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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Posted in Community associations, Love Norbury, Norbury | Tagged | Leave a comment

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 →

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

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

Cheers, Mum! Turtle Bay’s week-long offer for Mother’s Day

Posted on March 2, 2018 by insidecroydon

A town centre restaurant is offering Croydon mums a whole week to celebrate Mother’s Day this year, with a drink on the house.

Happy Mother’s Day

Turtle Bay is inviting all mums to enjoy a free Strawberry Bellini cocktail when dining with them this Mother’s Day, March 11, and for the seven days beforehand, starting this weekend.

The Strawberry Bellini – a mix of prosecco and strawberry puree – has been added to the menu especially for Mother’s Day.

Sons and daughters looking to get in their mum’s good books should book in to Turtle Bay to treat her to a sunshine-inspired, Caribbean food experience. But booking a table is recommended, especially for those looking to treat their mothers, or grandmothers, on Mothering Sunday. Continue reading →

Posted in Restaurants, Turtle Bay | Tagged | Leave a comment

Council to save £100,000 by axing 2018 Croydon CycleFest

Posted on March 2, 2018 by insidecroydon

WALTER CRONXITE reports on an excellent cost saving by the council which passed by entirely unmentioned at this week’s Town Hall budget meetings

On yer bike: Newman’s freewheeling towards the local elections

Council leader Tony Newman’s bike race, which has cost Croydon Council Tax-payers at least £300,000 since 2015, has been axed.

The criterion event has seen professional cyclists racing around the town centre on an early summer evening for the last three years as an indulgence to the local Labour leader’s mission “to put Croydon on the map”.

Croydon, of course, has been “on the map” since the Domesday Book; what Newman really meant was that it flattered his burgeoning ego to make an appearance on a late-night TV slot on a poorly watched highlights package.

Newman was unhappy about questions about the cost of staging the event, which never really grabbed the imagination of the Croydon public, and did little if anything to advance the cause of cyclists in the town. Continue reading →

Posted in "Hammersfield", 2018 council elections, Activities, Business, Croydon Council, Cycling, Sport, Tony Newman | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments

Sticklebacks in concert, Ruskin House fundraiser, Mar 3

Posted on March 2, 2018 by insidecroydon

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Posted in Music, Ruskin House | Tagged | 1 Comment

Stormzy to get a bench as Tourist Board triumphs again

Posted on March 1, 2018 by insidecroydon

Stormzy: to be honoured with a bench in his name in the Sensible Garden

Fresh from last month’s High Court success in overcoming the threat of legal action from the Qatari royal family, Ian Bone, the antiquated anarchist and co-founder of the South Norwood Tourist Board, was claiming another victory over Big Business this week.

Bone, and the SNTB, backed by local councillor Jane Avis, have managed to persuade a multi-million-pound media company to fulfill its public obligations to clear-up damaged fencing and hoardings next to the Sensible Garden, the carefully tended previously neglected scrap of land opposite the former Stanley Tech, which takes its name from one of the school’s most famous pupils, Captain Sensible.

And to celebrate this latest success, the SNTB has announced that it intends to add a new bench to the garden, to be named the Stormzy Seat, after another giant of the music business who attended what is now known as Harris Academy South Norwood. Continue reading →

Posted in South Norwood, South Norwood Tourist Board | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment

More station slip-ups as the Bridge to Nowhere is closed

Posted on March 1, 2018 by insidecroydon

Commuters using one of the country’s busiest rail stations were this morning confronted by the closure of the Bridge to Nowhere (© Inside Croydon) for a second consecutive day because it was … too dangerous for people to walk on.

East Croydon Station has a bridge which is too dangerous to use in the wet

With a multitude of delays and cancellations due to the snow, and rail services from Brighton to Gatwick badly affected because of a monster eight-foot icicle in the Balcombe Tunnel, any passengers wanting to change platforms in search of a train that might get them to their chosen destination were forced to schlep up the ramp to the main station concourse and back again, hoping that they did not miss their connection.

“It was carnage on platforms 3 and 4 this morning,” one angry commuter told Inside Croydon. “Even just when it rains, the bridge is slippier than an eel when wet, and the station management have closed it off yesterday and this morning.

“What idiot commissioned such an unusable footbridge?”

Continue reading →

Posted in Commuting, East Croydon, TfL, Transport | 4 Comments

TV presenter calls time on village Post Office in shed dispute

Posted on March 1, 2018 by insidecroydon

One of the most desirable areas of Croydon is about to lose the convenience of its village green Post Office – all because of a garden shed.

TV presenter Laura Hamilton and Alex Gower outside the refurbished and re-opened Lord Roberts last year

The Lord Roberts was re-opened last year on the picturesque Webb Estate in Purley by TV presenter Laura Hamilton and her Old Whitgiftian husband, Alex Goward.

The Upper Woodcote Village convenience store and post office had closed in August 2016 when the owners of 19 years sold up and moved away. Hamilton, who presents Channel 4’s A Place in the Sun, and her husband Goward live nearby, and they bought the property and gave it a television-style makeover to turn it into a posh coffee shop and deli (two slices of toast: three quid, thank you very much; jam on that? 30p extra), with a village post office attached. Continue reading →

Posted in Lord Roberts on the Green, Planning, Property, Purley, Restaurants | Tagged , , , , , | 4 Comments

Dombey and chums forced to climbdown over gerrymandering

Posted on February 28, 2018 by insidecroydon

Sutton’s LibDems have been caught out  over attempts to hijack publicly funded council business for the benefit of their own party’s election prospects, as BELLE MONT reports

Sutton CEO Niall Bolger: told a resident that council roadshows were none of their business

Inside Croydon’s revelations this week that Sutton’s ruling Liberal Democrats were trying to use public resources to promote their bid for re-election has led to a rapid U-turn, as the council’s professional staff moved to shutdown blatantly political appropriation of a supposedly non-politcal “consultation”.

One of the council’s most senior officers was even forced into issuing an apology over the way the LibDems had tried to hijack council public meetings for their own political purposes.

Tory councillors and Labour Party activists both lodged strong complaints about the way in which the LibDems had manipulated the agenda for the Sutton Local Committee meeting due to be held tomorrow night, at which the area’s Liberal Democrat councillors had allocated themselves 90 minutes to deliver presentations on their “successes”, while giving just 15 minutes to residents to hold the councillors to account.

The councillors representing Sutton North – council leader Ruth Dombey, Stephen Penneck and committee chair Marlene Heron – even posted on their ward website that they would be making these presentations, long before the agenda was issued, clear evidence that the agenda items were wholly concocted for the advantage of the Liberal Democrats.

Continue reading →

Posted in Charlie Mansell, Jessica Crowe, Niall Bolger, Ruth Dombey, Sutton Council, Tim Crowley | Tagged , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Brick by Brick will be pimping for Croydon at MIPIM junket

Posted on February 28, 2018 by insidecroydon

Brick by Brick, the council-owned housing developer which, according to Croydon Labour’s deputy leader Alison Butler, is building “local homes for local people”, is heading off to the south of France next month to take part in MIPIM, the world’s largest gathering of international property speculators.

Pack your bucket and spade and Ray-Bans, MIPIM here we come!

The move can only be interpreted as the latest effort by the Blairites in power at Croydon Town Hall to flog off even more of the council’s public land and assets.

MIPIM, which takes place in Cannes every March, has been described as a “booze and hookerfest”.

Indeed, one local government politician described MIPIM as “… a junket on the taxpayers and people don’t want to see highly paid council officials swanning around the French Riviera”.

That was Tony Newman, now the leader of Croydon’s Labour-run council. But in a couple of weeks’ time, Newman’s council will be sending a delegation to the Cote d’Azur to soak up some Mediterranean sun and speculator-funded booze.

Indeed, since Newman has been leader of the council, Croydon has sent a delegation to the MIPIM junket on the French Riviera in four consecutive years, all at considerable public expense but with little tangible return or benefits for the public. Continue reading →

Posted in Brick by Brick, Business, Colm Lacey, Croydon Council, Jo Negrini | Tagged , , , , , | 7 Comments