Might Brick by Brick ‘cash in their chips’ over Fairfield site?

Posted on April 21, 2020 by insidecroydon

BARRATT HOLMES, our housing correspondent, reports on how the council’s casino economics may have forced Brick by Brick to consider some sharp practice

Squeezing 420 flats on a tight site next to the railway may be more than BxB can manage

Sources within the property business in south London suggest that the Fairfield Homes proposals being rushed through the council’s planning committee on Thursday may have already been touted to other developers, offering it for sale with planning permission granted. One describes the ploy as Brick by Brick “cashing in their chips” on a scheme that they can no longer afford to develop themselves.

The multi-million-pound project is a long-delayed scheme from Brick by Brick, who had to reconfigure their plans for the area between the Fairfield Halls and the London-to-Brighton railway after they failed to secure the purchase of a building from Croydon College.

Brick by Brick is the council-owned, loss-making housebuilder who, despite borrowing £260million-plus from Croydon Council, has managed to deliver just three purpose-built council homes in five years.

Failing to sell significant volumes of the homes they have built appears to have caused a mismatch between the company’s cash income and the money required to develop a large site such as at Fairfield. The Fairfield site also presents significant development problems, squeezed in next to one of the country’s busiest railway lines. Continue reading →

Posted in Brick by Brick, Colm Lacey, Croydon Council, Fairfield Homes, Jo Negrini, Paul Scott, Planning, Property | Tagged , , , , , , | 7 Comments

Newman switches planning chair before remote meeting

Posted on April 21, 2020 by insidecroydon

Political editor WALTER CRONXITE on the latest behind-the-scenes shenanigans going on at the Town Hall

The fix is in.

Thirsty: Chris Clark

Two days before the Croydon planning committee is due to meet for the foregone conclusion of approving a Brick by Brick scheme to build 421 flats that might have been worth an estimated £120million, Tony Newman, the Labour leader of the council, has switched the chair of the committee.

Toni Letts, the veteran Selhurst councillor, is out.

“Thirsty” Chris Clark, the councillor who played a central role in the tawdry stitch-up over the Labour candidate selection to favour a friend for the Fairfield by-election last year, is in. Continue reading →

Posted in Brick by Brick, Business, Caragh Skipper, Chris Clark, Croydon Council, Fairfield, Fairfield Homes, Housing, Niro Sirisena, Paul Scott, Planning, Property, Toni Letts, Tony Newman | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Enjoy a lockdown lock-in with local brewers’ new lager

Posted on April 21, 2020 by insidecroydon

Get 15% off your beers from Anspach & Hobday’s Croydon brewery with a special booking code for Inside Croydon subscribers

Croydon’s newest brewers, Anspach and Hobday have today launched The Lager, a brand-new core range defying the disruption of the coronavirus pandemic with new beer to cheer.

anspach and hobday pigeon logoThe craft brewers’ Croydon expansion has included the installation of brand new horizontal lager tanks, to ensure that The Lager is matured in the right conditions to produce a clean, flavourful and crisp lager.

Each brew of The Lager will spend at least four weeks in the horizontal tanks to produce an accurate, true to the style Lager.

And even during the lockdown, you can stay at home and have your very own lock-in. Continue reading →

Posted in Anspach and Hobday, Business | Tagged | Leave a comment

Poltergeist investigation discovers Croydon’s haunted bar

Posted on April 21, 2020 by insidecroydon

Have you heard something go bump in the night lately? If you have, then a writer living in Thornton Heath wants to hear from you.

In a book set to be published this summer, John Fraser claims that Croydon has more than its fair share of poltergeists. Poltergeists – A New Investigation into Destructive Haunting lays out his local research which he says shows that even a modern suburb such as Croydon has poltergeists, including some that were actually extremely notorious in the past.

Poltergeist literally translated from the German means “a noisy spirit”, which has been applied to phenomena in which objects are thrown, loud banging noises reported or even on rare occasions scratches to human skin have been reported. Continue reading →

Posted in Art, Thornton Heath | Tagged , | 2 Comments

Newman rejects MP’s call to suspend BxB planning process

Posted on April 20, 2020 by insidecroydon

Tony Newman, the leader of Croydon Council, has “turned down flat” a call from an MP that would see all planning applications and consultations on Brick by Brick building projects suspended until after the coronavirus emergency.

