It is time to act to save Croydon’s precious green spaces

Posted on August 19, 2020 by insidecroydon

CROYDON COMMENTARY: While getting out and about during the covid-19 crisis, PETER UNDERWOOD, pictured left, has discovered parks and open spaces that need more care, and which are coming under increasing threat of development – from the Labour council and Tory government

During lockdown, a lot more of us discovered how green Croydon really is. Let’s keep it that way.

During my years working with The Conservation Volunteers in Croydon, one of the recurring things I’ve found is taking the volunteers to one of our parks or woodlands and hearing them say “I never even knew this place was here.”

It’s always been a great feeling when I could introduce people to another of Croydon’s “hidden gems”, but it is always mixed with a sadness that there are so many people who have lived here for years and know nothing of the fantastic places we have right on our doorsteps.

I think this has changed quite a lot during lockdown. Continue reading →

Posted in Croydon Council, Croydon Greens, Croydon parks, Environment, Hutchinson's Bank, Lloyd Park, Peter Underwood, Planning, Wildlife, Wontford Road Green | Tagged , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

All change at Hartley as residents’ group zooms into the future

Posted on August 19, 2020 by insidecroydon

The borough’s residents’ associations, many which have been established on the hard work of campaigning neighbours and dedicated newsletter deliverers, are having to learn and adapt to the “new normal” – with HADRA perhaps the first to announce that its 2020 annual meeting will be held “virtually”.

The Hartley and District Residents’ Association, covering the downland residential area between Coulsdon, Kenley and Purley, has an informative and regularly updated website and presence on Facebook, so its committee is unafraid of embracing digital technology.

But it will be first when, from 8pm on Wednesday September 8, they stage their AGM via Zoom. Continue reading →

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Croydon Women ready to kick off in search of old glories

Posted on August 19, 2020 by insidecroydon

Training in a public park, wearing borrowed kit and unable to use their traditional home ground, but still with dreams… ANDREW SINCLAIR reports on how a once great football club is slowly rebuilding itself

Croydon’s Maya Reyer (in Carlisle blue) taking on the Woking defence

Two decades after being disbanded, Croydon Women’s Football Club, once one of the leaders of the women’s game in England, are back with a senior team and hoping to regain their place in the domestic game.

Led by Jason Casey, the club raised an under-18s side and competed in 2019-2020 at county level. But they have now applied successfully to become members of the Greater London Women and Girls Football League (GLWFL) as an open age team. Now Croydon WFC, who for the timebeing are to play their home games at Club Langley in Beckenham, will kick off their first season in the GLWFL Division 2 South on September 13. Continue reading →

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Contact the English Tutor for expert help with your exams

Posted on August 19, 2020 by insidecroydon

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240 Virgo Fidelis pupils sent away due to unsafe buildings

Posted on August 18, 2020 by insidecroydon

Old and poorly maintained school buildings could hasten the closure of what was once a proud Catholic girls’ school.
By our education correspondent, GENE BRODIE

A landmark Victorian school building in Upper Norwood is “not currently safe for pupils and staff” and has been deemed to be beyond repair, forcing Croydon Council to tell the parents and carers of 240 pupils that they will have to go to other schools in September.

The school’s longer-term future is “uncertain”, according to the council.

Virgo Fidelis’s Victorian building is not safe for pupils or staff, according to the council

Virgo Fidelis Catholic girls’ school had already been highlighted by the council as being under threat of closure before this latest blow.

The school’s staff were advised of the dire situation in a letter dated July  30 – barely four weeks before the start of the new school year.

The letter was from Croydon Council, as the local education authority, signed jointly by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Southwark’s education commission and the school’s interim executive board, or IEB. Staff were told that Year 10 pupils would need to attend lessons at another school, while the new intake of Year 7 girls was to be “suspended” altogether. Pupils in Years 8, 9 and 11 will continue to be taught at the school in Upper Norwood.

“The immediate future is very uncertain, so we would ask for full co-operation,” the council letter pleaded. Continue reading →

Posted in Church and religions, Croydon Council, Crystal Palace and Upper Norwood, Education, Schools, Virgo Fidelis | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments

No Labour councillors sign petition against council job cuts

Posted on August 18, 2020 by insidecroydon

Hundreds of Croydon Council workers, many of whom helped to provide frontline services to the borough’s residents during the coronavirus lockdown, are expected to gather outside the Town Hall in Queen’s Garden’s at lunchtime today to protest at the threat to axe their jobs as their bosses seek to fix a £62million hole in their budgets.

