Some Dos and Don’ts for better mental health during lockdown

Posted on November 4, 2020 by insidecroydon

As the nation prepares for its second lockdown, there’s a growing awareness of the impact the change from a usual routine, and isolation, can have on people’s mental health. Here NOEL McDERMOTT, pictured, a psychotherapist with more than 25 years’ experience, offers some advice on how to keep well over the coming weeks

What To Do During the Second Lockdown

Normalise: Normalisation is a very powerful tool for helping to manage uncomfortable feelings about the situation and our possible spike in uncomfortable feelings about the latest spike is also normal. Learn to self soothe and tell yourself that this is understandable and manageable, making sense in this way is very helpful. Continue reading →

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Philp’s TV role in raising new questions over Tory Islamophobia

Posted on November 3, 2020 by insidecroydon

Steve Reed is not the only Croydon MP who has needed to be schooled this week over racism in politics. STEVEN DOWNES on the latest car-crash TV appearance by Chris Philp

There may come a time, the sooner the better in the interests of his family and friends, that someone at Conservative Central Office decides that putting Chris Philp up for high-profile TV appearances is in the best interests of no one.

Philp, the MP for Croydon South, must have been barely recovered from the trauma of his previous car-crash television moment (over the government’s imposed demands on Transport for London), when he was put up for that weekly plum assignment: spouting the Tory party line on the BBC’s Question Time. Continue reading →

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The billionaire ex-porn baron, the antisemitic trope and the MP

Posted on November 3, 2020 by insidecroydon

The publication of the report on antisemitism in the Labour Party saw Jeremy Corbyn suspended for his response. But it has also led to calls for further punishments – including for Croydon North’s Steve Reed, as KEN TOWL, very carefully, tries to explain

Steve Reed OBE: Labour MP subject to a formal complaint over antisemitism

This is how it starts. A billionaire pornographer moves into the mainstream media and then into property development. It is November 2019. His proposed development in Tower Hamlets is subject to scrutiny from the local council, and scrutiny can be expensive.

In fact, if he doesn’t get approval by January 15, 2020, he will be subject to a charge of £45million to compensate the local community.

He was only an ex-pornographer, but Richard Desmond knew which levers to pull. He turned up at a Conservative Party fundraising dinner, he paid to sit next to housing minister Robert Jenrick and he may, or may not, have mentioned any of his £1billion plans for the old Westferry printworks to the man who has the final word in planning permission for property development.

Desmond certainly did text Jenrick a couple of times, referring to the “doe” [sic] that he did not want to pay to the Tower Hamlet “Marxists”. And on the day before that January 15 deadline, Jenrick came to the rescue and rubber-stamped the planning application. Continue reading →

Posted in Croydon North, Steve Reed MP | Tagged , , , , , , | 6 Comments

Non-league football ordered to suspend games and training

Posted on November 3, 2020 by insidecroydon

Non-league clubs such as Croydon FC have had all their fixtures postponed for at least a month

 

 

Croydon FC’s dreams of playing their first home fixture of the season at Crystal Palace National Sports Centre this Saturday have been crushed after the FA this morning confirmed the postponement of all “non-elite” football due to the coronavirus lockdown.

The postponement of fixtures also affects other local non-league clubs, including Croydon Athletic, Whyteleafe, Balham and Carshalton Athletic, although the first round of the FA Cup, due to be played this weekend, has been given the go-ahead. Continue reading →

Posted in AFC Croydon Athletic, Balham FC, Croydon FC, Football, Sport, Sutton Unitd, Whyteleafe FC | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Ali agrees to meet with DEMOC for referendum discussions

Posted on November 3, 2020 by insidecroydon

WALTER CRONXITE reports on a U-turn over the council’s previous antagonistic attitude to local democracy campaigners

Hamida Ali: prepared to talk

Hamida Ali, the Labour-controlled council’s new leader, could be about to reverse the policy of her predecessor, Tony Newman, and ignore the (self-serving) ruling of the Town Hall lawyers by opening discussions with campaigners who want a democratically elected mayor.

If she follows through with her promise to hold talks with DEMOC, Ali could begin a process which eventually gets rid of her own position as the council’s “strong leader”.

Ali has not abandoned Newman’s bombastic way of conducting council business altogether, though. She failed to mention this 180-degree change in approach over the referendum to her councillor colleagues in Croydon. Instead, they found out via a website run by a tame ex-Grauniad journalist. Continue reading →

Posted in 2021 Mayor Referendum, Croydon Council, Hamida Ali, Tony Newman | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

The brothers in arms who lost their lives at Ypres and Gallipoli

Posted on November 3, 2020 by insidecroydon

WE WILL REMEMBER THEM: Ahead of Remembrance Sunday, Minster historian DAVID MORGAN has been going through the roll of honour to recall some of the Croydon fallen from World War I

The Battle of Passchendaele lasted from July to November 1917. It is thought that there were as many as 700,000 casualties

One brother fell at Passchendaele, the other was killed at Gallipoli.

This is the tragic remembrance story of Charles and Frank Roffey. Croydon boys by birth, their paths diverged after school. Life became very different for each of them until they became soldiers. Then they both donned a military uniform, underwent their basic training and joined the millions of troops fighting against the German forces in World War I.

Charles was the elder of the two. Born in 1889 he attended Whitgift Middle School. After his education, Charles joined the Union London and Smith Bank. When war came in 1914 he was working in their head office in Princes Street in London. Continue reading →

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95p per pint – pubs readying themselves for last orders

Posted on November 3, 2020 by insidecroydon

The Green Dragon is one of Croydon’s pubs getting ready for a second lockdown

Well, there is always some sort of up-side to the lockdown news, and the Green Dragon pub on the High Street, at the top of Surrey Street, is doing a “while stocks last” offer of 95p a pint on its real ales and Guinness.

Faced with the unwelcome prospect of a month-long closure, at least, because of coronavirus, the publicans know too well from the experience of the previous lockdown that what they can’t sell now won’t keep until they reopen and will end up having to be poured down the drain. Continue reading →

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Kerswell considering cost-cutting 4-day week for council staff

Posted on November 2, 2020 by insidecroydon

CROYDON IN CRISIS: The cash-strapped council could reduce staff’s working hours on top of job cuts, under some of the latest solutions being offered to save money, reports KEN LEE

Even those council staff who keep their jobs could be facing a wage cut

Croydon staff could be placed on four-day weeks under one of the latest suggestions put forward to save millions at the cash-strapped council.

The four-day week would immediately slash wage bills by 20 per cent, on top of the 400-plus job cuts among budget reduction measures already agreed.

“It means the people of Croydon will be getting a four-day council for five days’ Council Tax,” one sceptic on Katharine Street summed up the proposal. Continue reading →

Posted in Croydon Council, Hamida Ali, Jo Negrini, Katherine Kerswell, Report in the Public Interest, Youth Services | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 7 Comments

Lockdown II could last a minimum of four weeks, expert says

Posted on November 2, 2020 by insidecroydon

Bungling Boris Johnson’s delay in announcing a second national lockdown to reduce the spread of coronavirus – ignoring the advice of government experts calling for a “circuit-breaker” six weeks earlier – has cost people’s lives.

That is the view of Sir Keir Starmer, the Labour Party leader, in a speech given to the CBI’s annual conference at lunchtime today.

Johnson announced the second lockdown on Saturday – the decision had been leaked to that morning’s national papers. The renewed restrictions will begin on Thursday, November 5, and are expected to last at least a month. Though today, one senior government health expert said that four weeks is the minimum that this second lockdown could last. Continue reading →

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Charities and volunteer groups get ready to tackle Lockdown II

Posted on November 2, 2020 by insidecroydon

Councillors in Addiscombe are organising a Zoom meeting this Thursday, November 5, to help advise and organise residents for the second covid lockdown.

Decorated by children during the first lockdown, food bins can be found around the borough for donations to foodbanks

The Addiscombe West councillors – Patricia Hay-Justice, Jerry Fitzpatrick and Sean Fitzsimons – had already been contracted by Croydon Voluntary Action before the second lockdown was confirmed, to mobilise residents towards setting up a food donation point.

From April until August, volunteers had operated a food hub at St Mildred’s on Bingham Road. It ran five days a week, for four hours a day, collecting food to be distributed by CVA and the Salvation Army.

The councillors announced over the weekend that the time has come to start all over again. Continue reading →

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Mayday devises blueprint for future of covid hospital care

Posted on November 2, 2020 by insidecroydon

Croydon’s Mayday Hospital has been dealing with the second wave of coronavirus having put the lessons from the initial onslaught from covid-19 to good use. And they think they may have come up with a new way for hospitals to function in future – with a mini-hospital within the hospital.

NHS staff at Mayday have found a way to work differently during the pandemic

Mayday – still called by some Croydon “University” Hospital – was the subject of a timely Sunday Times feature yesterday, published just hours after bungling Boris Johnson, supposedly the Prime Minister, announced a second national lockdown against the rising number of deaths and positive cases of infections – weeks later than the government’s scientific experts had advised.

It is the nurses, doctors, orderlies and other staff in NHS hospitals such as Mayday who will be expected to deal with the consequences of the government’s second bout of dither and dealy this year. Continue reading →

Posted in Croydon NHS Trust, Health, Mayday Hospital | Tagged , , | 3 Comments

Tories accused of ‘playing childish political games’ over TfL

Posted on November 2, 2020 by insidecroydon

JEREMY CLACKSON, transport correspondent, on the latest last-gasp arrangement forced on the capital by anti-London Dominic Cummings and his government

The trams and London’s buses and Tubes, will continue running

Croydon South MP Chris Philp and his Tory government have consigned the whole of London to significant Council Tax rises and inflation-busting fare rises next year, after agreeing to use £1.8billion of tax-payers’ money to keep the capital’s buses, Tubes and trams running through their bungled second coronavirus lockdown.

Philp and his government have been accused of “still playing childish political games with London” after a last-gasp agreement was reached over the capital’s transport system on Saturday night.

A deal was agreed with just 15 minutes left before the witching hour deadline on Hallowe’en, with London Mayor Sadiq Khan and Transport for London officials resisting government attempts to remove free public transport from the over-60s and teens, or to extend the C-Charge Zone to the South and North Circulars.

But the new six-month funding package – described by Mayor Khan as “not ideal” – will also see TfL make cuts of £160million. Continue reading →

Posted in Boris Johnson, Caroline Pidgeon, Chris Philp MP, Commuting, London Assembly, London-wide issues, Mayor of London, Paul Scully MP, Sadiq Khan, TfL, Tramlink, Transport | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Taking a U-turn on road measures risks a traffic accident

Posted on November 1, 2020 by insidecroydon

Some people are taking to the streets in Upper Norwood today to protest against the traffic-calming Low Traffic Neighbourhood initiative.
But as an investigation by environment correspondent PAUL LUSHION has discovered, their campaign is supported and funded by motoring lobbyists and opportunistic Tory careerists

Vandalism of the planters around the LTNs in South Norwood and Upper Norwood still occurs. This was one scene yesterday

The battle for hearts and minds (and votes) is stepping up over the Low Traffic Neighbourhood in and around the Croydon streets bordered by the A215 South Norwood Hill, A212 Church Road, A214 Anerley Road and the railway line between Norwood Junction and Anerley.

Introduced in the summer through funding from the Conservative government and Transport for London, the aim of the LTN was to cut out dangerous rat-running traffic and provide safer, quieter streets to encourage and enable people of all ages to walk and cycle through it. Continue reading →

Posted in Bromley Council, Colin Smith, Commuting, Crystal Palace and Upper Norwood, Cycling, Environment, Gareth Streeter, Mario Creatura, Scott Roche, South Norwood, Stuart King, TfL, Transport | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

The tale of a Croydon private’s life, and death, on the Somme

Posted on November 1, 2020 by insidecroydon

WE WILL REMEMBER THEM: The names on the roll of honour at Croydon Minster provide a glimpse into the lives, and deaths, of Croydon men killed in the Great War.
As we approach Remembrance Day, DAVID MORGAN has been finding out more about some of them

For every life lost in conflict, there is a life story

William Dowden was a Croydon residents in the early part of the 20th century who didn’t see their future in this country.

Like many at that time, he was excited by the prospect of moving to a country in the Commonwealth and taking up new opportunities there. He decided on Canada and ended up farming in Saskatchewan, in the broad open lands to the west of the Great Lakes.

But those hopes of a new life changed in August 1914, with the start of the Great War. Rallying to the call to help his old country, the following April Dowden joined up. We do not know the year he emigrated to Canada but we know he did have some military training and experience while still in Croydon. Continue reading →

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King’s peers crown him Croydon Labour’s new deputy leader

Posted on October 31, 2020 by insidecroydon

CROYDON IN CRISIS: The alarm signals over the electoral fate of the Town Hall, and perhaps even the Croydon Central marginal parliamentary seat, saw the borough’s Labour councillors given a stern lecture last night.
By WALTER CRONXITE, political editor

Stuart King: Croydon’s new New Labour deputy leader

Stuart King was duly selected by his Town Hall Labour peers last night to be the council’s new, and only, deputy leader.

But not before he and the borough’s Labour councillors were given a stern 20-minute dressing-down by the leader of another London council.

“It was unbelievable,” said one attendee at the virtual meeting. “I’ve never seen anything like it before.”

Richard Watts, the leader of Islington Council, was given centre stage at the start of the latest meeting of the Labour group that controls Croydon’s crisis-hit council. It is the latest sign of the discomfort over the council’s parlous state among other Labour-run local authorities and Labour’s London regional organisation. Continue reading →

Posted in Alisa Flemming, Croydon Central, Croydon Council, Hamida Ali, Leila Ben-Hassel, Manju Shahul Hameed, Paul Scott, Sarah Jones MP, Stuart King, Tony Newman | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Don’t waste it! How to make use of your Hallowe’en pumpkin

Posted on October 31, 2020 by insidecroydon

Want to make good use of that pumpkin flesh carved out of your kids’ Hallowe’en lantern?

This recipe for pumpkin soup is easy, quick and entirely veggie. And you don’t have to use it only at Hallowe’en.

Preparation time: less than 30min
Cooking time: 30min to 1hr
Serves: 6–8 Continue reading →

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12.6 million pumpkins heading for landfill this weekend

Posted on October 31, 2020 by insidecroydon

We could all be contributing to another Hallowe’en nightmare this weekend, as commercial waste experts estimate that the nation is about to consign 25,000 tons of perfectly good food to landfill.

That’s according to Charlotte Green, from TradeWaste.co.uk, who has crunched some numbers over the seasonal habit of carving out the innards of pumpkins to make Hallowe’en lanterns. Continue reading →

Posted in Activities, Environment | Tagged , | 1 Comment

Johnson quits! (It’s Mark, chair of Croydon Tories, not Boris)

Posted on October 30, 2020 by insidecroydon

With local elections just 18 months away, the chairman of Croydon’s Conservatives has resigned, abruptly.

Wrong Johnson: Mark, now ex-chair of Croydon Tories, won’t be moving in here any time soon

Mark Johnson had been in the chair since early 2019 but submitted his resignation earlier this month with little explanation beyond saying, “I no longer feel as though I can do the best possible job to take the Federation forward”.

Johnson (whose online biography suggests he lives in Addington) was a council election candidate for the Tories in 2014, standing in Waddon ward where he finished only sixth.

Four years later, Johnson stood in New Addington South where he failed to muster even a thousand votes, placing fourth overall in the two-seat ward and second of the Tories’ two candidates.

More recently, he has associated himself closely with fringe far right-wing organisations, being a long-standing committee member of the Croydon Communities [sic] Consortium, which was at the centre of an Islamophobia row, and he also worked alongside UKIP as the area organiser for Vote Leave.

Continue reading →

Posted in Chris Philp MP, Croydon Central, Croydon South, Jason Perry, Mario Creatura, New Addington | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

CEO Kerswell: council staff ‘are angry, upset and want answers’

Posted on October 30, 2020 by insidecroydon

CROYDON IN CRISIS: They say confession is good for the soul, though apologies issued yesterday by several council executives read more like pleas to keep their jobs. By WALTER CRONXITE

Katherine Kerswell: stamping authority over the executive directors

There were several council staff members who half-expected Katherine Kerswell, their interim chief exec, after this morning’s latest briefing, to lead a solemn procession of the “Executive Leadership Team” out of Fisher’s Folly and into what remains of Queen’s Gardens.

One by one they would go, following Kerswell… Shifa Mustafridaysoff, Heather Cheesbrough, Jacqueline Harris-Baker, Lisa Taylor, one or two others, all dressed in sackcloth, ashes (probably taken from top-secret documents burned in the final hours before Jo Negrini left the building) scattered over their heads, and all chanting, “Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea máxima culpa“, before taking some twigs from the few remaining trees in the open space for a spot of self-flagellation.

The whole scene watched from a window of the council offices by a couple of smiling sadomasochists from the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (one of them, were this to be directed by Kubrick, played by Malcolm McDowell). Continue reading →

Posted in Croydon Council, Elaine Jackson, Hamida Ali, Hazel Simmonds, Heather Cheesbrough, Jacqueline Harris-Baker, Jo Negrini, Katherine Kerswell, Lisa Taylor, Report in the Public Interest, Richard Simpson, Shifa Mustafa | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 15 Comments

How ‘chums’ and Contemptibles set standards at the Minster

Posted on October 30, 2020 by insidecroydon

Over the coming days, as we head into November and towards  Remembrance Sunday, DAVID MORGAN will be relating some of the stories of the fallen who are commemorated at Croydon Minster

Like old soldiers, the regimental standards just fade away

In the “old days” – which is now any time before March of this year – when conducting tours around the building, I was often asked questions about the military flags in the church. What they represent are memories, which in some ways are more poignant at this time of year.

The regimental standards hanging on the west wall of Croydon Minster are from the Queens Royal Regiment (4th Battalion) that were laid up after the Regiment was disbanded following the Great War.

The Battalion had a long list of Battle Honours, including Gallipoli in 1915, Egypt 1916-17, Palestine 1917-18, France and Flanders 1917-18, North West Frontier 1916-18, Afghanistan 1919.

Of the 1,000 Croydon men who went off to war with the battalion, just 204 returned.

Continue reading →

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Spooky goings on down in the basement at Stanley Halls

Posted on October 30, 2020 by insidecroydon

On the eve of All Hallows’ Eve, KEN TOWL ventured off to South Norwood to encounter a weirdly life-affirming live performance

Pumpkin lanterns do little to lighten the spooky mood

Isn’t it always Hallowe’en these days?

As if the times aren’t scary enough, I was intrigued by the invitation on the Stanley Halls website to meet their “other inhabitants – the people and things that lurk in the shadows”. Croydon councillors perhaps?

It turns out that we are to expect “ghosts, ghouls, scary stories and tall tales”.

Unable to resist even the most hackneyed alliteration, we set off to explore the dark Edwardian passages of Stanley Halls.

The Stanley Halls, like the rest of London, are on high alert: we the audience are allowed to enter, masked of course, at one-metre intervals, and asked to stand – in our “bubbles” – on crosses marked on the floor. Continue reading →

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Ben-Hassel joins contest to become council deputy leader

Posted on October 29, 2020 by insidecroydon

‘We can’t do business as usual’ says rookie councillor looking to make an impression, writes KEN LEE, our Town Hall reporter

Leila Ben-Hassel, a Croydon councillor only since March 2019, last night announced herself as a fourth contender to become deputy leader of the council.

Leila Ben-Hassel sent an email through to every Labour councillor announcing her candidacy last night

She joins Alisa Flemming, Manju Shahul-Hammed and Stuart King in a vote among the borough’s 41 Labour councillors to be held tomorrow evening. The election arose after Alison Butler resigned as deputy leader earlier this week.

Ben-Hassel is the only candidate in the election who was not a cabinet member in the increasingly discredited administration of Butler and Tony Newman, something that the Norbury and Pollards Hill ward councillor stresses sets her apart from her rivals.

“We cannot afford to do business as usual,” Ben-Hassel wrote. “Our residents and members deserve better.” Continue reading →

Posted in Alisa Flemming, Hamida Ali, Leila Ben-Hassel, Manju Shahul Hameed, Stuart King | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Wood comes knocking with brief to investigate Brick by Brick

Posted on October 29, 2020 by insidecroydon

CROYDON IN CRISIS: Can it really just be coincidence that the troubleshooter appointed to conduct an urgent review of the council also has extensive experience working at one of Jo Negrini’s former boroughs?
WALTER CRONXITE reports

Chris Wood: fully briefed on Jo Negrini and Brick by Brick

It seems almost certain that Chris Wood will arrive in Croydon better briefed than most on the work of Jo Negrini and the multi-million-pound problems with her brainchild, Brick by Brick, the council-owned, loss-making house-builder.

Wood is the former local government executive appointed by housing minister Robert Jenrick to conduct an “urgent review” of Croydon’s omnishambles council.

An auditors’ report published last week confirmed that Brick by Brick, which has borrowed at least £200million from the council since it was registered in 2015, has yet to pay back a penny to Croydon. The auditors calculated that Croydon’s cash-strapped council is owed £110million in unpaid interest and unrealised profits from Brick by Brick.

And in Wood’s appointment letter, a senior civil servant at the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government instructed him that his Croydon review will “look specifically at the council’s commercial and investment operation”. Continue reading →

Posted in Brick by Brick, Colonnades, Croydon Council, Croydon Park Hotel, Jo Negrini, Katherine Kerswell, Property, Report in the Public Interest, Tony Newman | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Jenrick orders urgent inquiry into ‘unacceptable’ council

Posted on October 29, 2020 by insidecroydon

CROYDON IN CRISIS: Government minister steps in to deal with the ‘dysfunctional governance’ at the council, ‘who have been entirely irresponsible with their spending and investments’.
By STEVEN DOWNES

Tory minister Robert Jenrick: will have the final say on any Croydon bail-out

The politics have started, with the Tory government now coming after Tony Newman and his numpties.

The local government secretary, Robert Jenrick, has issued instructions for a rapid non-statutory review into the running of Croydon Council.

Jenrick, hardly a paragon of virtue himself, is a minister in a blundering Conservative government. Croydon has been under a blundering Labour administration since 2014. Continue reading →

Posted in Alison Butler, Croydon Council, Hamida Ali, Jo Negrini, Katherine Kerswell, Paul Scott, Report in the Public Interest, Stuart Collins, Tony Newman | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Campaign group prepares to battle for Glamorgan’s future

Posted on October 29, 2020 by insidecroydon

Pub-lovers in Addiscombe and East Croydon are rolling up their sleeves for another battle over the future of The Glamorgan on Cherry Orchard Road, against developers who have a track record for allowing old pub buildings to fall derelict if they are denied planning permission.

Under threat: The Glamorgan was built in 1838. It was  boarded up soon after being bought by developers in 2016

Campaigners who want to buy the Victorian building and return it to use as a community hub say that the new plans “benefit nobody apart from the greedy developer”.

There is also a strong suggestion that the developer’s planning application has attempted to mislead over the recent trading history of the one-time bustling gastropub

The developers, Butlers Walsall Ltd, have submitted new plans for the site, which would demolish the Victorian building and replace it with an 11-storey block of 36 flats. This in an area already teeming with blocks of flats, but ill-served with public amenities, such as pubs. Continue reading →

Posted in Addiscombe West, Business, Community associations, Planning, Property, Pubs, Sean Fitzsimons | Tagged , , , , | 4 Comments