Join Lindsay Ould, the borough archivist, at Shirley Library on Tuesday May 21 from 2.15pm for a fascinating talk on the borough’s history through the eyes of its record keepers. Continue reading
Recent Comments
New councillor sweeps in with series of Hear Autism events
They say a new broom sweeps clean, but residents in Croydon aren’t used to this being true (cough… Veolia… cough).
Although that seems to be changing, at least for the autism community.
After last May’s local elections, Jerry Fitzpatrick, the councillor from Addiscombe West ward, was appointed as the borough’s Autism Champion. In the last nine months he has made an appearance at countless events where he has taken every opportunity to listen to many people who are in some way connected to autism.
Whether you are autistic, a parent or carer of someone with autism, or a professional working in the autistic community, Fitzpatrick has listened.
Said one hard-working mother with an autistic teen, “Not only has Jerry listened, but he has been busy organising a local autism strategy.” Continue reading
Music nights to rock Ruskin House, and raise cash for causes
The Croydon Folk Club’s folk and blues nights at Ruskin House continue to entertain and delight, while raising valuable funds towards the restoration of the Georgian town house on Coombe Road.
Tonight, at Ruskin House, Frederick Forsyth’s guide to eliminating unpopular leaders
The recent Buddy Holly Tribute Night raised £372 for the building fund, and there’s plenty more music coming up to rock Ruskin House.
Folk and Blues evenings are staged every Sunday at 8pm, entry fee just £2, with access to the club’s bar with discounted prices. There’s also open mic opportunities for anyone who wants to discover if they have the X Factor…
Upcoming dates include: Continue reading
Posted in Cinema, Croydon Folk Club, History, Music, Ruskin House
Tagged Ruskin House, Ruskin House Folk and Blues Club
Leave a comment
Walks, talks and work days to cherish Selsdon Wood
The Friends of Selsdon Wood have a busy programme of events – walks, work days, and some meetings – planned for 2019, with their first walk coming up on March 9, and the group’s annual meeting on March 25.
Owned by the National Trust, but under council management, Selsdon Wood nature reserve, also known as the “Bird Sanctuary”, is a 200-acre link to the Surrey countryside. The ancient woodland is dominated by oak, beech, ash and sweet chestnut. The coppiced woodland is mainly hazel.
The Friends group stages walks most months, while of their meetings they say, “All are welcome to come along – we would value your opinion. If you are interested in the future of Selsdon Wood, we need your views.” Continue reading
Barwell, Brexit and Croydon’s troubled Westfield dream
STEVEN DOWNES on how the meddling of Tory politicians and the Croydon Establishment managed to ensure that the redevelopment of Croydon town centre was never going to run smoothly
Disaster area: Gavin Barwell, brought Westfield to Croydon, advising Theresa Mayhem on Brexit
Questions were asked in the House of Commons last night which saw Croydon, the Westfield centre and Brexit all mentioned in the same breath. Things must be bad.
In one important respect, the gloomy predictions about the outcome of Brexit and Westfield’s dalliance with Croydon town centre have been linked from the start.
Because both have had considerable input from an Oxbridge-educated public schoolboy, who has never held down a proper job in his life, and landed his latest state-funded position because of who he knows, rather than what he knows.
Since he was keen to claim the credit for it, through some virtue-signalling, look-at-me tweets more than seven years ago, much of the blame for bringing Aussie supermall developers Westfield to Croydon can be laid at the door of gaffe-prone Gavin Barwell.
Barwell was the Conservative MP for Croydon Central and presumably fancied making a name for himself when in 2011 he intervened on behalf of his chums at the Whitgift Foundation, the borough’s biggest land-owners. Continue reading
Posted in "Hammersfield", Allders, Business, Centrale, CPO, Croydon Council, Jo Negrini, Planning, Tony Newman, Whitgift Centre
Tagged Barwell, Boris Johnson, Conservative, Gavin Barwell, Hammersfield, Hammerson, Jo Negrini, Labour, Tony Newman, Tory, Westfield, Whitgift Centre, Whitgift Foundation
13 Comments
Let’s revive town centre with more trees and youthful vitality
Reality or fantasy? Croydon Council produced this CGI of the town centre’s skyline last year. But doubts over the Westfield development could leave a big hole in the middle
CROYDON COMMENTARY: Retired landscape architect and local resident LEWIS WHITE offers his suggestions for reviving the town centre after nearly a decade of development blight thanks to Westfield, who yesterday announced that they are ‘reviewing’ their £1.4bn flats and shops scheme
Croydon town centre is suffering from a multiple whammy. Continue reading
Posted in "Hammersfield", Business, Croydon parks, Environment, Planning, Valley Park, Whitgift Centre
Tagged Croydon, Croydon Council, Hammersfield, Hammerson, Lewis White, Westfield, Whitgift Centre
5 Comments
LibDem at centre of cronyism row is handed £150,000 top job
BELLE MONT, our Sutton reporter, on how history appears to be repeating itself over the appointment of a chief exec for a Liberal Democrat council
Sutton LibDem leader Ruth Dombey: has handed £150,000 to a former LibDem party official
Ruth Dombey, the Liberal Democrat council leader in Sutton, yesterday helpfully confirmed Inside Sutton’s report from earlier this week that she is to appoint Helen Bailey to the £150,000 per year position as council chief executive.
Dombey’s council has forked out around £100,000 on corporate headhunters to find a replacement for Niall “Ballistic” Bolger.
Yet the end result seems to have been a foregone conclusion. Because Bailey has a bit of a track record when it comes to LibDem local authorities. Continue reading
Posted in Helen Bailey, Ruth Dombey, Sutton Council, Tim Crowley
Tagged Charles Kennedy, Conservative, Helen Bailey, Labour, Liberal Democrats, London, Ruth Dombey, Sutton Council, Tim Crowley
2 Comments
Ben-Hassel is overwhelming winner for Labour in Norbury
WALTER CRONXITE, our political editor, on how a ward selection meeting last night capped off an altogether bad day for the council leadership
Candidate: Leila Ben-Hassel
Leila Ben-Hassel was last night selected as Labour’s candidate to stand in the Norbury and Pollards Hill council by-election next month. It means it is very likely that she will therefore be the ward’s new councillor come the day after polling on March 15.
The by-election has been called following the death last month of the long-standing and widely respected councillor, Maggie Mansell.
Ben-Hassel was chosen from a five-strong shortlist, and she was the overwhelming choice of the ward party members, attracting twice as many votes as her closest rival. Continue reading
Crisis for Croydon as Westfield ‘reviews’ its £1.4bn scheme
KEN LEE reports on the seismic shock that has rocked the council
The artists’ impressions of the Westfield for Croydon will soon become regarded as pieces of fantasy fiction
Westfield today announced a decision to “review” the £1.4billion project to redevelop Croydon Town Centre, blaming Brexit and uncertainties over the retail sector.
In so doing, they immediately claimed 2019’s No Shit Sherlock award.
The scheme to rebuild the ageing Whitgift Centre and link it with the Centrale mall on the opposite side of North End in Croydon town centre has been promised by Westfield and Hammerson since 2012. It was originally supposed to be open for business by 2017. There must now be serious doubts whether it will ever go ahead, despite some reassurances today from Westfield. Continue reading
Posted in "Hammersfield", Business, Centrale, Croydon Council, Jo Negrini, Tony Newman, Whitgift Centre, Whitgift Foundation
Tagged Conservative, Croydon Council, Hammersfield, Hammerson, Jo Negrini, Labour, London Borough of Croydon, Tony Newman, Tory, Westfield, Whitgift Centre, Whitgift Foundation
19 Comments
Brick by Brick imposed on community housing projects
BARRATT HOLMES, our housing correspondent, on another source of funding to build homes, which in Croydon risks being hijacked by the council’s failing house-builder
A chunk of the Mayor of London Sadiq Khan’s community housing fund could end up with Brick by Brick
Croydon Council has made what one of the Labour-run council leadership has called “an ambitious pledge” for the grand total of up to five – Yes! Five! – community-led housing initiatives in the borough, as it tries to get its hands on some part of the £38million fund which the Mayor of London has made available for such schemes.
But in Croydon, any community which decides it wants to build a housing scheme will have to do so with the “expertise” and “support” of Brick by Brick, according to Alison Butler, the council’s deputy leader and cabinet member for building private housing.
The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, announced the London Community Housing Fund last month, when it was described by some in the housing sector as “the most significant investment in community led housing in a generation”. Continue reading
BINMAGEDDON!: Sutton is worst borough for bin complaints
Our Sutton reporter BELLE MONT on how the council has confirmed our report about the ailing LibDem councillor, and how the council leader’s efforts to mislead over its rubbish service have been exposed
Sutton’s Liberal Democrats have organised a council by-election for March 28 – the day before Britain exits the European Union.
The by-election date has been arranged in the hope that Brexit will somehow distract residents in Wallington North ward from the Council Tax hike in April of 5.8 per cent (including the Mayor of London’s precept), the growing row over charges for street parking, and the imminent full operation of the nearby Beddington incinerator.
Inside Sutton this week revealed exclusively the impending by-election, which has been brought about by the long-term indisposition of LibDem councillor Joyce Melican, who has been absent from all council meetings for more than six months, following a stroke. Continue reading
Six-time loser Gunter is Tories’ choice for Norbury by-election
Tirena Gunter was selected last night by Croydon Conservatives as their candidate in the Norbury and Pollards Hill by-election being held on March 14.
Tirena Gunter: has volunteered to lose another election for the Tories
The by-election has been called following the death last month of long-standing Labour councillor Maggie Mansell.
Labour is staging its selection meeting tonight.
Gunter, who lives in Norbury, is the Tories’ go-to candidate for elections in the north of the borough. This will be her seventh time as a candidate, having lost on the previous six occasions.
Two of Gunter’s previous campaigns have been in Norbury, in 2006 and 2014. She stood in South Norwood in last year’s Town Hall elections, in Selhurst in its by-election in 2015, and before that she had been a candidate in Upper Norwood in 2002 and 2010.
The last time Gunter contested Norbury ward, five years ago, she polled 1,045 votes, 25 per cent of the vote, making her the leading Conservative candidate, but still with less than half of the number votes for the Labour candidates who were elected, including the late Maggie Mansell.
It has been suggested by sources close to Croydon Tories that Gunter may have been selected this time from a very short shortlist, of one.
Posted in Norbury
Tagged Conservative, Croydon North, Labour, Norbury, Norbury and Pollards Hill, Tirena Gunter, Tory, UKIP
Leave a comment
Downing Street orders checks on Barwell’s Croydon cronies
Our political editor WALTER CRONXITE on a report which suggest that the mates of the Prime Minister’s chief of staff are being put under pressure
Jason Cummings and Gavin Barwell, before one got the other one a job in Downing Street
Helen MacNamara, the head of ethics at the Cabinet Office, has written to every government Special Advisor working in Downing Street asking them to submit their Curriculum Vitae.
Steven Swinford, the deputy political editor of the Daily Torygraph, tweeted about this last night, taking a bit of a leap to suggest that it is the latest move by Theresa Mayhem’s government to get ready for a post-Brexit General Election.
“It’s being presented as an HR exercise to address issues around conditions and pay,” Swinford notes.
“But SPADs fear something else is going on.
“Is government gearing up for another election?” Swinford asked.
Our mole in Portcullis House suggests that there is another very good reason, however. Continue reading
Posted in Gavin Barwell, Jason Cummings, Mario Creatura, Nero Ughwujabo
Tagged Barwell, Conservative, Coulsdon, Croydon Council, Gavin Barwell, Jason Cummings, Mario Creatura, Tory
1 Comment
Fears for mall increase as Hammerson takes a hammering
Our retailing correspondent, MT WALLETTE, on how the plunging share price for half of the so-called ‘Croydon Partnership’ could see the redevelopment of the town centre postponed … permanently
Hammerson operate the Bullring centre in Birmingham. Their shares are now in a bear market on the stock exchange
The stock market is becoming increasingly nervous about the valuation of one of the major players in the long-promised regeneration of Croydon town centre, to the extent that there is a growing fear that one half of the “Croydon Partnership” could be forced to pull the plug on the £1.4billion project.
Much of the focus on the redevelopment of the increasingly dilapidated Whitgift Centre has so far been on developer Westfield and their plans for the supermall, which was first revealed in 2012 but is now running at least six years late on its original 2017 completion date.
However, it is the falling share price of Hammerson, the mall operators who own Centrale and who are the other half of the Croydon Partnership, where the biggest worries for the future of the “Hammersfield” project now lie.
This ought to be of growing concern to Jo “We’re Not Stupid” Negrini, the council chief executive, and council leader Tony Newman, who between them have invested so much council time, and money, on the wet dream that is Hammersfield, but who now risk the Town Hall being left with nothing to show for the extravagant scheme. Continue reading
Friends of Lloyd Park guided history walk, Feb 17
Posted in Croydon parks, Environment, Friends of Lloyd Park, History, Lloyd Park
Tagged Friends of Lloyd Park, Lloyd Park
Leave a comment
BINMAGEDDON!: The six-month saga to get one bin changed
CROYDON COMMENTARY: We appear to have a new version of the ‘how many people does it take to change a light-bulb’ gag here in Croydon… Only this one, inevitably, involves the bins.
From the recent experience of KEN TOWL, pictured, it takes 15 people, including Town Hall cabinet members, councillors, council staff, contractors and housing association workers, between them taking more than six months and involving nearly 40 emails.
All to change one bin.
We promise, none of this has been made up…
On August 3 last year, sick of the ever-worsening summer stench of rotting rubbish, the growing rat population and the lack of opportunity to recycle at Pavement Square, in Addiscombe, I sent an email to Stuart Collins, the deputy leader of Croydon Council, as he had invited me to do a few days earlier.
Speaking at a Labour Party meeting, Collins had set out the council’s aspirations for an increase in recycling across the borough. He suggested that the council needed to educate residents to recycle more. Continue reading
Posted in Addiscombe East, Croydon Council, Environment, Ken Towl, Maddie Henson, Refuse collection, Steve Iles, Stuart Collins, Tom Lawrence, Veolia
Tagged Addiscombe, Addiscombe East, Croydon Council, Ken Towl, Labour, London Borough of Croydon, Maddie Henson, Steve Iles, Stuart Collins, Veolia
4 Comments
Councillor’s six-month absence triggers Wallington by-election
Our Sutton staff reporter, BERTIE WORCESTER-PARK, on the latest set-back for the council’s Liberal Democrats
Joyce Melican: unwell
Sutton Council seems set for another councillor by-election, this time in Wallington North.
Liberal Democrat councillor Joyce Melican has been absent from all council business since August, after she suffered a stroke while visiting family in Germany. Melican’s recovery has been slower than had been hoped, and it is understood that she has stayed in Hamburg for her recuperation.
Her council leader, Ruth Dombey, nominated Melican as chair of the Beddington and Wallington local committee, a position which is accompanied by an additional £10,000 per year in councillor allowances for running three meetings a year. Melican last attended the local committee in July last year.
Council rules demand that if a councillor is absent from their duties for six months, then their position is forfeit. This is the rule which was nearly invoked in the case of Callum Morton, the former aide to MP Tom Brake who went off to work for another Liberal Democrat MP in the West Country and ended up training to become a cage fighter… Continue reading
Teacher Stevens hits the right notes with Norbury Manor choir
Norbury Manor music teacher Emma Stevens was last week named Inspirational Teacher of the Year at the Jack Petchey Foundation Awards, staged by the Evening Standard.
Emma Stevens receives her trophy, accompanied by Norbury Manor’s head, Amanda Compton, with education secretary Damian Hinds and Gideon Osborne (right)
Stevens leads the school choirs at Norbury Manor, which in the recent past have performed at the Royal Albert Hall and toured in Barcelona.
Former members of the Norbury Manor school choir who have been taught by Stevens include Grammy nominee and Coldplay support act Lianne La Havas, as well as Roxanne Tataei – “Rox”.
Stevens was presented with the award, together with a cheque for £1,000, by the Education Secretary, Damien Hinds, and Gideon Osborne, the “editor” of the Standard. Continue reading
Wetherspoons pub forced to have ‘deep clean’ after staff illness
One of Croydon’s biggest pubs, the Skylark on South End, has been forced to close for 48 hours to undergo an urgent “deep clean” following an outbreak of illness among its staff.
The Skylark: undergoing a deep clean
The Wetherspoons pub was supposed to host a Brexit lecture from the company’s founder, Tim Martin, recently, though sources say that the idea of the florid-faced Martin visiting is not believed to have caused the delayed onset of puking that befell the pub’s staff. The shutters went up on Monday, with a Wetherspoons spokesman teling Inside Croydon today that they expect the pub to re-open tomorrow. Continue reading
Twycross is fourth Labour Assembly Member to stand down
Selections for next year’s London elections could have a Scandi-noir messy ending for some. WALTER CRONXITE on the latest to announce their departure from the capital’s political stage
Standing down: Fiona Twycross
Fiona Twycross, the London Assembly Member, last night announced that she would not be seeking selection by the Labour Party to stand for re-election to City Hall in 2020.
Twycross, who lives in Croydon, is the fourth Labour AM to announce their intention to stand down next year, with a fifth City Hall figure expected to announce a decision to decline re-selection, too, soon.
Twycross holds a PhD in Scandinavian literature. Such familiarity with Scandi-noir plot lines may have prepared her for the possibility that there could be a messy ending, as the London Labour Party gears itself up for its first selection process for City Hall elections since Jeremy Corbyn became party leader. Continue reading
Build delays will keep Coombe Wood in cabins for another year
Our education correspondent, GENE BRODIE, on the slow progress at Croydon’s new selective school
Sign of the times: planning notices have gone up because Coombe Wood School needs more Portakabins
South Croydon residents were shocked last week when street notices appeared, followed by letters through their doors, announcing an unexpected new planning application not only to retain the present Portakabin school off Coombe Road, but to double its size to house another 180 pupils arriving in September.
Coombe Wood School is run by the Folio Trust, an academy chain based at Wallington County Grammar School for Boys. It opened to its first Year 7 intake in temporary accommodation six months ago on what was previously Green Belt playing fields, opposite Lloyd Park. Coombe Wood operates on a part-selective basis, with 10 per cent of its intake chosen based on their sporting aptitude.
Folio Trust is the happy recipient of a £30million building programme at Coombe Wood. But delays in building the first stage of the permanent school mean it will not be ready in September as planned. Continue reading
Posted in Coombe Wood School, Croydon Council, Environment, Lloyd Park, Planning, Schools, South Croydon
Tagged Coombe Wood School, Lloyd Park, South Croydon
1 Comment
Mayor announces tag trial for knife crime offenders in Croydon
Knife crime and other violent offenders in Croydon are to have GPS tagging devices fitted to them on release from prison, under a pilot scheme announced today by the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan.
GPS tags, similar to this, are to be used for knife crime offenders in Croydon
Offenders who have served a custodial sentence for knife-related crimes – such as knife possession, robbery, wounding, GBH and aggravated burglary – will be tagged with a tracking device as part of strict new licence conditions.
Croydon is one of four boroughs – the others being Lambeth, Southwark and Lewisham – where the scheme will be trialled on up to 100 offenders, with the aim of reducing re-offending and improving crime detection.
The scheme, which is due to start next Monday, is being paid for by MOPAC, the Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime, under a contract with a west London firm called Buddi, who, the Mayor’s office said today, will “both manage the tagging contract and its data”. Continue reading
Posted in Crime, Knife crime, London-wide issues, Mayor of London, Policing, Sadiq Khan
Tagged Croydon, London, London Assembly, Mayor, Mayor of London, Metropolitan Police, MOPAC, Sadiq Khan
Leave a comment
