£5 tickets for under-25s go with a rush at David Lean Cinema

Posted on November 28, 2017 by insidecroydon

The David Lean Cinema is introducing “rush tickets” for the under-25s from January.

“Unfortunately, we have had to increase ticket prices by 50p to £8.50 for standard tickets, and £7 for concessions. However, in order to encourage younger patrons, we are introducing special ‘rush’ tickets at a reduced price of £5,” the cinema’s latest newsletter explains.

From January 8, tickets at the special price of £5 will be available to customers aged 25 and under, in the final hour before the advertised start time of films showing at the David Lean Cinema. Continue reading →

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Benson Primary Christmas Fair, Shirley, Dec 2

Posted on November 28, 2017 by insidecroydon

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Miss P’s Barbecue is serving up some beefy platters

Posted on November 27, 2017 by insidecroydon

JASON HINTON visits an old pub in Addiscombe that has been given a new lease of liveliness

I’d long believed that what was once the Cricketers pub on Addiscombe Road, just round the corner from where I live, could be so much more than the quiet, dark and rather sombre establishment that I had occasionally.

The beef brisket – without bun for gluten-free option – melts in the mouth

Then it closed. But over the course of the past few months, it has been transformed into Miss P’s Barbecue, somewhere that is lively, bright and far from sombre.

After briefly meeting Miss P and her partner on a hot summer afternoon when they were in the midst of transforming the pub into an Atlanta-style barbecue restaurant, and seeing their enthusiasm for their concept and venture, I was eager to try the food they had to offer.

A few weeks after opening my wife and I enjoyed a lazy Sunday afternoon lunch at Miss P’s. My first impressions of the restaurant were that considerable effort had gone into the refurb. The decor is a contemporary wood-stained theme, consistent with a barbecue. The tables are canteen style, with cushions available for comfort, if required. Continue reading →

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Croydon Philharmonic Choir Christmas Cheer, Dec 18

Posted on November 27, 2017 by insidecroydon

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Shirley’s surprises hidden in the heath on Addington Hills

Posted on November 26, 2017 by insidecroydon

The views north to central London from the Addington Hills are an under-appreciated bonus for Croydon’s residents and Sunday morning strollers

WANDLE WANDERINGS: Under gin-blue skies, KEN TOWL headed for the hills and encountered views that could rival a New England Fall

Advertisements in the Sunday newspaper supplements for trips to Boston to see the glories of the New England “Fall”, as they like to call it, are all very well for those with surplus cash. But in these days of austerity, some of us have to tighten our belts and look for our pleasures nearer to home.

Fortunately, a round trip to the Addington Hills will only set you back £3, and now is the time to go when the autumn sun at your back lights up a vista from the hills that takes in the Wembley arch in the west to the hi-rises of Canary Wharf in the east. Continue reading →

Posted in Croydon parks, Environment, Ken Towl, Pubs, Restaurants, Shirley North, Walks, Wandle Wanderer, Wildlife | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Heathfield House Grand Christmas Bazaar, Dec 3

Posted on November 26, 2017 by insidecroydon

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For one night only: Aladdin at Ruskin House, Dec 22

Posted on November 26, 2017 by insidecroydon

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Posted in Art, Comedy, Dance, Music, Ruskin House, Theatre | Tagged | 1 Comment

Senior Tory councillor quits Town Hall but keeps it all quiet

Posted on November 25, 2017 by insidecroydon

KEN LEE, our Town Hall reporter, on the disappearing act performed by one of the local Tories’ former leading lights

Unannounced at the Town Hall, and unmentioned to the people of Selsdon and Ballards ward she was supposed to be representing, Sara Bashford, the sometime deputy leader of the Croydon Tories at the Town Hall, has quit as a councillor.

Bashford quietly handed in her Town Hall pass on November 8, after more than a decade of pocketing generous allowances as an elected councillor.

The only signal of this departure of an elected member of the council is a note on what used to be her contact page on the council website. “Councillor Sara Bashford… Not currently an elected councillor,” it states, apparently oblivious to the imbecilic contradiction therein. Continue reading →

Posted in 2018 council elections, Dudley Mead, Phil Thomas, Sara Bashford, Selsdon & Ballards | Tagged , , , , , , , | 7 Comments

Future of South Norwood Library site ‘not yet decided’

Posted on November 25, 2017 by insidecroydon

Council plans to re-site the public library in South Norwood, announced on Thursday, have already been generally well-received by residents on social media. Not that the public has yet been told all the plans, though, because the council hasn’t quite made up its mind exactly how it is to carve up some public property.

South Norwood Library: too costly to maintain

The council wants to build what it describes as a “mixed-use development” on Station Road, at the heart of South Norwood, using the vacant site next to the Aldi supermarket. One floor of the building would replace the current, 1970s-built library. The rest of the building seems likely to be given over to flats or commercial units – shops – as part of the council’s Brick by Brick development scheme.

Keen to make its case, the council describes South Norwood Library’s current building on Selhurst Road as “outdated and inaccessible”.

“With everything on one floor rather than the current five, the proposed new building would be purpose-built and provide a flexible space that would have the same number of books as now,” the council stated this week. Continue reading →

Posted in Brick by Brick, Libraries, South Norwood, Timothy Godfrey | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Surrey Opera Soiree, Whitgift School, Dec 10

Posted on November 25, 2017 by insidecroydon

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Croydon BME Forum: Enough Is Enough, Nov 28

Posted on November 25, 2017 by insidecroydon

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Barwell gets his social media bag-carrier a job at No10

Posted on November 24, 2017 by insidecroydon

WALTER CRONXITE reports on the predictable and inevitable latest piece of Croydon nepotism going on in Downing Street

Cheers: Tory councillor Mario Creatura, now installed at No10

Things are so bad for the interim Prime  Minister Theresa May that she’s sent for help from… Mario Creatura.

The Times is reporting that the Coulsdon councillor and former gobby fac totem for Gavin Barwell has now rolled up in Downing Street as a “digital special adviser”. The country really must be going down the toilet.

The appointment is as desperate as it was predictable. “It’s the worst kind of 18th century nepotism,” one Katharine Street source blurted, part in mirth and part in disgust, when given the news today.

The Times does not report whether the post Creatura is filling was ever properly advertised. Nor does it explain that Creatura is the third Croydon figure to be employed in a senior role in Downing Street since Barwell arrived at No10 in June as May’s Chief of Staff. Continue reading →

Posted in 2017 General Election, Coulsdon Town, Croydon Central, Gavin Barwell, Mario Creatura | Tagged , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Landlord licensing scheme made one prosecution in a year

Posted on November 24, 2017 by insidecroydon

BARRATT HOLMES on some surprising statistics regarding the borough’s private landlords

Alison Butler: the landlord licensing scheme is working well, apparently

The Labour-run council’s controversial landlord licensing scheme, which has collected an estimated £6million from the borough’s private landlords, has made just a single prosecution in the past 12 months.

Those figures suggest that either the council inspectors, if they exist, are doing less than the bare minimum to protect tenants in sub-standard accommodation, or the borough’s private landlords are paragons of responsibility.

According to Alison Butler, the council cabinet member responsible for introducing landlord licensing in Croydon, “the scheme is working well”.

The single prosecution figure in Croydon comes from a Freedom of Information request filed from City Hall politicians for London-wide statistics on how well, or not, similar licensing schemes are functioning across the capital. Continue reading →

Posted in Alison Butler, Caroline Pidgeon, Croydon Council, Housing, Landlord licensing, London Assembly, London-wide issues | Tagged , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

GLL lined up for libraries, as well as leisure and pools

Posted on November 23, 2017 by insidecroydon

GENE BRODIE, our bookish gyms correspondent, on an added twist to the tale of a 20-year leisure centre management contract

GLL – Greenwich Leisure Ltd – could be lined up to take over the operation of Croydon’s library service.

GLL is the social enterprise company which runs leisure facilities for a number of local authorities, but which attracted controversy in Lambeth when they were put in charge of “bookish gyms”, through the unnecessary and unwanted closure and conversion of some public libraries.

On Monday night, at the Croydon Town Hall, it was announced that GLL was to be handed a 20-year contract to operate Croydon’s gyms, swimming pools and other leisure activities. This extensive deal sees football pitches and tennis courts in Croydon’s parks brought under GLL control, rather than the parks contractor, id-Verde. GLL will also operate the recently refurbished Old Ashburton Library in Ashburton Park, as a café, nursery and leisure centre – almost a bookish gym.

But GLL may yet have a real hand to play in the management of Croydon’s 13 public libraries. Continue reading →

Posted in Business, Carillion, Croydon Council, Croydon parks, Fusion, Greenwich Leisure, John Laing Integrated Services, Leisure services, Libraries, New Addington, Purley, Purley Pool, South Norwood, Sport, Thornton Heath, Waddon | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Brick by Brick moves in on green space next to Ruskin House

Posted on November 23, 2017 by insidecroydon

Could Croydon Labour want to get out of Ruskin House because they know what plans the council’s housing developer, Brick by Brick, has for a scrap of land next door?

Brick by Brick wants to build on a small green space on Coombe Road, at the corner of Edridge Road.

With a couple of mature trees and some saplings, it is one of the few patches of green space remaining in the town centre.

With Brick by Brick planning to build over open space between College Green and Fairfield Halls, for more over-priced high-rises, and Labour cabinet member for housing, Alison Butler, enthusiastically backing private developers in a land-grab of about one-third of Queen’s Gardens for a residential tower block, there will soon be no green space left in central Croydon. Continue reading →

Posted in Brick by Brick, Croydon parks, Environment, Fairfield, Planning | Tagged , , , , | 3 Comments

Labour in row over notice to quit office in Ruskin House

Posted on November 22, 2017 by insidecroydon

There’s a new rift between groups within Croydon Labour, after one official has handed in notice on the use of an office at Ruskin House, the local party’s headquarters for the last half-century.

Labour sharing its office building with other groups has often created some discomfort

Ruskin House, situated in its own grounds on Coombe Road, has been an important centre of Britain’s progressive movements for a century. It is the headquarters of the Communist Party of Britain as well as Croydon’s Labour, Trade Union and Co-operative movements. It operates as a co-operative with shareholders from organisations across the four movements.

The current Ruskin House had previously been the home of an Italian vice-consul and a private prep school. It was bought in 1966 and officially opened in 1967 by the then Prime Minister, Harold Wilson.

But Clive Fraser, as the chair of Labour’s Local Campaign Forum, or LCF, has moved to bring an end to that association with effect from the end of this year.

The only problem is that other members of the LCF – which is supposed to be in charge of organising the party’s campaign activities and funding across all three Croydon constituencies – claim that the matter has not been discussed, never mind agreed. Continue reading →

Posted in Addiscombe West, Clive Fraser, Croydon Central, Croydon North, Sarah Jones MP, Steve Reed MP, Tony Newman | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Butler agrees to attend panel debate on homelessness

Posted on November 22, 2017 by insidecroydon

The leaders of the Labour group at the Town Hall may have tried to ban their colleague councillors from speaking to Inside Croydon, but there’s clear evidence that one of them, at least, continues to be an avid reader.

At risk: Alison Butler

Within half an hour of Inside Croydon reporting that Alison Butler, Labour’s deputy leader, had failed to respond to emails from film club organisers asking her to take part in a panel discussion in South Norwood next week on homelessness, linked to a screening of the documentary Dispossession, and the councillor was hitting the keyboard to say that she might, just might, have a window in her ever so busy diary.

“Butler had kept Stanley’s Film Club waiting without a response for ages,” one resident said.

“It’s surely more than simple coincidence that the article appeared online saying that Butler had blanked the screening, and she was getting in touch so soon after?”

And Butler has now confirmed that she will take part in the panel discussion, together with Jad Adams (the chair of Croydon Nightwatch, the local homelessness charity), Aysen Dennis (a campaigner for council housing from Southwark’s Aylesbury Estate), Sean Fitzsimons (the chair of scrutiny at Croydon Council), David Robinson (the head of operations at Evolve Housing) and Martin Wright (an East End housing activist).
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Posted in Alison Butler, Brick by Brick, Cinema, Croydon Nightwatch, Housing, Screen25, South Norwood | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

A stroll through Great North Wood is a step back in history

Posted on November 22, 2017 by insidecroydon

Might this be the oldest oak in what remains of the Great North Wood?

NATURE NOTES: There’s a vital link to a piece of medieval England on our Croydon door step. MOIRA O’DONNELL set off to investigate

It was a photograph of a Thornton Heath street sign on Twitter that set me off on a mission to discover more about the Great North Wood and its legacy in Croydon. Continue reading →

Posted in Croydon parks, Crystal Palace and Upper Norwood, Education, Environment, Moira O'Donnell, Nature Notes, South Norwood, Wildlife | Tagged , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Medal-winning performances from Youth Games squad

Posted on November 22, 2017 by insidecroydon

By Matthew Kiernan

The under-11 girls’ team returned from the London cross-country championships with team medals

Croydon’s young athletes kicked off their 2018 London Youth Games campaign with a sixth place overall finish from 33 competing boroughs at the cross-country championships staged at Parliament Hill on Saturday.

