The Museum of Croydon is to stage another free family event, The Blitz on Your Street.
More than 1,000 people in Croydon were killed in the Blitz
The event is suitable for those aged eight and over, and will be staged in the Activities Space (next to Riesco Gallery) on Saturday March 14, from 11am to 1pm and from 2pm to 4pm.
How did the Blitz and the bombing raids of World War 2 affect where you lived?
Was your house bombed? Continue reading
As Croydon Council prepares to give the go-ahead for a school which has just 29 first-choice applications, WALTER CRONXITE turns detective to investigate the mysterious case of the disappearing demand for school places
Residents living near Croydon Arena in Woodside ward are increasingly concerned that they are to have a six-form-of-entry academy shoe-horned into their narrow residential streets, regardless of planning considerations, and despite previous undertakings given to them by the council, at a time when the council’s own figures suggest that there is no longer the need for such a massive school.
Croydon Council’s projections of the demand for secondary school places, in a report published last month, suggests that they need to provide an extra 18 forms of entry by September 2016. Two years ago, when plans for the Oasis Arena Academy were first announced, its presence was justified by Tim Pollard, the Tories’ education spokesman on the council at the time, because Croydon needed an extra 50 forms of entry by 2016.
Even in the midst of a school places shortage, the scale of demand put forward by the Tory council to justify the Oasis Academy next to the Arena was strongly disputed at the time. Now, residents’ disbelief appears fully justified.
“The need for 50 forms-of-entry seems to have magically disappeared,” said Frances Fearon, one of the residents who feels ill-served by her councillors on this matter. “Now the number of extra forms required is 18. The figures fluctuate like an amoeba.”
Ahead of UKIP’s candidate selection meeting tonight, Peter Staveley, the party’s branch chairman in Croydon, has issued an apology to the family and friends of Councillor Gerry Ryan, who died last month, for what he describes as “the crass actions” of three of his party members who insensitively called for the by-election before the funeral has been held.
Peter Staveley: UKIP Croydon chairman has apologised for his party colleagues
With UKIP’s Lambeth and Croydon North branch suspended while the conduct of its erstwhile chairman, Winston McKenzie, is investigated by his party, the organisation of the selection meeting tonight has fallen to Staveley, who has told Inside Croydon, “I am bitterly disappointed that certain UKIP members took it upon themselves to call the by-election.”
One of the tactless troika of UKIP members who submitted the formal request to Croydon Council to hold the by-election is Emmanuel Ehirim, who is expected to seek selection as tonight at the meeting, being held from 8pm at the Khyber restaurant in South Croydon.
Staveley, UKIP’s parliamentary candidate for Croydon Central at the General Election, told Inside Croydon, “In these circumstances political parties normally show respect to the deceased and their family by not calling the by-election until after the funeral. I would have wanted UKIP to have shown that respect. Continue reading
It’s all gone a bit Pete Tong for ZhongRong’s takeover of a massive chunk of Crystal Palace Park.
The stuff of Boris Johnson’s wet dreams (and Crystal Palace residents’ nightmares). An artist’s soft-focus impression of what the ZhongRong scheme might have looked like
Bromley Council has today issued a press release confirming what had been widely expected for some time.
The sweetheart exclusivity period provided to the ZhongRong Group, of China, brokered by London Mayor Boris Johnson, to build a £500million new glass palace atop the public park has expired, apparently without any real progress having been made for the scheme. Much to the relief of many local residents.
It won’t just be the residents of the five south London boroughs, including Croydon, which converge at Crystal Palace who will generally be glad to see the back of this latest wet dream of a vanity project from the Tory Mayor of London. Sources at City Hall suggest that in October 2013, when Johnson announced the scheme from the derelict terracing of the original Crystal Palace, one of the first on the phone were representatives of Westfield, wanting to know more about another landmark project which might detract from their £1billion Croydon redevelopment on behalf of the Whitgift Foundation.
GENE BRODIE reports that 2014’s GCSE results demonstrate that academisation isn’t working – with 3 in every 4 Croydon school leavers still lacking the basic five exam passes
According to Croydon’s new Opportunity and Fairness Commission, the borough’s schools are among the top 20 per cent in the country. Yet according to the latest Department for Education tables, based on 2014 GCSE results, Croydon’s schools are not even among the top 28 London boroughs.
The PR spin about the performance of Croydon’s increasingly academised schools extends well beyond (directly) council-funded bodies. A diminishing circulation “local” newspaper, which is actually based in Dorking, has in the past week reported, “After 10 years of consecutive improvement to GCSE results … things are looking up, especially in comparison to a decade ago, when hundreds of children left secondary school without five good GCSEs”.
“Things are looking up”?
Are they serious? According to the latest results, published last week, three out of four Croydon school leavers last summer did not manage to achieve that five good GCSEs benchmark of basic qualifications, the so-called “English baccalaureate”.
Croydon’s secondary schools are so poor that the local Tory MP opted to send his eldest son to a Sutton grammar school because there was nothing good enough for him closer to home (as Inside Croydon reported last September). Continue reading
The Museum of Croydon is staging regular free tours to explore the exhibition space and discover more about the history of Croydon.
There will be free, guided tours on Thursday February 19 and Thursday March 19 – 11am – 12pm.
Join this fascinating tour of the galleries and discover some of the real stories behind the famous faces of Croydon.
Meet Nellie Chapman, the daring Lion Queen who performed for Queen Victoria and find out why Derek Bentley’s murder trial caused such controversy. Continue reading
Have you had someone with a rosette knock at your door yet? You will, says WALTER CRONXITE, you will. Though how the tax-payers of Croydon will benefit from one of the longest election campaigns in history is questionable
Gavin Barwell, MP for the Whitgift Foundation, out on the knock in Addiscombe last weekend, with the help of several publicly funded ‘friends’
Fed up with the election campaign yet?
The political chatter this week has been of “100 days to go” until General Election day on May 7. One. Hundred. Bloody. Days.
Gone are the days of “snap elections” and one-month campaigns. We should blame the LibDems, who on getting into government for the first time in a century have inflicted upon the rest of us fixed-term parliaments. Hey presto, we have a “Zombie Parliament”, which started running low on its legislative programme a year ago.
With our MPs under-occupied, we now have this over-stretched charm offensive inflicted upon us.
And so much of it is being subsidised, if only indirectly, by… the tax-payer. Continue reading
Peter Staveley, the UKIP parliamentary candidate in Croydon Central and the chairman of the only UKIP branch still regarded by their own party as competent to operate in the borough, has issued a furious email to his local colleagues over the actions of some of his party’s members who called prematurely for a ward by-election in Selhurst.
Staveley describes his UKIP colleagues’ move for the by-election as “embarrassing”, “very upsetting” and “very bad”. He said this in an email to all UKIP’s Croydon members in which he was forced to advise them of a selection meeting, to be held on Monday, and which he says, “has been arranged to ensure that democracy takes place even though it is not required”.
With the uniquely talented Winston McKenzie leading the way in political pratfalls and incompetence, UKIP in Croydon has demonstrated tremendous ability to undermine themselves. The latest example came in the past week when three Croydon UKIP members showed insensitivity in demanding a by-election in Selhurst ward before the funeral of Councillor Gerry Ryan.
Croydon Labour will select their candidate for the ill-timed by-election in Selhurst ward on Tuesday, with around 20 members potentially in the running for this safe Town Hall seat.
Paul Smith: looking for selection in Selhurst
The vacancy has arisen following the death earlier this month of the respected Labour councillor, Gerry Ryan.
The premature calling of the by-election has caused controversy, as the date was forced on to the council by three members of UKIP, their by-election demand coming before Ryan’s funeral.
A meeting of Labour’s Local Campaign Forum last week agreed the rushed selection date, necessary in order to submit their candidate’s details ahead of the deadline of this Friday, February 6.
The LCF meeting also decided that only those members endorsed ahead of last year’s local elections as “approved candidates” would be able to seek selection.
This could include those Labour candidates who ran in, but lost, in other wards in the Town Hall elections last May, the likes of Patsy Cummings or David Wood who stood in Fairfield. It also includes some who did not get selected as candidates in 2014, such as Paul Smith, a former Labour cabinet member and in the past a councillor in Waddon and, more recently, West Thornton.
The disrespectful and impatient move by three UKIP members to demand a Town Hall by-election in Selhurst ward could cost the Council Tax-payers of Croydon up to £20,000.
Peter Morgan: one of the UKIP members who could cost £20,000 for the early staging of the Selhurst by-election
As exclusively revealed earlier this week by Inside Croydon, UKIP members Emmanuel Ehirim, Peter Morgan and Janet Stollery formally applied to the council to stage the by-election, following the death of the widely respected Labour councillor Gerry Ryan earlier this month.
The UKIP trio failed to follow the widely understood convention and usual common decencies shown in such situations, which demand that out of respect for those grieving, there is no political activity, including moving for a by-election, at least until after the funeral has been held.
The council has now had no option but to act, and the Selhurst by-election will be staged on Thursday, March 5, with the political parties having until next Friday to nominate their candidates.
“With the General Election coming up, it’s a by-election that no sensible party wants, nor needs,” one senior local political activist told Inside Croydon. “It is entirely disrespectful to the late councillor and his grieving family.”
The controversy over the move to call the by-election has seen one of the disrespectful trio, Old Coulsdon resident Janet Stollery, hand in her resignation from UKIP following Inside Croydon’s report. So maybe they are not all entirely shameless. Continue reading
Time is running out for one of Boris Johnson’s vanity projects, the £500 million Chinese Crystal Palace which although unbuilt, has cast a dark shadow over the park and the National Sports Centre there, and blighted planned improvements and developments in the area ever since the Mayor of London took it upon himself to try to foist the scheme on south London more than a year ago.
“Do what you like. We’ll take your cash, and we won’t tell the locals”, is what someone might have said when Boris Johnson and Chinese developer Ni Zhao met at the announcement for the new “Crystal Palace” in October 2013. Little progress has been made since
On Sunday, February 1, the exclusivity agreement between Bromley Council and the ZhongRong Group will expire, 16 months after it was signed. To date there;s been no public indication of a deal from either party.
Today, the Green Party has called on Bromley Council – signatories to the exclusivity agreement and the former managers of the park – and the Greater London Authority to abandon talks with the ZhongRong Group and to shelve any plans to build a massive commercial facility on Crystal Palace Park. Consultation about the scheme has been poor and details sketchy, but the Chinese are believed to have proposed building a large 6* hotel, a precious gems trading floor and a conference centre.
London’s Tory Mayor wanted to flog off the public land in the park cheaply, on a long lease to the private developer, ignoring all other considerations surrounding the Grade II-listed parkland.
So now we know.
Councillor Hamida Ali, the vice chair of the Fairness Commission, addressing its opening meeting at the Stanley Halls in South Norwood last night
The Croydon Opportunity and Fairness Commission (as it has now finally resolved to be snappily titled) had its first meeting last night, where it revealed the members of the commission – the “commissioners” – and its finalised terms of reference.
According to the report submitted to the council cabinet more than six months ago, this independent body, supposedly at arm’s length from the council and politicians, is supposed to “make a particular effort to reach out to people with multiple needs who often find it hard to make their voices heard, so that they have every opportunity to be engaged in its work and to influence council priorities”.
And who are the commissioners who have been picked to “reach out” to the people of Croydon who “find it hard to make their voices heard”. Why, they include:
SUSAN OLIVER catches up with developments at Croydon Transition Town after an active 2014
Croydon Transition Town celebrated its second birthday in November, after its members helped to create community gardens in Wandle Park, Park Hill Park and at Ramsey Court in 2014, while continuing to work on one of their earliest projects, the Thornton Heath Rec Garden. We hosted two Give and Take Days (first created by Veolia, the council’s waste contractors) and helped Once Upon a Time Nursery in Thornton Heath to start their own fruit and veg garden.
Andrew Kennedy created a website for the group, and has started to post our minutes online. Continue reading
UKIP’s out-of-control members in Croydon, who are usually fronted by the notoriously incompetent Winston McKenzie, have struck again, causing widespread disgust by impatiently demanding a by-election in Selhurst ward following the death of widely admired Labour Councillor Gerry Ryan.
Ryan’s funeral is not until next month, and common decency, simple respect and political protocols usually demand that no action is taken over by-elections until after the ceremony.
But such considerations have been ignored by Emmanuel Ehirim and Peter Morgan, both UKIP colleagues of McKenzie, and by Janet Stollery, who sits on the governing board for “Croydon Communities Consortium”, a self-appointed and self-important talking shop which in 2013 was given a £5,000 grant by Croydon Council. Continue reading
The “internal major incident” which was declared at Mayday Hospital’s Accident and Emergency department earlier this month was caused by the coincidence of the worst winter for flu-type illnesses since 2009, people not making use of GP surgeries over the Christmas holidays, and a 25 per cent fall in the number of nurses training in London in the past year.
The analysis of the difficulties faced by the borough’s largest A&E was laid out yesterday by John Goulston, the chief executive of Croydon University Hospital, to a meeting of the council’s scrutiny committee.
The internal major incident was declared on January 6 when there were more patients arriving and awaiting urgent treatment than the hospital could cope with. Croydon’s hospital was one of several around the country which appeared to be struggling with patient demand. Continue reading
Nine theatre-makers are coming together at Stanley Halls next month to produce one surprising night of theatre in south London’s new performance space.
From 7.45pm on Friday, February 13, Stanley Halls are being opened up to performers from various disciplines – story-tellers, interactive artists, durational performers, dance, Shakespeare, location specific – all committed to inventing a series of short works in this gem of a building.
The audience will journey through the building and discover new work in surprising locations.
The companies will be exploring issues as diverse as children and adults story-sharing, the science of being in a bubble, the legacy of the Halls’ founder, comings and goings on a staircase, breast is best and Jekyll and Hyde. Some are community inspired, others installations, some require role play, others are there simply to experience. All are original and made for Stanley Halls. Continue reading
East Croydon Station in 1898
The Museum of Croydon is staging a series of free events during 2015, beginning on Saturday, February 14 with a family event: Victorian Lives.
Drop in from 11am to 1pm and from 2pm to 4pm.
Discover how photographs and maps show us how Croydon has changed since Victorian times. Get a feel for Victorian life in Croydon by handling objects from the time.
WALTER CRONXITE, our man watching the webcast with a Yorkie bar and a cup of strong black coffee, calls for another reform of Croydon Council: scrap meetings of the full council. They’re a complete waste of time and public money, and expose many of our councillors as being simply not very good
What do we, as tax-payers, get for £72,000 a year?
Steve O’Connell: how much is this man really worth?
The answer, in the case of Steve O’Connell, is questions such as this:
“I understand that the leader wishes to rename East Croydon Station, if so will he join me in urging that on the platforms and other signage the words ‘Home of the Eagles’ is added?”
Oh, how we laughed when we saw that among the thick wodge of blue papers for “written questions from council members” – that is, elected councillors – submitted ahead of the first full council meeting of 2015.
Former mortgage salesman O’Connell is the man who has been described, by the Daily Mail, no less, as the country’s most over-paid councillor, as at one stage back in 2011 he was raking in £129,000 for various positions as the London Assembly Member for Sutton and Croydon, a member of the Met Police Authority, and as a Kenley councillor.
When challenged on this largesse, the ever-modest O’Connell (he has plenty to be modest about… boom, boom), said, “I’m worth it.”
Even that was not quite enough for O’Connell, though. Earlier this year, when his party leader and colleague Mike Fisher was trousering an extra £13,000 in allowances on the quiet, O’Connell, too, stuck his snout close to the trough to see if he could snuff out more that he could claim. Continue reading
Even the Evening Boris is predicting that Gavin Barwell, the MP for the Whitgift Foundation, will lose his parliamentary seat at the General Election in 100 days time.
Looking for a new job? Gavin Barwell
Barwell had London Mayor Boris Johnson attend his glitzy campaign launch last year, but London’s evening paper, noted for its unquestioning support of the buffoon at City Hall, could not make the numbers look any better for the Croydon Central Tory MP in a capital-focused poll published last night which shows Barwell to be one of six Conservatives likely to lose their seats on May 7, among 10 London seats held by members of the ConDem Government which will change hands.
According to the Standard’s poll, support for Labour in London has risen by 1 per cent since December, to 42 per cent.
In Greater London polling, the Tories are down by 1 per cent, to 32 per cent, the FibDems have fallen 2 per cent in one month, to 7 per cent, while UKIP is up 1 to 10 per cent and the Greens up 2 to 8 per cent.
Based on those figures, Government whip Barwell is set to lose to Labour’s Sarah Jones in Croydon Central, while two prominent south London ConDem figures, Simon Hughes, the LibDems’ deputy leader in Bermondsey, and former Health Minister Paul Burstow in Sutton and Cheam, look vulnerable.
FLIP FLOP (Part 94): Purley Pool has been given a reprieve, of sorts.
Following an announcement this morning by Tony Newman, the council leader, the only public swimming pool serving a vast catchment area in the south of the borough can now be confident that it will stay open until… May 8. That’s the day after the General Election, in case you were unsure.
The announcement came this morning, just days after Newman held “an urgent meeting” with campaigners, and ahead of what was expected to be a mass protest at the Town Hall tonight. Continue reading
GENE BRODIE, our education correspondent, has discovered that Croydon’s Labour-run council is using a legal loophole to continue to charge local children up to £3,500 per year just to teach them how to read and write
Croydon Council continues to charge some parents thousands of pounds for their children’s remedial reading lessons, despite warnings from the Department for Education about breaking the law which demands that the teaching of basic reading and writing should be provided by local authorities free-of-charge.
Local authorities are banned by law from charging for education, according to the provisions of Section 451 of the Education Act 1996.
Last May, we reported that Croydon Council’s education department was charging the parents of some Key Stage 2 primary school children more than £3,500 per year just so that they can receive their legal right to be taught to read and write. Then, the council claimed that because the children were being taught “off-site”, away from their usual school at the special literacy unit at Purley Oaks, the council was able to raise the charges if the pupils’ schools did not pay for the special lessons from their own budgets.
Some local schools have been able to pay for the remedial lessons from their own budgets. But others – including Cypress Primary in SE25 and Beulah Junior in Thornton Heath – have been forced to present some parents with a dreadful dilemma: pay-up for reading lessons that the state is supposed to provide, or risk their child not receiving all the help and support that they need in this essential skill. Continue reading
