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From Henry V to Attenborough – David Lean July screenings
Posted in Art, Cinema, David Lean Cinema Campaign
Tagged David Lean, David Lean Cinema, Henry V, Lilo and Stitch, Sir David Attenborough
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Business as usual for Kerswell – but remember to bring a pen!
EXCLUSIVE: ‘Like the captain of the Titanic, but she hasn’t realised we’ve hit the iceberg’. Council managers were ordered to attend briefing sessions on the chief exec’s pet project, Future Croydon, even though it looks doomed to be junked by Commissioners. By KEN LEE, Town Hall reporter
In Fisher’s Folly, for Katherine Kerswell, it is business as usual, with her typically patronising tone in memos to managers, even reminding experienced members of staff to bring a pen to her meetings.
“She’s like the captain of the Titanic, still at the wheel,” one member of council staff said last night. “Except she’s the only person who hasn’t realised yet we’ve hit the iceberg.”
Kerswell has ploughed on with her “Future Croydon” project, despite it being dismissed last week by the government as flawed, too slow in implementing change, and far, far too costly for the cash-strapped council. Having spent £6million on outside consultants last year, Kerswell is clearly determined to get our money’s worth.
Yesterday and today, Croydon’s £204,000 per year chief exec has been spending her valuable time (all paid for by the Council Tax-payers) attending staff briefings – “Managers Touchbase”, she calls them – to update on the progress (or lack thereof) around the fanciful plans for moving to an AI-driven council. Continue reading
Posted in Commissioners, Council Tax, Croydon Council, Improvement Board, Jane West, Katherine Kerswell, Mayor Jason Perry, Section 114 notice, Stabilisation Plan, Tony McArdle
Tagged 'Future Croydon', 15% Council Tax hike, Commissioners, Conservative, Council Tax, Croydon, Croydon Council, Government, Government Commissioners, Improvement and Assurance Panel, Improvement Board, Jane West, Jim McMahon, Katherine Kerswell, London Borough of Croydon, Mayor Jason Perry, MHCLG, Ministry of Housing Communities and Local Government, Section 114, Section 114 Notice, Tory
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Mayor Perry on trial: LTN admission could cost council millions
CROYDON IN CRISIS: A High Court case claims the authority has misused its powers over Low Traffic Neighbourhoods, with lawyers for the council expected to defend the Mayor’s manifesto U-turn by claiming that ‘election promises are not a binding contract’. By STEVEN DOWNES
Tory target: before the 2022 Mayoral election, Jason Perry sid he would remove Croydon’s LTNs
Tory Mayor Jason Perry’s crisis-hit council has an appointment before a High Court judge this week, as Croydon’s policies on Low Traffic Neighbourhoods come under legal scrutiny.
Things are not looking good for the prospects of Perry’s council, following recent Judicial Reviews on other traffic-reduction schemes, such as in West Dulwich, where the scheme was deemed unlawful and Lambeth Council was ordered to remove it immediately.
The High Court ruled there that the council had not properly considered residents’ concerns during the implementation of the LTN, and Lambeth was ordered to pay £35,000 towards the legal costs of the West Dulwich Action Group who brought the case.
In Croydon’s case, the complaint brought to the High Court centres on remarks made by the pro-pollution, anti-cycling Mayor Perry during a public appearance at a far-right ginger group, when he was challenged over his failure to deliver on an election promise to have the borough’s LTNs removed. Continue reading
Posted in 2022 Croydon Mayor election, Croydon Council, Crystal Palace and Upper Norwood, Cycling, Lambeth Council, London-wide issues, Mayor Jason Perry, South Norwood, Stephen Lawrence-Orumwense, Steve Iles, Transport
Tagged Conservative, Croydon, Croydon Council, Crystal Palace, High Court, Judicial Review, Karen Lawrence, Labour, Lambeth council, London, London Borough of Croydon, Low Traffic Neighbourhood, LTNs, Mayor Jason Perry, Open Our Roads, Rezina Chowdhury, South Norwood, Tory, Upper Norwood
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Prizes in Porter and Sorter’s new quiz are far from Trivial
Pubs in and around Croydon are offering prizes worth up to £10,000 cash, holidays, concert tickets and instant win food and drink in a special Trivial Pursuit-themed game.
Win a wedge: Trivial Pursuit is being played in hundreds of Marstons pubs over the next few weeks
Marston’s “Win A Wedge” gives locals the chance to win thousands of exciting prizes by answering general knowledge trivia questions correctly.
Participating pubs in Croydon include the Porter and Sorter next to East Croydon Station and The Ship on Croydon High Street. Others where you can “Win A Wedge” include the Ebb and Flow on Sutton High Street and Caterham’s Boundary on the Green. Continue reading
Posted in Activities, Addiscombe West, Business, East Croydon, Pubs
Tagged Caterham, Croydon, Marston's, Porter and Sorter, pubs, Sutton, The Ship, Trivial Pursuit
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Ministry planning one-year stay in Croydon for Commissioners
EXCLUSIVE: Buried in the avalanche of emergency documents issued around the government’s statement on the mismanagement of the council was a timetable for the proposed intervention. By STEVEN DOWNES
Commissioners could be in place in Croydon for less than a year, as they deliver what government minister Jim McMahon last week described as “a short and sharp reset, with fast action… to shift the dial” and finally rein-in Croydon’s “runaway” finances.
That’s according to a government document, released last week among an avalanche of papers connected with McMahon’s announcement that he is “minded” to use Commissioners, after giving up on Mayor Jason Perry and his chief exec, Katherine Kerswell, to salvage something – anything – from the wreckage of Croydon’s overdrawn account with the government.
In his written statement to Parliament last week, McMahon had described Croydon as “one of the most financially distressed councils in the country”, mentioning its debts of £1.4billion and his concern that Mayor Perry and Kerswell were seriously planning to increase that borrowing to around £2billion by 2029 – proposals which the previously docile improvement and assurance panel installed in Fisher’s Folly described in its latest report to the MHCLG as “impossible”, saying that it would lead to Croydon Council’s complete “collapse”. Continue reading
Posted in Commissioners, Council Tax, Croydon Council, Improvement Board, Jane West, Katherine Kerswell, Mayor Jason Perry, Section 114 notice, Stabilisation Plan, Tony McArdle
Tagged 15% Council Tax hike, Angela Rayner, Commissioners, Conservative, Council Tax, Croydon, Croydon Council, Government, Government Commissioners, Improvement and Assurance Panel, Improvement Board, Jim McMahon, Katherine Kerswell, London Borough of Croydon, Mayor Jason Perry, MHCLG, Ministry of Housing Communities and Local Government, Section 114, Section 114 Notice, Tory
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Coulsdon business makes urgent appeal: ‘Where is everyone?’
The decline in retail, and the struggles of Britain’s high streets, has been well documented for two decades. It’s the main reason that Westfield has left central Croydon to rot since 2012, their promises of a £1.4billion redevelopment of the Whitgift Centre broken long ago.
But it is increasingly clear that shop owners are suffering more than ever, facing rising business rates, soaring rents, higher electric, gas and water bills, inflation hitting their stock and a diminishing number of customers visiting their premises.
Inside Croydon has learned of two long-standing businesses facing uncertainty – both restaurants in South Croydon – where the property has been put up for sale and the business owners have no certainty that their new landlords will not seek to increase their rents.
“It’s tough,” one retailer told us over the weekend. “We’re managing, just. But it is a real struggle.”
One Coulsdon business, Cozy Glow in Coulsdon, issued this plaintiff plea for customers last month: “Where is everyone, Coulsdon?” Continue reading
Posted in Business, Coulsdon, Coulsdon Town
Tagged Business, Coulsdon, Coulsdon High Street, Cozy Glow, Cozy Glow Candles, Croydon High Street, Westfield, Whitgift Centre
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South Koreans visit South Croydon on an education mission
Making a splash: the delegation of educationalists from South Korea was shown Rutherford School’s pioneering education methods
A special school in South Croydon had a visit from a delegation from South Korea’s Ministry of Education, the Korea National University of Education and city education officers last week to find out more about its inclusive and progressive provision.
The Rutherford School was one of only two educational establishments being visited on the delegation’s British tour, selected for its unique educational setting for young people with profound and multiple learning disabilities.
Providing education to students who are unable to explore mainstream opportunities due to their physical and medical needs, Rutherford School’s pioneering curriculum combines education, therapy and nursing, ensuring that pupils can be in a school setting more regularly, pushing against the limits of their disabilities. Continue reading
Austerity has been a ‘false economy’ says economics professor
In our latest Andrew Fisher Interview, our columnist discusses Chancellor Rachel Reeves’ Spending Review with Jo Michell, Professor of Economics at the University of the West of England in Bristol
Given the news around Croydon Council over the past few days, the discussion takes a look at local authority funding, or the lack of it.
With Chancellors of the Exchequer since George Osborne in 2010 all choosing to squeeze the central government funding of councils, in an outsourcing of taxation misery in the name of “austerity”, Prof Michell describes the past 15 years’ policy as “a false economy”. Continue reading
Posted in Andrew Fisher, Inside Croydon, The Andrew Fisher Interview, Under The Flyover
Tagged Andrew Fisher, austerity, Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne, Government Spending Review, Jo Michell, Labour, Labour Government, Podcast, Professor Jo Michell, Rachel Reeves, Spending Review, Spotify, The Andrew Fisher Interview, Under The Flyover, University of the West of England
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South Norwood coffee entrepreneur lined up for national prize
Bean there, done that: south London-based Rise coffee is up for an award
Wake up and smell the coffee!
A business partnership originally from South Norwood has been named among the finalists for this year’s Great British Entrepreneur Awards.
Rise Coffee Box is a subscription service delivering what the owners describe as “ethically sourced, speciality coffee from independent roasters”.
Named “Best Value Coffee Subscription” by Good Food and “Best Multi Brand Coffee Subscription” by The Guardian, Rise has been on the…err… well rise pretty quickly with their post-lockdown business, where 1% of all revenues is given back to coffee farmers. Continue reading
Kerswell rejects government decision in Q&A to council staff
EXCLUSIVE: The day after Jim McMahon, the local government minister, announced plans that could see Commissioners appointed to run Croydon, the £204,000 per year CEO issued a lengthy note defending her position.
Our Town Hall reporter, KEN LEE, obtained the confidential document
Katherine Kerswell was at her patronising and passive-aggressive peak on Friday, as she issued a 1,500-word briefing note to all council staff.
Kerswell’s missive simmered with resentment and defiance over the government’s announcement that it intends to send in Commissioners to run the council’s affairs after years of failure by the CEO and her leadership team.
The council’s £204,000 per year chief executive probably has most to lose over the announcement, made by local government minister Jim McMahon on Thursday, after he and Whitehall mandarins lost patience with cash-strapped Croydon and its “runaway” finances under Kerswell, which he said was creating yet another “financial crisis”. Continue reading
Posted in Commissioners, Council Tax, Croydon Council, Improvement Board, Jane West, Katherine Kerswell, Mayor Jason Perry, Section 114 notice, Stabilisation Plan, Tony McArdle
Tagged 15% Council Tax hike, Commissioners, Conservative, Council Tax, Croydon, Croydon Council, Government, Government Commissioners, Improvement and Assurance Panel, Improvement Board, Jim McMahon, Katherine Kerswell, London Borough of Croydon, Mayor Jason Perry, MHCLG, Ministry of Housing Communities and Local Government, Section 114, Section 114 Notice, Tory
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Admiral Aldrich and lasting mystery of the Arctic’s lost ships
Lost in time: this 1895 painting by William Smith, at the National Maritime Museum, shows the imagined last moments of John Franklin’s Arctic expedition from 1849. But even today, mystery still shrouds the final fate of the two Royal Navy ships
SUNDAY SUPPLEMENT: In 1849, the Admiralty sent out two ships, the Erebus and Terror, on a mission to find the North West Passage. The mystery of what happened to the ships of the Franklin Expedition has never been entirely solved. Even Lord Nelson’s godson couldn’t find them.
By DAVID MORGAN
A tale which carries its readers from the icy stretches of the Canadian Arctic, involves a senior officer in the Royal Navy and the search for mysteriously missing ships, and reaches into The Oval Office in the White House might just be the setting of a new thriller novel, even the next Bond movie. Add in a Croydon connection, and this true-life story becomes the tale of a local resident. Continue reading
Posted in David Morgan, History
Tagged Admiral Robert Dawes Aldrich, Bathurst Island, Canada, David Morgan, HMS Erebus, HMS Resolute, HMS Terror, President Donald Trump, President Rutherford B Hayes, Qausuittuq National Park, Queen Victoria, Sir John Franklin, The North West Passage, The Resolute Desk, The White House, Washington DC
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Help the Separated Child Foundation, Croydon Minster, June 29
Posted in Activities, Charity, Church and religions, Croydon Minster
Tagged Croydon Minster, Separated Child Foundation
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Panicked Perry admitted to Rayner: I can’t balance the budget
EXCLUSIVE: Correspondence released following this week’s announcement from Whitehall that Commissioners are likely to be sent in to run the council included a letter from the Mayor that admitted his failure to ‘fix the finances’. By STEVEN DOWNES
The government announced its decision to appoint Commissioners to run Croydon’s affairs after the borough’s Conservative Mayor had admitted that he would not be able to balance the council’s budget next year.
Under Mayor Jason Perry, the cash-strapped council has voted through unbalanced budgets in 2023, 2024 and in February this year, only keeping itself afloat with increasing additional borrowing from the government. In March this year, the government agreed to £136million in exceptional financial support for Perry’s basket-case council, the biggest settlement yet.
A report to government, dated April 25, from the improvement and assurance panel which has been overseeing the council’s conduct since 2021, advised that under Perry and his chief executive Katherine Kerswell, the council’s finances had become “runaway”.
Perry and Kerswell’s “plan” for recovery was to borrow tens of millions of pounds more, something the panel repport described as “an impossible position”. Continue reading
Posted in 2026 council elections, 2026 Croydon Mayor election, Commissioners, Council Tax, Croydon Council, Improvement Board, Jane West, Katherine Kerswell, Mayor Jason Perry, Rowenna Davis, Section 114 notice, Stabilisation Plan, Tony McArdle
Tagged 15% Council Tax hike, Claire Bonham, Cllr Rowenna Davis, Commissioners, Conservative, Council Tax, Croydon, Croydon Council, Croydon East, Croydon West, Government, Government Commissioners, Improvement and Assurance Panel, Improvement Board, Jim McMahon, Katherine Kerswell, London Borough of Croydon, Mayor Jason Perry, MHCLG, Ministry of Housing Communities and Local Government, Natasha Irons MP, Sarah Jones MP, Section 114, Section 114 Notice, Steve Reed OBE, Streatham and Croydon North, Tory
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Fears Croydon residents may have died in Air India tragedy
Unconfirmed reports suggest that as many as three people with Croydon connections may have been among those killed when an Air India flight bound for Gatwick crashed shortly after take-off from Ahmedabad on Thursday.
Bleak: the crash devastated a residential area close to Ahmedabad airport, and hs claimed more than 260 lives
There were 242 passengers and crew on board the aircraft, including 169 Indian nationals, 53 Britons, seven Portuguese and a Canadian. Only one passenger survived the crash, 40-year-old British national Vishwash Kumar Ramesh.
At least another 20 people were killed when the aircraft crashed into the ground at Meghani Nagar, destroying a hostel where medical students were living. Wreckage was spread over an area of more than 200 metres radius. Continue reading
Posted in Jose Joseph
Tagged Ahmedabad, AI171, Air India crash, Black box, Croydon, DNA, Gujarat, India, Narendra Modi
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Thornton Heath wrecked: council destroys wild flower meadow
Blitzed: Mayor Perry’s grass-cutting programme has destroyed half a wildflower conservation meadow at Thornton Heath Rec
Hard-working community volunteers were left devastated this week when grass-cutting contractors hired by Croydon Council visited Thornton Heath Rec and proceeded to destroy a large part of a carefully nurtured wildflower meadow.
A council official has quickly issued an apology to the community group which does so much work to maintain Thornton Heath Recreation Ground. The official said that the grass-cutting team’s performance was “wholly unacceptable” and “will not be tolerated again”.
But in mid-summer, when wildflowers are coming into bloom, with the prospect of them self-seeding the area for future seasons, the damage has been done.
“Words fail me sometimes,” said one local. Continue reading
Posted in Community associations, Croydon Council, Croydon parks, Environment, Friends of Thornton Heath Rec, Thornton Heath, Thornton Heath Rec
Tagged Croydon, Croydon Council, Croydon parks, Friends of Thornton Heath Rec, Graham Mitchell, Grass cutting, London Borough of Croydon, No Mow May, Thornton Heath, Wildflower meadow
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South Croydon Village Fayre, St Peter’s Church, Sat June 28
Posted in Activities, Church and religions, South Croydon
Tagged South Croydon, St Peter's Church, Village Fayre
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Strawberry Fair and barbeque, St George’s Waddon, June 21
Posted in Activities, Church and religions, Waddon
Tagged St George's Church, Strawberry Fair, Waddon
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Judgement Day has happened for Croydon. Now we need to act
CROYDON COMMENTARY: This borough has been failed multiple times, by the Mayor, by the majority of opposition councillors, by council directors, and by the government. PETER UNDERWOOD, the Green Party’s candidate for Croydon Mayor in 2026, offers some suggestions
The people of Croydon have been let down by a bunch of failures. We have been left in a mess, and we now need big changes to get us out of it.
The biggest failure is Jason Perry. He has said his “top priority has always been to fix the council’s finances”. It’s clear he has completely failed.
Even worse than that, Perry and his Conservative council cabinet haven’t even managed to get the most basic financial management systems in place. They don’t know where the money is being spent, so how can they claim that they know what they are doing?
They have put our Council Tax up by 27% in two years, sold off our assets on the cheap, slashed public services and still failed to do the biggest thing they promised before the election.
Perry is claiming that bringing in government Commissioners is just a political attack by Labour. He says that if the government wanted them to do more, they should have said so. Surely any sensible person would have realised that if you are continuing to fail, then you shouldn’t have to wait for someone else to tell you do something about it. Continue reading
Posted in 2026 council elections, 2026 Croydon Mayor election, Commissioners, Council Tax, Croydon Council, Croydon Greens, Elaine Jackson, Improvement Board, Jane West, Katherine Kerswell, Marie Snelling, Mayor Jason Perry, Peter Underwood, Rowenna Davis, Section 114 notice, Stabilisation Plan, Tony McArdle
Tagged 15% Council Tax hike, Cllr Rowenna Davis, Commissioners, Conservative, Council Tax, Croydon, Croydon Council, Government, Government Commissioners, Green Party, Improvement and Assurance Panel, Improvement Board, Jim McMahon, Katherine Kerswell, London Borough of Croydon, Mayor Jason Perry, MHCLG, Ministry of Housing Communities and Local Government, Peter Underwood, Section 114, Section 114 Notice, Tory
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Labour figures accuse wasteful Perry of ‘serious incompetence’
‘Once again, the people of Croydon are paying the price for the failure of politicians who don’t have our community’s interests at heart’, according to 2026 Mayoral candidate Rowenna Davis
Labour’s candidate for Mayor of Croydon, Rowenna Davis, has accused her political opponent, Tory Mayor Jason Perry, of making the wrong choices at every stage.
Davis and two of Croydon’s three Labour MPs all weighed in on Perry, after the Labour government yesterday effectively torpedoed his failing administration, leaving the borough with a lame duck Mayor for the next 11 months. Albeit with an £84,000 salary by way of compensation.
Davis, a councillor for Waddon ward, had crossed swords with Mayor Perry several times in the 18months she was chair of the council’s scrutiny committee. Now, she took the increasingly desperate-seeming Perry to task for his wastefulness with public money, spending millions on consultants and council lap-tops, while cutting services such as the Youth Engagement Team and the lollipop road safety patrols at primary schools across the borough.
“This is a sad day for Croydon and a damning indictment of the Conservatives’ mismanagement of the Council’s budget,” Davis said following the announcement that Commissioners are to be imposed on Croydon, possibly until 2027. Continue reading
Posted in 2026 council elections, 2026 Croydon Mayor election, Commissioners, Council Tax, Croydon Council, Croydon East, Croydon West, Elaine Jackson, Improvement Board, Jane West, Katherine Kerswell, Marie Snelling, Mayor Jason Perry, Natasha Irons, Richard Howard, Rowenna Davis, Sarah Jones MP, Section 114 notice, Stabilisation Plan, Steve Reed MP, Streatham and Croydon North, Tony McArdle
Tagged 15% Council Tax hike, Claire Bonham, Cllr Rowenna Davis, Commissioners, Conservative, Council Tax, Croydon, Croydon Council, Croydon East, Croydon West, Government, Government Commissioners, Improvement and Assurance Panel, Improvement Board, Jim McMahon, Katherine Kerswell, London Borough of Croydon, Mayor Jason Perry, MHCLG, Ministry of Housing Communities and Local Government, Natasha Irons MP, Sarah Jones MP, Section 114, Section 114 Notice, Steve Reed OBE, Streatham and Croydon North, Tory
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Radical change is overdue at council says LibDem Howard
A former Army bomb disposal expert who will be leading the Liberal Democrats’ election efforts in 2026 says Croydon’s residents are ‘fed up with paying more and getting less’
Richard Howard, the LibDems’ candidate for Mayor of Croydon in 2026, has today called for “urgent, radical change” in the way the borough is run.
Howard was responding to yesterday’s announcement from the government that it had run out of patience with the bungling and borrowing of Tory Mayor Jason Perry and his chief exec Katherine Kerswell.
With the council’s finances “deteriorating rapidly”, Jim McMahon, the minister for local government, described Croydon as “one of the most financially distressed councils in the country”, and that he is “minded” to parachute in Commissioners to take over the running of Fisher’s Folly.
The appointment of Commissioners would leave Perry as a lame duck Mayor until local elections next May, and raises serious questions about the position of £204,000 per year CEO Kerswell. Continue reading
Posted in 2026 council elections, 2026 Croydon Mayor election, Commissioners, Council Tax, Croydon Council, Elaine Jackson, Improvement Board, Jane West, Katherine Kerswell, Marie Snelling, Mayor Jason Perry, Richard Howard, Section 114 notice, Stabilisation Plan, Tony McArdle
Tagged 15% Council Tax hike, Claire Bonham, Commissioners, Conservative, Council Tax, Croydon, Croydon Council, Government, Government Commissioners, Improvement and Assurance Panel, Improvement Board, Jim McMahon, Katherine Kerswell, Liberal Democrats, London Borough of Croydon, Mayor Jason Perry, MHCLG, Ministry of Housing Communities and Local Government, Richard Howard, Section 114, Section 114 Notice, Tory
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Reeves’ Spending Review sees Labour take London for granted
Taking Londoners, and Labour voters in London, for granted in a big effort to secure ‘Red Wall’ areas less loyal to the party looks like a ploy straight out of the Morgan McSweeney playbook.
By WALTER CRONXITE, Political Editor
Empty-handed: Chancellor Rachel Reeves had not much to offer for London or beleaguered local councils
The Spending Review delivered by Chancellor Rachel Reeves this week left the capital, and many of the country’s financially embarrassed local authorities, empty-handed, as the Labour government funnelled most of its spending towards those “Red Wall” seats in the Midlands, North and in Wales that are thought to be under threat from Nigel Farage and his rag-tag party of chancers.
Wednesday’s speech was a review of the budgets for government departments for the next three years that appeared to be less the work of Treasury economists, and more like something straight out of the Morgan McSweeney political playbook.
Overall, Reeves announced that departmental budgets will grow by 2.3% a year – a more modest sum compared to 3.8% annually at the 2021 spending review under Boris Johnson’s Conservative government.
There was a record boost for the NHS, amounting to an extra £29billion a year, as well as some extra funds for policing and prisons.
There was some funding for London, but nowhere near enough for a city that is the engine of the national economy, and Mayor Sir Sadiq Khan, the day after his investiture as a knight with King Charles at Buck House, must have felt bitterly let down by his own party. Continue reading
Posted in Council Tax, Croydon Council, Housing, London-wide issues, Mayor of London, Policing, Sadiq Khan
Tagged Chancellor of the Exchequer, Chancellor Rachel Reeves, Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Council Tax, Croydon, Croydon Council, Darren Jones, Labour, LCA, London, London Assembly, London Borough of Croydon, London Communications Agency, Mayor, Morgan McSweeney, Rachel Reeves
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Routes to Roots, with Shelley King, Stanley Arts, June 22
Posted in Activities, Art, Dance, Music, Stanley Halls
Tagged Coronation Street, Routes to Roots, Routes to Roots Exhibition, Shelley King, Stanley Halls
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Mayor Perry: ‘Residents of Croydon have felt enough pain’
The Mayor who has hiked your Council Tax by 27% in just two years today tried to claim that he has the Town Hall finances under control and that no one had raised any concerns about soaring levels of borrowing
Opposition councillors today demanded that Croydon Mayor Jason Perry should hold an emergency meeting of full council to discuss the government’s announcement that it is to send in Commissioners to run the borough.
Katharine Street sources said that they were “appalled” by the Tory Mayor’s response to the news. After imposing swingeing cuts to public services and hiking Council Tax by 27%, today Perry claimed that “the residents of Croydon have felt enough pain”.
Mayor Perry, like his chief executive, Katherine Kerswell, appears to be in denial of the severity of the situation, and their impotency to improve it.
Perry, who has a growing reputation for not telling the truth, even tried to claim that he had never received directions from the government or from the Whitehall-appointed improvement panel – a direct contradiction of what was written in the improvement panel’s report to Angela Rayner, which was made public today. Continue reading
Posted in 2026 council elections, 2026 Croydon Mayor election, Council Tax, Croydon Council, Elaine Jackson, Improvement Board, Jane West, Katherine Kerswell, Marie Snelling, Mayor Jason Perry, Section 114 notice, Stabilisation Plan, Tony McArdle
Tagged 15% Council Tax hike, Cllr Rowenna Davis, Commissioners, Conservative, Council Tax, Croydon, Croydon Council, Government, Government Commissioners, Improvement and Assurance Panel, Improvement Board, Jane West, Jim McMahon, Katherine Kerswell, London Borough of Croydon, Mayor Jason Perry, MHCLG, Ministry of Housing Communities and Local Government, Section 114, Section 114 Notice, Tony McArdle, Tory
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