local Plans for Sutton or Croydon include waste policies nor do the emerging Local Plans for Kingston and Merton.”

So in terms of the overall planning for dealing with waste, this is it. Continue reading →

Posted in Business, Croydon Council, Croydon Greens, Environment, Fly tipping, Kingston, London-wide issues, Mayor of London, Merton, Peter Underwood, Refuse collection, Sutton Council, Veolia, Waste incinerator | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 6 Comments

Readers’ poll: Will you continue to wear a mask after July 19?

Posted on July 14, 2021 by insidecroydon

Should the wearing of face masks in public places to avoid spreading infection just be a matter of personal choice?

On Monday, the government confirmed that it would be moving to the next stage of lockdown easing on July 19, writes Sanjana Idnani.

This means that almost all legal restrictions on social contact will be lifted.

This also removes the legal requirement on wearing a face mask in indoor spaces.

The government has said that it is “expected and recommended” that members of the public should wear face coverings in crowded public settings such as public transport (unless a person is exempt). However, it will be up to individuals to decide whether they will do so or not.

So what will you do?

Continue reading →

Posted in Health | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 6 Comments

London Mayor insists on masks on capital’s public transport

Posted on July 14, 2021 by insidecroydon

Face coverings must be worn on London’s buses, trains, Tube and trams, despite lockdown restrictions easing on Monday, Sadiq Khan, the Mayor of London, announced overnight.

Travelling right: masks will continue to be a condition of travel on TfL after Monday

Mayor Khan has made “the right decision”, according to Croydon Central MP Sarah Jones.

London is the first English city to insist on face coverings after covid restrictions ease.

The Mayor said he was not prepared to put Tube, bus and other transport users at risk by relaxing the rules on face coverings.

Face masks have been mandatory on public transport for the past year to reduce the spread of the virus. But those rules will be replaced with government guidance advising passengers to wear masks only on busy services. Continue reading →

Posted in Commuting, Elly Baker, Health, London Assembly, London-wide issues, Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, TfL, Tramlink, Transport | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Children can Start It Right at activities camp in Old Town

Posted on July 14, 2021 by insidecroydon

Start It Right: the launch day in Old Town gave a taste of the activities available this summer

By SANJANA IDNANI

Start It Right – a new youth-led organisation – will be welcoming young people through its doors for the first time with its summer holiday playscheme, from July 26 to August 27.

The playscheme is open to children aged between eight and 12 years old and will take place at Old Town Youth Club, Duppas Hill Terrace. Continue reading →

Posted in Activities, Business, Education, Waddon | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

NHS officials start vaccination drive ahead of end of lockdown

Posted on July 13, 2021 by insidecroydon

There is growing concern, with coronavirus cases continuing to rise, that “the NHS could be overwhelmed again”, according to one worried-sounding NHS Trust chief speaking to the BBC this evening.

And that’s before Monday’s planned relaxation of pretty much all restrictions, despite the prevalence of the Johnson Variant, also known to some as the Delta Variant, causing a third wave of infections.

Because of the use of vaccines, the number of hospital admissions thus far have been lower than was experienced during the first two waves of covid-19 infections. But with frontline NHS staff in many hospitals having been working at close to full capacity since March 2020, there is growing pressure on waiting lists for other, non-covid treatments which have had to be postponed. Continue reading →

Posted in Croydon CCG, Health, Mayday Hospital | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

SDEN’s business plan ‘dishonest at best, fraudulent at worst’

Posted on July 13, 2021 by insidecroydon

Sutton’s LibDem council was last night forced to agree to an independent investigation into its failing heating company. CARL SHILTON reports

Sutton Council’s controlling Liberal Democrats, after spending six years trying to deny that there was anything even vaguely suspicious about the multi-million-pound public financing of the council-owned heat network, last night voted unanimously in favour of an independent audit into the loss-making SDEN.

SDEN, or the Sutton Decentralised Energy Network, was used as a key part of the false eco-economics behind the building of the Viridor incinerator at Beddington, which has a £1billion contract to burn the rubbish from the four councils who comprise the South London Waste Partnership, including Croydon.

Last night, “Calamity” Jayne McCoy, the LibDem council’s deputy leader and the councillor in charge of the business, gave the appearance of welcoming an independent investigation, which she said might bring to an end well-founded allegations which according to the councillor were “damaging the reputation of the council and its company, SDEN”, while causing stress to officers and questioning their integrity. Continue reading →

Posted in Jayne McCoy, Nick Mattey, Sutton Council, Tim Crowley, Waste incinerator | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Borough needs to change gear to access £100m cycle fund

Posted on July 13, 2021 by insidecroydon

Road to redemption: better infrastructure for safe cycling can help all of Croydon

CROYDON COMMENTARY: Our borough scored poorly in a Healthy Streets report published last week. AUSTEN COOPER on how that can be improved

“The joy of cycling is that doing it doesn’t just benefit you. It doesn’t just make you happier. It doesn’t just make you healthier.
“It helps millions of others too, whether or not they have any intention of getting on a bike. It means less pollution and less noise for everyone. It means more trade for street-front businesses. It means fewer cars in front of yours at the lights.”

Who said that?

Some middle-aged man in lycra on a £3,000 road bike?

No. It was the Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, just a year ago, when he kickstarted a “£2billion cycling and walking revolution” that promised thousands of miles of new protected bike lanes, cycle training for everyone and bikes available on prescription. Continue reading →

Posted in Community associations, Commuting, Croydon Cycling Campaign, Cycling, TfL, Transport | Tagged , , , | 4 Comments

Tories in reshuffle as Redfern and Streeter quit cabinet jobs

Posted on July 13, 2021 by insidecroydon

Our political editor, WALTER CRONXITE, reports on the latest departures from the Conservatives’ front bench at the Town Hall

Going: Helen Redfern

Less than 10 months out from the borough-wide local elections, and with Labour in Croydon on the ropes after the scandals of Brick by Brick, the South Norwood council flats and the Town Hall’s financial collapse, and Jason Perry, the leader of the opposition Tories, has been forced into reshuffling his cabinet.

With the deadline for applications to be Conservative candidates in the May 2022 local elections fast approaching, two of Perry’s front-bench spokespeople have stepped down from their roles.

Helen Redfern, one of Croydon Conservatives’ more capable performers (all things are relative), who has been a councillor for Purley Oaks and Riddlesdown since 2018, is standing down as shadow cabinet member for children, young people and learning, because of “increased work commitments”.

Gareth “Blubber” Streeter, the failed Tory parliamentary candidate who has been councillor for Shirley North for the last three years, is giving up on his role in the shadow cabinet on culture and regeneration, where he has not made much impact despite the rich source material presented to him by his bungling Labour opposite numbers. Continue reading →

Posted in Croydon Council, Gareth Streeter, Helen Redfern, Jason Perry, Jeet Bains | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment