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Friends of the Earth free screening of Trashed, Mar 20
Posted in Cinema, Croydon Friends of the Earth, Environment
Tagged Croydon Friends of the Earth
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Council approves £30m school – despite 5,000 surplus places
These playing fields were Green Belt until last month. Now, Croydon Council has granted permission to build a large selective school here
GENE BRODIE, our education correspondent, provides lessons in arithmetic and reading comprehension for Croydon Council, after it cleared the way for the first selective state school in the borough for more than 40 years
Croydon Council has removed Green Belt protection from a swathe of playing fields close to Lloyd Park and has given the go-ahead to £30million plans to build a 1,260-pupil selective free school on the site – even though there is a surplus of more than 5,000 secondary places in the borough.
The decision to grant planning permission, initially for temporary cabins to accommodate the first year’s intake this September for Coombe Wood School, was taken last week, despite objections from residents and the Croham ward councillors, led by Maria Gatland. A planning application for a permanent building on the site is now sure to follow in due course. Continue reading
Newman move to ban councillors who speak to Inside Croydon
With the borough’s children’s services deep in crisis, a pre-election Council Tax hike on the way and amid growing discontent over a scandal involving three senior council employees, Croydon’s council leader has taken to issuing threats to his own Labour councillors
Tony Newman: squeeky bum time
Is Tony Newman, the autocratic leader of the Labour group on Croydon Council, getting worried?
In the week when Inside Croydon reported on the departure of another senior official in the “Godfather Affair”, uncovered the systemic mistreatment of whistleblowers at Croydon Council, and published a leaked email from the chief exec which attempted to gag elected councillors, news has emerged that the Blairite council leader Tony Newman has forced through a vote of Labour councillors to condemn… this website.
Our loyal reader might think that the Labour council leadership has got its priorities all wrong. Or has something to hide.
According to sources, prompted by Newman, Labour councillors have decided that Inside Croydon acts “in a fashion contrary to Labour party values”.
Pyongyang would be so proud. Continue reading
Harriers set date for 2018 Croydon 10km road race
The Croydon 10km road race attracts experienced and beginner runners
Croydon Harriers have confirmed that the 2018 Croydon 10km road race will be staged on Sunday October 21, with a course that loops around Lloyd Park.
The race regularly attracts a field of more than 500 runners and is one of the most well-supported races in the are. The race is open to experienced racers and to beginners who want to set themselves a target event to build up to. Continue reading
Thornton Heath-based nurse is named Midwife of the Year
A midwife working in Croydon has been named as “Midwife Of The Year” at the annual British Journal Of Midwifery Practice Awards.
Midwife of the Year: Thornton Heath-based Memuna Sowe
Memuna Sowe is lead midwife for vulnerable and marginalised women at Croydon Health Services NHS Trust’s Rainbow Health Centre, based at Thornton Heath.
“I’m proud of this award and want to dedicate it to our fantastic team in maternity and homeless health,” Sowe said. “They work across many disciplines and have taught me so much about providing great care.
“The vulnerable women we see are often very late in their pregnancy and, without our care, they and their child would be at great risk. We are very grateful to have the skills and resources to help them, so that they get the same maternity care as other mothers and their chances of a good future are improved.”
Posted in Croydon NHS Trust, Health, Mayday Hospital, Purley Hospital
Tagged Croydon NHS Trust, Mayday Hospital
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Croydon Assembly calls for an end to ‘Strong Leader’ council
The Croydon Assembly has issued an overt challenge to the leadership of Tony Newman and the Blairite clique who dominate Croydon Council, calling on them to stop “just being managers of austerity”.
Thumbs up: Jeremy Corbyn and John McDonnell have supported many of the initiatives put forward by the Croydon Assembly
The Assembly, a coalition of Trades Unionists and figures from the left, will publish their own local election manifesto next Saturday, which calls for a return to a more accountable committee system of Town Hall management, while also being openly critical of the local Labour group’s flagship housing policy, implemented through the increasingly unpopular Brick by Brick private company.
Many Croydon Assembly members took encouragement from the popularity of the more radical approach demonstrated by Labour under Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership at last summer’s General Election.
Next Saturday’s Croydon Assembly meeting will have a de facto endorsement from Corbyn’s shadow chancellor, John McDonnell, who is sending a recorded message to be played out to the attendees at Ruskin House at the start of a session which is to discuss the crisis in Croydon’s schools. Continue reading
‘Incinerator is option of last resort’ says Assembly chair
Viridor have a £1bn public contract to burn rubbish at Beddington Lane.Beddington Farmlands was promised to the public as a nature reserve
An environment report from the London Assembly this week says that the capital needs to reduce the amount of rubbish it is incinerating – just as Beddington is about to fire up a vast waste incinerator that was given clearance to operate by Boris Johnson.
It is just a little more than four years since Johnson, when Mayor of London, gave the go-ahead for the construction of an industrial-scale incinerator on Croydon’s borough boundary, green-lighting the prospect of 25 years of emissions and pollution from burning rubbish that will have to be trucked in from across southern England.
Key findings in the London Assembly report include:
- Burning waste takes materials out of the circular economy, releases carbon into the atmosphere and may have negative health effects; and
- London must begin to limit not only the amount but also the type of waste it sends to Energy from Waste plants. As London strives to be greener, there are further steps the Mayor should take to manage the environmental impact of EfW in the short term.
Developers scale down towering ambition for Surrey Street
Developers who want to demolish an old shop and warehouse building on Surrey Street and replace it with a modern block of flats have scaled down their plans, following meetings with the council’s planning committee and a public consultation last month.
The developers’ computer-generated imagery of the residential block proposed for Surrey Street
Regent Land and Developments act for the owners of 5-9 Surrey Street, which at present has the 99p store facing on to the market. They initially considered a 12- or 14-storey block, but they have now reduced the proposal to nine storeys, to be more in keeping with the scale of Surrey Street, home to one of London’s oldest traditional street markets.
The plans would provide 55 new homes, some retail space and a purpose-built café and arts performance space which the successful local music promoters HooDoos would manage. Continue reading
Posted in Business, Housing, Property, Surrey Street
Tagged Hoodoos, Matthews Yard, Surrey Street
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Love Your Bike Week is about to ride into Croydon schools
Next week is Love Your Bike Week in Croydon, with events popping up at schools to encourage kids to use their bicycles, fix and maintain bikes and provide advice and help for novice cyclists.
Among the various bicycle-related activities is:
Pop-Up Bike Market from Peddle My Wheels
Bring your unwanted bikes – whether they’re kids, teens or adults sizes – with you in the morning for our mechanic to check over. Peddle My Wheels will contact you with a suggested selling price, and once the bike sells, they will notify you and pay you.
Buy a second-hand bike
The market is a great opportunity to find a first bike, upgrade to the next size or just buy something new to get you back into cycling. If you’re looking for something specific, visit the market order form page before market day to make a request, and Peddle My Wheels will do their best to bring along a suitable bike. Continue reading
London Road is about to be transformed into a Green Mile
West Croydon is about to get its own Green Mile, though this has nothing to do with a book by Stephen King nor the movie starring Tom Hanks.
The Our Green Mile launch event on March 4 seeks to build on the initiatives undertaken in the past year at West Croydon Station and by community groups by providing a green “corridor” along the London Road all the way from the station to Thornton Heath Pond.
“With your help, in time we will be able create larger community gardens along the road and plant more trees, which will help to improve air quality in the area” say the organisers.
They hope to have new and refreshed flower beds and planters to brighten up the road. “Your help is needed to water and maintain them – free watering cans provided!”
At the launch, planters will be fixed and planted outside West Croydon Station and at the Pond, marking each end of the Green Mile. Continue reading
Posted in Broad Green, Thornton Heath, West Croydon
Tagged Broad Green, Thornton Heath, West Croydon
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TfL to steam ahead with tram timetable changes from Feb 25
JEREMY CLACKSON, our transport correspondent, on how TfL is pushing through timetable changes for New Addington trams, just as they had wanted to four months ago
Only the first two trams from New Addington each day will travel through to Wimbledon
Transport for London will tomorrow announce significant timetable changes to the tram network which will, for most of each day, make it impossible in future to travel from New Addington to Wimbledon without changing trams.
The changes to be announced are remarkably close to what was originally proposed in October. TfL was forced to pause the implementation of the changes then because they hadn’t bothered to consult the travelling public or local authorities.
Having paid lip-service to a consultation, TfL will now go ahead with the changes they’d always wanted. The timetable changes will be introduced from February 25.
Posted in Commuting, East Croydon, Sandilands derailment, TfL, Tramlink, Transport, West Croydon
Tagged Croydon Tramlink, TfL, Transport for London
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Purley debating society gets all political before local elections
Local elections must be coming, because the Purley and Coulsdon Debating Society has gone all political with its topic for April.
As the event, on Monday April 16, is being staged in true-blue Coulsdon, it is probably unsurprising that the motion is: “It’s time for Croydon to come back to the Conservatives”. Some might wonder whether it has ever gone away.
The motion is proposed by Tim Pollard, the leader of the Tory group at the Town Hall.
Opposing the motion is the Labour councillor, Andrew Pelling. Continue reading
Councillors accuse Negrini of gagging them over The Godfather
A leaked email from the council chief executive suggests she is trying to cover-up her attempted cover-up of the sudden departure of three senior employees. STEVEN DOWNES reports
Jo Negrini: doesn’t like being reported on in Inside Croydon
Elected councillors, already angry at being left uninformed of important developments at the council, are now furious that the chief executive is trying to close down any discussion of the Godfather Affair.
Jo Negrini, Croydon’s £185,000 chief exec, yesterday morning emailed all councillors with a little message.
But it was not a Valentine’s Day love letter.
“Negrini is attempting to gag councillors over the Godfather Affair,” said one councillor who contacted Inside Croydon after receiving the email.
“It is fucking public interest… Misfeasance of public funds,” they added.
When councillors start to speak of “misfeasance”, then you know that they are worried. Continue reading
Old Coulsdon’s pizza pest gets nabbed with £80 council fine
The Phantom Pizza Flinger of Old Coulsdon has been caught, and fined.
Nabbed: the pizza litterer has been caught and fined
Last month, Inside Croydon was first to report the strange turn of events by Bradmore Green Pond, where stale pizza bases were being dumped on an almost nightly basis. The discarded food was so past its eat-by date and mouldy, even the local foxes turned their noses up at it.
It took community-minded locals to clear up the mess caused.
Last week, someone was caught in the act and he and his vehicle photographed, the images being placed on social media and forwarded to the police in East Coulsdon. They referred the matter to the council. Continue reading
Posted in Coulsdon, Coulsdon East, Crime, Croydon Council, Environment, Restaurants, Wildlife
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Ex-MP Barwell caught in Downing Street Twitter porn storm
Gavin Barwell, the former Whitgift Foundation board member and sometime Conservative MP for Croydon Central, has had his online incompetence caught out again, as he has been shown to have shared links to porn sites with the 22,000 people who follow him on Twitter.
Porn: Gavin Barwell
According to media reports which first appeared on the Guido Fawkes website, Barwell replied to a tweet that showed three porn videos with what are described as “graphic sex scenes”. One of the videos features “two schoolgirls” and their “mum”. The clips on the thread were from porn websites called Illustrated Interracial, Blacked and Moms Lick Teens.
Barwell responded to the X-rated tweet at 9.21pm on Monday. The reply remained on his timeline for a day and a half. It was deleted this morning, soon after Downing Street had been contacted by journalists seeking comment.
The worrying thing for the nation is that in his current job, as Prime Minister Theresa May’s Chief of Staff, it was Barwell who was responsible for recruiting his former bag-carrier, and Croydon councillor, Mario Creatura, to manage social media matters for No10.
It was Creatura who once said of his boss’s competence, or lack of it, in IT matters, “Gavin’s not the most technically minded person. He generally has no idea. He trusts me to do whatever.” Continue reading
Posted in Gavin Barwell
Tagged Barwell, Conservative, Croydon Central, Gavin Barwell, Tory
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Residents give backing to Brick by Brick’s Coulsdon schemes
CROYDON COMMENTARY: One Coulsdon residents’ association is supporting developments proposed by Brick by Brick, the council-owned house-builders. CHARLIE KING explains why
The Lion Green Road car park has been the subject of multiple proposals for the last decade
East Coulsdon Residents’ Association will be supporting the four, linked Brick by Brick developments in Coulsdon because, unlike previous proposals, we believe that these are in the interest of both existing residents and businesses of Coulsdon.
The Coulsdon residents’ associations and other interested parties have been in discussion with Brick by Brick for more than a year and now believe we have managed to get to a stage where the developments are in the interest of Coulsdon to assist in keeping it as a vibrant and viable town centre. Continue reading
The ‘Witch of West Street’ takes in another waif and stray
The Shadow of the Teapot is a touching memoir of events that took place in Croydon between the 1940s and 1970s, and details how in those early days of the NHS, an elderly, poor woman took in children who had been abandoned by their parents.
The book is written about her own childhood by MARGARET SHARPE BERMUDEZ. Here we publish an extract
December 1954, South Croydon
Mum Williams gently lowered herself into the front seat as Kath took hold of the massive steering wheel and jiggled the long gearstick into position. Hilda was holding open the big double gates as I stretched my neck to see out of the window and wave at the boys from my school playing football in the street.
Hilda jumped in as Kath tooted her horn to shoo the kids out of the way, and we were off. Continue reading
Sutton’s LibDems start campaigning on their green credentials
The Viridor incinerator at Beddington Lane continues to undergo trials. It doesn’t rate a mention in the LibDems’ leaflets
BELLE MONT, our Sutton reporter, on an outbreak of leafleting in Beddington by the LibDems, who somehow have forgotten to mention their industrial scale incinerator
Sutton’s polluting, thieving and cage-fighting Liberal Democrat councillors and ex-councillors have swung into action, with households in Beddington having orange-tinted Focus leaflets thrust through their letter boxes. Some residents in Beddington North ward claim that this is the first that they have heard from the two LibDem councillors for… possibly four years, since the last time they needed their votes.
Given the manifold issues facing south London councils in 2018, the lead item chosen for campaigning by the LibDem candidates in Beddington North seems a little… well, wooden.
“New trees set to be planted in Beddington” is the main headline on the Spring 2018 Focus leaflet from Nighat Piracha, Pat Ali, MP Tom Brake and former Sutton mayor Brendan Hudson.
Is this the best that they have got to offer? Continue reading
Here’s a dozen good reasons why you should join our team
You, too, can help to produce the sort of journalism which is generating news stories which are being picked up by the BBC, Private Eye magazine and The Times.
Just in the past couple of weeks, Inside Croydon has brought you the kind of news that those who run Town Halls across south London would rather was kept secret and unknown, swept under the carpet. Continue reading