Croydon’s 60-plus-strong squad brought home two team medals on the day.

The under-11 girls were spearheaded by the Croydon Harrier duo of Francesca Middleton in fifth and Amber Bloomfield two places behind. Islay Rose Pearson was 28th to complete the scoring trio. There were 136 finishers. Continue reading →

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Fire station exhibition to display plans for training tower

Posted on November 22, 2017 by insidecroydon

Croydon residents are invited to a public exhibition tomorrow on a new firefighter training centre at Croydon Fire Station, off Roman Way.

London Fire Brigade’s exhibition will show proposals to redevelop the training centre at the station, to include a six-storey fire tower – or Real Fire Training Venue (RFTV) – where firefighters from across London and from other services can be taught techniques for safely navigating blazes in towers. The centre will be one of only three in the Greater London area, its importance emphasised since the Grenfell Tower tragedy in the summer. Continue reading →

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Council hiring 12 social workers during recruitment freeze

Posted on November 21, 2017 by insidecroydon

WALTER CRONXITE on how the council has admitted it could take three years to fix the ‘inadequate’ children’s services department

Barely coherent: Alisa Flemming at cabinet last night

Another senior council employee has left their job abruptly from the misfiring “People” department.

Until Friday, George Riley was listed as “Delivery Manager Children with Disabilities Service” in the children, families and learning unit on the 4th floor of Fisher’s Folly, the council offices.

Indeed, according to the council switchboard today, Riley is still listed in that role.

But colleagues in his office today said that Riley “has left the organisation”. They also confirmed that Riley’s last day was last Friday.

Riley’s departure appears to have been unplanned and unforeseen because before leaving the council, he had been arranging to attend meetings with parents this week. Continue reading →

Posted in Alisa Flemming, Barbara Peacock, Children's Services, Croydon Council, Tony Newman | Tagged , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Conservation Volunteers pool resources with Lottery grant

Posted on November 21, 2017 by insidecroydon

Volunteers hard at work to keep the undergrowth cleared at the pond at Beulah Hill

The Conservation Volunteers are celebrating the award of a grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund to finance its Croydon Ponds Project.

This two-year project will investigate both the history and the ecology of Croydon’s public ponds. Continue reading →

Posted in Charity, Croydon parks, Environment, Lloyd Park, Peter Underwood, The Conservation Volunteers, Wildlife | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Council developer delivering just 8% homes for affordable rent

Posted on November 21, 2017 by insidecroydon

BARRATT HOLMES unveils startling figures from the council on the failure of its own house-builder to deliver on promises to deliver affordable homes

Alison Butler: only 8% of her Brick by Brick home-building scheme will be for affordable rent

There could be one very strong reason that Paul Scott, the controversial chair of Croydon’s planning committee, failed to insist that Westfield meets the council’s 30 per cent target for affordable homes within its latest planning application last week.

That’s because Scott knows that the council’s own house builder, Brick by Brick, is falling a long way short of the council’s early boasts that it would be delivering 500 affordable homes as it builds 1,000 properties on public land around the borough. In fact, fewer that 8 per cent of all Brick by Brick’s homes will be provided for affordable rent. The rest will be flogged off as private sales or for shared ownership. Continue reading →

Posted in "Hammersfield", Alison Butler, Brick by Brick, Croydon Council, Housing, Jo Negrini, London-wide issues, Mayor of London, Paul Scott, Sadiq Khan, Whitgift Centre | Tagged , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

CACFO Education Centre given ‘inadequate’ Ofsted report

Posted on November 21, 2017 by insidecroydon

Another week in Croydon, another inadequate report from Ofsted inspectors.

This time it is for the CACFO Education Centre in Thornton Heath, and follows an inspection in June.

The inspectors’ report rates the specialist centre overall as “inadequate”, with “Effectiveness of leadership and management” and “Personal development, behaviour and welfare” as both inadequate, while “Quality of teaching, learning and assessment” and “Outcomes for pupils” were both given “requires improvement”.

At the education centre’s previous Ofsted inspection, four years ago, it was rated as “good”. Continue reading →

Posted in CACFO, Callton Young, Charity, Children's Services, Community associations, Croydon Council, Education, Schools | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

South Norwood Christmas Fair and treasure hunt, Dec 10

Posted on November 21, 2017 by insidecroydon

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