Has Mayor Perry’s council backed down from ending lollipop road safety patrols at six of the borough’s primary schools? That’s what it sounded like at this week’s Town Hall meeting, as KEN LEE reports
Petition presented: Cllr Bonham (right) and parents and pupils from Cypress at the Town Hall this week
Did one of Croydon Mayor Jason Perry’s henchmen, Councillor Scott Roche, suggest that the cash-strapped council’s decision to remove lollipop ladies and men – school crossing patrols – from six of the borough’s primaries might be “reviewed”?
That’s what it sounded like at Wednesday’s meeting of full council, the last to be held before the arrival of government Commissioners, and the last to be held until October – by which time the borough’s six remaining lollipop patrols may have been reduced to nothing more than a fond memory of better, kinder, safer times.
Councillor Claire Bonham had managed to get a public petition opposing the cuts presented at the meeting, despite underhand efforts by council officials to try to claim that the petition was received too late or that they could not verify the hundreds of signatures on the submitted petition. Continue reading
The government might have decided to send in Commissioners, but it will be Croydon’s Council Tax-payers who will be picking up the bill. Yet again. EXCLUSIVE by STEVEN DOWNES
Croydon’s long-suffering residents will be expected to pay the generous daily fees for the four Commissioners who the government yesterday appointed to take charge of the management of the cash-strapped council.
And that means that Council Tax-payers will be paying at least
per year for the expertise and experience of Ged Curran, Jackie Belton, Debbie Warren and Abi Brown. Continue reading
The government “was left with no choice” but to appoint Commissioners to take over the running of Croydon’s omnishambles council, a decision which reflects “serious failings on leadership and culture” at the Town Hall.
On message: Croydon Labour MPs Sarah Jones (left) and Natasha Irons yesterday both welcomed their government’s intervention at the council
Two of Croydon’s Labour MPs, Sarah Jones and Natasha Irons, reacted last night following the seemingly inevitable announcement by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government that Commissioners will oversee wide-ranging aspects of the council’s management, possibly for the next two years.
The Labour government’s announcement also just happens to leave Tory Jason Perry as a lame duck Mayor for the final nine months of his term up to the next local elections in May 2026.
Jones, the MP for Croydon West, said, “The decision to appoint Commissioners to Croydon Council was made because the Government was left with no choice.
“An independent oversight panel, appointed by the previous Conservative government, had found Croydon Council’s finances to be ‘deteriorating rapidly’. Continue reading
STEVEN DOWNES reports on another day of shame for Croydon’s Tory Mayor and his £204,000 chief executive, as government minister orders ‘a short and sharp reset, with fast action… to shift the dial on the council’s recovery’
The government today confirmed that it will be sending in a team of Commissioners to take over the running of Croydon Council, after having lost patience with the borough’s Mayor Jason Perry and the executive leadership team under chief exec Katherine Kerswell.
Local government minister Jim McMahon made another statement to the House this afternoon, this time concerning a veritable rogues’ gallery of basketcase councils: Thurrock, Dudley and Liverpool.
But Croydon was top of his agenda. Continue reading
Just who are the Commissioners named today by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government to have been appointed with the task of steering Croydon Council off the rocks of toxic debt and crass mismanagement?
Last month, local government minister Jim McMahon announced that the MHCLG is “minded” to send in Commissioners to take over the running of Croydon Council, following a highly critical report from the improvement and assurance panel which had been overseeing the council’s management for five years.
The improvement panel had reported that spending at the council under Mayor Perry and CEO Kerswell was “runaway”.
Croydon has debts of £1.4billion, with almost all involved in agreement that the council’s position is “unsustainable” without some kind of rescheduling or write-off of the debt. Continue reading
After a five-year battle against a deep-pocketed developer, aided and abetted by Croydon Council’s planning department, residents on Downsview Road in Upper Norwood have claimed victory in the High Court.
But they now face financial ruin because of the huge costs of running the case.
Five-year battle: residents of Downsview Road took their case to the High Court, and won
The dispute centred on a planning application submitted by Hambridge Investments Ltd to build nine flats on the site of a Downsview Road bungalow.
However, this land — along with neighbouring bungalows, including 283 and 285 Beulah Hill — forms part of the original Beulah Hill Estate, which neighbours claimed is protected by a 100-year-old legal covenant.
This restriction, established during the estate’s original planning, was known to the developer and planning officials from the outset, according to Peter and Caroline Fenech, whose home is next door to the proposed site.
The developer decided to roll the dice, guessing that a lengthy and expensive challenge from residents to any planning permission granted by the council would be unlikely. Croydon Council granted planning permission for 19 Downsview Road in July 2020.
Concerned about the impact on the character of the area, the strain on local infrastructure and the principle of upholding legally binding agreements, the Fenechs formed a small group of residents to challenge the plans. Continue reading
While Downing Street chief of staff Morgan McSweeney was conducting his latest purge in Westminster, back in his old stomping ground of Lambeth, a Labour councillor was suspended yesterday after being charged with a criminal offence.
Charged: Clapham Park Labour councillor Irfan Mohammed was arrested and charged by police
Irfan Mohammed has been a Labour councillor at Brixton Town Hall since 2018, having been elected to represent Clapham Park ward in 2022.
A statement issued by Lambeth Labour said: “We have been made aware by the police that Councillor Irfan Mohammed has been arrested and charged.
“He has been suspended from the Labour group, removed from all responsibilities as deputy cabinet member and removed from all council committees with immediate effect.
“We understand the police investigation is ongoing and we are unable to comment further.” Continue reading
Among the multi-layered answers to “how did we get in this mess?” over Croydon’s, and other local authorities’, financial crises, Big Eric Pickles and his 2011 Localism Act goes a long way to explaining how Town Halls across England and Wales, once the heart of civic pride, descended into such a shambolic state.
At the centre of Tory minister Pickles’ reforms was the abolition of the Audit Commission and, with it, the district auditor, whose role it was to provide an external check that councils’ accounts added up.
Under Tory austerity, with councils squeezed of cash from government, they were now expected to hire in private audit firms. And you know how well that has worked…
Covid did not help, with firms such as Grant Thornton, Croydon’s external auditors, unable to keep up with the backlog of local authority accounts. Croydon’s accounts have been published late for five successive years now.
Quietly, something is being done to try to fix the mess created by Pickles and the Tories, and provide more timely public scrutiny and checks on Town Hall finances. Continue reading
Croydon’s £204,000 per year chief exec appears to have bowed to the inevitable that the government will take over the running of the debt-laden council. By WALTER CRONXITE, Political Editor
“Her empire is crumbling around her.”
That’s how one Croydon council staffer reacted to Inside Croydon’s exclusive news report yesterday that Huw Rhys Lewis BSc, BArch, MSc, MRIBA, MAPM, MRICS had become the fourth executive director in chief exec Katherine Kerswell’s corporate leadership team to leave Fisher’s Folly in the past six months.
Significantly, Lewis is one of two six-figure salaried execs to have their departures confirmed since the government’s announcement last month that it is considering sending in Commissioners to take over the running of Croydon.
Condescending: Katherine Kerswell
After an unusual gap of a week in her usual condescending messages to council staff, the chief executive resumed her “weekly waffle” last Friday.
Front-line staff did not need to do much reading between the lines to see that after five years of failure, despite massive cuts to staff and services, Kerswell is desperately trying to moderate her position and somehow back down from the outright opposition she initially showed to the Commissioner decision.
A Commissioner, or Commissioners, are expected to be named and to arrive in south London very soon. Perhaps as soon as this week, according to Kerswell herself. Continue reading
You can get decent discounts at Pizza Express, make savings at a local health club and get free food at Wagamama with a Croydon loyalty card that has just been released for visitors to the town centre.
The Checkout Croydon Card is a free-to-download digital scheme, offering discounts across local food, drink, retail and leisure businesses in the town centre. Continue reading
Victims of domestic abuse are being urged to make use of a new app to help bring perpetrators to justice, as police pioneer a digital evidence-gathering device in the fight against VAWG, as JOHNNY DOBBYN reports
Victims of domestic abuse are being asked to use Kulpa – an online app for recording evidence of violence, harassment, stalking and other aspects of domestic abuse. For any crime, in fact.
Kulpa allows users to capture and securely store digitally legally admissible evidence, such as dashcam footage, photos of injuries, audio of threatening encounters, or medical documents, ensuring that it is stored securely and can be used in legal proceedings.
Chloe Smith, the chair of Croydon’s new Violence Against Women and Girls Community Action Group, has welcomed the app, saying, “Kulpa is a vital tool for people who may feel powerless to report crimes immediately but want to ensure that they have the evidence should they decide to act later.
“Kulpa allows victims to preserve vital evidence in a way that makes sure it’s admissible in court when the time comes.” Continue reading
TfL is due to begin major road works on a scheme intended to make the A23 Streatham Hill “safer and better for residents and visitors”, the transport authority said today.
The scheme will create new pedestrian crossings, a protected cycling route and what TfL says will be improved bus lanes for quicker bus journeys.
Transport for London said today that there will be lane closures on Streatham Hill from Monday August 4 until “the autumn”, which seems conveniently vague, but buses will continue to operate their normal routes.
Road works and likely disruption is expected to continue in phases along this stretch of the A23 until the spring of 2027. Continue reading
Croydon’s largest NHS hospital has for the second time in less than three years been given a “requires improvement” rating by inspectors from the Care Quality Commission.
In the report, the inspectors found that some patients had to wait more than 60 hours – two-and-a-half days – to get transferred to a bed on a ward.
Long waits: it can take up to 60 hours to find a ward bed for patients from Croydon’s A&E, according to inspectors
The CQC says that the average wait for a bed at Mayday was 13 hours – seven hours longer than the national average.
In a statement issued ahead of the publication of the inspectors’ report, the CQC described a hospital that is badly overcrowded, with poor systems in place for the safe discharge of some patients.
“Staff had to care for many people in areas such as corridors… these spaces gave people little privacy and dignity and lacked facilities… These spaces also lacked call bells or emergency alarms… and some busy corridors made it hard for staff to reach vital areas like the resuscitation room.
“While it hadn’t done so yet, this could delay lifesaving care.” Continue reading
EXCLUSIVE: One of the cash-strapped council’s £1,000 per day ‘temporary’ directors left Fisher’s Folly in a bit of a rush last week – getting out before the Commissioners arrive. By STEVEN DOWNES
Huw Rhys Lewis BSc, BArch, MSc, MRIBA, MAPM, MRICS has left the building. And taken his string of qualifications with him…
Council insiders related how they were “shocked” on Friday to be summoned to a meeting at Fisher’s Folly where they were advised that the council’s interim director of commercial investment and capital – the man ultimately responsible for flogging off the borough’s assets – had left his position with immediate effect.
After five years of empire-building, Katherine Kerswell, the council’s chief executive, suddenly finds herself with a power vacuum on the executive floor at Fisher’s Folly, with three senior positions vacant just before the government’s Commissioners are expected to arrive in south London. Continue reading
Back in place: Coombe Lane’s cattle trough has been found, six years after it was stolen
Beano’s and Turtle’s may be long gone, just like the Davis Theatre and Allders. Dabners is soon to close. But other pieces of once-thought-lost Croydon heritage are being restored, or recovered.
As well as the Surrey Street drinking fountain and the (as yet nebulous) plans for the Pumping Station, now Coombe Lane has its drinking trough back.
The 136-year-old granite trough somehow mysteriously vanished from its site at the corner of Coombe Lane and Oaks Road in the Addington Hills. It was one of a host of similar Victorian drinking troughs – at least eight, according to the Metropolitan Drinking Fountain and Cattle Trough Association to be half-inched in late 2019.
A man is currently helping the police with their enquiries, and Croydon’s trough, now a giant planter, is back where it belongs. Continue reading
Steve Reed OBE, the MP for Streatham (and Croydon North if he can be bothered), and the environment secretary in Keir Starmer’s government, is facing renewed calls to renationalise privatised water companies, after the biggest, Thames Water, today reported an annual loss of £1.65billion as its debts soared to £16.8billion.
Piping up: Thames Water’s hosepipe ban has been branded as ‘disgraceful’
Thames Water’s annual report came the day after the company – which has never built a single reservoir since it was privatised – announced a hosepipe ban affecting 1.1million customers.
The company’s annual report, meanwhile, blamed “significant rainfall and high groundwater levels” for a 30% increase in pollution incidents.
In its report, Thames Water admitted that the number of serious pollution incidents on its watch had increased from 350 to 470 in the last calendar year – a period with Reed in government and promising that he would stop the water utilities from ruining the nation’s rivers, streams and waterways.
Meanwhile, with Reed in charge of the environment department, bills for Thames Water’s customers have gone up from £488 to £639 a year.
In May, Thames Water was handed a £122.7million fine, the biggest ever issued by regulator Ofwat, for breaching rules on sewage spills and shareholder payouts. Continue reading
One of Crystal Palace’s biggest fanzines is calling upon Eagles fans, and supporters of other clubs with a sense of fair play, to lobby UEFA with emails sent to the football bureaucrats in Switzerland who decided to demote the FA Cup-winners to the Conference League.
Protest movement: FYP is asking fans of all clubs to email UEFA, probably after they’ve joined tonight’s protest march
The decision was announced last week, dropping Crystal Palace from Europe’s second-tier Europa League competition for an alleged breach of club multi-ownership rules.
UEFA made its decision based on the share-holdings of John Textor, who also had shares in another Europa League club, Lyon. Textor sold his Palace stock last month, but after the March 1 UEFA deadline.
Steve Parish, the Palace chairman, described UEFA’s decision as “probably one of the greatest injustices that has ever happened in European football”.
There is a fans’ protest organised by the Holmesdale Farantics planned for tonight (meeting at South Norwood Clocktower at 7pm, marching to Selhurst Park at 7.30pm).
This summer sees the 80th anniversary of the publication of Animal Farm, George Orwell’s famous fable.
To celebrate, Theatre Workshop Coulsdon will be performing an adaptation of the story in the open air at the Coulsdon Manor Hotel on evenings from July 30 and through to August 9.
The storyline is well-enough known: an army of downtrodden farm animals rises up to overthrow their human oppressors. But their dream of a society where all animals are equal soon collides with the seductive allure of privilege and the corrupting nature of power. Before too long, the writing is on the wall – literally. Continue reading
A national scheme offering an amnesty to anyone who gives up their dangerous, bladed weapons has been welcomed by community workers, who say that the surrender bins at four locations around Croydon offer people a chance to change.
Safe option: the surrender bins are available at four locations around the borough
“Young people want to make a change, but may feel worried about walking into a police station,” according to Wayne Lindsay, co-founder of the Project for Youth Empowerment based in Croydon.
“These community surrender bins give people a chance to do the right thing safely and anonymously, helping to make our streets safer for everyone.”
The dangerous weapons amnesty is operating throughout July, ahead of a ninja sword ban that comes in on August 1, when possession of such bladed weapons will be illegal, with penalties of up to six months in prison. Continue reading
Discounted cinema screenings, free cricket coaching and a family fun day are all available for Croydon families over the school summer holidays, as local organisations offer affordable ways to keep children entertained.
The activities are available to families with children aged up to 19, or 25 if they have special educational needs or a disability.
The David Lean Cinema, at the Croydon Clocktower, will be screening a series of great, family-friendly movies from July 24 to August 14, with tickets just 35 each. The films on offer include the new live-action Lilo and Stitch, Inside Out 2, Paddington in Peru, and The Wild Robot. All screenings start at 11am, but seats are limited, so best to book early. Continue reading
There was no mystery about the cause of a fire in a block of flats on London Road, Mitcham, last week: the London Fire Brigade is saying that a pet tortoise started it.
Animal rescue: firefighters with the tortoise and pet dog saved from the Mitcham fire
The Brigade rescued the tortoise and a pet dog from the fire, which started when the tortoise knocked over the heat lamp in his aquarium, setting light to some hay.
The fire was in a maisonette on the fourth floor of a block. The Brigade was called at 11.40am. Crews from Mitcham, Wimbledon, Tooting and Wallington fire stations attended.
When firefighters arrived on the scene, they found a small fire in one room.
“After being made aware that there were two pets in the property, crews found and rescued a tortoise and a dog who was hiding under the stairs.
“Both animals were returned safely to their thankful owner,” the Brigade said, having got the fire under control by 12.22pm. Continue reading
Croydon College is celebrating a landmark achievement as its esports team, called Croydon Prime, won the League of Legends Grand Final at the British student championships in Sunderland.
In their Prime: the Croydon College team of esporters who won the national title
Made up of five students aged 18 to 20, Croydon Prime delivered an exceptional performance throughout the tournament, which featured 12 of the country’s top student esports teams. In a best-of-three final against Burnley Esports Elite, Croydon Prime capped off a season of hard-fought success with a 2-0 win.
Esports is the competitive world of video gaming, where individuals or teams compete across a variety of genres, including strategy games, first-person shooters and sports simulations. Esports also encompasses live-streaming, content creation, event management, and community engagement. Continue reading
SUNDAY SUPPLEMENT: A Croydon man’s fascination with wildlife saw him travel across Europe and Africa and into the Arctic Circle in pursuit of rare and precious birds, and begin the practice of ringing which tracks the movement of avian migrants, as DAVID MORGAN explains
Leading authority: Harry Witherby, pictured here on a bird-watching trip to Corsica in 1937
Have you seen the swifts flying over Croydon this summer?
Did you take part in the Big Garden Birdwatch in the Spring?
Inside Croydon has looked before at the role of one Croydon resident, Eliza Phillips, in the formation of what is now known as the RSPB, and if you are interested in any aspect of ornithology, it is probable that the work of a Croydon-born birder, Harry Forbes Witherby, played a part in it.
Forbes Witherby helped to promote birding with his tireless energy, improving the general public’s awareness about birds, both native species and those in far-flung places.
In the 1869 Croydon directory, Henry Forbes Witherby and his wife Sarah were listed as living in Mona Cottage on Bramley Hill. Four years later, they were celebrating the birth of their fifth child, a son, on October 7 1873, who they named Harry. Continue reading
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