Join in with the work party in Wandle Park’s community garden this weekend
Wandle Park’s community garden will be staging its first session of the year this Sunday, from 10am until noon. Continue reading
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Wandle Park’s community gardeners will dig in this Sunday
Posted in Broad Green, Friends of Wandle Park, Gardening, Waddon, Wandle Park
Tagged Broad Green, Waddon, Wandle Park
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Fairfield management ‘reckless’ over sale of O’Donnell tickets
The breakdown in the relationship between Croydon Council and the management of the Fairfield Halls appears almost complete, after the scheduling of a sell-out concert by Irish singer Daniel O’Donnell for a date almost three months after the concert hall is due to be closed for a £30 million refurbishment programme.
Daniel O’Donnell: Fairfield Halls assured his managers that they will still be open in September
Tickets for the singer’s concert, due to be the last date on his 2016 UK tour, went on sale just before Christmas and have already sold all but a few seats in the stalls and the balcony of the near-1,000 seat venue.
Fairfield Halls could have to refund disappointed customers around £50,000, but they might also face contract penalty clauses over any cancellation from O’Donnell’s management company, who today told Inside Croydon that they received firm assurances that the venue would be available for the easy-listening star.
A council source described Fairfield Halls’ management’s conduct in taking the booking and marketing the O’Donnell concert as “reckless”.
Posted in Art, Fairfield Halls, Music, Timothy Godfrey, Tony Newman
Tagged Croydon, Daniel O'Donnell, Fairfield Halls, Labour, Timothy Godfrey, Tony Newman
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Watchdog is seeking volunteers to check on health services
Healthwatch Croydon, the official consumer group for local health and social care services, is seeking volunteers.
They say, “We make a difference to health and social care services in the borough by receiving the views of residents, analysing the comments anonymously, and reporting back to decision-makers like the local NHS Trust, Croydon Clinical Commissioning Group and the Care Quality Commission.
“But we cannot do it without volunteers. At each stage of the process you could have a role from gaining views from residents and analysing comments, to promoting what Healthwatch Croydon does in the community and representing us at a number of community meetings and events. Every role makes a difference.”
Yeha Noha serves up Brideshead at Norwood book club
A new book-reading ground has formed in Norwood, with meetings once a month at the Yeha Noha cafe on Station Road, near Norwood Junction.
The next meeting will be on February 10, starting at 7.30pm, when Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh is up for discussion. References to Anthony Andrews or Jeremy Irons may not necessarily attract complaint.
“We hope to see as many people as are interested – and do remember to buy some refreshment on the way in, as Yeha Noha is kindly not charging us for the room so we’d like to put some custom their way,” Guy Clapperton, the organiser, said. Continue reading
Capital’s cost of living leaves London short of 10,000 nurses
London’s NHS nursing shortage has got significantly worse in the past year, with more than 10,000 unfilled posts in the capital’s health trusts in 2015, according to figures published today by the Royal College of Nursing.
Does Mayday Hospital have enough trained nurses?
The impact on patients presenting at NHS hospitals such as Mayday and Purley will include longer waits in A&Es, delays in arranging some appointments and fewer staff on wards, but it could also mean bigger bills for our local hospitals, and more budget problems. According to the RCN, the nurse shortage sees vacancies going unfilled, or budget-busting agency staff having to be used.
Mayday has struggled in the past to recruit staff because it lies just outside the London weighting payment zone. Nurses and other staff can get paid more by taking jobs at St George’s, Guy’s or St Thomas’s, while living costs – in case you hadn’t noticed – are not much cheaper in Croydon than they are, say, in Tooting or Streatham.
As a result of being unable to fill the vacancies, Mayday’s management has to hire from expensive agencies, and face higher costs than if they were able to recruit full-time staff.
Earlier this week, Inside Croydon received reports of one of Croydon’s NHS walk-in centres being closed to patients due to staffing issues. Croydon’s NHS clincial commissioning group has not responded to our request for a comment on the situation. Continue reading
Posted in Croydon CCG, Health, Mayday Hospital, Purley Hospital
Tagged Croydon NHS, Croydon NHS CCG, Mayday Hospital, Purley Hospital
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Drama, Spanish and family history: library offers classes
A history project and a drama class for adults suffering from depression and other mental health conditions are among a range of groups offering education and training sessions in a range of life skills which have successfully bid to stage their activities at Upper Norwood Library.
The groups’ activities are to be funded by Upper Norwood Library Trust. The successful bidders from the community investment fund are: Continue reading
Warehouse Theatre celebrates 30 years of playwriting festival
This year marks the 30th anniversary of the International Playwriting Festival organised by the late and much-lamented Warehouse Theatre.
The Warehouse Theatre, housed in an old coal merchants’ warehouse on the edge of what is now the Ruskin Square development, was the highly successful Croydon studio theatre until the previous Tory administration on the council pulled its modest grant funding in 2012.
The building was subsequently demolished, but there remains the possibility of a £3million grant from developers Stanhope towards a new studio theatre within Ruskin Square, provided that Croydon Council doesn’t try to snaffle the cash and misappropriate it within the Fairfield Halls redevelopment. That was certainly the intention of Philistines who ran the council until May 2014; the jury’s still out on Timothy Godfrey and the present lot.
Through most of the Warehouse’s existence, and since, it staged an acclaimed competition to uncover new playwriting talent. And it is calling for entries for 2016 now. Continue reading
Posted in Art, Theatre, Warehouse Theatre
Tagged Conservative, Croydon Council, Fairfield Halls, Labour, Ruskin Square, Stanhope-Schroder, Tory, Warehouse Theatre
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Go a’wassailing in the orchard of A’ddiscombe Railway Park
Wassailing is such an ancient rite, they used to do it before the age of the iPhone
A strange and ancient ritual, which is said to date back to Anglo-Saxon times and can often involve lots of hearty singing and, it must be said, when some drink is taken, is coming to Addiscombe Railway Park on Saturday, January 30.
Because the Friends of the park have decided to go a’wassailing, and invite you to join in.
With new trees planted in the orchard area of the community garden, the Friends of Addiscombe Railway Park are hoping that their ancient folk songs will awaken the saplings from their winter slumbers and “bring a fruitful harvest for the coming year”. Continue reading
Eva Schloss to give talk to mark Holocaust Memorial Day
Croydon will honour the memory of the victims of the Holocaust and genocidal events which have happened in the past 70 years with a public candle-lighting ceremony and an opportunity to sign the book of remembrance, from noon on Holocaust Memorial Day, Wednesday January 27, in the foyer of Croydon Town Hall.
The candle-lighting will be followed by a webcast civic event, from 12.30 to 1.40pm in the council chamber, to remember the millions murdered or whose lives have been changed beyond recognition during the Holocaust. Continue reading
Reed leads call for McKenzie to be evicted from Big Brother
Steve Reed OBE, who was re-elected as MP last May when Winston McKenzie stood against him as the UKIP candidate in Croydon North, has led the calls for the former boxer to be sacked from Celebrity Big Brother following the “grotesque” homophobic remarks he made on last night’s launch programme.
As Inside Croydon was first to report and highlight last night, the wannabe politician’s entrance on to the Channel 5 reality TV show was trailed with a videoed interview in which, when prompted on his already well-known and bigoted attitudes to homosexuals, he said, “I guess I just have to be standing against a brick wall all the time.” Continue reading
Wolmar gets up a head of steam for free railway lecture, Jan 8
Christian Wolmar, the journalist, author and transport expert, is coming to Croydon this Friday to give a free lecture on his book, Engines of War.
Christian Wolmar: transport expert giving railways talk in Croydon
Wolmar, who was the only non-career politician to be shortlisted for selection as a London Mayoral candidate by any of the major political parties because of his strong credentials on transport policy, has written half a dozen railway history books. He will be giving his illustrated talk to the local branch of the Mid Hants Railway Preservation Society – yes, Croydon has one of those.
Wolmar’s Engines of War shows how the railways played a key role in changing the nature of warfare.
Before their invention, battles were limited affairs which rarely lasted more than a day or so because of the problem of supplying and feeding the armies, and other logistical difficulties. Continue reading
Posted in Activities, Community associations, Education, Environment, History, Transport
Tagged Christian Wolmar, History, railways, West Croydon
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Cocoa to replace cocktails in a ‘family-friendly’ night scene?
CROYDON COMMENTARY: Though he was not a regular at the night club, the closure of Tiger Tiger is a sad sign for the town centre, says LEWIS WHITE
It’s a shame when a business closes and leaves a hole in the High Street. At least at Croydon’s Tiger Tiger, following yesterday’s announcement of its closure, we are told that their staff will be offered jobs at the chain’s other venues.
Maybe today’s club-going youth take advantage of an excellent train service and go clubbing “Up West” (as they say on EastEnders). Or maybe they, too, are tired of scenes of early morning vomit, police having to be called, and the £7 cocktails. Or maybe they prefer to be alone with a mobile phone in their (parents’) rooms, and chatting with virtual “friends”, avoiding the need for face-to-face shouted attempts at communication across a 100 decibel wall of noise.
Maybe a quiet club, with cocoa instead of cocktails, is what they really want–which opens at 6 and shuts at midnight. and has clean toilets, sockets to recharge phones and tablets at every table, ping-pong, and a video screen to keep in Skype contact with Mum and Dad. Somewhere safe and unchallenging.
Posted in "Hammersfield", Business, Centrale, Dance, Fairfield, Housing, Music, Property, Pubs, Restaurants, Tony Newman, Whitgift Centre
Tagged Fairfield Halls, Hammersfield, Hammerson, Tiger Tiger, Tony Newman, Westfield, Whitgift Centre
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Non-celebrity political loser Winston McKenzie is in the house
STEVEN DOWNES watches the reality TV show, so you don’t have to
DAY ONE in the Big Bruvva house…
And so the 17th celebrity season of Big Brother gets underway tonight, from 9pm on Channel 5 with, it is fair to say, a contestant from south London like no other in the history of the programme.
Winston McKenzie is in the house.
And even before a minute’s coverage had been aired live, the man who has lost even more elections than he ever did fights in the boxing ring, is already in trouble with feminists for his sexist remarks and with the gay community because of his position as an “adamant homophobe”, as he has been described today by a gay news site.
It should make for some interesting small talk in the small hours when foot-in-the-mouth McKenzie encounters his fellow housemates Nancy Dell’Olio and John Partridge. Which must be exactly what the producers want. Continue reading
Posted in Activities, Winston McKenzie
Tagged #CBB, Celebrity Big Brother, Croydon, South Norwood, UKIP, Winston McKenzie
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MP Philp calls meeting on Purley Hospital future, Jan 7
CHRIS PHILP, the MP for Croydon South, on his latest efforts to ensure the continuing services at Purley Hospital
I have been calling for restoration of the service level at Purley Hospital’s minor injuries unit for some time. Morning opening hours, emergency access to the X-ray machine and the ability to treat more serious injuries, all of which were available until May 2014, should be reinstated.
Croydon’s Clinical Commissioning Group is consulting on options for urgent care in the borough. The good news is that their apparent favoured option includes the restoration of morning opening hours and the continued treatment of minor injuries in what they are now calling a “GP Hub”. It looks likely that one of the three hubs in the borough will be at Purley Hospital. Continue reading
Posted in Chris Philp MP, Coulsdon, Croydon CCG, Croydon South, Health, Kenley, Mayday Hospital, Purley, Purley Hospital, Sanderstead, South Croydon
Tagged Chris Philp MP, Conservative, Croydon CCG, Croydon South, NHS, Purley, Purley Hospital, Tory
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Tiger Tiger faces extinction as town centre closes down
Tiger Tiger, burning not so bright.
Endangered species: the Tiger Tiger night club on Croydon High Street
The Sadvertiser is reporting that one of Croydon town centre’s principal night clubs is to close this weekend, something which will be regretted only by those under 25 years old who cannot get served a cocktail for 7 quid in central London…
More worrying for those seeking to make millions from the “regeneration” of the town centre are the remarks of those associated with the venue, who say it has been operating in the “shadow of decline”.
The earnest comments reflect the reality of long-term and on-going decay in Croydon, something far removed from the message which is expensively put out there by the council’s PR spinners and their property developer mates about it being a happening place to be.
“It’s been a long time coming. Footfall in Croydon has gone down a lot. We’ve been in a shadow of decline,” said a senior management figure at the venue. Continue reading
Posted in "Hammersfield", Boxpark, Business, Crime, Croydon Council, Fairfield, Jo Negrini, Policing, Whitgift Centre
Tagged Boozepark, Boxpark, Croydon, Croydon Council, East Croydon station, Grants, Labour, Tiger Tiger
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Trading standards office warning on Council Tax ‘rebate’ calls
The trading standards department at Croydon Council has issued a warning to residents to beware of companies offering a form of “research service” to get them a reduction in their Council Tax bills.
A 72-year-old South Norwood resident was charged £65 for “extensive research” following a cold call by a salesman, until the council’s trading standards officers stepped in. The salesman’s contact had left the pensioner believing that they had been speaking with a member of council staff.
The call was made despite the woman’s details being listed with the Telephone Preference Service, designed to prevent cold calls.
Council officers are warning residents that they could receive similar calls from companies that, while offering a legitimate service, fail to follow industry guidelines put in place to protect consumers.
Posted in Business, Croydon Council, Mark Watson
Tagged Council Tax, Croydon, Croydon Council, Mark Watson, South Norwood, Trading Standards
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Becket, by St John’s Dramatic Society, Selsdon, Feb 4-6
Posted in Selsdon & Ballards, Theatre
Tagged Selsdon, St John's, Theatre, Upper Selsdon Road
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Frith Road pie shop that’s keeping cockney tradition alive
There’s an obvious anachronism in one of Croydon’s longest established and most-loved restaurants. Cockneys of Croydon clearly defies all sound wave science by being well out of the range of Bow Bells, the traditional definition of a proper cocker-er-nee. But their pies, mash, eels and liquor remain outstanding, as reviewer JAMES HUNDLEBY, of MouthtoSouth.com, found out
Eels, mash and the famous green liquor. But where’s the pie?
Pie and mash is my hangover food of choice. It’s cheap, with no sharp edges, and it’s usually dished up in a compact, bright white tiled space, so it’s just like staying safely put in your own bathroom. But with food. How comforting is that?
Okay, so you often have to share a table with strangers, but in a pie and mash shop at midday on a Saturday, they’re normally more hungover than you and will avoid your eyes as well.
So I’m lucky to have Cockneys of Croydon, on Frith Street, round the corner from me. A family business, always rammed with locals, the staff are obliging and charming, and with reason – they’ve been confidently churning out pies, eels, mash and liquor for nearly 30 years. They even serve sarsparilla: it was once renowned as a cure for venereal disease, so I always have a bottle, just to be on the safe side. I live in Croydon, after all. Continue reading
Posted in Business, Cockneys of Croydon, Pubs, Restaurants, Surrey Street
Tagged Cockneys of Croydon, Croydon, Pie and Mash, Surrey Street Market
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Northern Soul club night at Stanley Halls, Feb 20
Posted in Activities, Dance, Music, South Norwood, Stanley Halls
Tagged Northern Soul, South Norwood, Stanley Halls
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Labour Party official calls for 10% cut in councillors’ pay
A senior figure in Croydon Labour has called on his party’s leadership at the Town Hall to cut councillors’ allowances by 10 per cent to “show solidarity” at a time of swingeing council cuts, with around 600 jobs expected to be axed in 2016.
Labour official David White: councillors should share the pain of cuts
White made his remarks responding to an article on Inside Croydon from Simon Hall, the Labour-run council’s cabinet member for finance, who outlined how the Tory Chancellor’s unfair treatment of local authority grants. Gideon Osborne is cutting £45 million from the central Government grant to Croydon Council.
“They’re hitting essential services and damaging the fabric of society,” White said of the Tory cuts. “As Jeremy Corbyn and John McDonnell have said, ‘austerity is a political choice’.
“There is no economic case for the swingeing cuts the Tories are making. It is all about the Tories’ desire to reduce the public sector.”
Winston McKenzie’s Celebrity Big Brother gig won’t end well
The comedy gold on the 2016 edition of Celebrity Big Brother seems destined to be provided by the “Chump from the Dump”, South Norwood’s very own Winston McKenzie.
Coming to a TV set near you: Winston McKenzie
The line-up was “leaked” (ie. handed to) the Sunday edition of the Daily Star, and sees McKenzie included with 15 others whose similarly tenuous claims to fame or their declining career curves only serve to underline the desperation of anyone who agrees to appear on the show.
The line-up for this 17th series also raises the distinct possibility that Channel 5 will be subject to complaints to the Advertising Standards Authority for the misleading use of the word “celebrity”.
As it tried to manage the “anticipation” for the forthcoming series (which is sleb mediaspeak for squeeze as much publicity as it can), Channel 5 yesterday was asserting that any line-up was “pure speculation”. Pity, then, that McKenzie was blabbing to complete strangers on a train on Saturday that he was to appear on the show and was having second thoughts about taking the gig.
Posted in 2016 London elections, South Norwood, Winston McKenzie
Tagged Big Brother, Celebrity Big Brother, Croydon, South Norwood, UKIP, Winston McKenzie
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Council picks up £250,000 bill for picking up Christmas trees
Stuart Collins, Croydon’s Labour council’s lead on keeping our streets clear of fly-tipped rubbish and the man in charge of sloganised T-shirts, could be in for a busy period over the next week or so. Around 100,000 tired, old and used Christmas trees need to be disposed of, and there’s always a chance that a load of them will end up, dumped at the dead of night, on the borough’s street corners, waiting for the magic rubbish elves from Veolia to come along and remove them, and all at public expense.
Because that’s what happens when the local authority removes a service, such as bulk waste collection or Christmas tree collection, as a penny-wise and pound-foolish cost-cutting measure.
Councillor Collins and his colleagues, who appear determined to axe free collections of garden waste, would do well to monitor the number of dead Christmas trees that need to be collected from the borough’s streets this month, and the associated costs, and consider what impact the loss of the green garden waste service may have.
Collins, deputy council leader to Tony Newman, and their Labour colleagues were elected in 2014 on a promise to make Croydon the “cleanest and greenest” borough in London. They continue to fall a long way short, while other London councils realise that managed collection of recyclable materials can save money, and even make some cash. In Croydon, the council’s failure to provide a kerbside Christmas tree collection could be costing the borough nearly £250,000 a year in landfill charges, plus lost income. Continue reading
A&Es fail to assist police with enquiries on knife crime
John Goulston, the chief executive of Mayday, could find himself summoned by Mayor of London Boris Johnson to explain why Croydon’s biggest hospital has not been helping the police with their enquiries, in a capital-wide scheme intended to help to reduce knife crime.
None of the local hospitals in Croydon or Sutton – Mayday, Purley nor St Helier – are participating in a data-gathering exercise with the Metropolitan Police, a scheme which when implemented elsewhere has been shown to help reduce knife crime and other violent offences by more than 40 per cent.
Yet the hospitals in Croydon and Sutton are among more than one-third in London which have yet to co-operate with the scheme.
Under the “Cardiff Model”, hospitals are asked to share anonymous data collected from knife victims and other violence-related A&E admissions to help support policing in tackling crime hot spots. In areas where it has been implemented, it has led to a 42 per cent reduction in A&E admissions as a result of violent crime.
Posted in 2016 London elections, Boris Johnson, Caroline Pidgeon, Crime, Croydon CCG, Knife crime, London Assembly, Mayday Hospital, Mayor of London, Policing, Purley Hospital, St Helier Hospital
Tagged Boris Johnson, Caroline Pidgeon, Conservative, Croydon, Liberal Democrats, London Assembly, Mayday Hospital, Mayor, Purley Hospital, St Helier Hospital, Tory
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Disconnected Croydon to add lick of paint to Thornton Heath
Shop fronts and walls in Thornton Heath are to get a lick of paint as the latest part of the multi-mllion-pound Disconnected Croydon exercise in superficiality run by our council.
Together with the You&Me firm of architects, the council is seeking applications from a handful of local artists. There’s a £1,000 fee available to each artist whose proposals get accepted, plus a budget to implement the work.
“The successful creatives will produce designs or artworks taking cues and inspiration from Thornton Heath, its history, past and present stories and narratives of the place and people, the local community. The different artworks will need to work individually and also as a cohesive whole, tied together by a colour palette and theme as specified by YOU&ME Architecture and Croydon Council, which will be explained in further detailed upon appointment,” the brief states.
