From Dunkirk to witchcraft, via the global refugee crisis

Posted on December 21, 2017 by insidecroydon

Screen25, the freshly re-branded film club in South Norwood, has put together another fascinatingly eclectic selection of movies to start 2018.

Opening with the blockbuster that is Dunkirk, January’s screenings, now all at the new home of Harris Academy South Norwood, the club has also lined up Ai Wei Wei’s examination of modern-day refugees, Human Flow, and the rom-com, The Big Sick.

The screening of the though-provoking I Am Not A Witch on January 17 will be followed by a panel discussion – the latest in a series arranged by Screen25, this one staged in conjunction with the charity AFRUCA, Africans United Against Child Abuse. Continue reading →

Posted in Cinema, Screen25, South Norwood | Tagged , | Leave a comment

#SouthernFail: Rail closures promise Boxing Day chaos

Posted on December 21, 2017 by insidecroydon

Southern’s apology for a rail service looks set to create traffic chaos on the roads in and around south London on Boxing Day and in the week following, when Brighton supporters drive up from the south coast for their game against Chelsea, and when thousands of Arsenal fans struggle to get to Selhurst Park for their club’s Premier League match against Crystal Palace on December 28.

Because on Boxing Day, next Tuesday, December 26, there are no Southern train services into Victoria.

Under the guise of “essential engineering works”, Southern’s decided to force football fans and January Sales shoppers into their cars for the post-Christmas Bank Holiday.

There are also scheduled rail works going on at London Bridge, as Network Rail looks to complete – finally – the £1billion reworking of junctions and tracks in and around the Thameslink line – which all started back in 2009. Works are due for completion in the spring, but in the meantime, there are closures from this weekend until January 1.

None of which will make it any easier for Croydon residents to travel in to central London. Continue reading →

Posted in Commuting, East Croydon, Transport | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Newman could face legal challenge over councillor sackings

Posted on December 20, 2017 by insidecroydon

WALTER CRONXITE reports on the latest twist to the sackings of two Labour councillors over the borough’s licensing policy

Tony Newman, the council leader (right), campaigning with MP Steve Reed OBE (left) and Callton Young. Newman has sacked Young for ‘voting with the Tories’

Tony Newman, the leader of Croydon’s Labour-run council, may face a legal challenge to his decision to strip councillors Callton Young and Andrew Pelling of their cabinet and committee positions because they called for legal advice before making any decision on licensing policies.

There is a suggestion that members of Newman’s inner circle have been briefing against Young and Pelling since their sackings, claiming that they had failed to attend important pre-committee briefings ahead of the licensing meeting held on November 23.

Both councillors maintain that this is untrue, something which raises the possibility of a serious legal challenge with claims of malicious falsehood. 

“Tony Newman has opened the council or himself up to justifiable litigation,” one Town Hall veteran warned today. Continue reading →

Posted in "Hammersfield", Andrew Pelling, Boxpark, Business, Callton Young, Croydon Council, Jane Avis, Music, Pubs, Tony Newman | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Parks football teams in line for £5m Premier League boost

Posted on December 20, 2017 by insidecroydon

Purley Way Playing Fields could benefit from Premier League funding for grassroots football

Billionaire clubs like Manchester City, Chelsea and Arsenal could soon be contributing towards improved facilities for park football in Croydon.

Croydon has made a successful preliminary bid to Sport England and the Football Association for schemes at Ashburton Park and Purley Way Playing Fields under a project called Parklife, which is being funded with money generated by the £5.1billion Premier League TV rights deal. Continue reading →

Posted in Croydon Council, Croydon parks, Football, Greenwich Leisure, Leisure services, Purley Way, Sport, Timothy Godfrey | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Council admits Fairfield Halls refurb is at least six months late

Posted on December 20, 2017 by insidecroydon

Croydon Council today admitted that its £30million refurbishment project at the Fairfield Halls is running at least six months over schedule. It means that any further delays could jeopardise the flagship venue’s part in plans for Croydon to be London’s “Borough of Culture” in 2019.

The wrecking crew has been let loose on the Arnhem Gallery this week – but the £30m Fairfield refurbishment is already six months behind schedule

Croydon’s internationally renowned arts centre and sometime home to Kent Walton, Mick McManus and professional wrestling, has been closed since July last year for the first significant modernisation since it was opened by the Queen Mother in 1962.

When announcing the closure, Croydon Council was adamant that by not phasing the project, it could all be completed more speedily, and re-open within two years.

But today the council described the Fairfield Halls re-opening date as “in almost exactly a year”, wallowing in the oxymoronic quality of “almost exactly“.

If so delayed, at least until December 2018, it risks ruling out the profitable Christmas season and annual pantomime at the Fairfield Halls, Ashcroft Theatre and Arnhem Gallery venues for a third year. Continue reading →

Posted in Art, Fairfield Halls, Music, Timothy Godfrey, Tony Newman | 12 Comments

81% BME carers given inadequate advice by GPs, report finds

Posted on December 20, 2017 by insidecroydon

Croydon’s family doctors need to recognise the roles of black and Asian carers and support them more by referring them to relevant services, according to research published today by Healthwatch Croydon.

Among its findings, the Healthwatch report found that fewer than 2 in 10 BME carers were given full advice about the support services available to them by their GPs.

Healthwatch’s survey found that 81% of black and Asian carers were not given advice on available support by their GPs

The study, Black and Minority Ethnic Carers and their experiences of GP Services in Croydon, looked at issues such as recognising the caring role, carer’s health and the impact of caring on their health, cultural issues, access and confidence of the GP.

There could be as many as black and Asian 15,000 carers in Croydon, based on the known number of registered carers in the borough (33,000) and the proportion of Croydon’s population that is from BME communities. Continue reading →

Posted in Croydon CCG, Health, Healthwatch Croydon | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

#SouthernFail: Victoria night services to be axed permanently

Posted on December 20, 2017 by insidecroydon

JEREMY CLACKSON, transport correspondent, on the latest, inevitable erosion of rail services by stealth for Croydon

Southern Railway’s effort to reduce services out of Victoria on the Brighton line, via East Croydon, will take another big step forward at noon today when their barely publicised public “consultation” on their night-time services closes.

Southern wants to make permanent its withdrawal of its week night services between Victoria, East Croydon, Surrey, Sussex and Brighton, with no trains operating out of the mainline terminus after five minutes past midnight from Sundays to Thursdays until commuter services resume.

The withdrawal of the service will be a massive blow to night-time and shift workers who live in and around Croydon and need to get home from the city centre, as well as West End theatre-goers and diners, who will have many fewer options when planning their homeward journey.

It is also likely to adversely impact any efforts Croydon makes to improve its night-time economy, deterring visitors from south London and the south coast to stay late in the town centre when their public transport options have been removed. Continue reading →

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

Mayor’s recycling targets go up in smoke at Beddington

Posted on December 19, 2017 by insidecroydon

London will edge ever closer to burning 50 per cent of its waste when the Beddington Lane incinerator, operated by Viridor, fires up in anger next year.

That’s according to figures from London Assembly Member Caroline Russell, whose question to London Mayor Sadiq Khan elicited the response that it is against his policy for there to be more incineration in the capital.

Khan’s environmental strategy demands that by 2030, 65 per cent of all London’s municipal waste should be recycled.

Continue reading →

Posted in Business, Caroline Russell, Environment, London Assembly, London-wide issues, Mayor of London, Refuse collection, Sadiq Khan, Stuart Collins, Waste incinerator | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Newman sacks two councillors over bashment ban debate

Posted on December 18, 2017 by insidecroydon

WALTER CRONXITE on the latest power move by Labour’s council leader

Sacked: Callton Young

Tony Newman, the leader of the Labour-held council, with Soprano-esque savagery, has sacked two councillors in the festering dispute over the implementation of a new licensing policy to favour Westfield when (or if), it ever opens.

Newman has removed Callton Young from his position as deputy cabinet member for communities, while Andrew Pelling has lost his role as chair of the council’s pensions committee. Both have been stripped of their positions on the licensing sub-committee, too.

At a licensing meeting last month, the two Labour councillors (Young represents West Thornton ward, Pelling the marginal Waddon ward) had voted to defer a decision on the council’s new licensing policy until legal advice was made available, after the committee chair, Jane Avis, had raised the matter of Young’s report on the state of the night-time economy and the police’s “bashment ban”. Continue reading →

Posted in "Hammersfield", Alison Butler, Andrew Pelling, Boxpark, Business, Callton Young, Croydon Council, Dance, Jane Avis, Music, Tony Newman | Tagged , , , , , , , | 9 Comments

Tories back candidate who is banned from talking at Town Hall

Posted on December 18, 2017 by insidecroydon

Croydon Conservatives either do not realise or are trying to ignore strict Civil Service rules which prohibit one of their councillors from voting or speaking at Town Hall meetings.

Very important: Mario Creatura

Coulsdon West councillor Mario Creatura has landed himself the plum job as tweeter-in-chief for the Prime Minister, Theresa May. It was a classic piece of who-you-know-not-what-you-know recruitment, as at No10 Downing Street, Creatura teams up again with his old boss, Gavin Barwell, whom he worked for when MP for Croydon Central. Barwell is now May’s £140,000 per year Chief of Staff.

And according to the Cabinet Office, Creatura is on a salary of up to £70,000 (on top of the 18 grand he trousers for being a Croydon councillor) as a Special Adviser, or SPAD.

Special Advisers are temporary civil servants, and therefore subject to a very strict code of practice. Continue reading →

Posted in Coulsdon Town, Mario Creatura, Tim Pollard, Uncategorized | 1 Comment

Council fails to publish papers for Boxpark licensing meeting

Posted on December 18, 2017 by insidecroydon

The council’s administration of its public meetings has again fallen short, ahead of a licensing sub-committee due to be held at the Town Hall tomorrow morning.

Boxpark: council’s failed to shine a light on its licensing application

The last licensing committee meeting has become a matter of controversy because neither the chair, Labour councillor Jane Avis, nor the committee clerk, council official James Haywood, had ensured that a member of the council’s legal department was on-hand to provide advice. A decision on the proposed new licensing policy, which needs to be implemented by 2019, was therefore deferred until January.

The council has a legal duty to publish the agendas of all its public meetings at least seven days in advance. By this morning, there was still no published agenda available for the licensing sub-committee. Continue reading →

Posted in Boxpark, Business, Croydon Council, Jane Avis | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

MidWives deliver to set-up top-of-the-table derby clash

Posted on December 18, 2017 by insidecroydon

Surrey 1 – which includes four clubs based in or near Croydon, including Old Mid-Whitgiftians (in the dark blue), is proving super competitive this season

RUGBY ROUND-UP: Halfway into the 2017-2018 rugby season and it’s clear that in Croydon this winter, Surrey 1 is where it is at.

And after the break for Christmas – no one likes to fill-up the local A&Es with broken collar bones or concussions suffered on the rugby pitch during the festive period – there promises to be a decisive derby battle at Lime Meadow Avenue, when Old Mid-Whitgiftians take on their fiercest rivals, Old Whitgiftians, in a top-of-the-table clash. Continue reading →

Posted in Croydon RFC, Old Mid-Whitgiftians/Trinity RFC, Old Walcountians, Old Whitgiftians, Purley-John Fisher, Rugby Union, Sport, Streatham-Croydon RFC, Warlingham RFC | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

St Helier Hospital charges nurses £1,200 to park at work

Posted on December 17, 2017 by insidecroydon

Hard-working and under-paid NHS staff at St Helier Hospital are forced to pay more than £1,200 a year just to use the hospital car park when they go in to work.

Hospital car parking charges see nursing staff at St Helier have to pay £1,200 per year

St Helier is ranked second on a national list of shame of hospital trusts, some of which use private car parking companies and which rake in profits at the expense doctors, nurses and other hospital staff.

A report based on Freedom of Information requests to NHS trusts across the country, compiled by hospital workers union the GMB, found that University Hospitals Bristol charge £1,300 per staff member per year for using its car parks, while the Epsom and St Helier hospitals trust charges £1,248.

“Hospital workers who care for us when we’re sick deserve a medal, not to be charged for the pleasure,” the GMB’s Tim Roache said.

Continue reading →

Posted in Health, Parking, St Helier Hospital | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Tory MP told to apologise after bad joke about road safety

Posted on December 17, 2017 by insidecroydon

A Tory MP was forced into an embarrassing U-turn last night, after an attempt to score petty party political points over road safety.

Philp’s ‘joke’ tweet that he’d rather you did not see

Chris Philp, the Conservative MP for Croydon South, was widely criticised on social media after he tweeted a picture of a car which had crashed into and damaged a 20mph road sign in the borough, part of the Labour council’s policy to make Croydon’s streets safer.

The photograph Philp used had been provided by Andy Stranack, a Tory councillor for Heathfield ward.

“Looks like Croydon Council’s 20mph limit is not working out as planned,” Philp wrote on Twitter.

The sly, off-hand attitude to road safety was roundly condemned, first by members of the public, and later by Labour councillors..

“What a deeply irresponsible tweet, especially from someone in a position of authority,” Stuart King, the Labour council cabinet member in charge of road safety who has steered the 20mph policy in throughout the borough. Continue reading →

Posted in Andrew Stranack, Chris Philp MP, Croydon Council, Croydon South, Heathfield, Sean Fitzsimons, Stuart King | Tagged , , , , , , , | 8 Comments

Croydon’s social workers having to deal with double case work

Posted on December 16, 2017 by insidecroydon

WALTER CRONXITE on the anxious wait at the Town Hall for the latest update on the council’s children’s services department

Tony Newman: he thinks the Ofsted update is encouraging

Tony Newman, Croydon’s council leader, was described as “channeling his inner Young Mr Grace” at a meeting of his close circle of councillors last week when he gave his verdict on the latest update report on the state of the borough’s children’s services department.

“He didn’t quite use the words, ‘You’ve all done very well’,” our Katharine Street source said, “but that was his message.”

Our source was referring to the catch-phrase of a character in the 1970s sit-com, Are You Being Served, where the department store’s owner would arrive on set in the midst of some calamity or chaos, smile benignly, and then leave none the wiser, with a cheery wave. It may be an apt analogy.

At the meeting of the Labour council’s political cabinet, Newman was rallying his troops’ morale by giving his verdict on the latest report from Eleanor Brazil, the government inspector appointed in September after Ofsted decreed that Croydon’s children’s services department is “inadequate”.

Copies of Brazil’s submission to the Secretary of State for Education were not distributed to councillors at the meeting. They just had to take Newman’s word for it. Continue reading →

Posted in Alisa Flemming, Barbara Peacock, Children's Services, Croydon Council, Jo Negrini, Tony Newman | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Cage-fighting councillor pays up for LibDem fighting fund

Posted on December 16, 2017 by insidecroydon

Our Sutton reporter, BELLE MONT, has gone digging into the 10,500 probable reasons behind the prolonged absence from council meetings of LibDem cage-fighter Callum Morton

Forgetful: Ruth Dombey

With local elections less than five months away, the Liberal Democrats, who have enjoyed the benefits of a virtual one-party state in Sutton for 20 years, have been counting the possible costs of defeat.

Having lost their previously iron-like grip on one of the borough’s parliamentary seats, Ruth Dombey, the LibDem council leader, knows that it is essential for her party’s political future in the borough to retain control of the council for another four years, and with it around £3.3million of public money doled out over a four-year term to councillors in the form of “allowances”.

And Dombey also knows that by-elections, even in the LibDems’ safe wards, are not something which will necessarily help that cause. Continue reading →

Posted in Nick Mattey, Ruth Dombey, Sutton Council, Tom Brake MP | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Grange Road residents count the costs of speeding drivers

Posted on December 15, 2017 by insidecroydon

Another winter’s night, and another car crash on Grange Road in South Norwood.

Near-misses and full-on collisions are commonplace on Grange Road, as this incident last night showed

Pictured left is the scene outside 227 Grange ​Road  at 11pm last night​.

The incident was attended by two ambulances. The young driver involved in the incident, who was driving on the correct side of the road, is not thought to be too badly hurt.

But those residents of Grange Road, who park their cars near their homes, are counting the mounting costs of prangs, scratches and out-right smashes, which are costing them dear, and seeing their insurance premiums soar. “I really do not want someone to die before anything constructive is done,” one worried resident said.

The loyal Inside Croydon reader says that they have had four cars parked outside their house written off as a result of driving incidents. “Both my ​​neighbours have also had cars written off or crashed into on more than one occasion. It used to be mainly when they were parked on the park side of the road; cars parked outside the houses were relatively safe.

“But since the introduction on the new speed check at the top of the road this has changed considerably.” Continue reading →

Posted in Environment, Parking, South Norwood, Stuart King, Transport | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Tories’ reward for failure: ex-MP Barwell gets £31,000 pay hike

Posted on December 15, 2017 by insidecroydon

A 22% pay rise, plus winding-up expenses, jobs for the boys (and girl), resettlement grants and a very generous redundancy package means that one Croydon Conservative has never had it so good. And all at your expense, as WALTER CRONXITE reports

When Gavin Barwell was rejected by the voters of Croydon Central as their MP in June, what most will not have realised at the time was that they had just helped the former councillor and sometime junior minister to hit the jackpot – and all funded by the tax-payer.

