Council boss denies demanding £200,000 in Palace parade row

Posted on May 24, 2025 by insidecroydon

EXCLUSIVE:  Croydon’s chief exec has issued a plea to the borough’s councillors seeking their help to media manage adverse publicity over Crystal Palace’s truncated FA Cup victory parade. By STEVEN DOWNES

Not coming to a Town Hall near you: Palace manager Oliver Glasner with the FA Cup

Katherine Kerswell, Croydon Council’s chief executive, yesterday issued an urgent appeal to the borough’s 70 councillors for “support in correcting any misunderstanding in your communities” over Crystal Palace’s FA Cup-winners’ victory parade to be staged on Monday.

In her email, Kerswell was at great pains to stress that the local authority did not impose “a £200k charge on the club for the celebrations”.

In the week since last Saturday’s historic 1-0 win over Manchester City at Wembley, Crystal Palace have found themselves caught in a vice between two local authorities.

As Inside Croydon reported exclusively yesterday, the club had snubbed the approach from Croydon to have a parade to the Town Hall, preferring a route that would have taken them to Crystal Palace Park – something which was ultimately blocked by Bromley Council. Continue reading →

Posted in Croydon Council, Crystal Palace FC, Eberechi Eze, Football, Katherine Kerswell, Mayor Jason Perry, Oliver Glasner, Steve Parish | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 14 Comments

Three months of road works around Marlpit Lane, Coulsdon

Posted on May 24, 2025 by insidecroydon

Gas infrastructure firm SGN is to begin works to replace piping in and around Marlpit Lane, Coulsdon, from Monday, May 26. The works are expected to last through to the end of August.

It’s a gas: SGN say that their works along Marlpit Lane will last through the summer

The works will see two-way and some three-way temporary traffic lights installed on Marlpit Lane, as well as Marlpit Avenue, Hillside Road, Stoneyfield Road and Bradmore Way, with some traffic delays and congestion expected.

On the SGN website they say: “We’re preparing to carry out essential network upgrades along Marlpit Lane to ensure nearby homes and businesses continue to receive a safe and reliable gas supply. Continue reading →

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SOCRO art exhibition, Click Clock Gallery, June 2 to 27

Posted on May 24, 2025 by insidecroydon

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Raggio di Sole, handmade pizzas made to order, South Croydon

Posted on May 24, 2025 by insidecroydon

A D V E R T I S E M E N T

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Mayor Perry’s warning for Croydon: ‘I’m just getting started!’

Posted on May 23, 2025 by insidecroydon

After raising your Council Tax by 27% and still needing bigger government bailouts than ever before, now the Tory Mayor wants four more years.
By WALTER CRONXITE, Political Editor

Rubbish Mayor: Jason Perry hired the same contractors who were sacked two years earlier, and wanted to charge extra for replacement bins

Be afraid, Croydon. Be very afraid.

“I’m just getting started.”

Those were the final words of Mayor Jason Perry’s “State of the Borough” speech last week, at the council’s annual meeting.

Yes, the bloke who promised to “fix the finances”, and didn’t.

The geezer who has hiked your Council Tax by 27% in two years.

The fella who has closed libraries, is sacking lollipop ladies and yet managed to find the cash to award himself and some mates a pay rise. He says he’s “just getting started”.

Poor old Croydon. Continue reading →

Posted in 2026 council elections, 2026 Croydon Mayor election, Council Tax, Croydon Council, Fly tipping, Katherine Kerswell, Mayor Jason Perry, Refuse collection, Stabilisation Plan, Veolia | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 10 Comments

Cup-winners Palace snub Perry over Town Hall victory parade

Posted on May 23, 2025 by insidecroydon

EXCLUSIVE: For Croydon’s Tory Mayor, failing to get a chance to bask in the reflected glory of the football club is another tale of ‘what might have been’. By STEVEN DOWNES

Increasingly desperate: Jason Perry’s attempt to wrap himself in red and blue has received a snub from the club

Croydon Mayor Jason Perry has been snubbed by Crystal Palace Football Club over the staging of the FA Cup-winners’ victory parade. The parade goes ahead on Bank Holiday Monday, but it is going nowhere near the Town Hall.

Palace finally confirmed the details of their open-top bus parade this morning – a somewhat curtailed ride down Whitehorse Lane to Selhurst Park, after Bromley Council refused them permission to end their celebrations in Crystal Palace Park.

Yet Palace did have another possible option with Croydon – an option they chose not to take. Continue reading →

Posted in Croydon Council, Crystal Palace FC, Eberechi Eze, Football, Mayor Jason Perry, Oliver Glasner, Steve Parish | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 20 Comments

Foundation sells Old Palace site to Serenity special schools

Posted on May 23, 2025 by insidecroydon

Sold: the Old Palace site seems set to be occupied by a Serenity special school from September

CROYDON IN CRISIS: Old Palace girls’ school closes in July, with the owners having sold the site, but for less than the £7m guide price. EXCLUSIVE By STEVEN DOWNES

The Old Palace private girls’ school site will likely become home to a special school from September, after the owners, the Whitgift Foundation, agreed a sale in principle in a private equity deal with a small firm of property developers.

The deal is thought to be for less than the £7million guide price the property was listed at “for sale with vacant possession” when it was put on the market in December.

The sale means that the financially squeezed Foundation will have banked around £12million from property disposals in the past few months, having already sold the Melville Road site of Old Palace’s prep school for £7million to a Hindu education organisation. Continue reading →

Posted in "Hammersfield", Business, CPO, Education, Old Palace, Roisha Hughes, Schools, Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield, Whitgift Centre, Whitgift Foundation | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

LibDem Webster holds Sutton council seat with 52% of vote

Posted on May 23, 2025 by insidecroydon

INSIDE SUTTON: Reform makes in-roads in Carshalton South and Clockhouse by-election, but not enough to overtake Tories for second place, reports BERTIE WORCESTER-PARK

Clockhouse winner: Lisa Webster (centre) was last night named as Sutton’s newest councillor

Sutton’s Liberal Democrats last night maintained their record of always winning by-elections in council wards where they have been the incumbents, as Lisa Webster was declared the winner of Thursday’s Carshalton South and Clockhouse poll.

Webster got 1,674 votes – 52.2% of those who bothered to turn out – as the Conservative vote collapsed in the face of political newcomers from the rabid right, Reform.

Local Tories had feared the worst, yet somehow their candidate, Chris De Cruz, clung on to second place with 23.9% of the vote to Reform’s Arlene Dearlove on 17.9%.

Labour – the party of national government no less – barely registered at all, with fewer than 100 votes for former councillor John Keys. Continue reading →

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You can be confident that the council’s targets will not be met

Posted on May 22, 2025 by insidecroydon

CROYDON COMMENTARY: After council chiefs admitted that they ‘cannot deliver a balanced budget’, DAVID WICKENS says that their ‘Stabilisation Plan’ is an admission of failure

After Croydon Council released its “Stabilisation Plan” last week, I had a quick look back at Croydon’s journey from stability to shambles. Inside Croydon’s loyal readers will be familiar with some of this, but I think it is worth a recap.

Hamida Ali, the former council leader, was interviewed in July 2021 when she was quoted as saying that the task of turning Croydon around following the financial collapse in November 2020 had “ been challenging”. But back in 2021, the council confirmed that it could balance its 2021-2022 budget and that the Croydon Renewal Plan – which is summarised in a pdf available by clicking here – would enable it to become financially sustainable by 2024.

As she was the council’s chief executive at the time, Katherine Kerswell must have been party to these claims. Continue reading →

Posted in 'Future Croydon', Council Tax, Croydon Council, Improvement Board, Katherine Kerswell, Mayor Jason Perry, Stabilisation Plan, Tony McArdle | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Bench removal confirms Perry’s PSPO is yet another failure

Posted on May 22, 2025 by insidecroydon

Benched: you don’t have to go very far along North End from Marks and Spencer to find a bench where the public can perfectly reasonably take a seat – despite Mayor Perry’s efforts to rip out pieces of harmless public amenity

CROYDON IN CRISIS: Mayor’s ‘reign of error’ now includes removing benches from the high street in attempt to solve anti-social behaviour. Except that it hasn’t… KEN LEE reports

Jason Perry, Croydon’s piss-poor Mayor, has spent much of the past week rubbing shoulders with property developers and attending a “real estate forum” while banging on about “growth”, part of his desperate efforts to cling on to Town Hall power, and his £84,000 salary.

Now you see it…: how the council used public resources to boast about the removal of a couple of public benches, rather than actually deal with the issue

Yet meanwhile, Perry has demonstrated, yet again, that all he delivers are cuts and the removal of services. Or benches.

He even had the council’s propaganda department issue a press release to boast about it. “Croydon businesses have welcomed the removal of benches in Croydon’s North End shopping area to deter antisocial behaviour,” they crowed.

In fact, all that has been removed appears to be just two pairs of metal benches, right outside Marks and Sparks (perhaps where Mrs Perry does much of her shopping?).

It’s all a bit of a distraction trick, the kind that not-very-good end-of-the-pier magicians resort to when pretending that they have made something vanish. Continue reading →

Posted in "Hammersfield", Allders, Business, Croydon BID, Croydon Council, Mayor Jason Perry, North End Quarter, Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield, Whitgift Centre | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 13 Comments

Mayor Khan fires starting pistol for £130m sports centre refurb

Posted on May 22, 2025 by insidecroydon

‘There’s no downside to redeveloping Crystal Palace’ says Khan as work finally begins to bring the former National Sports Centre back into working order – perhaps even as part of a bid for London to host the 2040 Olympics

Plans were unveiled today for the £130million refurbishment of the long-neglected Crystal Palace sports centre which should finally bring the athletics stadium and swimming pools fully back into use, both by the community across south London, but also for elite international events.

Centre of attention: the Grade II*-listed sports hall and pools will need much work

The Mayor of London, Sir Sadiq Khan, even sees Crystal Palace forming an important part of London’s bid to host the Olympic Games in 2040.

“I am committed to this once-in-a-generation redevelopment of the site which will secure its future for decades to come,” the London Mayor said in releasing the long-awaited refurbishment plans.

Top track and field meetings, which from the 1960s through to 2010 saw Crystal Palace as the home of British athletics, could return. “I want to see Diamond League events at Crystal Palace,” the Mayor said. “It’s been neglected but I want Crystal Palace to be restored to its former glory.

“There’s no downside to redeveloping Crystal Palace. The community will benefit, the restaurants will benefit, the public transport will benefit, the parks will benefit.”

Today’s announcement comes in the week that another long-overdue restoration project, to spruce up and modernise Crystal Palace Park, in which the sports centre sits, has got underway with a budget of £52million. Continue reading →

Posted in 2012 Olympics, Athletics, Basketball, Bromley Council, Cricket, Crystal Palace and Upper Norwood, Football, London Assembly, Mayor of London, Rugby League, Rugby Union, Sadiq Khan, Sport, Swimming | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 9 Comments

Digital booking system adds 24% extra doctors’ appointments

Posted on May 22, 2025 by insidecroydon

South-west London’s community doctors are providing thousands of additional appointments through using improved technology.

There were more than 738,000 GP appointments in south-west London, including Sutton and Croydon, in March 2025 – up nearly 20,000 on the same period a year earlier, with the figure almost a quarter (24.7%) higher than pre-pandemic.

The GP surgeries are using digital transformation to tackle the daily 8am rush for appointments, while freeing up telephone and walk-in options for patients not able to go online. Continue reading →

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Complaints against Perry’s council on rise, Ombudsman says

Posted on May 21, 2025 by insidecroydon

CROYDON IN CRISIS: Our Town Hall reporter, KEN LEE, on another year where our council is close to the top of a league table – for most upheld complaints

No real change: the only reason the number of complaints upheld against the council fell last year is because the Ombudsman investigated fewer Croydon cases

Katherine Kerswell, Croydon’s £204,000 per year chief executive, if she bothered turning up for work today, will have found an email from the Local Government Ombudsman that proves that her council has barely improved at all, judging by the continuing high level of complaints being upheld against it.

The full data won’t be made available until July, as is usually the case, the Local Government Ombudsman said today. But they add that they have issued their annual complaints data and updated their snazzy little online map in order “to support councils in providing more comprehensive information on the complaints they receive for people in their area to scrutinise”.

Under Kerswell and the borough’s Conservative Mayor Jason Perry, Croydon Council has never published any of the reports on complaints that have been upheld against them. Continue reading →

Posted in Adult Social Care, Bromley Council, Children's Services, Croydon Council, Housing, Katherine Kerswell, Lambeth Council, Planning, Southwark Council, Surrey, Sutton Council | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Croydon girl was ‘unlawfully killed’ at Windsor water park

Posted on May 21, 2025 by insidecroydon

Grieving father’s plea: Leonard Hill made a statement outside Reading Coroner’s Court following the inquest into the death of his 11-year-old daughter, Kyra

The father of an 11-year-old Croydon schoolgirl who drowned at a birthday party at a Windsor water park has issued a plea for stronger regulations to be enforced at similar leisure facilities.

Tragic loss: Kyra Hill, aged 11, was said to be a strong swimmer

A coroner’s inquest found that Kyra Hill was unlawfully killed when she got into difficulty in a designated swimming area at Liquid Leisure, near Windsor, in August 2022.

Senior coroner Heidi Connor concluded that the tragedy had occurred following gross health and safety breaches at the park. The breaches related to the depth and visibility of the water and the absence of an emergency plan and risk assessment, the coroner found.

The inquest at Berkshire Coroner’s Court in Reading was told how Hill was not found for more than an hour after emergency services were first alerted. No checks of the park’s CCTV, to locate where Kyra Hill was last seen, were carried out before a professional diver arrived at the scene. Continue reading →

Posted in Business, Swimming | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

MP Reed shown a yellow card for cosying up to water lobbyists

Posted on May 21, 2025 by insidecroydon

It appears that Steve Reed OBE, the MP for Streatham (and can’t be arsed with Croydon North), is not as big a football fan as he has tried to make out.

Match of the day: Lois Davis was forced to take a cardboard cut-out of her MP to Selhurst Park last night

Reed, now the environment secretary in Keir Starmer’s Labour government, seemed more than happy to accept £1,786-worth of freebie VIP tickets for a Premier League game at Stamford Bridge in late 2023 when his hosts were Hutchison 3G UK Ltd, the owners of serial polluters Northumbrian Water.

But last night the MP failed to take up the offer from a pensioner living in his constituency of a free seat at FA Cup-winners’ Crystal Palace’s last home league of the season (Reed missed a good one, too: Palace beat Wolves 4-2).

When Reed failed to respond to constituent Lois Davis’s generous offer, she decided to take a cardboard cut-out of her MP instead.

Davis was not alone, however. She was accompanied to the match by public ownership campaigners from We Own It.

Together, they are crying foul over Reed’s all-too-cosy relationship with the water companies. Continue reading →

Posted in Business, Crystal Palace FC, Steve Reed MP, Streatham and Croydon North, Thames Water | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Bowls Big Weekend, Old Coulsdon Bowling Club, May 25

Posted on May 21, 2025 by insidecroydon

A D V E R T I S E M E N T

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BBC Radio 3 tunes in to Croydon Minster for evensong concert

Posted on May 20, 2025 by insidecroydon

All mic’d up: Croydon Minster last week, prepared for the latest BBC recording

BBC Radio 3’s broadcast of Choral Evensong tomorrow at 3pm will be from Croydon Minster, and feature the Minster’s acclaimed choir.

Choral Evensong is the BBC’s longest-running outside broadcast programme, having first aired 99 years ago.

The May 21 programme was recorded at the Minster last week. Justin Miller, the Minster’s director of music, conducted the choir with Stephen Disley playing the organ. The Vicar of Croydon, Rev Canon Dr Andrew Bishop intoned the responses. Continue reading →

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We’re South London and very, very proud of our FA Cup team

Posted on May 20, 2025 by insidecroydon

Captains courageous: Joel Ward and Marc Guehi, at the front of the presentation and backed by the Palace squad, deserve the thanks of the borough

CUP FINAL COMMENTARY: With a chance for another opportunity to reflect on the scale of the achievement of Saturday’s FA Cup final win at Wembley, JERRY FITZPATRICK thanks the Eagles heroes for giving Croydon something to cheer about

The most universally known national football trophy is in our cabinet. We are indelibly immortalised in football records.

A huge (and highly commercial) boost in the way the club is estimated home and abroad. Enhanced self-esteem within the club itself. European competition next season. The probability of retaining and recruiting notable players is increased.

I saw my first FA Cup final on a 13-inch television screen in 1959. Then it was literally the only live televised match between English league teams in the whole year. And still today it is an occasion overladen by the weight of football history, an afternoon which has the ceremony, rituals and fervour of a religious festival. A joyous combo of High Mass and pagan rite.

For a few elite teams which annually strut the European stage, today the FA Cup seems to be nothing more than a historical relic. They and their pampered supporters (many of whom have slender local connection with the team they follow) are a small minority. The rest of football will still give their eye teeth to be the holder of the Football Association Challenge Cup. Continue reading →

Posted in Crystal Palace FC, Holmesdale Fanatics, Jerry Fitzpatrick, Oliver Glasner, Steve Parish | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

NHS urges all eligible to take up their covid spring booster jab

Posted on May 20, 2025 by insidecroydon

Booster time: those eligible can book vaccine appointments online or find their nearest walk-in centre

Doctors are reminding eligible people to get their Covid-19 spring booster vaccine before June 17.

Teams from NHS London are working to make the vaccine available to as many people as possible, to provide vital protection against different strains of the covid virus and reduce the risk of serious illness and hospitalisation.

There are around 300,000 booking slots available via the national booking service. Continue reading →

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SLH summer 10K race series, Coulsdon Downs, starts May 29

Posted on May 20, 2025 by insidecroydon

A D V E R T I S E M E N T

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Coulsdon woman arrested on drugs charges in Sri Lanka

Posted on May 19, 2025 by insidecroydon

Arrested: Sri Lankan authorities are investigating Coulsdon woman Charlotte May Lee

A 21-year-old woman from Coulsdon, Charlotte May Lee, faces spending years in a Sri Lankan jail after she was arrested when arriving from Thailand last week and accused of smuggling £1.5million-worth of the drug kush.

Lee was arrested at Bandaranaike International Airport in Colombo after a flight from Bangkok.

Sri Lankan authorities say that they seized 46kilogrammes of the dangerous drug in two suitcases, the largest haul of kush that they have ever discovered. Continue reading →

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We had all better keep a look out for whatever Katie does next

Posted on May 19, 2025 by insidecroydon

The play that takes its title from Bowie’s dismissal of the town where he went to art school is nearing the end of its run. KEN TOWL took the chance to glimpse at the brilliance of the one-woman show at its only performance in Croydon

You’re So F**king Croydon, its title inspired by David Bowie’s famous denigration of the town (the asterisks are the choice of the playwright, not an affectation chosen by this website), is a deep dive, as they say these days, into the meaning of life through the lens of Croydon and a woman growing up and going out in it, leaving it and coming back to it, always dressed in some or other shade of pink.

Katie Hurley is an Everywoman engaging with an Everytown. At the same time, she is as unique as every one of us, as unique as Croydon itself.

She is also very funny and she can dance, but after a successful season at the Edinburgh Fringe last year and a tour of the provinces (of which this was the penultimate night) the pressure would always be on her to triumph in front of a crowd of Croydon people. The stakes were high. Continue reading →

Posted in Art, Comedy, Ken Towl, Stanley Halls, Theatre | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Learn to waltz and tango at Dance Delight lessons and classes

Posted on May 19, 2025 by insidecroydon

A D V E R T I S E M E N T

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A dream becomes reality: Wembley shook and it was beautiful

Posted on May 18, 2025 by insidecroydon

Prophetic words: the tifo organised so brilliantly by the Holmesdale Fanatics group, with the message – ‘Wembley will shake and it will be beautiful’

2025 FA CUP FINAL: Inside Croydon’s PETER GILLMAN was among the accredited media at Wembley for a historic day which captured the imagination of the nation and fulfilled the dreams of football romantics around the world

Dreams fulfilled: Palace boss Oliver Glasner and Jean-Philippe Mateta (right) with their cup-winners’ medals

Yessss!!! We aced it! We nailed it! Finally, we did it!

At around 6.30pm yesterday, the intermittent agony of being a Palace supporter became unbridled ecstasy. Goalkeeper Dean Henderson launched a goal kick, the ball landed in the Manchester City half, referee Stuart Attwell looked at his watch and blew his whistle. As Palace players embraced or sank to their knees out on the Wembley turf, the 30,000 or so Eagles fans in the stands became a human tsunami of cheering, jumping, embracing, laughing and crying.

For those of us who had seen Palace’s Cup final defeats by Manchester United in 1990 and 2016 – lasting, enduring, bitter disappointments both – this was pure redemption. Continue reading →

Posted in Crystal Palace FC, Eberechi Eze, Football, Holmesdale Fanatics, Inside Croydon, Oliver Glasner, Peter Gillman, Steve Parish | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

School for girls where learning was more valued than exams

Posted on May 18, 2025 by insidecroydon

All-school picture: Moira House progressive girls’ school was founded in Addiscombe in 1875. This photograph dates from 1883

SUNDAY SUPPLEMENT: A school where the wonders of the Crystal Palace and the nature of the Surrey Hills were part of the progressive curriculum, where cricket was played by girls, and where exams were barely tolerated, was founded in Addiscombe 150 years ago. DAVID MORGAN has delved into the archives

School founder: Charles Ingham

Imagine a school where the headteacher was so concerned about the pressures of external exams that he didn’t enter his pupils for them.

Imagine a school where pupils learned for the sheer joy of it, and not because they had to.

Imagine a school where every pupil played cricket. Imagine that this was a school just for girls.

Such an establishment really did exist, in Croydon 150 years ago.

Opening on Sunday January 24, 1875, at 73 Upper Addiscombe Road – the street now known as simply Addiscombe Road – the school’s head was Charles Ingham, a trailblazer for girls’ education. At a time when there was little state education provision, the school operated from Ingham’s home in Addiscombe for eight and a half years before relocating to the south coast, first in Bournemouth and later at Eastbourne. Continue reading →

Posted in Addiscombe West, David Morgan, Education, Schools | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment