Croydon tram crash coroner’s inquest: Robert Huxley

Posted on May 18, 2021 by insidecroydon

Bob Huxley, 1953 to 2016

After the long-delayed inquest opened yesterday into the deaths of seven passengers on a Croydon tram in a derailment at Sandilands in November 2016, today was spent with family members of those who died reading prepared statements – pen portraits – to described their lost loved ones.
Here is the first: Bob Huxley

One of life’s true gentleman, hard-working, a loyal family man with old school values and always there to help those who needed him, Bob was so many things to so many people.

Loyal, dependable and totally committed to his devoted family of whom he was so very proud, all those who had the pleasure of meeting Bob have had a gap appear in their lives that can never be filled, and nor should it be as some people leave impressions on this life that can never be replaced. Continue reading →

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

‘None of the tenants in Croydon trust anybody in the council’

Posted on May 18, 2021 by insidecroydon

By STEVEN DOWNES

The council took the unusual step last night of inviting one of the people it is supposed to serve, a resident, a council tenant, to speak at its Town Hall cabinet meeting.

What Fransoy Hewitt said, her voice cracking with emotion, could change Croydon Council for ever. It needs to.

She told councillors and senior council officials gathered in the Town Hall chamber that she and her neighbours had been “forced to live like animals”.

“Even animals don’t have to live like that,” she said. “It’s the 21st century.” Continue reading →

Posted in Alison Knight, Clive Fraser, Croydon Council, Hamida Ali, Housing, Katherine Kerswell, Patricia Hay-Justice, Sarah Hayward, South Norwood | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 15 Comments

Palace confirm Hodgson to retire after last games of season

Posted on May 18, 2021 by insidecroydon

The long goodbye: Roy Hodgson’s managerial career comes to an end on Sunday

Roy Hodgson’s final home game as Crystal Palace manager will be tomorrow night at Selhurst Park.

At least Eagles fans will be able to give their veteran manager a proper send-off, as some spectators will be allowed in for the Premier League game against Arsenal, the first time that has been possible since the covid-19 lockdown was put in place in March 2020.

This morning,  Palace confirmed the inevitable, that Hodgson, at 73, would retiring from full-time management. Continue reading →

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£1m cuts to children’s centres aimed at south of borough

Posted on May 17, 2021 by insidecroydon

CROYDON COMMENTARY: The cash-strapped council waited until the week after the London elections and local by-elections to reveal its latest plans for swingeing cuts to children’s services. PAUL WADDELL, right, says residents ought not allow this to happen without a fight

In the wake of our town’s bankruptcy due to a combination of a decade of Conservative austerity squeezing council budgets and mismanagement from the previous Labour leadership under Tony Newman, the current administration is now proposing a swingeing £1million a year cut to Croydon’s provision of its Best Start Children’s Centres.

Croydon children’s centres are part of a partnership with the health service to deliver services for children up to the age of five years.

The partnership includes families, health visitors, midwives, GPs, early learning practitioners and children’s centres working together to ensure babies and under-fives have the best start in life. It stems from the Sure Start flagship policy introduced by Labour Chancellor Gordon Brown in 1998, and in the past 20 years has been widely acknowledged as helping to improve the lives, and life-chances, of young children and their families. Continue reading →

Posted in Alisa Flemming, Children's Services, Croydon Council, Croydon South, Education, Health, Purley Oaks, Purley Oaks and Riddlesdown, Purley Pool, Schools | Leave a comment

Report: Ex-Labour leader denies sexual harassment claims

Posted on May 17, 2021 by insidecroydon

Gone: Jack Hopkins was leader of Lambeth Council for two years

Jack Hopkins, one of the rising stars of Lambeth Labour when Steve Reed OBE was council leader at Brixton Town Hall, is being investigated by the party over an allegation of sexual harassment and unwanted touching, according to a report in The Guardian today.

The newspaper reports that Hopkins “vehemently denies the harassment claims”.

Hopkins resigned as leader of Lambeth Council last week without giving any clear reasons for his decision. Hopkins had contested a challenge to his leadership in the (near-)one-party state (57 of Lambeth’s 63 councillors are Labour) as recently as last month. Continue reading →

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Renters Union calls on its members to join Regina Road demo

Posted on May 17, 2021 by insidecroydon

The London Renters Union has called on all its members and supporters from across the capital to join a protest outside Croydon Town Hall this evening to show solidarity for the long-ignored council tenants at Regina Road.

The ignored council tenants of Regina Road will be protesting outside Croydon Town Hall tonight

The flooded, mouldy conditions in some of the South Norwood council flats caused a national scandal when exposed by ITV News in March.

The tenants have formed a residents’ support group, and they are protesting outside the Town Hall tonight ahead of the council cabinet meeting – the first in-person meeting held in the Chamber since the first coronavirus lockdown was put in place in March 2020. The London Renters’ Union wants as big a turn-out as possible. Continue reading →

Posted in Alison Knight, Community associations, Croydon Council, Hamida Ali, Housing, South Norwood, South Norwood Tourist Board | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

£104,000: astronomical pay deal for housing troubleshooter

Posted on May 17, 2021 by insidecroydon

Town Hall reporter KEN LEE says that the controversy surrounding the squalid conditions in council homes in South Norwood seems likely to be stoked further tonight over disputed claims that the council leader, Hamida Ali, has met with residents in the ‘worst flats in Britain’

Top salary: Alison Knight

Alison Knight, who Croydon’s cash-strapped council announced last week as the interim executive director of housing to clear up the housing mess uncovered by ITV News in tower blocks on Regina Road, is to be paid £104,000 for “an initial six months”.

The startling revelation is contained in official council papers ahead of tonight’s cabinet meeting at the Town Hall.

The figure, were it rolled out on an annual basis, would make Knight Croydon’s top-paid executive. Her appointment comes at a time when the council, which declared itself bankrupt just six months ago, is in the process of making more than 500 frontline staff redundant. Continue reading →

Posted in Alison Knight, Community associations, Croydon Council, Hamida Ali, Housing, Katherine Kerswell, Sarah Hayward, South Norwood, South Norwood Tourist Board, Steve Reed MP | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

After 4½-year wait, tram crash inquest finally begins

Posted on May 17, 2021 by insidecroydon

The overturned tram, as seen from the Addiscombe Road bridge, in November 2016

The inquest into the deaths of the seven people killed when a tram derailed at Sandilands Junction on the dark morning of Wednesday November 9 2016 will finally get underway at the Town Hall today.

Of the 70 people on board the tram at the time of the crash, seven died and 62 were injured, 19 seriously.

The Senior Coroner for Croydon, Sarah Ormond-Walsh, will sit with a jury to hear the evidence relating to the deaths of Dane Chinnery, 19, Philip Logan, 52, Philip Seary, 57, Dorota Rynkiewicz, 35, and Robert Huxley, 63, all from New Addington, and Mark Smith, 35, and Donald Collett, 62, from Croydon.

Continue reading →

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How Benjamin Franklin helped the inventor of the wheel

Posted on May 16, 2021 by insidecroydon

MARVELS OF THE MINSTER: Further research into the burial records of what was once known as Croydon Parish Church has revealed intriguing connections to Benjamin Franklin, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson. Minster historian DAVID MORGAN takes up the story

Benjamin Franklin: a friend and inspiration to John Viney

A simple memorial on a long-lost headstone in the Croydon Parish Church graveyard is the starting point for this tale, which includes a founding father, two Presidents of the United States, an Irish clergyman visiting London, an admission to St Thomas’ Hospital for industrial injuries and a bankruptcy.

It also contains the vision and drive of a man who passionately believed in his creating excellence.

According to church records, the memorial stone commemorated John Viney, who died on July 27 1792. It also marked the grave of his wife, Rebecca, who died on August 14 1791.

John Viney was described, admittedly by himself, as the “Inventor of the Patent Wheel”. Continue reading →

Posted in Croydon Minster, David Morgan, History | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

The highs and lows of starting a business in the pandemic

Posted on May 16, 2021 by insidecroydon

UNDER THE FLYOVER: In the latest episode of Inside Croydon’s podcast strand, ELLA HOPKINS interviews Mike Springer, the founder of Big Mike’s Calypso Kitchen, about how the Croydon community helped to save his fledgeling business in the middle of the covid-19 lockdown, and the massive charity efforts he has undertaken to give something back

Continue reading →

Posted in Big Mike's Calypso Kitchen, Boxpark, Business, Inside Croydon, Restaurants, Under The Flyover | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Gimme shelter: Mystery of borough’s disappearing bus stands

Posted on May 15, 2021 by insidecroydon

Now you see it… the bus shelter being removed from a stop on Upper Selsdon Road yesterday

Last year, it was the mystery of Croydon’s vanishing bins*.

Now, the borough appears to be losing another piece of street furniture that we usually take for granted – bus shelters.

Workman rocked up at Upper Selsdon Road, South Croydon, yesterday afternoon, for the speedy removal of the JCDecaux advertising platform there.

According to one of the workmen, it is one of around 140 being removed from around the borough.

As bolts were undone and glass panels carefully removed, the workman suggested that the shelters on the borough’s highways – those which are not the responsibility of Transport for London – are subject to a rental agreement with the council, and for some reason or another, Croydon hasn’t been paying its bills of late… Continue reading →

Posted in South Croydon, TfL, Transport | Tagged , , , | 11 Comments

Greens and LibDems team up with the Tories at City Hall

Posted on May 15, 2021 by insidecroydon

The LibDems’ new AM, Hina Bokhari, deep in discussion with her new City Hall colleague, Tory Shaun Bailey

Less than a week since Assembly Members were elected to City Hall, a Labour party strop has left the London Assembly hobbled in its work of holding the capital’s devolved government to account, as the Greens and LibDems have forged an unholy alliance with Shaun Bailey and the Tories.

Labour suffered a setback in last week’s elections, when under the proportional representation London-wide list system, they lost one Assembly Member, the experienced Murad Qureshi (putting them down to 11 seats).

Meanwhile, the Tories (nine seats), Greens (three) and Liberal Democrats (two) each gained one seat on the 25-member London Assembly. It all seems to have clouded Labour’s judgement.

The new composition of began to bite yesterday, at the Assembly’s annual meeting, as a row emerged over the political horse-trading that has gone on about who is to chair the various committees at City Hall for the next three years. Labour emerged from the process furious, claiming that they had been excluded from discussions between the three other parties and presented with a fait accompli. Continue reading →

Posted in 2021 London elections, Caroline Pidgeon, Caroline Russell, London Assembly, London-wide issues, Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, Shaun Bailey, Sian Berry | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Bricking it: Buss pushes for £30m deal to buy 104 flats

Posted on May 14, 2021 by insidecroydon

CROYDON IN CRISIS: Making Brick by Brick an attractive proposition to a corporate buyer is a Mission Impossible which would defeat Tom Cruise. Croydon’s solution? A package of deals that could cost another £110m.
EXCLUSIVE by STEVEN DOWNES

Chris Buss, the Town Hall executive who was parachuted into Croydon last year with the mission impossible to “fix” Brick by Brick, is going for a hat-trick of proposals at a meeting on Monday which will see a grand total of at least £110million chucked at the council-owned loss-making housing developer.

Buss has a buyer lined up for Brick by Brick, in Manchester-based Urban Splash, a company with its own corporate history of broken loan covenants and multi-million-pound bail-outs.

But it seems that they won’t seal the deal until Buss has thrown even more public money at Brick by Brick, which has received more than £200million in council loans since it was set up in 2015, amounts which ultimately brought about Croydon Council’s financial collapse last November. Continue reading →

Posted in Brick by Brick, Business, Chris Buss, Croydon Council, Katherine Kerswell, Urban Splash | Tagged , , , , , , , | 13 Comments

‘Some days you’re the pigeon, some days you’re the statue’

Posted on May 14, 2021 by insidecroydon

Over-worked, under-valued and long-suffering members of council staff are regarding Monday’s council business with some trepidation.

Because as well as Monday evening’s cabinet, earlier in the day there is a meeting of the council’s appointments committee to decide the short-list of candidates for interview for the borough’s top job, chief executive. And most council staff think they already know who will get the £192,474 plum post. Continue reading →

Posted in Croydon Council, Hamida Ali, Katherine Kerswell | Tagged , , , , | 6 Comments

Caught Short: ‘incompetent’ licensing chair told to resign

Posted on May 14, 2021 by insidecroydon

After receiving a threat of legal action, three Sutton FibDems have admitted that the content of their newsletter about the local non-league football club was a pack of lies. BERTIE WORCESTER-PARK reports

Jake Short: a liar, incompetent, or both

There have been calls for the resignation of the chair of a council licensing committee, after he libelled an applicant to potentially thousands of residents and then offered as  his excuse that he didn’t understand the licensing application.

Sutton Liberal Democrats Jake Short, Chris Williams and Jill Whitehead this week were forced to issue an apology to Carshalton Athletic FC (“We apologise the [sic] club, its members and all the residents who were misled by our incorrect statements”).

The FibDems issued the statement only after they were threatened with legal action over their party’s newsletter sent to local residents which claimed the club wanted to extend its licensing arrangements, including adding “adult entertainment”. None of which is true. Continue reading →

Posted in Carshalton Athletic, Football, Sutton Council | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

READER OFFER: 10% off food collections at Calypso Kitchen

Posted on May 14, 2021 by insidecroydon

Bajan fish cakes are on the menu at Big Mike’s Calypso Kitchen at Boxpark – and you can get 10% off your order

Inside Croydon readers can get 10 per cent off their orders for collections from Big Mike’s Calypso Kitchen for the next month, and enjoy the totally tropical taste of the award-winning chef’s food.

Big Mike’s Calypso Kitchen at Boxpark is open for collection, delivery and in-dining, back to business as usual, at least as far as covid-safe precautions allow.

The new restaurant has reduced its capacity from 20 to 10 to keep diners safe.

Customers can also consume food in the main central dining area and soak up the lively atmosphere of Boxpark Croydon.

Or, if you are an Inside Croydon reader and place your order online for collection, you can take a small taste of Barbados, a big taste of the Caribbean, and enjoy it in the comfort of your own home – and get 10 per cent off the bill, too!

Continue reading →

Posted in Big Mike's Calypso Kitchen, Boxpark, Business, Inside Croydon, Restaurants | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Tech start-up with expansion plans seeks Seedrs funding

Posted on May 14, 2021 by insidecroydon

CLARA MURRAY reports on a small business with big ambition

A Croydon accounting technology company is launching a crowdfunding campaign to help them create local jobs and expand nationally.

MyT has spent the past four years developing a mobile app that uses artificial intelligence to read and upload paper receipts.

The company, which already has a significant customer base locally, hopes to raise £100,000 through crowdfunding platform Seedrs. Continue reading →

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Boswell Mews: A unique opportunity in heart of Croydon

Posted on May 14, 2021 by insidecroydon

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


Continue reading →

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Virtuoso cello star Kanneh-Mason to reopen Fairfield Halls

Posted on May 13, 2021 by insidecroydon

Sheku Kanneh-Mason: cello star will be performing with LMP at the reopening of the Fairfield Halls. Photo: Jake Turney

Sheku Kanneh-Mason, one of the fastest rising stars of classical music, will be playing at the Fairfield Halls next month, in the Croydon art centre’s first live performances since covid lockdown began in March 2020.

Kanneh-Mason is so good, he’s playing the concert twice – because of covid-19 precautions, only half the usual number of concert-goers can attend at one time, so the virtuoso cellist and the London Mozart Players, the Fairfield Halls’ resident orchestra, will be playing at 4pm and 7.30pm, in common with other performances in a series.

Now 22, Kanneh-Mason attracted national plaudits in 2016 when he became the first black musician to win the BBC’s Young Musician of the Year. And in 2018, Kanneh-Mason drew worldwide acclaim when he played at the wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle.

Kanneh-Mason’s concerts will be the first of a series in June and October by the London Mozart Players, backed by the Arts Council, called Spotlight On… which will showcase four exceptional young talents of the classical music world, each of them younger than 25.

Continue reading →

Posted in Art, Fairfield Halls, London Mozart Players, Music | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

Your chance to take fight against cancer into the boxing ring

Posted on May 13, 2021 by insidecroydon

Seconds out! Boxers at a previous Ultra White Collar event punch their way towards getting some knock-out funding for Cancer Research UK

Anyone in Croydon or Sutton looking to get fit after lockdown and raise some money for Britain’s biggest cancer charity is being offered the chance to pull on their gloves and step into the ring and be their very own Raging Bull on a memorable night of boxing in front of family and friends.

A company called Ultra White Collar Boxing is staging a fund-raising night at the Westcroft Leisure Centre, Carshalton, in July, where they are bidding to add to the near £20million they and their citizen boxers have already raised for Cancer Research UK.

UWCB has set a target of raising £1million for the charity this July alone.

And Wannabe Tyson Furys won’t even have to pay a penny to train for the event being staged in south London on July 24.

Continue reading →

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Knight appointed to come to the rescue of council tenants

Posted on May 13, 2021 by insidecroydon

Croydon Council has appointed a doctor to try to heal the deep wounds caused to its reputation over the scandal of damp and mouldy flats in South Norwood.

Alison Knight: on a mission to transform council’s housing repairs service

Dr Alison Knight – her doctorate was in education – was revealed this morning as Croydon’s interim executive director for housing, according to the council, “to co-ordinate widespread improvements to how council residents are listened to and looked after”.

That’s an oblique reference to the four-year neglect of three blocks of flats on Regina Road, where dozens of residents have had to put up with unhealthy, squalid conditions. When the flats featured on ITV News in March, a housing expert described the conditions within as “the worst in Britain”.

Knight has washed up in Croydon, via a short stay working in Thurrock, largely because of a management restructure going on at her previous employers, Labour-controlled Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council.

Invited to re-apply for her job towards the end of 2020, Knight missed out. “And in Sandwell, that takes some doing,” according to a well-informed Midlander. Continue reading →

Posted in Alison Knight, Croydon Council, Hamida Ali, Housing, Katherine Kerswell | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Brick by Brick to get second £10m loan to avoid going bust

Posted on May 13, 2021 by insidecroydon

CROYDON IN CRISIS: Council Tax-payers haven’t finished coughing up for the borough’s failed housing developers.
EXCLUSIVE by STEVEN DOWNES

Going cheap: the sale of Brick by Brick won’t end the council’s spending on the failed project

The cashflow crisis continues at Brick by Brick, as its sales of new-built homes has failed to cover its operating costs.

As a consequence, Brick by Brick is to get another £10million loan from Croydon’s cash-strapped council. Without that cash injection, according to one of the council’s most senior officials, Brick by Brick “could be forced into insolvency, destroying any value that may be in the company”.

This latest money is supposed to tied over the loss-making house-builders until the sweetheart deal with prospective buyers Urban Splash goes through.

That’s according to an official report going before Monday’s council cabinet meeting. Continue reading →

Posted in Alison Butler, Brick by Brick, Chris Buss, Colm Lacey, Croydon Council, Paul Scott | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 20 Comments

Looking for easy accounting software? MyT has the answer

Posted on May 13, 2021 by insidecroydon

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

Continue reading →

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Residents take to the streets to protest Parsons Mead LTN

Posted on May 12, 2021 by insidecroydon

The Low Traffic Neighbourhood at Parsons Mead in West Croydon yesterday drew a small crowd of protesters, plus regional news television cameras, as public frustration with the fines being levied by CCTV cameras continues to increase.

Wrong turn: Broad Green residents at yesterday’s protest against the LTN

The LTNs, government-funded and usually identified by wooden players or gates across the roadway, are designed to discourage car use, cut off rat runs and make it easier to walk and cycle.

There are 95 LTN schemes in London, with 18 of them in Croydon.

The Parsons Mead LTN doesn’t use planters or other physical blocks, but relies on ANPR cameras – automatic number plate recognition. Some drivers claim that they have been caught, and fined, up to a dozen times. Each Penalty Charge Notice can cost a  driver £130, or £65 if paid quickly and without appeal. Continue reading →

Posted in Broad Green, Croydon Council, Muhammad Ali, Steve Iles | Tagged , , , , , | 10 Comments

New councillor Bonello quick to meet with discredited Newman

Posted on May 12, 2021 by insidecroydon

Overt influence: Tony Newman, who is suspended by the Labour Party for his part in the council’s financial meltdown, meeting new councillor Mike Bonello (left) last night

CROYDON IN CRISIS: The former leader of the council appears to continue his interest, and possibly influence, over Labour councillors.
EXCLUSIVE by STEVEN DOWNES.  Photo: DANNIE LIEBOVITZ

Less than 72 hours after being elected as a ward councillor for Woodside ward, in a by-election called following the resignation of Tony Newman, and Mike Bonello was observed having a cosy couple of drinks with the former Labour leader who did much to bankrupt the borough. Continue reading →

Posted in Alison Butler, Croydon Council, Hamida Ali, Mike Bonello, Paul Scott, Tony Newman, Woodside | Tagged , , , , , , , | 3 Comments