Tony Newman: not listening to calls to suspend Brick by Brick planning process

Chris Philp, the Conservative MP for Croydon South, wrote to the Labour council leader last week saying that, “It is not appropriate to pursue politically contentious matters at this time and clearly proper scrutiny of planning applications cannot be done by local residents.”

This Thursday, the council will be staging the first meeting of its planning committee since the covid-19 lockdown began. But with regular Town Hall meetings not possible, it will be conducted “virtually”, involving just five committee members instead of the usual 10. The built-in Labour majority will be maintained, with three of the committee members.

The public will be excluded from Thursday’s meeting altogether, with council officials reading out written submissions. The council has so far been unclear whether elected councillors for wards affected by the planning applications will be allowed to address the virtual meetings. Continue reading →

Posted in Brick by Brick, Chris Philp MP, Croydon Council, Croydon South, Planning, Tony Newman | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Councillor, Alderman and teacher George Mitchell has died

Posted on April 20, 2020 by insidecroydon

George Mitchell, a former Labour councillor, Alderman and deputy mayor of Croydon, a teacher, musician and magistrate, has died. He was 95.

Devoted: George Mitchell when a Labour councillor in the 1970s

A resident of the Whitgift House care home, Mitchell’s passing is thought not to be connected to covid-19.

Mitchell was a councillor for Whitehorse Manor ward from 1971 to 1982.

One of his former Town Hall colleagues, Councillor Jerry Fitzpatrick, remembers him as “a devoted representative not just of his ward but the people of north Croydon generally”.

Fitzgerald said, “Everyone who had the good fortune to know George – whatever their own political convictions – will remember him for the staunchness of his commitment to social justice,  his commitment to the community of which he was a part,  and the uprightness of the conduct of his life.”

Continue reading →

Posted in Croydon Council, Whitgift Foundation | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

‘The council has been marvellous’ says Food Stop pastor

Posted on April 20, 2020 by insidecroydon

Croydon’s fourth Food Stop has opened in Purley, offering significant discounts on food bills for local families in need as part of the borough-wide welfare response to covid-19.

Volunteers at the Food Stop in Purley helped distribute nearly half a ton of food in their first week

Families can save up to £700 a year off household bills at a Food Stop, as it provides cut-price groceries and wider support.

Based at Old Lodge Lane Baptist Church, the Food Stop will provide around £15- to £20-worth of fresh food and other groceries for £3.50 a week, as well as debt advice, job support and skills training.

Croydon voluntary groups needing to collect food for distribution to their own customers can also sign up with this Food Stop and three other local collection points across the borough.

Continue reading →

Posted in Charity, Church and religions, Community associations, Croydon Council, CVA, Purley Food Hub | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Maybe Tomorrow? Digital collective finds new way of working

Posted on April 20, 2020 by insidecroydon

It’s fair to suggest that no one considered a global pandemic when they came up with one of the wizard business ideas of the past decade: renting out and servicing shared workspace.

Looking forward to TMRW: the shared workspace business in Davis House is having to find new ways to work together

Covid-19 quickly put an end to the trendy venues and their hot-desking, superfast broadband and overpriced cups of frothy coffee, which appear to be so popular with independent tech types.

And it has also put extra strain on the businesses behind them, like so many small and medium-sized enterprises who have been hit by the coronavirus lockdown.

But one, TMRW on Croydon High Street, has sought to use the community spirit of its members to find a way to operate productively when forced to work from home.

The TMRW Collective is a digital and creative agency built specifically for a time of economic survival. The people behind it say it is “the perfect example of co-working and community in action”. Continue reading →

Posted in Business, TMRW | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Funeral directors ask the public to show a bit of respect

Posted on April 20, 2020 by insidecroydon

One of the borough’s biggest and longest-established firms of undertakers has put out an appeal for people to show a bit of old-fashioned respect.

The Purley branch of Rowland Brothers

Rowland Brothers, who have six branches of their funeral directors’ business around the borough, made their plea to the public asking them to demonstrate a mode of conduct which was commonplace in working-class neighbourhoods at least until the end of the last century.

Since the pandemic lockdown began, instead of organising a funeral service as usual, some undertakers have been forced to go straight to crematoriums, with mourners at the service restricted to five or 10, depending on the cemetery. Continue reading →

Posted in Business | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Covid-19 a ‘ticking time bomb’ in borough’s 140 care homes

Posted on April 19, 2020 by insidecroydon

Croydon is among the London boroughs worst hit by coronavirus according to the latest government figures this weekend.

And yet the pandemic death toll in this part of south London could be far worse once the fatalities are counted up from around the borough’s 140 care homes.

A senior Labour councillor has described the situation in the borough’s care homes as “a ticking time bomb” that has been allowed to get out of control due to a lack of government testing and proper provision of PPE – personal protective equipment – for care workers. Continue reading →

Posted in Adult Social Care, Care Homes, Croydon CCG, Croydon Council, Health, Jane Avis, Sean Fitzsimons | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Two years on and Palace have not signed planning agreement

Posted on April 19, 2020 by insidecroydon

Two years since Croydon Council gave a green light to Crystal Palace for a £100million new main stand at Selhurst Park, the club has still to sign off on the Section 106 agreement laid out in the planning permission.

How Palace’s architects have drawn the future new stand at Selhurst Park

The S106 agreement would require the club to pay for a range of transport and infrastructure improvements near the stadium, costing Palace a little more than £270,000.

According to a report on The Athletic sports website, “Crystal Palace have made significant progress on the proposed redevelopment”, though as recently as two months ago Steve Parish, the club chairman, told fans that he had yet to secure an agreement with Sainsbury’s for the purchase of their car park, another essential element of the redevelopment.

The club is also required to rehome six families of council tenants in new homes, as their plans would see their houses on Wooderson Close demolished. Continue reading →

Posted in Croydon Council, Crystal Palace FC, Football, Planning, Selhurst, Sport, Steve Parish | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Only 16% of council’s Fairfield flats project will be affordable

Posted on April 18, 2020 by insidecroydon

Celebrity squares: These are the little box-like hutches that Brick by Brick’s architects want to inflict on what their Fairfield site. Only a very few will be ‘affordable’

Our housing correspondent BARRATT HOLMES on the latest signs of desperation to fix Brick by Brick’s failing finances

The planning application being considered by the charade that will pass for a planning committee meeting next Thursday is for a scheme which Colm Lacey and Jo Negrini hope could salvage the finances of Brick by Brick – and the council.

But it is being pushed through with undue haste and with no real hope of offering any solution to Croydon’s housing crisis.

Only 69 of the 421 homes Brick by Brick wants to build around Croydon College will be affordable.

Continue reading →

Posted in Brick by Brick, College Green, Colm Lacey, Croydon Council, Fairfield Halls, Fairfield Homes, Housing, Jo Negrini, Planning, Property | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

£120m Brick by Brick scheme to get ‘virtual’ planning meeting

Posted on April 18, 2020 by insidecroydon

Political editor WALTER CRONXITE on how Croydon Council is using the pandemic lockdown to lock out the public from the planning process

Paul Scott: a virtual nightmare, coming to a screen near you soon

Council leader Tony Newman has ignored calls from residents’ groups, his own Labour councillors and a local MP and will press ahead with Croydon’s first “virtual” planning committee on Thursday.

The meeting agenda includes a couple of pre-application presentations that could have waited until normal service is resumed, and will consider just one application for planning permission.

It is from the council’s own loss-making house-builders, Brick by Brick.

It is for 421 flats next to Croydon College, with a potential market value once completed of at least £120million.

The council’s planning committee, under de facto chair Paul Scott, has never turned down a single scheme submitted by Brick by Brick in the past five years.

The decision to go ahead with “virtual” planning meetings, which will exclude the public and their elected representatives, has been fiercely criticised, even by Labour councillors, and described as “outrageous”. Continue reading →

Posted in Brick by Brick, Croydon Council, East Croydon, Heather Cheesbrough, Housing, Jacqueline Harris-Baker, Muhammad Ali, Paul Scott, Planning, Toni Letts, Tony Newman | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

£90m West Croydon deal promises 55% affordable homes

Posted on April 18, 2020 by insidecroydon

More architects’ drawings… St Michael’s Square, as envisioned by London Square Partners

The developers behind a massive residential scheme in an old entertainment venue on Streatham High Road and the redevelopment into luxury flats of the Star and Garter home on Richmond Hill have spent £90million to move in on West Croydon.

The second major property deal in and around Croydon town centre to be announced this week, London Square Partners – a firm set up nine years ago by former colleagues from Barratt’s – will work on what they are calling “St Michael’s Courtyard”, with more than half of the 232 new homes to be “affordable”. Continue reading →

Posted in Business, CPO, Croydon Central, Housing, Property, St Michael's Courtyard, West Croydon, Whitgift Centre | Tagged , , , , , | 4 Comments

Plain-clothed police to patrol hospitals to protect NHS workers

Posted on April 17, 2020 by insidecroydon

One of the signs going up near local hospitals

The Metropolitan Police is sending officers on foot patrols around hospitals and hospital car parks in Croydon, Sutton and Bromley.

As well as officers in uniform, the police will be using plain-clothed officers in this operation.

The move was announced this afternoon by the Borough Commander, Superintendent Andy Brittain, saying that the deploying of officers is “to protect NHS staff and visitors from crime”.

It is understood that Croydon’s Mayday and Sutton’s St Helier hospitals will have regular police patrols during the coronavirus emergency, when so many NHS staff are working extra-long shifts to deal with the effects of the pandemic. Continue reading →

Posted in Crime, Health, Mayday Hospital, Policing, St Helier Hospital | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments

#saveindependentnews: How government health ads are unfair

Posted on April 17, 2020 by insidecroydon

By Steven Downes, Editor, Inside Croydon

Today, the government launched a public health campaign that will not reach you.

It won’t reach you because the government has not included independently-owned community news publishers like Inside Croydon in its campaign.

The “All in, All together” campaign is a welcome response from the government to provide essential information at this time. It is also a demonstration of the government’s support for the press.

However, unless you pick up a copy of a national newspaper, some of which are owned by billionaires and tax-avoiders, it is unlikely that you will have heard about it.

Inside Croydon is a member of the Independent Community News Network (ICNN), which is the official trade body for independent community news publishers. Together, we reach more than 5million people online each month, and more than half a million in print. This makes us part of the fourth largest news publishing organisation in the UK.

Organisations like ours have become frontline key workers in this industry who are keeping our communities afloat with genuine, accurate and important information during this pandemic. Continue reading →

Posted in Inside Croydon, Local media | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

65 homes on brownfield site: professionals show how to do it

Posted on April 17, 2020 by insidecroydon

The development novices at Brick by Brick, who managed to sell just eight housing units in 2019, and their slow-working contractors might want to have a chat with the construction professionals who have just completed 65 new homes overlooking the Croydon Flyover at The Waldrons.

The Waldrons: an object lesson in how to deliver new homes on brownfield sites in good time

Despite a challenging, sloping site, the £13million scheme took just 12 months to build and fit-out – less than half the time it has taken BxB’s contractors on a number of other, smaller sites around the borough.

Three-bed flats in The Waldrons are on the market for £495,000, with one-bed apartments going for £300,000, though 30 per cent of the new homes in the development are “affordable”.

The building has been developed by UK Land Assets, who were frustrated for nearly a year by delays caused by the council over planning permission – something which is granted with alacrity and at great speed whenever it involves Brick by Brick’s often questionable schemes.

Indeed, when the developers brought forward their scheme to Croydon Council, sources suggest that they were encouraged by Paul Scott, the de facto chair of the planning committee, to build their tower even higher.

The 10-storey Waldrons, on the corner of Davenant Road, towers above the Flyover on a corner close to Duppas Hill Park. In an object lesson to Croydon’s planners, it has utilised a brownfield site. Continue reading →

Posted in Duppas Hill Park, Housing, Planning, Property, Waddon | Tagged , , , , | 3 Comments

Town Team puts Crystal Palace Triangle on the (digital) map

Posted on April 17, 2020 by insidecroydon

The new Crystal Palace Town Team has launched an interactive map of the Crystal Palace Triangle and surrounding areas, allowing the community to find which businesses have marked themselves as “open” during the pandemic lockdown.

Now there’s a way of discovering which ones will be open for business

The CP Town Team is made up of local businesses, community organisations, councillors from three boroughs and residents, and was set up to promote and improve the social, economic and environmental well-being of the area around Crystal Palace and Upper Norwood.

The group was already working towards a directory, but the COVID-19 crisis has pushed the idea into being an essential, rather than a “nice-to-have”.

Initially, it covers home delivery options, distanced deliveries and takeaways. Potential customers go to covid19-mylocal.uk and they can search for a service, check the map or just browse the listings. The geo-mapping site was created by local resident and web developer Natasa Blagojevic. Continue reading →

Posted in Angela Wilkins, Business, Community associations, Crystal Palace and Upper Norwood, Crystal Palace Park, Crystal Palace Town Team, Nina Degrads, Pat Ryan, Stephen Mann | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Eyewitness: I saw man climbing the crane. I was scared for him

Posted on April 17, 2020 by insidecroydon

An eyewitness has told Inside Croydon of the terrifying incident when they saw a man climbing a construction crane hundreds of feet above the ground on a building site in the centre of Croydon.

The man eventually climbed down from the crane on the Henry building site

The man eventually came down from the crane of his own accord and was arrested, as the police mobilised a helicopter and emergency service vehicles spent hours attending the site on Tuesday.

The man, who has not been named by police, had gained access to the site on what was once the council’s HQ offices, Taberner House, and Queen’s Gardens, where construction contractors Henry are building four tower blocks comprising more than 500 flats for developers Hub.

Police reports suggest the man was first seen climbing up the crane at 7.30pm. Continue reading →

Posted in Business, Fairfield, Policing, Property, Taberner House | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Violet Lane doctor Krishan Arora has died from coronavirus

Posted on April 17, 2020 by insidecroydon

A long-serving and much-admired Croydon GP has died from coronavirus.

Dr Krishan Arora: covid victim

Dr Krishan Arora was 57 and had worked at the Violet Lane Medical Practice in Waddon for 27 years.

Croydon Clinical Commissioning Group confirmed that Dr Arora “tested positive for covid-19”, adding that “He was not at work in the time before he died.”

The CCG said, “Dr Krish followed national guidance and self-isolated at home when he developed symptoms.”

Dr Arora is thought to be the first NHS doctor in Croydon to succumb to the virus; there have been more than 1,000 cases of covid-19 reported in the borough.

Continue reading →

Posted in Croydon CCG, Health, Waddon | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

Sustrans is pedalling a new site with bike info for key workers

Posted on April 16, 2020 by insidecroydon

Inspired by a London key worker, charity Sustrans has created a new website – Cycles4KeyWorkers – to make cycling easier for key workers during covid-19

A bike shop mechanic provides a health check to an NHS doctor’s bicycle

Key workers across London can now find stores that offer deals on cycles and equipment as well as bike repair and maintenance services available in their area, with an online map.

The map provides details about on offer cycles and equipment; free or discounted repair and maintenance services; free and discounted bike sharing schemes; and the bike stores that remain open. It also features links to tips on how to cycle and walk to work for new riders and other useful information.

Continue reading →

Posted in Boris Bikes, Commuting, Cycling, Transport | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

All aboard! Thameslink repaints trains in support of NHS

Posted on April 16, 2020 by insidecroydon

Govia Thameslink has today announced that they have re-painted three of their trains to reflect the public support for the NHS and key-workers.

All aboard!: one of the three repainted GTR trains

Of course, in this time of covid-19 emergency, transport workers are key workers, too – the rising death toll from coronavirus among bus drivers and TfL staff a dark reminder of that.

Govia Thameslink, who operate the Thameslink franchise between Brighton and points north through East Croydon, as well as Southern trains and the usually very empty Gatwick Express line, claim that 200,000  key workers rely on their services each week. Continue reading →

Posted in East Croydon, TfL, Transport | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Croydon now has three employees paid £200,000+ per year

Posted on April 16, 2020 by insidecroydon

Our political correspondent, WALTER CRONXITE, reports on the latest startling figures coming out of the council

Top salary: Guy van Dichele gets £215,000

Croydon Council had three members of staff who took home more than £200,000 in the last financial year for which figures are available.

That’s according to figures obtained under the Freedom of Information Act by the Taxpayers’ Alliance, in their annual Town Hall Rich List, published yesterday.

The figures relate to the 2018-2019 financial year and surprisingly show that Jo Negrini, the chief executive of the council, did not have the biggest salary at the Town Hall. That dubious accolade belongs to Guy Van Dichele, the council’s “executive director health, wellbeing and adults”, on a cool £215,444.

Negrini tops the wage charts, though, once her very generous, gold-plated, inflation-proof pension of £28,494 is added to her “basic” salary of £188,700, for a total of £217,194. Continue reading →

Posted in Children's Services, Colm Lacey, Council Tax, Croydon Council, Eleni Ioannides, Guy van Dichele, Heather Cheesbrough, Jacqueline Harris-Baker, Jo Negrini, Richard Simpson, Robert Henderson, Shifa Mustafa | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Brick by Brick faces ‘disaster’ as it misses sales targets by 83%

Posted on April 16, 2020 by insidecroydon

For more than two years, Inside Croydon has been carefully tracking the difference between Brick by Brick’s budgeted targets and their actual delivery: what they say, and what they do.
Our housing correspondent, BARRATT HOLMES, reports on the multi-million-pound chasm between the two that has seen the council’s loss-making company risk people’s lives by breaking the covid-19 lockdown

BxB CEO Colm Lacey: he didn’t know how many homes his company had sold. But we do…

There is mounting anger among the borough’s residents and some elected councillors, including Labour councillors, over Brick by Brick, the council-owned, loss-making builder, continuing to press ahead with construction on its building sites while also submitting planning applications and holding “virtual” consultations in the middle of the corona-19 pandemic.

Inside Croydon has received reports of angry exchanges between a cabinet member on the Labour-controlled council and a veteran councillor who dared question the wisdom, and probity, of carrying out lip-service consultations on unpopular and contentious building schemes while residents are forced to observe the coronavirus lockdown.

And this week – barely a fortnight after construction was halted in order to comply with the demands of the covid-19 quarantine – building works recommenced on at least one Brick by Brick site (the long-delayed Montpelier Road development, in Purley Oaks), with the construction workers there observed as taking few, if any, precautions to avoid the transmission of the deadly virus.

Other builders, such as Barratts, for example, shut down their sites by March 27 – nearly a week ahead of BxB – and have furloughed their staff, with no immediate plans to return to building works until the crisis is over.

Brick by Brick’s desperation to press on, ignoring the health warnings and risks, can be explained in a single word: money.

Because according to Brick by Brick’s own figures and their most recent business plans, by the end of 2019 the company had managed to sell just EIGHT units. According to BxB, they have 42 other units under deposit.

The Brick by Brick 2019-2020 business plan called for them to have sold 290. Continue reading →

Posted in Alison Butler, Brick by Brick, Colm Lacey, Croydon Council, Jo Negrini, Paul Scott, Tony Newman | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 10 Comments

Ruskin Square signs government tenant in £300m deal

Posted on April 15, 2020 by insidecroydon

Schroders have announced a multi-million-pound deal with Whitehall to build and rent out a second large office block at Ruskin Square, their £500million development next to East Croydon Station.

Could this be the Home Office’s new base in Croydon, at 2 Ruskin Square?

And in doing so, they may well have pulled the rug out from under Croydon Council and any hopes they may have had of reviving Westfield’s interest in the town centre.

Ruskin Square is slowly – very slowly – taking shape after a patient approach over two decades from investors Schroders and developers Stanhope.

The “vision” for the former Croydon Gateway site is a mixed-use development comprising five office blocks and four residential blocks. Thus far, the developers have managed to deliver one residential block and a single office block. Continue reading →

Posted in Business, Croydon Council, Planning, Property, Ruskin Square | Tagged , , , , , , | 2 Comments