Volunteers mourn John Taylor, co-founder of two charities

Posted on March 7, 2018 by insidecroydon

Volunteers across Croydon are mourning John Taylor, one of the founders of two homelessness organisations in the borough, who has died, aged 75.

John Taylor

In 1976, Taylor helped to found Croydon Nightwatch, which offers nightly food and help to the homeless. He served as its second chairman, from 1978 to 1992, and built up the organisation to own three premises where former homeless people could live before moving on to more permanent accommodation, and one for long-term living.

Nightwatch now concentrates on street-level work and is the largest volunteer organisation in the borough. Continue reading →

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17 residents groups unite against Brick by Brick schemes

Posted on March 7, 2018 by insidecroydon

No content with taking on the Tories at the local elections on May 3, Croydon Labour leader Tony Newman is now confronted by the mass anger of 17 residents’ association and groups, from all parts of the borough.

Labour’s Tony Newman: facing united opposition from 17 residents’ groups

Residents’ associations are, usually by virtue of their constitutions, supposed to be apolitical.

But what has unified the residents groups on this occasion is their opposition to housing schemes being imposed on their neighbourhoods by the council’s house-builders, Brick by Brick.

“Residents groups in Croydon have not united in action for many years,” a Town Hall source explained.

“That they have done so now, just before the local elections, over such an emotive issue is bad news for Tony Newman and the Labour council. These groups represent thousands of residents, many of them well-motivated.

“They’ll be doing the Tories’ campaigning for them.” Continue reading →

Posted in 2018 council elections, Brick by Brick, Community associations, Croydon Council, East Coulsdon Residents' Association, Jo Negrini, Tony Newman | Tagged , , , , , , | 2 Comments

New Fairfield Halls chief finds time to chair business group

Posted on March 7, 2018 by insidecroydon

Croydon BID, the town centre business group, has appointed Neil Chandler, recently hired as the venue director of the Fairfield Halls, as its new chairman.

Neil Chandler: Fairfield manager now chairing the BID

That could be bad news for the Fairfield Halls, which was supposed to re-open after a £30million refurbishment this July. Latest estimates are that the Halls will not be ready to re-open until early in 2019.

The building works are being coordinated by Brick by Brick, the council’s wholly owned housing developer.

Chandler was given the job of Fairfield Halls venue director – what he called “the best job in town” – in October.

“You’d think that now might be a super-busy period for Neil, overseeing the completion of the works and the fitting out of the Halls, while also juggling the demands of delivering a knock-out series of attractions for when the Halls re-opens,” a Town Hall source said this morning.

“Being chairman of Croydon BID isn’t a huge task, but the fact that Neil feels able to take that on at this time suggests perhaps he’s got some time on his hands. Does that mean we can expect further delays to the re-opening date?” Continue reading →

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Tram network in 10-day shutdown for rail works over Easter

Posted on March 7, 2018 by insidecroydon

Tram passengers are to encounter considerable disruption to their journeys for 10 days, beginning with Easter weekend, as Transport for London undertakes track replacement works.

Tough luck if you wanted to make use of the tram network during the Easter holidays

The tracks are to be replaced between George Street and Church Street from Good Friday, March 30, until Wednesday April 4, and from the junction of Cherry Orchard Road to Addiscombe Road from March 30 until Sunday April 8.

According to TfL’s official announcement, during the works no tram services will operate as follows:

  • Reeves Corner to Sandilands Friday March 30 until Wednesday April 4
  • East Croydon to Sandilands Friday March 30 until Sunday April 8

Continue reading →

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

Primary school and Rotarians give the finger to polio

Posted on March 6, 2018 by insidecroydon

Children at Broadmead School take part in Purple Pinkie day

Members of one of Croydon’s longest established charity groups have teamed up with children at a local primary school to raise money and awareness to help eradicate polio.

Croydon Rotary Club was celebrating the founding of the movement in 1905 by staging a “Purple Pinkie for Polio Day” on February 23, and made a return visit to Broadmead Primary. Continue reading →

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Take to the air this Saturday with the history of women in war

Posted on March 6, 2018 by insidecroydon

The Kenley Revival project is coming into Croydon town centre this Saturday in the latest event to celebrate the role of women at the historic airfield and during World War II.

Amy Johnson and Jason: children can learn all about her solo flight to Australia at free workshops this Saturday

“To celebrate our Women in War season we are hosting an event in Croydon where you can learn all about the significant role women in Kenley had to play in the Home Front along with the ingenuity of the ‘keep calm and carry on’ and ‘make do and mend’ mentality,” they say.

The free event, “Kenley’s Home Front – Life during the War and today”, takes place from 11am to 3pm at TURF Projects arts space on the ground floor of the Whitgift Centre. Continue reading →

Posted in Activities, Art, Education, History, Kenley, Kenley Airfield Friends Group, Whitgift Centre | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

MP Jones renews call for action after South Norwood murder

Posted on March 6, 2018 by insidecroydon

Sarah Jones, the MP for Croydon Central, renewed her calls for more police on our streets after the latest shocking murder in the borough, when a 20-year-old man was stabbed and killed in broad daylight yesterday, outside the Albert Tavern on Albert Road, South Norwood.

Members of the victim’s family are reported to have been at the scene, but the police have not yet named him publicly, and an investigation is on-going. Detective Inspector Tom Dahri, who is heading the murder investigation, said: “A young man has been murdered and we are doing everything we can to catch those involved.

“This sustained attack happened at rush hour when a lot of people would have been walking or driving home through the area.”

The shocking event is just the latest in a tragically rising toll of knife crime in the city. The killings of four young men in separate incidents in London on New Year’s Eve brought the total number of deaths from knife crime in the capital in 2017 to 80. Continue reading →

Posted in Crime, Croydon Central, Knife crime, London-wide issues, Policing, Sarah Jones MP | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Slide’s Ceilidh, Selsdon Hall, South Croydon, Mar 17

Posted on March 6, 2018 by insidecroydon

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Barwell accused of trying to ‘kneecap’ Boris over Brexit

Posted on March 5, 2018 by insidecroydon

Political editor WALTER CRONXITE reports on claims that the Prime Minister is getting gaffe-prone Gav to do her dirty work for her

For the second time in a few months, fingers within Conservative High Command are pointing at Gavin Barwell as the likely source of a Downing Street leak intended to damage the reputation of a cabinet minister.

It wasn’t so long ago that Gavin Barwell was relying on Boris Johnson to launch his election campaign

This time, Barwell, who got the job as the Prime Minister’s chief of staff after losing his Croydon Central parliamentary seat last June, is accused of trying to “kneecap” Boris Johnson, the Foreign Secretary, over his plans for the land border between the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland after Brexit.

To be fair, no one else really needs to make Johnson look like a complete cock, when this Bullingdon Club buffoon is very capable of doing that job himself, as he did last week when he compared the Northern Ireland border to the borough boundary between Camden and Islington.

Continue reading →

Posted in Boris Johnson, Croydon Central, Gavin Barwell | Tagged , , , , | 4 Comments

Scrutiny chief wants your ideas to improve the tram network

Posted on March 5, 2018 by insidecroydon

The chair of the council’s scrutiny committee wants members of the public to come forward with ideas and suggestions about how to improve the tram network.

What improvements to the trams would you like to see?

The council streets and environment scrutiny committee will meet at the Town Hall on March 20, when it will examine Transport for London’s management of the trams. The first part of the meeting will look at the 2016 Sandilands tram crash and the lessons learned, while the second part of meeting will be about how the trams network can be improved.

Sean Fitzsimons, the councillor who chairs scrutiny, said, “Next year will be the 25th anniversary of the Croydon Tramlink Act, which basically set out the network we have today.

“No major extensions have been funded in that time, but in the rest of London, the Docklands Light Railway has been extended many times, London Overground was conceived and grown, but Tramlink remains virtually the same. Continue reading →

Posted in Sandilands derailment, Sean Fitzsimons, TfL, Tramlink, Transport | Tagged , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Government reaches for the sky – and puts Philp in a corner

Posted on March 5, 2018 by insidecroydon

Our housing correspondent, BARRATT HOLMES, on an awkward situation for the Nimbys of Purley

The building of a residential tower in Purley has been delayed by objections led by the local Tory MP

Tory MP Chris Philp’s loud and frequent complaints about what he continues to call “the Purley Skyscraper” (which is not tall enough to be a skyscraper) could be about to be silenced – by his own government.

Prime Minister Theresa May delivered a speech today in which she announced a shake-up of the National Planning Policy Framework and introduce measures to encourage a faster pace of building.

This includes a relaxation of regulations governing the height of buildings.

“It will be quite surprising how easy we want to make it for people who want to build upwards,” Sajid Javid, the housing secretary, said in an interview yesterday.

Continue reading →

Posted in Chris Philp MP, Croydon South, Housing, Planning, Property, Purley | Tagged , , , , | 13 Comments

Injury-hit Palace will need someone to halt Alexis goal threat

Posted on March 5, 2018 by insidecroydon

Ten matches to go, and Palace are back where they were after the first seven games of the Premier League season: in the bottom three.

Off form: one goal in seven since joining United means Alexis Sanchez may have a point to prove against Palace tonight

Which all adds a little more peril to the visit tonight of Jose Mourinho’s Manchester United.

A win would propel Palace above Swansea, into the relative safety (for now) of 13th place.

Yet as Eagles fans who watched, solemnly, as the results came in over the weekend and Palace dropped back into the relegation zone, even an injection of league points now would only be a temporary reprieve in a scrap which seems certain will last into May. Three points cover seven clubs, with only West Brom cast adrift, their fate seemingly already sealed. Continue reading →

Posted in Crystal Palace FC, Football, Roy Hodgson, Sport, Wilfried Zaha | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

Why is the council’s house-builder going to MIPIM in Cannes?

Posted on March 5, 2018 by insidecroydon

CROYDON COMMENTARY: As VALERIE HUNTER asks: Just why is the council-owned housing developer Brick by Brick going to the world’s biggest property speculator conference in the South of France next week?

Super yachts, oligarchs and multi-billion-dollar property speculators will all be in Cannes next week, alongside Croydon’s Brick by Brick house-building company

So why are Brick by Brick going to MIPIM, the world’s largest property conference in Cannes next week, when Croydon Council, which owns the company, tells us its aim was to build homes for local families on council-owned land?

Local families need genuinely affordable – for rent as well as to buy – three-bedroom homes. But of the 29 sites listed on Inside Croydon’s article of November 21, 12 sites are for private sale only, and a mere five sites include “affordable” rent – and it appears that only a total of five of these homes have three bedrooms. Continue reading →

Posted in Brick by Brick, Croydon Council, Housing, Jo Negrini | Tagged , , | 4 Comments

Friends of Howard Mother’s Day event, Mar 9

Posted on March 5, 2018 by insidecroydon

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Clean Up Norbury volunteering day, Mar 17

Posted on March 5, 2018 by insidecroydon

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Watch the calving at Coulsdon Common, Apr 14

Posted on March 5, 2018 by insidecroydon

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Kenley Revival celebrates brave women heroes of WWII

Posted on March 4, 2018 by insidecroydon

Throughout March, to help mark this week’s International Women’s Day, the Lottery-funded Kenley Revival team is focusing on the significant and essential roles women had during World War II.

The project will be hosting a few different activity days, school workshops, online articles and even a one-woman play about Amy Johnson.

The Kenley historians have also highlighted the amazing life of one of Britain’s foundation glider pilots who had a Kenley connection. Continue reading →

Posted in Community associations, Croydon Airport, History, Kenley, Kenley Airfield Friends Group | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Easter egg rolling at Coulsdon Common, Easter Day, Apr 1

Posted on March 4, 2018 by insidecroydon

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Tough conditions put the squeeze on village post office

Posted on March 3, 2018 by insidecroydon

TV presenter Laura Hamilton outside the post office she runs on the exclusive Webb Estate

It isn’t just the neighbours who have caused the impending closure of a village Post Office in one of the priciest neighbourhoods in Croydon.

As was first reported by Inside Croydon this week, TV presenter Laura Hamilton and husband Alex Goward, who took over the Lord Roberts on the Green on the Webb Estate last year, are threatening to close the Post Office after a planning application for a shed in the garden was rejected by the council.

But according to business manager Indianna Scorziello, the decision has also been influenced by the tough terms and conditions of business laid down by the Post Office. Continue reading →

Posted in Business, Purley | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

Nine months on, and Labour still selecting election candidates

Posted on March 3, 2018 by insidecroydon

Our political editor, WALTER CRONXITE, on how the ruling party in Croydon is struggling to find candidates for all the borough’s wards

Croydon Labour leader Tony Newman: could he organise a piss-up in a brewery?

Today marks 60 days until the Town Hall elections on May 3. Yet Croydon Labour still hasn’t managed to get round to selecting candidates to fill all 70 slots across the borough’s 28 wards.

Tony Newman, the leader of the ruling Labour group on Croydon Council, is facing mounting questions about his competency – or lack of it – and the officials he has surrounded himself with, as the local election selection process limps into its ninth month.

The process has been mired in disputes and accusations of chicanery since the start.

Inside Croydon is aware of a number of formal complaints about selection procedures and the conduct of Newman and other officials being filed to the national Labour Party. Continue reading →

Posted in 2018 council elections, Alisa Flemming, Alison Butler, Caragh Skipper, Clive Fraser, Croydon Central, Selsdon & Ballards, Shirley South, Tony Newman | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Enforcement officer is sent in over neglect of wildlife reserve

Posted on March 3, 2018 by insidecroydon

The Viridor incinerator, surrounded by a wildlife reserve, parks and commons, spoils the view of London in the distance

A south London council has been forced to appoint an enforcement officer to check on the environmental work which Viridor is supposed to be doing at Beddington Farmlands. The appointment comes more than two years after the Local Government Ombudsman found that the waste disposal multi-national was failing in its duties around an important nature reserve at Beddington.

Viridor has a £1billion contract with the South London Waste Partnership, comprising Croydon (Labour-controlled), Kingston (Tory), Merton (Labour) and Sutton (LibDem) councils, to operate the waste incinerator at Beddington Lane. But it has also had responsibility for the landfill sites around Beddington Farmlands, for managing them and ensuring that the environment is improved for the wildlife there. Continue reading →

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Easter eggshell painting, Spring Park, Mar 25

Posted on March 3, 2018 by insidecroydon

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First residential tower block in borough gets sprinkler system

Posted on March 2, 2018 by insidecroydon

If the contractors who this week finished retro-fitting sprinklers on a residential block in Upper Norwood continue their work at a similar pace, it would be 2035 before all of Croydon’s towers have the fire safety system fitted.

Grenfell Tower. Had it had sprinklers fitted, the death toll might have been much reduced

Fortunately, the pace of progress on this essential work has now begun to pick up.

The council set about fitting sprinklers to its residential blocks of 10 storeys or taller a week after the Grenfell Tower tragedy last June, in which more than 70 people lost their lives.

This week, eight months later, Croydon Council announced that it had completed fitting sprinklers in the first of 26 buildings, at College Green, Upper Norwood. Continue reading →

Posted in Alison Butler, Croydon Council, Crystal Palace and Upper Norwood, Gavin Barwell, Housing, London Fire Brigade, Property | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

#SaveTheGlam: Council grants ACV status to historic pub

Posted on March 2, 2018 by insidecroydon

The Glamorgan: it may last as a pub

A community campaign to try to re-open an East Croydon local pub has achieved its first target, with The Glamorgan on Cherry Orchard Road being declared an Asset of Community Value.

The #SaveTheGlam campaign, led by Addiscombe ward’s Labour councillors, will now seek to persuade the building’s owners to put the pub on the open market, so that a committed pub-operator might buy it and re-open it for the trade that it was built for more than 150 years ago. Continue reading →

Posted in Addiscombe West, East Croydon, Property, Pubs, Sean Fitzsimons | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Council’s figures show traders in exodus from Surrey Street

Posted on March 2, 2018 by insidecroydon

Town Hall reporter KEN LEE has been doing some digging into how a £1.2m ‘improvement’ scheme has driven away businesses from the town’s historic street market

Croydon Works: but not with Mark Watson in charge

The legacy of Mark Watson’s £1.2million, council-funded artwashing and gentrification of Surrey Street is a 20 per cent reduction in the number of weekday stall-holders working on Croydon’s historic street market.

That’s according to Croydon Council’s own figures, for the number of permanent and casual – temporary – licences issued in January 2017 compared to the number of licence-holders operating this year.

The council figures, from a Freedom of Information response to Inside Croydon, contradict what the former council cabinet member recently told a Town Hall meeting. Watson claimed that the number of stalls on the market had increased.

Continue reading →

Posted in Business, Mark Watson, Surrey Street | Tagged , , | 2 Comments