They’re wild about Harry. But Harry’s not wild about Croydon

Posted on March 25, 2018 by insidecroydon

Prince Harry: never had any plans to visit Croydon. At least not for a non-existent charity

Red faces all round at a small-circulation newspaper based in Guildford, after they ran a story about Prince Harry planning to attend a charity dinner at Croydon Town Hall last night.

Problem is, the charity doesn’t exist.

And there was never a booking for a dinner with the council.

And there was nothing in the royal diary for the prince to visit Croydon.

But they did have a picture of the “charity organiser” together with another chancer who eventually got found out… Continue reading →

Posted in Charity, Croydon Advertiser, Gavin Barwell, Local media | Tagged , | 6 Comments

Coulsdon community show it was not, oh, such a lovely war

Posted on March 24, 2018 by insidecroydon

Our veteran arts correspondent, BELLA BARTOCK, takes a trip down memory lane and discovers an impressive new work

There was something quite poignant about entering the Coulsdon Community Centre on Barrie Close on the night after its destruction had been agreed by a committee at the Town Hall.

Richard Lloyd was among the outstanding performers in the well-staged 1918: When The Guns Fell Silent

After more than 80 years’ fine service, the centre is to make way for houses and flats. The people who will live in the new-builds won’t any longer have a venue to meet for Zumba classes, drop off their child at the playgroup, or listen to Field Marshal Montgomery speak about the perils of The Bomb, as the hero of El Alamein did with the Coulsdon Boys’ Club in 1946.

The place is steeped with history, and the producers of 1918: When The Guns Fell Silent have done a fine job of harnessing some of that feel of a bygone era as you arrived for Theatre Workshop Coulsdon’s latest production.

Passing a blackboard with the date chalked upon it of the declaration of war – all thanks to some Archduke hardly anyone had heard of or cared much for before his assassination – the community hall’s walls are bedecked with some serious scholarship and historical research. Continue reading →

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Carshalton-on-Sea at Honeywood Museum, Jul 7-8

Posted on March 24, 2018 by insidecroydon

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Step back in time with an historic Zeppelin walk, Mar 28

Posted on March 24, 2018 by insidecroydon

Croydon was one of the first places to suffer an air raid, from Zeppelins in 1915

Retrace some of the route of the terrifying bombing raid of October 13-14 1915 with Ian Walker, the chair of the Historic Croydon Airport Trust, with a guided Attack of the Zeppelins walk this Wednesday, March 28.

Find out about the impact of this raid on the people on the ground and the public call for improved air defences, leading to the establishment of Croydon and Beddington aerodrome.

The walk, which lasts around an hour and a half, starts from the corner of Edridge Road at 6pm, finishing at Stretton Rd. Continue reading →

Posted in Croydon Airport, Croydon Airport Society, History | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

What a relief! Boxpark traders get helping hand from council

Posted on March 23, 2018 by insidecroydon

Boxpark, the booze and food outlet in a collection of old shipping containers next to East Croydon Station, has been given yet more help from the council in an attempt to staunch its exodus of tenants.

Boxpark traders have been struggling against declining attendance at the venue and rising costs

Boxpark’s dwindling number of tenants have been offered hundreds of thousands of pounds-worth of business rate relief, in an effort to reduce their overheads and persuade them to keep trading.

Since November last year, around a dozen outlets in Boxpark have closed, the traders variously citing poor footfall at the venue, the trading disruption of their landlords’ various music events, and the high and rising costs of operating their variety of street food outlets.

Boozepark opened – a couple of months late – in October 2016, thanks to a £3million loan from Croydon Council.

In its first three years, the Boozepark venue owners will have also received more than £400,000 in subsidies from Croydon Council. The council had a £180,000 budget for an annual, free “Ambition Festival” of music and live performances to be staged around the borough, but that money has been redirected to the privately owned Boxpark venue and used towards its launch party and staging of other, subsequent events. Continue reading →

Posted in Boxpark, Business, Council Tax, Croydon Council, East Croydon, Jo Negrini, Tony Newman | Tagged , , , , , , , | 11 Comments

Crisis in Sutton after Ofsted fails council’s SEND service

Posted on March 23, 2018 by insidecroydon

EXCLUSIVE: After Croydon’s children’s services was rated “inadequate” last year, now Sutton’s Special Educational Needs and Disabilities department has been found by Ofsted to be failing. And council attempts to suppress the report ahead of local elections have failed, as BELLE MONT reports

Wendy Mathys: there have been calls for councillor to resign

Sutton’s provision for children with disabilities and special education needs (SEND) has failed an Ofsted inspection, with the inspector’s criticisms aimed squarely at the council leadership.

Senior officials at the Liberal Democrat-controlled council had hoped to keep the withering criticisms in the report under wraps until next week, when the pre-election purdah period begins. But the Ofsted letter was leaked on a parents’ group Facebook page, where it appeared for a few minutes before being removed.

Inside Croydon has obtained a full copy of the letter, however, and its contents are damning.

The Ofsted findings have prompted opposition politicians on the council to demand the immediate resignation of the LibDem council leader, Ruth Dombey, and the councillor responsible for children and education services, who they say is “not up to the job”.

Continue reading →

Posted in 2018 council elections, Education, Ruth Dombey, Sutton Council, Wendy Mathys | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Council Tax lottery offer that is for the few, not the many

Posted on March 23, 2018 by insidecroydon

Would you trust your personal data to a bunch less competent than Cambridge Analytica? Town Hall reporter KEN LEE on the latest wizard wheeze to promote the council’s crap app

A not-to-be-missed offer? Well, only if you want to hand over your data to a bunch less competent that Cambridge Analytica

In Blairite-run Croydon, it’s a case of “For the two, not the many”.

Across Croydon you’ll see JCDecaux displays telling you that you can win your Council Tax for a year if you enter the council lottery.

Online you’ll find that if, by May 31, you set up a Council Tax direct debit with Croydon Council, or risk the inadequacies and data-scraping of the council’s crap app by signing up to My Account and opt-in to online billing, then you could win your Council Tax for a whole year.

It’s subject to a maximum of the Band D rate, a chunky £1,636.96. Though if you live in a more modest Band C, B or A property, your winnings could be up to nearly £600 less. And if you don’t pay Council Tax, don’t bother applying. It’s a non-egalitarian concept that sits comfortably with council leader Tony Newman’s Blairites.

Continue reading →

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Scott’s ‘disingenuous waffle’ does little to meet housing need

Posted on March 23, 2018 by insidecroydon

CROYDON COMMENTARY: Not everyone is convinced by planning chair Paul Scott’s reasoning for his develop-at-all-costs approach. Among them is GEORGE WRIGHT

Brick by Brick is failing to meet its 50% affordable housing target by some way

I have just read Councillor Paul Scott’s justifications on why he can ignore public opinion. It hasn’t done my blood pressure much good.

His arguments might have a little validity if the direction he is heading the council towards met with his autocratic methods, but that is not the case. The stock response of “well, we are providing ‘affordable housing’ for local residents”, does not wash from a council who want who want to banish homeless men and women from Queen’s Gardens, in an outbreak of social cleansing.

None of the high-density developments being imposed on Croydon cater for much more than one-third of local people, under the rubric of “affordable housing”. The remainder seems to be for rich people who can’t quite manage central London prices, but who want a good view. Continue reading →

Posted in Brick by Brick, Housing, Paul Scott, Planning | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Honeywood Museum Book Club dates, Apr to Jul

Posted on March 23, 2018 by insidecroydon

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Upper Norwood Library offers energy efficiency advice

Posted on March 23, 2018 by insidecroydon

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Westfield pulls plug on £15m payment for tram network

Posted on March 22, 2018 by insidecroydon

JEREMY CLACKSON, transport correspondent, on the vanishing millions which Westfield were supposed to provide for improving local infrastructure

A £28m investment in a new tram loop in Croydon town centre looks to be dropped

Westfield and Hammerson have pulled a promised £15million investment in Croydon town centre.

The money was to have gone towards the cost of the “Dingwall Loop”, some extra track near East Croydon on which trams could be diverted to make it easier for cars to enter the car parks of the long-promised supermall.

With Transport for London budgets being squeezed, it seems likely that without the cash from Hammersfield, the £28million Dingwall Loop will now be scrapped altogether. Continue reading →

Posted in "Hammersfield", Business, Centrale, East Croydon, TfL, Tramlink, Transport, Whitgift Centre | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Planning chair: This is why I want to concrete over Croydon

Posted on March 22, 2018 by insidecroydon

EXCLUSIVE: Inside Croydon asked Paul Scott, the Labour council’s chair of the planning committee, to confirm that he had told a public meeting “There isn’t anywhere in Croydon with detached houses where we wouldn’t allow semi-detached houses.” Scott defied party orders not to speak to this website by replying with a lengthy justification for his remarks

Did you spill me beer? A phrase Paul Scott has never been heard to mutter when running Croydon’s planning committee with a iron fist

“We have a massive housing crisis in Croydon, across London and throughout much of the south-east. In Croydon alone we have many thousands of families living in overcrowded conditions, over 2,000 families in temporary accommodation and hundreds of homeless people. The situation will only get worse if we don’t build many more homes over the coming years.

“The increasing need is demonstrated by massive growth in the number of children in the borough and the increase in the number of schools throughout Croydon to accommodate them. These youngsters will be needing homes of their own all to soon. Local residents are also living longer, further increasing the demand for homes.

“Our new local plan for Croydon recognises the need for a massive growth in homes. It identifies the need for an additional 33,000 new homes over the next 20 years. Even that will not be enough to meet the full demand that is anticipated. Continue reading →

Posted in Brick by Brick, Housing, Paul Scott, Planning | Tagged , , , | 4 Comments

Two-thirds of Londoners back ballots on redevelopment

Posted on March 22, 2018 by insidecroydon

A survey published today has found that nearly two-thirds of Londoners expect to be balloted on whether their homes are subjected to redevelopment.

Sadiq Khan: wants to ballot residents affected by housing developments

The survey, conducted by YouGov, was commissioned by London Assembly Member Sian Berry. It found that 64 per cent of Londoners back the Mayor of London’s proposals for ballots to be a condition of his funding future housing development schemes. Only 13 per cent of those surveyed were against the proposal.

Sadiq Khan, the Mayor of London, put forward the ballot proposal because of widespread opposition to the demolition, and social cleansing, of large housing estates in Lambeth, Southwark and Haringey. Although not directly applicable in Croydon, 17 residents groups in this borough have sent an appeal to the Mayor asking for similar ballots to be applied where their neighbourhoods are affected by the council’s Brick by Brick housing developments. Continue reading →

Posted in Brick by Brick, Housing, London Assembly, London-wide issues, Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, Sian Berry | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Scott’s planning bias could lead to High Court challenge

Posted on March 22, 2018 by insidecroydon

BARRATT HOLMES, our housing correspondent, on a startling statement from the council planning committee chair which could be seen to prejudice all decisions on Brick by Brick housing

Paul Scott: has he acted in breach of his quasi-judicial function as chair of the planning committee?

There are mounting concerns among senior figures on Katharine Street, from both political parties represented at the Town Hall, that the council’s planning committee’s decisions over its Brick by Brick developments could be vulnerable to a legal challenge through the High Court.

The Labour-run council’s planning committee meets tonight for the latest batch of applications from Brick by Brick, the council’s wholly owned housing developer. On the agenda are Brick by Brick schemes in Coulsdon, as well as a controversial scheme in South Norwood which has attracted objections from a Labour MP in support of existing residents in the area.

All the applications have been recommended for approval by council planning officials. All previous Brick by Brick schemes have been granted planning permission by the planning committee. And all the applications being presented tonight are expected to be rubber-stamped by the committee, which has a majority of Labour councillors.

And therein lies the grounds for a potentially lengthy and expensive High Court legal action against Croydon Council because its planning committee, under the chairmanship of Labour councillor Paul Scott, has acted in a prejudicial and predetermined manner for a number of planning applications, especially in the case of Brick by Brick schemes.

Speaking at a recent planning sub-committee meeting, Scott’s innate arrogance got the better of him when he announced from the chair that, “There isn’t anywhere in Croydon with detached houses where we wouldn’t allow semi-detached houses. I am in favour of mixed housing everywhere.”

Continue reading →

Posted in 2018 council elections, Alison Butler, Brick by Brick, Community associations, Coulsdon, Croydon Council, Housing, Paul Scott, Planning, Property, South Norwood | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 16 Comments

Venue where Stones once played under demolition threat

Posted on March 21, 2018 by insidecroydon

A much-loved publicly owned venue, which has hosted concerts by the Rolling Stones, David Bowie and Status Quo, while serving generations of south Londoners, is under threat of demolition.

Wallington Hall in the 1960s was played by some of the biggest bands in the world

Sutton’s LibDem council – yes, that lot again – want to send in the bulldozers on Wallington Hall.

This from the same council which has managed in the past couple of years to see both the borough’s theatres – the Secombe and the Charles Cryer – “go dark”, with little prospect of them re-opening any time soon.

The planning committee meeting tonight is expected to rubber-stamp plans for the demolition of Wallington Hall, to make way for flats to be built by Sutton Council’s wholly-owned company, Sutton Living Ltd.

The hall was built in 1934, and is owned and managed by Sutton Council, who closed its doors for a final time three years ago. The Art Deco-decorated hall’s rich history as a cinema, dance hall and concert venue, as well as a community hub until its closure, led to calls in the past for it to be listed as a building of national importance.

Continue reading →

Posted in 2018 council elections, Music, Sutton Council, Theatre | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

£100,000 scheme to help warm up low-income households

Posted on March 21, 2018 by insidecroydon

Croydon Council has approved a £100,000 three-year scheme to save low-income households £400 on their energy bills. Though the council is a little more coy when it comes to explaining that those savings will be slowly accrued, at a rate of less than £30 a year over 15 years.

The Croydon Healthy Homes initiative was approved at the council cabinet meeting at the Town Hall on Monday.

It represents the latest “Good News” announcement in a flurry of positive stories from the council press office, being pushed out by the Labour-run authority in a rush before the start of the month-long pre-election purdah period begins next week. Continue reading →

Posted in Croydon Council, Environment, Housing, Stuart King | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Council doubles cost of on-the-spot fines in war on littering

Posted on March 21, 2018 by insidecroydon

They’ve offered the public the carrot. Now, here comes the stick, as the council has doubled its on-the-spot fines for littering and fly-tipping.

Free bulk waste collections, alongside £150 fines for fly-tipping, are the council’s twin-track approach to clean up Croydon

Croydon’s Labour-run council last month announced plans to revive the free bulk waste collection service for Council Tax-paying residents, in part, at least, to encourage people to work with the council to arrange the collection of rubbish, rather than have to clear-up after them.

And this week, measures were approved to double on-the-spot fines to £150 for litter offences from April 1.

That fine could be applied to someone caught fly-tipping, but might even be imposed on someone dropping a drink can or cigarette stub in the High Street. Continue reading →

Posted in Croydon Council, Fly tipping, Refuse collection | Tagged , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Sutton official in bid to oust conservationist from science group

Posted on March 21, 2018 by insidecroydon

BELLE MONT reports on an attempt by a council official to intimidate an environmentalist’s opposition to Viridor’s poor performance over the Beddington wetlands

A senior council official responsible for Sutton’s environmental policy is demanding that a local conservationist should quit the Beddington Farmlands Conservation Science Group because they have dared to organise a petition calling on the local authority to enforce existing planning and restoration conditions on Viridor.

Beddington Farmlands: one of the council-run committees which is supposed to oversee environmental work here has been criticised for doing too little to challenge Viridor

David Warburton is Sutton’s senior biodiversity officer.

It is Warburton who has had significant input to the planning recommendations for the SDEN pipework to be laid through Beddington Farmlands nature reserve. Although planning permission is not due to be considered until a council meeting tonight, some work conducted last week saw the controversial, and potentially illegal, axing of hundreds of trees during the bird-nesting season. Continue reading →

Posted in Environment, Peter Alfrey, Sutton Council, Waste incinerator, Wildlife | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Croydon Bach Choir open rehearsal, Chichester Road, Apr 11

Posted on March 21, 2018 by insidecroydon

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More questions after TfL is forced to publish tram fatigue report

Posted on March 20, 2018 by insidecroydon

Transport correspondent JEREMY CLACKSON on an intriguing turn of events over a previously suppressed Transport for London report

Sandilands, Nov 2016: a TfL report into driver fatigue, not released to crash investigators, has now been made public

Within days of Inside Croydon highlighting the failure of Transport for London to share a safety audit report into driver fatigue with those investigating the 2016 Croydon tram tragedy, TfL decided to make the report public.

In a letter to Caroline Pidgeon, the Liberal Democrat London Assembly Member, Gareth Powell, TfL’s new managing director of Surface Transport, wrote, “We made a commitment to publish the report at the conclusion of all ongoing investigations. However, given the current interest, special permission has been sought from the BTP [British Transport Police] and ORR [Office of Rail and Road] to publish it on Friday 16 March despite their investigations continuing.” Continue reading →

Posted in Caroline Pidgeon, London-wide issues, Sandilands derailment, TfL, Tramlink, Transport | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Brick by Brick scheme is accused of breaking planning rules

Posted on March 20, 2018 by insidecroydon

BARRATT HOLMES, our housing correspondent, on the mounting anger and opposition to the council-owned house-builder’s plans, with objections coming even from the local Labour MP

Planning chair Paul Scott: will he wave through another sub-standard Brick by Brick scheme?

Another day, another planning disaster looms from Brick by Brick and Tony Newman’s Labour-lite council.

While chief exec Jo Negrini couldn’t give away free beer at poorly attended, council-backed events staged to promote Croydon’s development plans in Cannes last week, the local Tories were drumming up public opposition to Brick by Brick schemes at what was a genuinely well-attended meeting last Thursday.

The Tories are now orchestrating a “non-political” group to march on the Town Hall next Monday, the final full meeting of the council before May’s local elections, where they will protest against the council-owned builder’s overdevelopments. Pitchforks and flaming torches optional. Continue reading →

Posted in Alison Butler, Brick by Brick, Croydon Council, Croydon North, Croydon parks, Environment, Housing, Jo Negrini, Paul Scott, Planning, Property, South Norwood, Steve Reed MP, Tony Newman | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 7 Comments

Soul Symphony Choir in concert, Monks Hill, Mar 24

Posted on March 20, 2018 by insidecroydon

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Sutton’s latest horror: the Beddington chainsaw massacre

Posted on March 20, 2018 by insidecroydon

Sutton LibDems’ ‘green’ credentials have been exposed again as bogus, as they have ordered the destruction of hundreds of trees in a nature reserve, just when the wild birds are nesting for spring. BELLE MONT reports

Stumped: this is the fate of hundreds of trees after the latest eco vandalism in Beddington

More despair looms for the long-suffering conservationists and concerned residents of Hackbridge, as chainsaw gangs last week felled at least 160 trees on the Beddington Farmlands nature reserve.

This work has cleared the way for laying pipework to connect the Viridor incinerator to the Felnex housing estate, the first customer for the controversial Sutton Decentralised Energy Network, or SDEN.

This ecological vandalism was especially surprising, as SDEN – a company wholly owned by Sutton Council – has a planning application pending to alter the route that the pipeline will take through the nature reserve.

Critics of the scheme are asking how these trees could have been felled at a time when the final path of the pipeline was not known, as planning permission has not been given. It will be considered by Sutton’s planning committee tomorrow. Continue reading →

Posted in Environment, Planning, Sutton Council, Waste incinerator, Wildlife | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

Stereo MC’s and Polarbear announced as Festival headliners

Posted on March 19, 2018 by insidecroydon

The Crystal Palace Festival returns in June  with one of the biggest free cultural events in south London.

The Crystal Palace Festival headliners on June 16 will be Stereo MC’s

Festival events will take place across the Crystal Palace area from June 11 to 17 with the free Crystal Palace park event taking place on June 16. This Grade II-listed heritage park has been the scene of many a free concert, and the bowl has a long history of notable gigs from 1967, when Pink Floyd performed there, all the way through to Bob Marley in 1980 and 1990 with The Cure and Pixies.

With 28,500 visitors to the 2017 event in the park, organisers are expecting even bigger crowds this year as they return with a fantastic line up of music, spoken word, theatre, visual arts, family and community activities and of course amazing food and drink.

The headline act on June 16 will be Stereo MC’s and Polarbear. The whole park programme will be announced next month. Continue reading →

Posted in Art, Crystal Palace and Upper Norwood, Crystal Palace Park, Dance, Music, Poetry, Theatre | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Police evacuate 800 homes after crash causes gas main leak

Posted on March 19, 2018 by insidecroydon

Residents at first took photos of the crash scene, before being evacuated from their homes

A one-mile stretch of the A23 Purley Way was closed this morning, buses are diverted and the tram network closed between Therapia Lane and Wandle Park because of a leak from a damaged gas mains, seeing emergency services place an exclusion zone of more than a quarter of a mile from a damaged gas main, following a car skidding off the icy road and crashing into an energy plant on Whitestone Way, in the New South Quarter, last night.

Police evacuated 800 properties nearby, with around 300 residents having to take refuge on the freezing night first at the nearby Sainsbury’s supermarket, and overnight at the Salvation Army Citadel and Waddon Leisure Centre. There have been no reports of any injuries as a result of the collision.

While emergency works are carried out to fix the serious gas leak, electricity supplies in the vicinity have been limited and engineers have reduced the gas supply locally, affecting residents in other areas of the borough – particularly in New Addington. Continue reading →

Posted in Purley Way, Waddon | Tagged , , | 1 Comment