PM Theresa May explains to Gavin Barwell the size of his pay hike for working in No10

For a start, Barwell was handed a salary of £140,000 per year by Prime Minister Theresa May when she took pity on his plight and gave him the job as chief of staff (“He can’t do any worse than the previous pair,” as someone might have remarked at the time, not realising Gav’s gaffe-prone reputation).

But Barwell’s generous rewards for the failure of his political career don’t end there.

Hired as the PM’s new chief of staff, Barwell is now travelling first class on the Tory Government’s gravy train, and he’s taking some of his closest chums in politics along for the ride, too.

The pay figures for the Government’s bloated squad of special advisers emerged last night, as it was revealed that May’s administration doesn’t practice what it preaches about the gender pay gap. Barwell and other men hired by Downing Street in special adviser roles are paid £15,000 a year more than women who did similar level jobs.

Continue reading →

Posted in Croydon Central, Gavin Barwell, Mario Creatura, Nero Ughwujabo, Sara Bashford, Selsdon & Ballards | Tagged , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Another selection hic-cup as Tories pick ‘probable alcoholic’

Posted on December 15, 2017 by insidecroydon

KEN LEE on more problems for Croydon Conservatives over their poor judgement in candidate selections for the local elections

How the Tories finally presented their South Norwood candidates this week, including ‘probably alcoholic’ O’Flynn

Despite their four-month pause before allocating their B List candidates to contest wards in the north of the borough, Croydon’s Conservatives don’t appear to have been very careful about who they have chosen to stand in next May’s local elections.

Because one of the candidates for South Norwood ward named by Croydon Tories describes himself as “Probably an alcoholic”.

Matthew O’Flynn is one of the Croydon Tories’ after-thoughts: candidates for five wards that they didn’t bother selecting in September, when Tim Pollard and his top team were just too busy shuffling their pack to find safer wards for the likes of… Helen Pollard. Continue reading →

Posted in 2018 council elections, Matthew O'Flynn, South Norwood, Tim Pollard | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

Croydon condemned for ‘cultural apartheid’ over music ban

Posted on December 14, 2017 by insidecroydon

One of the country’s most prominent black activists has condemned Croydon Council’s suppression of its own report into the town centre’s night-time economy.

Lee Jasper: condemns police’s ‘cultural apartheid’ in Croydon

Lee Jasper has described Croydon police’s “bashment ban” – withholding licences from nightclubs that want to play black and Asian music – as “cultural apartheid”.

Jasper was the senior policy advisor on equalities at City Hall from 2004 to 2008, during Ken Livingstone’s second term as Mayor of London.

Inside Croydon yesterday published the report by Councillor Callton Young, which the council has withheld for eight months. Young’s report found that Croydon police had indeed made efforts to ban what some officers regard as “unacceptable forms of music” from clubs and bars in the town centre.

“This is the type of cultural policing apartheid, enforced by an institutionally racist Metropolitan Police, that targets black club owners, and [that] promoters face all over London,” Jasper wrote on Twitter. Continue reading →

Posted in Amy Lamé Limited, Andy Tarrant, Business, Callton Young, Croydon Council, Dance, Jeff Boothe, Jo Negrini, Ken Livingstone, London-wide issues, Mayor of London, Music, Policing, Pubs, Sadiq Khan, Tony Newman | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Police investigate bomb threat made against Labour MP’s office

Posted on December 14, 2017 by insidecroydon

The police are investigating a bomb threat made against the constituency office of Croydon Central MP Sarah Jones.

Croydon Central MP Sarah Jones (left): her new office has received a bomb threat

The office, on Blackhorse Lane in Addiscombe, is due to be opened officially on Saturday morning by Emily Thornberry, a senior member of Jeremy Corbyn’s shadow cabinet at Westminster.

The bomb threat is believed to be connected with the local Labour group’s plans to vacate its long-term office in Ruskin House and re-locate their full-time organiser, Jack Buck, to Jones’s office.

It is difficult to assess how seriously to take the bomb threat, which it is understood was delivered via email. Continue reading →

Posted in Caragh Skipper, Clive Fraser, Crime, Croydon Central, Croydon North, Croydon South, Ruskin House, Sarah Jones MP, Steve Reed MP | Tagged , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Viridor highlights homeless owls as they claim wildlife success

Posted on December 14, 2017 by insidecroydon

One of the Beddington barn owls, as featured in Viridor’s leaflets

Incinerator operators Viridor have outraged local conservationists with their latest publicity, which has been described as “misinformation” over the status of the habitat and the various wildlife species that live around Beddington Farmlands.

Viridor has a £1billion contract from the South London Waste Partnership, including Croydon, Sutton, Kingston and Merton. With the Beddington Lane incinerator, built at a cost of £200million, about to be fired up for “hot commissioning” tests before Christmas, Viridor has been undertaking a PR campaign, its leaflets being distributed to homes locally claiming that they are doing wonderful work for conservation.

But bird-watchers and conservationists claim that Viridor has failed to fulfil its various promises, made in conjunction with planning permission when it acquired the landfill site in Sutton, to improve and enhance the environment, and this has seen the number of breeding birds at Beddington plummet. A previously flourishing colony of tree sparrows at Beddington Farmlands is now almost extinct. Continue reading →

Posted in Environment, Peter Alfrey, Sutton Council, Waste incinerator, Wildlife | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Tories scrape together B Listers, but miss out Selhurst

Posted on December 14, 2017 by insidecroydon

KEN LEE, our Town Hall reporter, on the latest sign that Croydon’s Tories really don’t much care for the north of the borough

Two-seat Selhurst allocated just a single Conservative candidate according to their campaign leaflet

Four months on from the botched announcement of their candidates for next May’s local elections, and Croydon’s Conservatives have distributed a newsletter which shows that they still have yet to find a full slate of 70 candidates. The local elections, on May 3, are now less than five months away.

Back in September, we reported how the Tories managed to name only 56 candidates in 23 wards, having completely omitted any candidates for South Norwood, Selhurst, Thornton Heath, Bensham Manor and West Thornton wards – all Labour-held and all in the north of the borough.

The latest Tory leaflet, which may have landed on a doormat near you in the past fortnight, fills in some of those blanks, with a few names plucked from what the Conservatives themselves regard as only “B List” candidates. Continue reading →

Posted in 2018 council elections, Croydon Council, Mario Creatura, Selhurst, Tim Pollard | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Westfield takeover is a ‘positive’. Newman’s positive about that

Posted on December 13, 2017 by insidecroydon

MT WALLETTE, our Francophone retailing correspondent, on council efforts to pass off a pig’s ear as a silk purse (there has to be some trading standards regulations about that…)

Tony Newman at a recent council meeting. He’s very positive

The multi-billion-pound takeover of Westfield, the shopping centre developers who have been keeping Croydon waiting for at almost six years for the much-needed redevelopment of the Whitgift Centre, is “extremely positive”, according to council leader Tony Newman.

And he’s quite positive about that.

In what must be the first time that the leader of Croydon Council has felt the need to share their thoughts about an announcement made to the Sydney Stock Exchange, Newman – or one of his minions – cobbled together 156 words to publish on the council website which showed (a) that our council leader doesn’t know much about business; and (b) the council hasn’t got a Scooby-doo what the real ramifications might be of the news that Unibail-Rodamco has acquired the Australian company.

The statement may also betray a heightened sense of nervousness at the Town Hall over the whole Westfield deal for the town centre, which was first announced in 2012. Continue reading →

Posted in "Hammersfield", Business, Centrale, Croydon Council, Jo Negrini, John Burton, Tony Newman, Whitgift Centre | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Council wanted to whitewash report on police ‘bashment ban’

Posted on December 13, 2017 by insidecroydon

Today, we publish the review on the borough’s night-time economy and the police’s licensing policies, which council leader Tony Newman and chief exec Jo Negrini didn’t want you to see. WALTER CRONXITE reports

In control: Labour council leader Tony Newman, right, has not helped to get Callton Young’s report published

Croydon Council officials have suppressed a report by an elected councillor into the state of the borough’s night-time economy, apparently because they are uncomfortable with its findings that the police had been conducting racial profiling as part of its night club licensing policy, and that they were operating a “bashment ban”, stopping clubs and bars playing music popular with black and ethnic minority communities.

There are suggestions that the report’s author was asked to change his findings, to deliver what has been called “a whitewash”.

Today, Inside Croydon publishes the report in full.

Callton Young, the Labour councillor for West Thornton, was tasked by the scrutiny committee to draft a report on the state of the town centre’s night-time economy following allegations by some club owners that the police were banning grime, dubstep and other forms of black music from being played in Croydon. Continue reading →

Posted in Business, Callton Young, Croydon Council, Dance, Jo Negrini, Music, Tony Newman | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments