Angry council staff have hard questions for exec directors

Posted on November 12, 2020 by insidecroydon

CROYDON IN CRISIS: The honeymoon period for interim chief exec Katherine Kerswell appears to be over after a memo, sent just as the Section 114 notice was issued yesterday, has prompted new anger among the already demoralised staff. KEN LEE reports

An exodus of disillusioned front-line staff from Fisher’s Folly could worsen the problems faced by the council

In the summer, as more than 400 council jobs were being cut but Croydon dodged a Section114 notice by virtue of little more than the stroke of a pen from a senior accountant working with the government, this website noted that it was a case of “Trebles all-round for the exec directors! P45s for the frontline workers!”

And while much has moved on since July, including chief exec Jo “Negreedy” Negrini (the blow of her departure softened with a £440,000 reward for failure), little has happened to calm the simmering discontent among council staff. Or at least, those council staff who are left.

Because it is not just the hundreds of staff being made redundant from the council who are leaving. There’s an on-going exodus of senior and well-regarded front-line employees, as they seek to quit Fisher’s Folly and resume their careers at better-run authorities. Continue reading →

Posted in Croydon Council, Jo Negrini, Katherine Kerswell, Lisa Taylor, Section 114 notice | Tagged , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

S114 notice will make cost-cutting ‘more stringent and tough’

Posted on November 11, 2020 by insidecroydon

CROYDON IN CRISIS: Chief finance officer Lisa Taylor sent out her report on the Section 114 notice at just after 3pm today, as her new boss, Katherine Kerswell, the interim council CEO, sent this email to all council staff

Katherine Kerswell: council staff have continued to seek growth and increased spending

Dear Colleagues,

As you know, our council is in a very difficult financial situation and at present is forecasting a significant overspend of many millions by the end of this financial year.

As one of the solutions to our financial difficulties; we have been in talks with government about them helping us to balance our budget through something called a Capitalisation Direction – a loan. To date, these have been supportive and positive. We are currently working with colleagues in their Rapid Review team who are meeting council staff and reviewing us. They will report back to [Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government] on our finances and other aspects of how we are facing up to our problems as part of their decision process on whether we get the loan agreed. Continue reading →

Posted in Croydon Council, Katherine Kerswell, Lisa Taylor, Section 114 notice | Tagged , , , , , , | 6 Comments

Costs of covid-19 not the cause of financial collapse, says Ali

Posted on November 11, 2020 by insidecroydon

CROYDON IN CRISIS: After three weeks in the job, Hamida Ali admits that it was the Labour administration’s own errors, and not extra spending on coronavirus, that has led to the issue of the Section 114 notice.
By KEN LEE, Town Hall reporter

Hamida Ali: ‘the council has made mistakes’

Hamida Ali, the leader of Croydon Council for less than one month, today admitted that the Town Hall’s financial problems were long-term and deep-seated, and she refused to use the millions of pounds of extra spending during the coronavirus pandemic as an excuse for the administration’s failures.

“We need to be honest about the fact that, for a number of reasons, the council is on track to spend more than we have,” Ali said in a statement issued this evening, shortly after the council’s chief finance officer, Lisa Taylor, had issued a Section 114 notice – the formal admission that the council is broke.

According to the council today, the latest estimate of the council’s overspend this financial year is £66million.

Last week a “clarification” of guidance issued to CFOs, such as Taylor, made it clear that local authorities might escape having to issue S114 notices only because of the cost of covid-19, and Croydon’s problems are far more widespread than that.

Ali said, “The covid-19 crisis and a decade of austerity have had a major impact on our finances, but it’s clear the council has also made mistakes, and I am committed to fixing that. Continue reading →

Posted in Croydon Council, Hamida Ali, Lisa Taylor, Report in the Public Interest, Section 114 notice, Tony Newman | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Croydon In Crisis: Council forced to declare itself bankrupt

Posted on November 11, 2020 by insidecroydon

EXCLUSIVE: ‘Devastating blow’ for the borough as it has issued a Section 114 notice, making it the first local authority in London for two decades to admit it has gone bust. By STEVEN DOWNES

Croydon is the first council in London to go bust in 20 years

Croydon Council’s finance director, Lisa Taylor, today succumbed to mounting pressure to issue a Section 114 notice, an admission by the local authority that it has gone bust.

The move will see day-to-day control of the council handed over to government-appointed commissioners. Croydon will become only the second council in England in 20 years to issue a S114 notice, and the first in London since Hackney in 2000. Continue reading →

Posted in Croydon Council, Hamida Ali, Katherine Kerswell, Lisa Taylor, Report in the Public Interest, Section 114 notice, Tony Newman | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 42 Comments

What is a Section 114 notice? What will it mean for the council?

Posted on November 11, 2020 by insidecroydon

Croydon Council today admitted that it had gone bust.

Under the Local Government Finance Act 1988, Section 114 (3) dictates that: “The chief finance officer of a relevant authority shall make a report under this section if it appears to him that the expenditure of the authority incurred (including expenditure it proposes to incur) in a financial year is likely to exceed the resources (including sums borrowed) available to it to meet that expenditure.”

This means that is the chief finance officer, or CFO, sometimes also called the Section 151 officer, who in Croydon is Lisa Taylor, has the role under law of being the most senior financial advisor to the wider council’s leadership on its financial plans. Uniquely across the public sector, the CFO has the power and legal responsibility to suspend a council’s spending for a period of time if they judge the council does not have a balanced budget or the imminent prospect of one. Continue reading →

Posted in Croydon Council, Lisa Taylor, Section 114 notice | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Binmageddon!: Oval Road residents despair at rubbish service

Posted on November 11, 2020 by insidecroydon

A typical scene on Oval Road, where bin bags are hung from Victorian railings, often for days on end

Demoralised residents in Addiscombe have appealed to the council to sort out the mess that they have created on Oval Road, where rubbish bags are left festering for days, even weeks on end, often with their contents spewing out across the street.

This constant eyesore and potential health hazard is the consequence of a council “trial”, a move which all but admits that the Binmageddon of tens of thousands of wheelie bins inflicted across the borough two years ago did not work for some Croydon streets.

Oval Road residents were written to by the council and told to expect collections of their general waste and recycling every week – double the frequency of service provided to most Croydon residents. But the reality is that the residents are now getting a far worse service than the rest of the borough. Continue reading →

Posted in Addiscombe West, Croydon Central, Croydon Council, Refuse collection, Sarah Jones MP, Sean Fitzsimons, Veolia | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

Rotary Club seeks donations for their annual Christmas appeal

Posted on November 11, 2020 by insidecroydon

The Rotary Club of Croydon is seeking your help with their annual Christmas appeal, which this year is raising funds for homelessness charity Crisis in Croydon.

The Rotarians’ normal Christmas Santa collections are not possible this year due to covid-19 restrictions, which could substantially reduce the amounts raised. And that’s at a time when Crisis in Croydon needs public help more than ever. Continue reading →

Posted in Charity, Crisis Skylight Centre, Croydon Rotary Club | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Extraordinary: council to stage another emergency meeting

Posted on November 10, 2020 by insidecroydon

CROYDON IN CRISIS: The council is to stage its third ‘extraordinary meeting’ in six weeks next week, as the auditors’ Report in the Public Interest is up for discussion. The increase in meetings may signal a change in approach, reports WALTER CRONXITE

Storm clouds: There has been a  change in pace at the council since the exits of Newman and Negrini

Town Hall officials are to stage an extraordinary council meeting a week on Thursday, November 19 – the third at the cash-strapped, crisis-hit council in just six weeks.

After months of delays and a business-as-usual approach to council matters, there at last appears to be a greater sense of urgency than has been seen at Croydon Town Hall for many a year, and with good cause.

The meeting has been called as a legal requirement following the Report in the Public Interest issued by auditors Grant Thornton last month. The RIPI found widespread failings and cast doubt on some dubious dealings at the council, which has run up debts of £1.5billion and overspent its 2020-2021 budget by around £70million since the first covid-19 lockdown.

The council says that the agenda and paperwork for the meeting will be published by November 11, though it is possible to gauge the importance given to this virtual gathering since officials have decided to move the planning meeting due to have been held on that date forward by 24 hours.

A council cabinet meeting that had been scheduled to be held on November 16, the first under Hamida Ali as council leader, has now been moved to November 25. Continue reading →

Posted in Croydon Council, Hamida Ali, Jo Negrini, Tony Newman | Tagged , , , , , , | 4 Comments

French boardroom revolution could force Westfield sell-off

Posted on November 10, 2020 by insidecroydon

By STEVEN DOWNES

Plans for a Westfield in Croydon were removed from developers URW’s pipeline earlier this year

It is looking increasingly likely that Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield will look to unload any interests they hold in the long-promised £1.4billion redevelopment scheme for Croydon town centre.

It is almost two years since URW decided to “review” the already much-delayed scheme because of uncertainties over the strength, or lack of it, in the commercial retail property sector. An unconvincing suggestion of some sort of “phased” development has been put forward in the past six months. But now, what amounts to a boardroom coup has taken place at Paris-based URW, with shareholders rejecting a £3.1billion rights issue under pressure from activist investors. Continue reading →

Posted in "Hammersfield", Business, Centrale, Whitgift Centre | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

It’s magic! Brick by Brick’s in-house Google reviews vanish

Posted on November 10, 2020 by insidecroydon

Our Magic Circle correspondent, PAUL SPANIELS, on a disappearing act performed at the borough’s loss-making house-builders

It was a case of “Now you see them, now you don’t”, as the dodgy Google reviews about their employers posted by a handful of staff from Brick by Brick suddenly vanished yesterday, in a puff of virtual smoke.

Inside Croydon highlighted the dodgy practice at the weekend, with BxB staffers Akin Lisk-Carew, Katrina “Kat” Thomas and Claudia Evans identified as employees of Brick by Brick as well as enthusiastic online reviewers of the company.

Now, they are nowhere to be seen. “It’s as if an urgent memo has gone round the firm,” a Katharine Street soource said. “It’s an absolute admission that they know they’ve broken the rules.” Continue reading →

Posted in Brick by Brick, Colm Lacey | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

30% parking fees hike will apply even to electric-powered cars

Posted on November 9, 2020 by insidecroydon

As George Orwell never wrote, all vehicles are equal, but some are more equal than others. Using environmental policies as an excuse, the council is expected to implement a parking charge hike of one-third from January.
JEREMY CLACKSON, transport correspondent, reports

The council is expected to remove all free parking bays in the borough’s district centres from January 1, to the outrage of many shop-owners, pubs, restaurants and cafés who in 2020 have endured the toughest trading conditions since the end of the Second World War.

Changes in car parking charges are expected to be imposed from January 1

And because the council’s ageing pay and display parking meters cannot cope with emissions-based parking charges, all vehicles – even the most eco-friendly – will be hit with a 30% hike in parking charges. It will be up to the vehicle owners to claim back refunds on the over-charging parking fees.

Business owners in South Norwood, Thornton Heath, New Addington Central Parade, Purley, Coulsdon Town centre, Beulah Hill, Addiscombe and South Croydon will all be affected by the changes to emissions-based parking charges and the end of the free-parking periods.

Many have expressed fears that the permanent removal of the half-hour or one-hour on-street free parking provision could further damage their trade. Continue reading →

Posted in Addiscombe West, Broad Green, Business, Coulsdon, Croydon Council, Environment, New Addington, Parking, Purley, Restaurants, Shifa Mustafa, South Croydon, South Norwood, Stuart King, Transport | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 16 Comments

‘Don’t delay in seeking medical help,’ urges Croydon GP

Posted on November 8, 2020 by insidecroydon

Despite the national coronavirus lockdown coming into force on Thursday, south-west London’s top GP is urging people not to delay seeking NHS help if you are feeling unwell with symptoms other than covid-19.

Dr Andrew Murray: seeking treatment promptly is vital

“While everyone is being told to stay at home, it can be hard to know what to do if you are unwell, but delaying seeking help or getting treatment can have long-term effects, which is why I want to make sure people know that the NHS is still here for you,” said Dr Andrew Murray, the chair of the South West London Clinical Commissioning Group.

“Whether you are worried about a new or unusual symptom, you are pregnant and think something isn’t right, or you are feeling lonely or isolated, there are many ways the NHS can help you, including safe and convenient support online, by phone, video link or asking you to come in for assessment. Continue reading →

Posted in Croydon CCG, Dr Andrew Murray, Health | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

The double tragedy in war suffered by a wife and mother

Posted on November 8, 2020 by insidecroydon

WE WILL REMEMBER THEM: Remembrance Sunday is given over for the public to reflect on the sacrifices made by others. Here, from the roll of honour at the Minster, DAVID MORGAN recalls the lives, and deaths, of two generations of one Croydon family

Henry Dunham signed up with the East Surreys, and was killed just 14 weeks after being sent to the front

The Dunham family lived in Grove Cottage, St John’s Grove, what is now called Rectory Grove. At Croydon Parish Church, as it was then known, in late 1899, Henry married Sarah Elizabeth Burton, a widow with two children.

By the time of the 1901 census, there were two Dunham families living in separate households in the same road. One was Henry (senior) and his wife Georgina, the other Henry and his new wife and family.

Both father and son worked for an ironmonger’s business. At some point before the 1911 census, Henry (senior) and his wife moved to Tonbridge in Kent, while their son and his family remained in Croydon.

When war was declared in 1914, Henry didn’t wait long to sign up. He joined the East Surrey Regiment on September 11, with a service number of 536. Continue reading →

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

Brick by Brick staff caught breaking Google review policies

Posted on November 7, 2020 by insidecroydon

EXCLUSIVE: Desperate to salvage the company’s sagging reputation, Brick by Brick employees appear to have been indulging in a bit of online onanism.
By STEVEN DOWNES

Staff at Brick by Brick, the council-owned housebuilder, have been breaking online standards rules by posting favourable reviews for the loss-making company that employs them.

Shut up shop: BxB’s showroom on George Street has been closed since March. Staff are working from home…

There has been a flurry of warm and positive reviews about Brick by Brick posted online in the past three weeks – since about the time that the council’s auditors reported that the house-builders had failed to pay over £110million in interest repayments and promised profits to the council.

Many of the most recent “excellent” reviews – which have contributed to BxB getting a Google rating of 3.9/5 – contrast markedly to others, which are very critical of the company.

Yet despite Google rules that ban this form of online onanism, it is clear that many of the 5-star reviews appear to have been written by Brick by Brick staffers. Others seem to have been posted by contractors who have worked with Brick by Brick. There are others which share a distinctive family name with senior BxB staff.

Over the past week, Brick by Brick has been running an expensive public relations campaign, providing lengthy statements to the construction and housing trade press and putting up the company’s CEO, Colm Lacey, for interview in an attempt to spin the company’s flawed reputation for late-completion of projects, massively expensive cost overruns, and failure to deliver shared ownership homes.

Continue reading →

Posted in Brick by Brick, Colm Lacey, Croydon Council | Tagged , , , , , | 11 Comments

‘For gallantry’: Croydon hero who died at Passchendaele

Posted on November 7, 2020 by insidecroydon

WE WILL REMEMBER THEM: On November 11, it will be the centenary of the burial of The Unknown Soldier at Westminster Abbey, an event full of symbolism about the loss of so many during the Great War. At Croydon Minster, DAVID MORGAN has been researching the stories behind those whose names are recorded on the roll of honour

How the death of Samuel Wayte was recorded in his school magazine

Samuel Wayte is remembered in Croydon Minster, where on the west wall of the building there is a brass plaque dedicated to his memory.

It says:

To the Glory of God and
In proud and loving memory of Samuel Wilfred Wayte MC 2nd Lt RFA
Who willingly gave his life for his country near Ypres
On October 7th 1917 in his 23rd year
You were our pride we dreamed great dreams for you
God intervened, and so our dreams came true

The family arranged for the plaque in their local parish church after their son was killed in action in Flanders, never to return home, buried in a Belgian cemetary.

Samuel Wayte was born on October 18, 1894, the younger son of Dr John Wayte and Constance, who lived at 65, Park Lane, Croydon. He was sent to the King’s School in Canterbury from January 1908 until July 1912, where he was a member of their rugby team and rowing crews. On leaving school he went to Birmingham where he went into manufacturing, becoming works manager of a factory in 1915. While working there, he lived in Frances Street in Edgbaston.

Wayte was given his army number 9757 when he attested for service at the Inns of Court Officer Training Corps. He was posted to the Army Reserve. Continue reading →

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

Buck’s off: Newman’s paid aide flies to Norway for the winter

Posted on November 6, 2020 by insidecroydon

Our Town Hall reporter, KEN LEE, on the lengthy absence from work of the Labour Party staffer who fixed a candidate selection in favour of one of his mates

Norwegian blue: Jack Buck (right, with Paul Scott and MP Sarah Jones on an election night) is unwell. But he is well enough to have travelled to Norway

Mystery surrounds the continuing employment status of Jack Buck, the Labour Party official who fixed a candidate selection last year so that one of his friends could become a local councillor.

Buck’s long-term absence from work is likely to be a subject of discussion at a meeting of the Town Hall Labour group this evening.

An internal party report, leaked to Inside Croydon, was highly critical of the conduct of the party’s borough “organiser” ahead of last November’s Fairfield ward by-election.

Party members had duly selected Jose Joseph, a BAME member of Momentum and owner of a popular fruit and veg stall in Surrey Street. But due to what the report’s authors called “the questionable integrity and competence of paid party officers”, Joseph was not nominated as candidate as he should have been by Croydon Labour, and a party staff member, Caragh Skipper, was put forward instead.

At the centre of the chicanery was Buck, a friend of Skipper, Labour’s election agent in Croydon, and aide to discredited council leader Tony Newman. Continue reading →

Posted in Caragh Skipper, Fairfield, Jose Joseph, Tony Newman | Tagged , , , , , , | 5 Comments

Medics strongly support Mayor’s moves to safer streets

Posted on November 6, 2020 by insidecroydon

Sadiq Khan, the Mayor of London, has received a letter signed by 120 medical professionals – doctors and nurses – supporting Transport for London’s Streetspace initiative and backing road changes that make it safer to walk or cycle around the capital.

Lobbied: Mayor Sadiq Khan has received a letter from medical practitioners backing safer roads

Low Traffic Neighbourhoods, funded with £250million from the Conservative government, are being trialled across the capital, including in Croydon, with traffic calming measures intended to discourage car use and put a stop to rat runs.

The doctors’ and nurses’ letter to the Mayor says, “Since lockdown we have witnessed growth in motoring much faster than the return to public transport.

“Supporting people to walk and cycle with Streetspace is the best chance we have to arrest this rise and avoid a damaging car-based recovery that could set London back many years in progress on active and sustainable transport, road danger reduction and clean air.” Continue reading →

Posted in Crystal Palace and Upper Norwood, Environment, Health, London-wide issues, Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

The Audit Report: Council company struck-off over admin error

Posted on November 6, 2020 by insidecroydon

CROYDON IN CRISIS: One of the criticisms of councils using public money in risky business ventures is that Town Hall staff have little experience or ability operating in private business. And Croydon’s bungling council has provided a perfect illustration of that point.
By STEVEN DOWNES

Auditors found the council failed to hand in its paperwork on a company overseeing millions

Two weeks on from the publication of Grant Thornton’s Report in the Public Interest on the many and manifold financial failings at Fisher’s Folly, and the borough’s Labour councillors are still reeling from the shock of having, finally, to face up to reality.

However, in one example highlighted by the auditors, many of those at the Town Hall have had to try hard to suppress outright laughter at the multi-million-pound incompetence on display Newman and Negrini’s clusterfuck of a council.

It would indeed be hilarious were it not true: Croydon set up a limited company to oversee tens of millions of pounds-worth of “investments”, only to have the business struck off by officials at Companies House because council staff failed to do their routine  paperwork on time.

Potentially, Croydon could have lost £55million of assets down to simple, sheer incompetence.
Continue reading →

Posted in Croydon Council, Jo Negrini, Report in the Public Interest, Tony Newman | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Locked down borough takes Remembrance services online

Posted on November 6, 2020 by insidecroydon

An online church service and a scaled-down civic ceremony will be held on Sunday as Croydon remembers those who fought and died in two world wars and conflicts since.

Although the country has entered a new coronavirus lockdown, the government has given local authorities permission to hold limited Remembrance Sunday commemorations with tighter restrictions on who can attend.

As a result, this year there can be no parade, civic service of remembrance or large public wreath-laying ceremony.

A few representatives of the council, including the Mayor of Croydon, the leader of the council and the leader of the opposition, along with a restricted number of representatives of military units based in the borough and the Royal British Legion, will pay their respects by laying wreaths at the Croydon Cenotaph and observing two minutes’ silence at 11am.

To encourage people to adhere to the national lockdown, the council is encouraging members of the public to join an online service of remembrance streaming via the Mayor of Croydon’s Facebook page at around 10.50am on Sunday morning. Continue reading →

Posted in Canon Andrew Bishop, Church and religions, Croydon Council, Croydon Minster | Tagged | Leave a comment

Fireworks in Crystal Palace as campaign takes council to court

Posted on November 5, 2020 by insidecroydon

Mystery surrounds where a campaign is getting its money from, after campaigners erased from their online crowdfunder all traces of a financial pledge from the leader of the Alliance of Bad Drivers.
JEREMY CLACKSON, transport correspondent, reports

A few hundred protesters took to the streets in Crystal Palace on Sunday

A campaign group based in Crystal Palace has chosen Fireworks Night to stick a rocket under Croydon Council.

But the threat of a Judicial Review over Low Traffic Neighbourhoods in Upper Norwood and South Norwood might yet turn out to be a damp squib – as a campaign leader has claimed to Inside Croydon that the legal action is unfunded.

The Open Our Roads campaign, which on Sunday staged a demonstration with a few hundred people along the pavements on Church Road in protest against Croydon’s Low Traffic Neighbourhood schemes, has now filed High Court legal papers for a Judicial Review against the council.

Bromley, the Tory-controlled neighbouring borough, is listed as “an interested party” to the Judicial Review.

The move comes even though Croydon Council is tomorrow beginning a promised public consultation into the LTN. Continue reading →

Posted in Community associations, Croydon Council, Crystal Palace and Upper Norwood, Cycling, Environment, TfL, Transport | Tagged , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Leaders appeal to Londoners to follow new lockdown rules

Posted on November 5, 2020 by insidecroydon

As the nation goes into its second coronavirus lockdown today, the number of positive cases of covid-19 continues to rise in Croydon, even though the infection rate appears to be falling in 19 other London boroughs.

Sadiq Khan, the Mayor of London, said he believes the city is “seeing initial signs that the increase in infections across the capital has started to slow down”.

The virus, though, is still believed to be spreading among the vulnerable over-60s and hospitalisations are rising, which will almost certainly lead to more deaths.

According to figures from Public Health England, up to 6pm yesterday, Croydon had 60 new cases on November 4, after 56 additional cases on November 3.

In total, there have been 450 new positive cases in Croydon this week, compared to 468 the week before. Continue reading →

Posted in Croydon Council, Hamida Ali, Health, Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Palace defender Sakho wins millions in drug test libel case

Posted on November 5, 2020 by insidecroydon

Big winner: Mamadou Sakho

Mamadou Sakho, the Crystal Palace defender, has accepted “substantial” damages from the World Anti-Doping Agency for defamation over allegations he took banned performance-enhancing drugs.

It had been reported that Sakho was seeking at least £13million in damages, plus costs.

Sakho, 30, was briefly suspended in 2016, when he was a Liverpool player, after a doping control discovered traces in his body of a substance called higenamine.

But UEFA cleared him when it found that fat-burning higenamine was not banned by WADA.

Yesterday, in a statement read in open court at the Royal Courts of Justice, WADA accepted Sakho’s case in full. It apologised for making defamatory allegations to the press following Sakho’s successful appeal against a ban imposed for taking higenamine. Continue reading →

Posted in Crystal Palace FC | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Coroner postpones tram crash inquest until Spring next year

Posted on November 5, 2020 by insidecroydon

The South London Coroner has postponed the inquest into the Croydon tram crash again, this time until next year.

The tram was going at four times the speed limit when it left the tracks at Sandilands in November 2016

Expected to last for 12 weeks, the inquest was due to have begun at Croydon Town Hall last month. It was first postponed because the Coroner could not guarantee the safety of the court, jurors, lawyers, witnesses and families in an enclosed environment once London’s covid-19 status was raised to Tier 2.

This further postponement comes despite the Coroner, Sarah Ormond-Walshe, having arranged to use the Fairfield Halls as an alternative venue, from November 16. With the country now going into a second covid-19 lockdown for at least four weeks, that plan has now been abandoned. The staging of the inquest remotely has also been rejected. Continue reading →

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

Lacey could lose job over latest pitch to sell Brick by Brick

Posted on November 4, 2020 by insidecroydon

CROYDON IN CRISIS: A publicity campaign – effectively funded by Council Tax-payers – on behalf of the council-owned housing firm in an effort to salvage the managing director’s job has enraged councillors.
By STEVEN DOWNES

Colm Lacey: has been spending yet more public money to salvage his and the reputation of Brick by Brick

Labour councillors were furious today, after Colm Lacey, the former council director installed as managing director of loss-making house-builders Brick by Brick, allowed briefings of the trade press which sought to contradict the Town Hall’s auditors.

And in an interview given with one housing magazine, Lacey fuelled that anger by suggesting that he was seeking private buyers for the company.

“The last time I checked, Brick by Brick is not Mr Lacey’s to sell,” one angry councillor told Inside Croydon today on condition of anonymity.

Another, who chose to use some very intemperate language about Lacey which could not possibly be published on a family-orientated website, suggested that the time had come for the former council employee to be sacked from his six-figure salaried job at Brick by Brick.

“They’ve issued a briefing document which is basically calling the council auditors liars, and calling our interim CEO Katherine Kerswell a liar,” the councillor said.

“This at a time when the company is the subject of a couple of independent reviews because of the way it has been so badly managed over the past five years with Lacey in charge.

“It looks like a case of gross misconduct to me, so no need to give him a Negrini sized pay-off.” Continue reading →

Posted in Brick by Brick, Business, Colm Lacey, Croydon Council, Jo Negrini, Katherine Kerswell, Martyn Evans, Planning, Report in the Public Interest | Tagged , , , , , , , | 10 Comments

Palace in £1m agreement with council for Selhurst scheme

Posted on November 4, 2020 by insidecroydon

Crystal Palace FC’s long-delayed development plans to upgrade their Selhurst Park home could be about to get underway after Sadiq Khan, the Mayor of London, rubber-stamped a community levy deal that could be worth up to £1million to the local area.

Selhurst Park might just have the ground improved in time for its 100th anniversary

Chairman Steve Parish and the club were granted planning permission by Croydon Council in April 2018 to demolish and rebuild the main stand at the ground, which has been Palace’s home since 1924. Under the £100million redevelopment proposals, the stadium capacity would be increased by almost 10,000, to 34,259.

But to fulfil its plans, the football club needs to acquire land and property from its near neighbours, including the six council homes on Wooderson Close, which backs on to the current main stand. Continue reading →

Posted in Chris Clark, Croydon Council, Crystal Palace FC, Football, Mayor of London, Planning, Sadiq Khan, Selhurst, Steve Parish | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment