Will Hardy, a sixth-former at Trinity School, has been cast in Heartstopper, an adaptation of Alice Oseman’s graphic novels which is to be screened by Netflix.
Hardy was selected after an open audition in which 10,000 young actors took part, according to a report on the Shirley private school’s website. Continue reading
The London Fire Brigade and an estimated 60 police were quickly on the scene after this morning’s alleged fire-bombing on a business at Beddington Farm Road
NOON UPDATE: At least three fire engines and an estimated 60 police, including some armed response officers, were called out just after 8.30am today after an alleged fire-bombing attack on a business close to Ikea off the Purley Way.
A 32-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of threatening behaviour and causing criminal damage.
FareShare, the country’s biggest charity fighting hunger and food waste, redistributed enough food in Croydon in the past year for almost 1million meals.
Food delivery: Marcus Rashford has been backing FairShare’s work
The charity, which has the backing of England footballer Marcus Rashford, says that the extent of its work “show the devastating impact the pandemic has had on communities and families in Croydon”.
FareShare’s annual statistics confirm that between April 2020 and April 2021, it redistributed 388tons of food to people at risk of hunger in Croydon.
That’s the equivalent of 924,654 meals.
Across the UK, FareShare redistributed more than 132million meals, or four meals every second of every day.
FareShare takes delivery of surplus good-to-eat food which is unsold or unwanted by the food industry, sorts it in one of its 30 regional warehouses and passes it on to a network of nearly 11,000 charities and charity groups. Continue reading
The government needs to provide greater support for those firms worst-hit by the extension of the covid-19 lockdown or risk losing Croydon’s “beating heart”, according to the head of the largest business group in the borough.
Barely coping: Prime Minister Boris Johnson was forced to admit a delay in easing of lockdown
Matthew Sims is the chair of Croydon BID, the business “improvement” district, which represents nearly 600 commercial concerns in and around the town centre.
With Croydon’s shopping centres already on their knees, thanks to a decade-long development blight caused by Westfield, Sims was quick yesterday to speak up for his organisation’s members after the Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, announced that the move to ease lockdown restrictions on June 21 was now being delayed by at least a month because of the “exponential” increase in positive covid cases from the Delta, or Indian, variant. Continue reading
CROYDON IN CRISIS: Council leader reacts with dismay at loss of £20m in licence fees, as Labour councillors question lack of support from their new chief executive. By STEVEN DOWNES
Under pressure: Hamida Ali
Hamida Ali, the council leader, opened herself up again to widespread ridicule over the weekend when she responded to the news that the government had rejected her Labour-controlled authority’s application to extend its landlord licensing scheme when she said, “We’ll do everything in our power to protect residents.”
Many respondents to Ali’s tweet mentioned two words: “Regina” and “Road”, where tenants in dozens of council flats with water leaks, black mould and multiple other shortcomings had their complaints ignored, in some cases for four years.
Inside Croydon broke the news on Friday of the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government’s decision to end Croydon’s controversial landlord licensing scheme, a pet project of Ali’s erstwhile close colleague, Alison Butler, when she was the council’s cabinet member for housing. Continue reading
BERNARD WINCHESTER pays tribute to a learned and much-admired teacher and stalwart of the Croydon Natural History and Scientific Society
Paul Sowan 1940-2021
It has been said that Paul Sowan was an unworldly man, and in a sense he was, as the commonplace passions for family, fame, status and money passed him by.
Paul Wenning Sowan, who has died aged 81, was for more than half a century one of the great characters of Croydon.
The force which dominated Paul’s life was his thirst for knowledge, a thirst which also drove him to impart what he learned to others.
He was known to thousands in the borough and beyond for his work in schools and learned societies, as the many fond tributes paid to him on social media by former pupils attest.
What was once a patch of bare earth in an alleyway behind David Morgan’s home is now a bee-friendly piece of summer colour
In his small patch of south London, DAVID MORGAN has been doing his bit in the battle to reduce the impact of climate change, and here he offers suggestions about how you can help, too
“Every plant counts and too many places where plants might flourish and flower have been lost.”
That sentence uttered by one of the Royal Horticultural Society team at Wisley stuck in my mind. I have only got a small garden, but in the last few years I have tried to make sure that I made every plant count. Continue reading
CROYDON IN CRISIS: The government has binned an application to extend the borough’s landlord licensing scheme, saying that the council failed to provide any housing strategy. EXCLUSIVE By STEVEN DOWNES
Croydon’s private landlords will no longer be licensed or subject to council inspections
Robert Jenrick, the Secretary of State for Housing, has rejected Croydon Council’s application to extend the term of its controversial landlord licensing scheme.
At a stroke, the Tory government minister who just a few weeks ago handed the bankrupt borough a record-breaking £120million bail-out has now blown a £22million new hole in Croydon’s sieve-like budget.
There are few who are surprised at Jenrick’s decision, which was a long time in coming, after the renewal application was submitted last year, shortly before the five-year term of Croydon’s original landlord licensing scheme expired. Many suspected that a Conservative government minister would do little to assist the labouring Labour council.
But few could have imagined that Jenrick, or the civil servants who drafted his letter to Croydon, would have been so devastating in their critique of Croydon’s renewal submission. A council which in recent weeks has been repeatedly criticised for its incompetence was once again told it had failed to deliver, this time from the highest echelons of government. Continue reading
Almost three months after the appalling conditions of flats in South Norwood were exposed, and the council has stuffed letters through the residents’ front doors to say that they are only now about to start doing something about it. Though not very much.
Towering incompetence: three months after conditions in the Regina Road blocks were exposed, and the council is sending in a firm of surveyors
The council has variously tried to claim that only a handful of tenants were affected by the black mould, damp and water leaks that caused a national scandal when filmed by ITV News. Then the council implied the leak was just in one of the three blocks.
In fact, council tenants in all three of the run-down and poorly-maintained 1960s-built residential tower blocks have experienced similar issues over several years, as was made plain in a report by the independent consultants who found systemic failure and incompetence in the council’s housing department and with their repairs contractors.
Only a handful of Regina Road tenants have been moved into temporary or alternative accommodation by the council, while the majority of the 100-or-so households have been left to continue picking mushrooms off their walls, taking torches into their darkened bathrooms or unwittingly staging cockroach races along their skirting boards. Continue reading
Croydon is about to get its first axe-throwing bar at Boozepark.
Axe of idiocy: coming to a Boozepark near you
That’s right: a bar, selling booze, next to East Croydon Station, providing axes to its customers as a form of recreation. In central Croydon, a place already with a reputation for alcohol-fuelled violent crime. Where the police and local authorities battle daily to reduce the supply of bladed weapons and prevalence of knife crime.
Couldn’t make it up?
No need, because despite objections from Croydon Council officials and a ward councillor (only one?), a licensing application from Bad Axe Throwing has been granted, largely because axe throwing “is not a licensable activity”. Continue reading
The government has been forced to postpone its plans for a massive, nationwide data scrape of people’s confidential NHS records.
Matt Hancock: faced possible court action over the NHS data grab
The NHS’s 55 million patients had been given just six weeks’ notice that their medical histories could be sold on to third parties, in what was described as a “data grab by stealth, under the cover of a pandemic”.
Faced with a real prospect that Tory health secretary Matt Hancock could be dragged into court by GPs angry at the scheme, the government announced that it was delaying its NHS Digital project until September 1. Patients concerned at the prospect of information on their mental and sexual health, criminal records, abuse and drugs use being made available to academic researchers and businesses can still opt out, but now have a few weeks more to do so. Continue reading
Gargantuan: Macar’s monstrosity would dwarf the homes on South Drive in Coulsdon. The perspective in this developers’ CGI distorts the height difference, probably deliberately
Coulsdon residents are expressing grave concerns about serious potential conflicts of interest in the council’s planning department and proposals to build two massive blocks of flats in a quiet, tree-lined residential cul-de-sac.
The developers at the centre of the latest row are Macar – the same Redhill-based company whose director was married to a senior member of the council planning team when they were nodding through applications for similar blocks of flats in Purley. Continue reading
Parkrun has been a feature of Saturday mornings in Lloyd Park for years – but the national organisation now under threat because of admin delays at Croydon Council and others
Delays at Croydon Council could force the abandonment of the post-covid return of hundreds of popular Parkruns across England. Following the government’s “roadmap” out of lockdown, national organisers have been targeting June 26 as their English resumption date – but unless they have permission for all venues, they are reluctant to fire the starting gun at others.
Using an army of volunteers, before the pandemic, Parkrun staged more than 700 events each week around the country, where hundreds would regularly turn up to race, run, jog or amble around a three-mile course. Seb Coe, the former Olympic champion and London 2012 organiser, has described Parkrun as “one of the nation’s greatest public health initiatives”.
But the Parkrun organisation is “fearful for its future” because of needless administrative delays blocking the events’ return after lockdown.
In a letter sent yesterday to Prime Minister Boris Johnson, Parkrun said they face “significant and unjustifiable barriers” from a number of councils. Continue reading
Priceless: Paul Gascoigne, here with England team mate Teddy Sheringham, was the star of Euro ’96
Just how much might Harry Kane’s socks be worth if the England captain leads his side to victory over Croatia at Wembley on Sunday in their European football championships opener?
Or Marcus Rashford’s shorts? Mason Mount’s shirt?
You could name your price, it seems, after some of Paul Gascoigne’s kit worn in the famous 4-1 win over the Netherlands at Euro ’96 fetched nearly £5,000 at auction yesterday. Continue reading
Going places: Croydon Harrier Lawrence Okoye has booked his place in Britain’s Olympic team nine years after making his Games debut
Nearly a decade since he stepped into the circle for the discus final at London 2012, and Lawrence Okoye looks set to return to the Olympics in Tokyo next month.
Having made an athletics comeback after his misadventures in American football, the 6ft 6in Croydon Harrier has finally thrown the Olympic qualifying distance, with a 66.30metres effort at a competition in Copenhagen last night. Continue reading
CROYDON IN CRISIS: Three months after a TV news report shocked the nation, tenants in South Norwood council flats say they are still being let down by the council
The residents’ group that was set up in South Norwood as the state of their mould-infested and flooded council flats was revealed and prompted a national scandal now has a formal organisation, agreed at their latest meeting.
Taking action: Regina Road residents say that they will be keeping the pressure on the council
But the Regina Road Residents’ Support Group is still waiting for its first in-person meeting with Hamida Ali, which the council leader promised when the appalling conditions in the Croydon Council flats were exposed on national television nearly three months ago.
According to one of the residents, “Now that the group is official we plan to continue putting pressure on Croydon Council and national government to keep to their promises and legal obligations and sort out the appalling living conditions in all three blocks.” Continue reading
CROYDON IN CRISIS: A report from commissioners overseeing another local authority that went bankrupt offers troubling parallels closer to home.
STEVEN DOWNES reports
Croydon Council can get itself out of financial trouble – but only if Whitehall stumps up another £30million in bail-out cash.
That’s according to Tony McArdle, the government-appointed chair of the council’s improvement board.
McArdle was interviewed by the Local Government Chronicle about his role in the winding up of Northamptonshire County Council, the Conservative-controlled local authority that went bust in 2018 – two years before Croydon’s financial collapse, and without the excuse of covid-19.
McArdle has been working as a co-commissioner in Northants for the past three years, overseeing the breaking up of the council into new bodies, and this week he delivered his final report to government. McArdle’s findings on the multi-million-pound errors and poor judgement shown in the Midlands have uncanny parallels to many of the situations he has encountered since being called in to deal with the troubled south London council. Continue reading
Victoire Ladies Football Club is looking for players aged 16 upwards for the 2021-2022 season.
They will be holding trials on June 20 and 27 at Croygas Sports Club, 48 Mollison Drive, Wallington SM6 9BY from 11am to midday. Continue reading
A court case brought by Croydon Council Trading Standards against a firm selling dangerous weapons online to children has brought a prosecution and £25,000 in fines and costs against the company.
Armed and dangerous: the collection of knives, axes and cleavers sold on the internet to children
The case, brought against Daventry-based Extreme GB Ltd, was the 17th successful prosecution in a three-year nationwide clampdown against online knife sales to children. A total of £179,755 has been imposed in fines following the Croydon-led scheme, which has had the backing of the Home Office and National Trading Standards.
During this pilot test purchase programme, a 13-year-old volunteer, working under the guidance of the Trading Standards team, made 100 attempted test purchases online. Of these, 41 resulted in sales. Continue reading
A luxury golf course and spa in Surrey is looking to hire full- and part-time staff.
Foxhills is looking to add to its 250 staff at the golf club and spa in Surrey
The Foxhills Club and Resort in Chertsey is on the hunt for additional members of the team in both front-of-house, leisure and chef positions within Flo’s kitchen and the resort’s two other bars and restaurants.
Flo’s is Foxhills’ new deli, located in the recently-opened Pavilion overlooking one of the resort’s championship golf courses, and offering “grab and go”-style quick, fresh food with an East Mediterranean flavour. Continue reading
Croydon is to get an extra MP under far-reaching proposed changes to parliamentary constituencies released overnight by the Boundary Commission for England.
The Boundary Commission changes will increase the number of parliamentary seats in England
Under changes which have been years in the making, England will have the number of seats in the House of Commons increased from 533 to 543; London’s current 73 seats will go up to 75.
By extending Croydon’s reach with the inclusion of wards in Merton and Lambeth, the borough’s three parliamentary seats will become four: Croydon North, Norwood, Croydon East and Croydon South.
If finally approved – and that process will take another two years – the four constituencies will replace the Croydon North, Croydon Central and Croydon South seats that have existed since the Commissioners’ last review was completed and implemented in 2010. Continue reading