Union members will be holding a protest in Queens Gardens today to save their jobs

The workers are members of the Unison, Unite and GMB unions, who have been running a petition that seeks to delay or prolong the formal redundancy consultation process, which is due to end this week.

But as yet, the unions’ petition has not been signed by Tony Newman, the leader of the Labour-controlled council, nor a single one of his 40 Labour councillors. The names of the borough’s two Labour MPs, Sarah Jones and Steve Reed OBE, are also conspicuous by their absence from the petition.

Union officials are privately seething at the lack of support for their members from the Labour councillors, some of whom they believe have responsibility for the cash-strapped council’s financial problems. Continue reading →

Posted in Croydon Council, Croydon Greens, Jo Negrini, Peter Underwood, Tony Newman | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Bromley in legal moves against Croydon over road closures

Posted on August 18, 2020 by insidecroydon

Croydon could be heading for a bitter, cross-boundary dispute with one of its neighbouring boroughs after the leader of Bromley’s Conservative-controlled council told residents that they have begun legal moves to get traffic-calming measures removed from residential streets in Crystal Palace.

Traffic calming measures have divided opinion in Upper Norwood

Colin Smith, the Tory leader in Bromley, has written to residents on his side of the borough border telling them that his council has begun legal work to force Croydon to remove the planters and barriers on Sylvan Hill, Stambourne Way and Fox Hill, all of which are within Croydon’s local authority area.

The Low Traffic Neighbourhood scheme is funded by Transport for London and was introduced by Croydon Council at the beginning of the month, with short notice and without public consultation, or without advising council colleagues in Bromley.

Using special powers given to the council during the coronavirus emergency, Croydon has introduced the traffic-calming measures, including a bus gate, to divert motor traffic off the residential streets that link Church Road and Auckland Road in Upper Norwood.

Residents on the Bromley side of the borough boundary have complained that their streets have taken the bulk of the displaced traffic, causing them inconvenience, even though traffic levels remain reduced, and before schools traffic returns next month. Continue reading →

Posted in Angela Wilkins, Bromley Council, Colin Smith, Croydon Council, Crystal Palace and Upper Norwood, TfL, Transport | Tagged , , , , , | 14 Comments

Ex-councillor admits he was wrong over Westfield scheme

Posted on August 17, 2020 by insidecroydon

Croydon’s council never heeded the warnings over the development of its town centre from the bitter experiences of Bradford

A former deputy council leader has spoken publicly about their deep regret for their part in bringing developers, such as Westfield, to their town centre, leaving it as “a tragedy of a place now”.

“There’s plenty of nostalgia and lots of official corporate rah-rah about culture, but not a single drop of honesty, least of all from those who lead us,” said the ex-politician.

Sadly for the put-upon residents and businesses of Croydon, this belated mea culpa comes not from any of the third-rate politicians, Tory and Labour, who have dug their town centre into a massive hole, but from a former councillor in Bradford, where Westfield became known as “Wastefield”.

There, the developers really did leave a massive great hole in the town centre for a decade – a warning which was ignored by Croydon’s civic leaders. Continue reading →

Posted in "Hammersfield", Boris Johnson, Business, Centrale, Croydon Council, Gavin Barwell, Jo Negrini, Planning, Whitgift Centre | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Access all areas at Coulsdon South as £3m bridge is finished

Posted on August 17, 2020 by insidecroydon

The new bridge at Coulsdon South offers step-free access across the station

It perhaps lacks some of the quaint charm of Victorian railway architecture, but thanks to its new bridge and lifts, Coulsdon South Station is now fully accessible, as well having had platform edge tactile paving installed.

The station has even had an upgrade to its power supply. Continue reading →

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What next after covid-19? Croydon BME Forum, Aug 21

Posted on August 17, 2020 by insidecroydon

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Can We Talk? Croydon BME Forum wellbeing workshop, Aug 20

Posted on August 17, 2020 by insidecroydon

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Sutton opposition leader ‘ashamed’ over Tories’ A-Level failure

Posted on August 16, 2020 by insidecroydon

BELLE MONT, our Sutton reporter, on a remarkable outburst over the government’s shambolic handling of this week’s exam results

A-Level pupils across the country have been protesting at the way they have been treated

Tim Crowley, the leader of the opposition Tories on Sutton Council, has said that the shambolic handling of England’s A-Level results by the Dominic Cummings-led government has made him “ashamed to be a Conservative”.

Crowley was responding on social media to a tweet from Lord Porter, the former chair of the Local Government Association, who described the situation as a “clusterfuck”.

Porter tweeted, “Today is one of those rare days where I have to say I am ashamed to be a Conservative.

“We have had months to sort out this A-Level stuff and today is a cluster****. There are going to be hundreds if not thousands of students who get stiffed by the shambolic process.” Continue reading →

Posted in Education, Schools, Sutton Council, Tim Crowley | Tagged , , , | 3 Comments

No scrums, no mauls, no tackling: rugby prepares to return

Posted on August 15, 2020 by insidecroydon

RUGBY ROUND-UP: Promotions for Old Walcountians and Croydon RFC, relegation for Streatham-Croydon and Chipstead, some big signings for Warlingham, and uncertainty for all, as the area’s clubs prepare for the new season

Professional rugby kicked off last night in an empty stadium after a five-month coronavirus-imposed pause.

Beefing up: tough ball-carrier Lew Brown is Warlingham’s new scrum player-coach

But in the amateur game, after having had their 2019-2020 season abandoned after they played their last matched in March, players and officials at grassroots clubs across the country, including in Croydon, face starting afresh in a couple of weeks still not knowing what their confirmed fixture lists are or what format the game might take in the “new normal”.

“Ten-a-side, no scrums and no tackling?” one local rugby club alickadoo said this week. “It’s not for me.”

Croydon’s leading rugby union clubs, such as Warlingham and Old Whitgiftians, have been as hard hit as many local businesses by the covid-19 lockdown. Grassroots sports clubs depend on the income generated from bar sales, renting out their hall space and fund-raising events such as car boot sales. And there’s been precious little of any of that for six months. Continue reading →

Posted in Croydon RFC, Old Mid-Whitgiftians/Trinity RFC, Old Walcountians, Old Whitgiftians, Purley-John Fisher, Rugby Union, Sport, Streatham-Croydon RFC, Warlingham RFC | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Here’s a degree of job advice to help avoid A-Level gloom

Posted on August 15, 2020 by insidecroydon

The latest Dominic Cummings-led government clusterfuck, over centrally “assessed” (that means “guessed at”) A-Level results in England, has sent thousands of Croydon teens into a stressful panic over whether or not they will be able to start their planned degree courses this autumn.

But three years, sometimes more, of further study does not always suit everyone, and as teen magazine Future-Mag has recently reported, more than half of graduates, with their uni days behind them, now say that they’d think again about choosing university as the best way to find a job.

If you don’t fancy another three years of study, can’t face the debt (at least £27,000, plus interest charged by the Tory government), or didn’t get the results you were expecting, there are other routes into careers that don’t require you to have a degree. Including some which might surprise you. Continue reading →

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Brick by Brick climbdown over ‘Stasi prison block’ in Waddon

Posted on August 14, 2020 by insidecroydon

Brick by Brick’s own drawings of their aborted Theobald Road block of flats emphasise how ugly it was

It’s get-out-of-jail-free for the residents of Theobald Road, as the council-owned developer pulls its plans for an ugly block of flats, without any public explanation. Prisons correspondent, BELLE MARSH, reports

Brick by Brick has withdrawn its planning application to build an ugly four-storey block of flats on a patch of green open space in Theobald Road. It is thought to be the first time in five years that the council-owned developers have failed to get planning consent from the company’s owners – Croydon Council.

The withdrawal is a double-whammy for Brick by Brick: the ugly building, described as “having all the kerb appeal of a Stasi prison block”, had been designed by BxB’s own in-house architects, Common Ground. Continue reading →

Posted in Brick by Brick, Colm Lacey, Croydon Council, Housing, Paul Scott, Planning, Robert Canning, Waddon | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 9 Comments

Union tells Newman of ‘profound concern’ over council job cuts

Posted on August 14, 2020 by insidecroydon

Croydon’s Labour council leader could be in for a stormy few months.
By KEN LEE, our Town Hall reporter

Croydon Town Hall’s unions have called on the council leader, Tony Newman, to step in to halt the hundreds of job cuts being imposed, as the cash-strapped council struggles to plug the £62million hole in its budget caused by dealing with the coronavirus crisis.

Union officials at Unison predict their members will be devastated by the cuts they are facing

The unions have also informally surveyed their members to ask whether they are prepared to take strike action against the cuts.

In the letter from Unison union officials to Newman, they say that “such severe cuts at this time are ill-considered”.

The letter told Newman, “Staff should be praised and rewarded, not hit with losing their jobs and livelihoods. It is of profound concern to our members and to your constituents that a Labour-led council is embarking upon cuts of this scale in the wake of the coronavirus crisis.”

But Newman and his Labour councillor colleagues have so far failed to condemn the job cuts, which are being imposed largely on some of the lowest-paid council staff, many of whom worked throughout the lockdown period to maintain services to the borough’s vulnerable. Continue reading →

Posted in Croydon Council, Jo Negrini, Tony Newman | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

KFC opens first New Addington branch on Central Parade

Posted on August 14, 2020 by insidecroydon

New Addington got its first KFC restaurant when it opened on Central Parade this week

It’s been a long time coming, but KFC has arrived in New Addington, with a new restaurant which has created approximately 20 new jobs.

The fried chicken restaurant opened on Central Parade on Monday, and is offering eat-in, takeaway and delivery services from 11am to 11pm every day.

It is also participating in the Eat Out To Help Out scheme, which sees customers get up to 50 per cent off the price of their food up to £10 per person on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays during August.

Continue reading →

Posted in Business, New Addington, Restaurants | Tagged , | 2 Comments

Wok fire leaves London Road restaurant badly damaged

Posted on August 14, 2020 by insidecroydon

Firefighters from four stations across south London attended the fire at London Road yesterday

Five fire engines and around 35 firefighters were called to a restaurant on London Road in Croydon yesterday, after oil in a wok caught fire, heating a steel extractor hood and setting light to the building’s timber frame. No one was seriously hurt.

Part of the ground floor restaurant was damaged by fire. One man was treated on scene by ambulance crews.

The fire was discovered by two members of staff who noticed smoke coming from the rear of the kitchen and called the Brigade.

The Brigade was called at 4.23pm and the fire was under control by 7pm. Fire crews from Forest Hill, Brixton, Beckenham and Lewisham fire stations attended the scene. Continue reading →

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Croydon Photography Forum: Ryan Schude, Aug 18

Posted on August 14, 2020 by insidecroydon

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Brick by Brick lied about using £600k house as site office

Posted on August 13, 2020 by insidecroydon

EXCLUSIVE: A family with a five-year-old child undergoing cancer treatment are among those whose house-owning dream has been turned into a nightmare. By BARRATT HOLMES, housing correspondent

A workman is pictured making himself a cuppa in the kitchen of a £595,000 house in Upper Norwood that Brick by Brick has already sold

A young family have been delayed for more than a year from moving into what was supposed to be their dream “new” home – and all because Brick by Brick continued to use the £600,000 property as a site office, where builders on the site casually strolled through the new kitchen to make themselves a cup of tea.

“Our experience has been terrible,” say the disappointed home-buyers, who relate that several other houses on the same site remain unoccupied because they have yet to get an NHBC certificate, from the National House-Building Council, providing the construction warranty and insurance usually expected by mortgage-lenders.

What makes this case particularly shocking is that the family concerned – who asked not to be identified – have a five-year-old child who is recovering from cancer treatment and needs to be shielded from coronavirus. Continue reading →

Posted in Brick by Brick, Business, Colm Lacey, Croydon Council, Crystal Palace and Upper Norwood | Tagged , , , , , , | 6 Comments

Pub gardeners’ question time: Builders has others in the shade

Posted on August 13, 2020 by insidecroydon

Just where is the best beer garden to go in post-lockdown Croydon for a socially distanced, covid-safe drink with old mates?
KEN TOWL, pictured right in his best new normal going-out gear, needed no second invitation to try a few

Simon is finally coming out!

A month ago, he excused himself from our planned investigation into local pubs post-lockdown on the entirely reasonable grounds that his parents are in the vulnerable category and he does not want to jeopardise their health. A month further into the “new normal”, and he feels a little more confidant, especially when I suggest confining our research to pubs with beer gardens. Gardens are, after all, no longer safe as houses. They are even safer. Continue reading →

Posted in Addiscombe West, East Croydon, Ken Towl, Pubs | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

Children’s cancer charity celebrates hitting Mayday milestone

Posted on August 13, 2020 by insidecroydon

A locally based charity appeal is celebrating reaching a milestone towards its goal of raising £750,000 to the cost of creating a children’s cancer unit at Mayday Hospital.

Despite having to halt all traditional charity fund-raising activities in March because of the covid-19 pandemic, the Lily Pad Appeal at the Chartwell Cancer Trust has told supporters that work has begun on the multi-million-pound redevelopment of a site within Croydon’s largest hospital, with an expected completion date of spring 2021.

The project includes the addition of a brand new critical care unit as well as the children’s cancer unit, allowing the Croydon NHS Trust to provide care closer to home for even more of the borough’s sickest children. Continue reading →

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Administrators accuse council of forcing hotel out of business

Posted on August 12, 2020 by insidecroydon

EXCLUSIVE: The closure of the Croydon Park Hotel, with nearly 100 employees losing their jobs, could open the way for the site to be used to build more flats. By STEVEN DOWNES

The Croydon Park Hotel: targeted by its council landlords. Will it now make way for more Brick by Brick flats?

A confidential report from accountants carrying out the financial administration of the company behind the Croydon Park Hotel says that the business was forced to close because its rent was too high and its landlords refused to reduce the bills, despite repeated appeals and even in the middle of the covid-19 crisis.

The hotel’s landlords are Croydon Council.

In the conventionally dry language of accountancy, the report makes it clear that its authors believe that, with the council this year having become the Croydon Park’s sole customer – using the 211-room four-star hotel for emergency accommodation during the coronavirus lockdown – it was Town Hall officials who made a deliberate decision to force the hotel’s management company out of business, causing another 92 job losses in the town centre.

The Labour-run council paid over-the-asking-price, £29.8million, to buy the East Croydon hotel just two years ago. At that time, it was claimed that it would be a useful investment, its rents helping to help fund the borough’s frontline services. But now, Katharine Street sources suggest that there has been a hidden agenda at the council, which wants to develop the town centre site for flats, possibly to be built by the council’s loss-making house-builders, Brick by Brick. Continue reading →

Posted in Brick by Brick, Business, Croydon Council, Croydon Park Hotel, Planning, Simon Hall | Tagged , , , , , , , | 7 Comments

MP takes on council and Mayor over Upper Norwood roads

Posted on August 12, 2020 by insidecroydon

According to Steve Reed OBE, measures such as these, introduced by Croydon Council and funded by TfL next to Selhurst Park stadium, are ‘roadblocks’

Our transport correspondent, JEREMY CLACKSON, on renewed calls for consultation over traffic calming measures introduced by TfL and the local council that Steve Reed has called ‘roadblocks’

Steve Reed OBE has entered the row over Upper Norwood’s Low Traffic Neighbourhood scheme.

Steve Reed OBE: has backed opposition to council’s road scheme

Perhaps predictably, the Labour MP for Croydon North has managed to side with the authors of a dodgy petition which has attracted “support” from as far and wide as Chislehurst and Newton Abbot, and against the Labour-controlled local council and London Mayor Sadiq Khan.

The measures were introduced just over a week ago without any formal consultation period, and implemented under coronavirus emergency powers while paid for with cash from the Mayor of London, as Transport for London seeks to use the reduced traffic levels of this post-lockdown period to help affect real change to the city’s congested and polluted streets and actively discourage non-essential use of private cars.

Continue reading →

Posted in Croydon Council, Croydon North, Crystal Palace and Upper Norwood, Cycling, Steve Reed MP, TfL, Transport | Tagged , , , , | 4 Comments

‘I’m sorry, I’ll say that again’ says Croydon’s confused MP

Posted on August 12, 2020 by insidecroydon

Someone in Downing Street must be having deep regrets over allowing Chris Philp out on his own for a day-trip to France.

Hot and a little bothered: Croydon South MP Chris Philp

In the maelstrom of disunity and sackings over the past 12 months that is the Dominic Cummings government, Philp, the Tory MP for Croydon South, has risen without trace to become immigration minister.

So, with the rabid-right unleashing their attack dogs on refugees who are fleeing to this country in search of safe haven, Philp was despatched to Paris yesterday to try to negotiate a deal with the French government, effectively asking Britain’s former EU partners to control our borders for us. So much for “taking back control”.

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Posted in Chris Philp MP, Croydon South | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments