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Police question time, at LNK, Centrale, Sep 17
Posted in Centrale, Lives Not Knives, Policing
Tagged Centrale, Lives Not Knives, Metropolitan Police, Police, Policing
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Tory leader Fisher is caught red-handed with £10,000 pay hike
Councillor Mike Fisher at a meeting of the Croydon Tory group
Mike Fisher, the leader of the Tories on Croydon Council, has more reason than usual to be red-faced today, after he was caught red-handed having paid himself an extra £10,000 in his final year as leader of the council.
Anyone would think Fisher desperately needed the extra cash, as in the run-up to the local elections in May he completely forgot to mention the unilateral 20 per cent pay rise he had awarded himself.
Fisher’s council allowances went from already generous £53,223 to the
£62,352
which he pocketed for 2013-2014, according to official council accounts published today.
Cabinet member maintains her seat on Whitgift governors
After more than three months in office, Toni Letts, the senior Labour councillor who is the cabinet member for the key portfolio of economic development, continues to fail to publish on the her profile page on the council’s official website her position as a governor of the Whitgift Foundation, the wealthy landowners at the heart of the £1 billion Westfield and Hammerson redevelopment of the Whitgift Centre.
St Toni, as some of her Town Hall colleagues refer to her, has been a Croydon councillor since 1990, first for what was then the Whitehorse Manor ward, more recently for Selhurst, and she was Mayor of Croydon in 1997. So she really ought to know better.
Labour cabinet member Toni Letts: how much access to Croydon is provided through her role on the Whitgift Foundation?
But Letts seems to be under the misapprehension that just because her (unspecified) duties for the borough’s biggest property owners are unpaid, she does not need to share that information as openly and transparently as possible.
Letts excuses her conduct by reference to the 2010 Localism Act, overlooking that two years later Croydon Council updated its own Code of Conduct, which demands that councillors must declare all positions and chairmanships, whether paid or not.
Earlier this year, when the MP for the Whitgift Foundation, Gavin Barwell was questioned on his own close ties with the governors of his former public school and their billion-pound property deals in central Croydon, we ran a poll of our readers, with the question:
“Should Gavin Barwell resign from the governors of the Whitgift Foundation to avoid the perception of a conflict of interest over Westfield?”
Nearly 600 people voted and 65 per cent gave the overwhelming response that Barwell should resign his positions with the Whitgift Foundation while an elected MP.
Posted in "Hammersfield", Business, Centrale, Croydon Central, Croydon Council, Gavin Barwell, Planning, Property, Selhurst, Toni Letts, Tony Newman, Whitgift Centre
Tagged Barwell, Conservative, Croydon, Croydon Central, Croydon Council, Gavin Barwell, Hammersfield, Hammerson, Labour, London Borough of Croydon, Toni Letts, Tony Newman, Tory, Westfield, Whitgift Centre, Whitgift Foundation
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And they’re off! Betting hots up on Croydon’s Tory leadership
Sources on Katharine Street have told Inside Croydon that bets are already being laid as to who will be the next leader of the Conservative group on Croydon Council.
Croydon Tories’ leader Mike Fisher: in his own words, has left the council with a “black hole of debt”
It seems odds-on that Mike Fisher will stand down as the leader of the Tory group at Croydon Town Hall.
The smart money is being placed on veteran Croham councillor Maria Gatland to become the first woman leader of Croydon’s Conservatives.
There has been speculation about Fisher’s position as leader of the local Tories since even before he led them to a demoralising defeat at the local elections in May.
Immediately following that defeat, Fisher controversially blamed the electorate for daring to exercise their right to vote for their support for UKIP, and then publicly admitted that he had left a “black hole of debt” for the in-coming Labour administration to deal with. Continue reading
One year on: Fisher’s Folly staff shunted into Davis House
It shows how desperate the new council is to untangle the web of financial calamity caused by the disaster that is the CCURV property speculation scam scheme, that many council staff are being told that they are to be moved out of the glass palace on Cost A Mint Walk, and that they must work from Davis House, just round the corner from Fisher’s Folly.
This is less than a year since the much put-upon council staff were moved into their expensive new council HQ, or Fisher’s Folly, at huge cost to the public.
Once seated on their new chairs and at their new desks, council staff soon found that there were leaks in the roof of the brand new building, that taps poured water over the floors of the toilet and needed to be replaced, at a cost of tens of thousands of pounds, and they had to live with a glasshouse open-plan office environment which bakes in the summer and freezes in mid-winter.
But the migration of staff out of Fisher’s Folly and into Davis House is not another cost-cutting exercise, and it is nothing to do with staff working conditions, although it does drive a stake through the heart of the idea that the new council offices would be a “one-stop hub” of all council services under one roof.
Revised plan for Taberner site keeps 32-storey yuppie tower
As Inside Croydon first reported in July, Croydon Council has abandoned previous Tory plans to build on public open space in Queen’s Gardens, beside the Town Hall.
How Taberner House used to overlook Queen’s Gardens
That is a victory of sorts for those who objected to yet more brutalist concrete blocks being constructed in central Croydon, and for those who condemned the council’s original money-making proposals as having all the grace and appeal of Ceaușescu’s Bucharest.
But the revised scheme to be put forward for consideration at a planning committee meeting on Wednesday by CCURV, the joint venture property speculation
scamscheme between Croydon Council and John Laing, has not met with overwhelming approval from the public who have seen it.One part of the new proposal includes a 32-storey residential tower block, while three other blocks will all be built to a taller height than had been proposed in the original scheme.
Posted in Alison Butler, Bernard Weatherill House, Business, Croydon Council, Fairfield, Planning, Taberner House, Tony Newman, URV
Tagged Conservative, Council Tax, Croydon, Croydon Central, Croydon Council, Fairfield, London Borough of Croydon, Queens Gardens, Taberner House, Tony Newman, Tory
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Croydon to play full part in Arnhem’s 70th commemorations
We will remember them: British paratroopers during the Battle of Arnhem in 1944
Croydon will, after all, play its civic part – and duty – with its twin town of Arnhem in the 70th anniversary commemorations of the Second World War parachute battle.
The weekend of September 19 to 22 will see the latest commemoration of the anniversary of the military Operation Market Garden in 1944.
Market Garden was the ill-fated attempt by Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery to use allied airborne troops to capture bridges through the Dutch lowlands, holding them for the ground forces of XXX Corps to take and move on, ambitiously hoping to cover almost 70 miles through enemy territory all the way to the crossing over the Rhine at enemy-occupied Arnhem, and so break into Germany and speed the end of the war.
Cornelius Ryan’s book on Market Garden, which was turned into an epic war film by Richard Attenborough, summed up the operation’s failings in its title: A Bridge Too Far.
Posted in Community associations, Croydon Council, Education, History, Mike Fisher
Tagged Arnhem, Croydon, Croydon Council, D-Day, Mike Fisher, Normandy, Operation Market Garden, Tony Newman
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Places for People appointed to run Ruskin Square flats
And so the build begins.
An architect’s impression of what the first phase of flats on Ruskin Square will look like
The construction sites, cranes and scaffolding sprouting around the borough shows that there is indeed some economic activity going on, and now news reaches Inside Croydon Towers of a first step towards finally developing one of Croydon’s most prestigious sites, and blights of the past decade or more.
After a decade of inactivity, building work is already on-going on what is now called Ruskin Square, next to East Croydon Station.
And this week the owners, Schroder and Stanhope, announced an agreement to appoint Places for People to market and manage a first phase of flats, to be built in a corner of the site between Croydon’s infamous £20 million “Bridge to Nowhere” and the probably new new tram tracks on Dingwall Road. Continue reading
Posted in East Croydon, Environment, Fairfield, Housing, Planning, Property, Ruskin Square, Tramlink, Warehouse Theatre
Tagged East Croydon station, Fairfield, Ruskin Square, Schroder Stanhope
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£3m of riot fund spending in South End is “hostile” to cyclists
No through road: how improvement works on South End – at the entrance to Spice’s Yard – has cut off the cycle lane
South End, one of the main routes into and out of the centre of Croydon, today remains a building site, reducing the amount of passing trade able to visit local bars, restaurants and other shops nearly two months after a one-way system was introduced while “improvements” works continued.
Around £3 million of public money, which was supposed to assist those areas worst-hit by the 2011 riots, is being spent on these “improvements” in South Croydon.
But local cycling groups have condemned the scheme as a multi-million-pound waste of public money which will make South End “hostile” and more dangerous to cyclists. The “improvements” could actually make it more difficult for cyclists to ride to a local cycle store, one of the real victims of looters on the night of the 8/8 riots.
Works on South End started in early March. There has been a one-way system which has diverted buses and other heavy traffic on to neighbouring roads, some of them residential, since July 21, and which was supposed to have finished within six weeks.
The so-called “improvements” broadly appear to consist of narrowing the road, making what was already a busy thoroughfare potentially more congested, adding some playground-style bicycle racks while removing any space for cyclists to be able to safely ride along the road. And lots of new car parking spaces.
Posted in Boris Bikes, Business, Commuting, Connected Croydon, Croydon Council, Croydon Cycling Campaign, Cycling, Environment, Fairfield, Planning, Restaurants, South Croydon, Waddon
Tagged Conservative, Croydon, Croydon Council, Croydon Cycling Campaign, Cycling, cyclists, London Borough of Croydon, South Croydon, South Croydon, Tory, Waddon
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Local youngsters get a chance for a dramatic start at Whitgift
Whitgift School, through its head of drama, Paul Wilson, appears to have made a move in a positive direction for the local community with the launch next Saturday of the Whitgift Academy of Visual and Performing Arts.
Paul Wilson: free drama classes at Whitgift school
This is a free Saturday academy, for boys and girls, and based at the school in South Croydon offering sessions in drama, dance and musical theatre, for children aged from eight to 18.
“WAVPA’s teachers are hugely experienced in their fields, appearing frequently in West End productions, and on television,” they say, while Wilson’s drama and music productions at Whitgift School have always been of a reliably high standard.
Applications to join WAVPA’s first term of classes have already closed, but more information can be found at www.whitgift.co.uk/WAVPA or by emailing wavpa@whitgift.co.uk.
Continue reading
Posted in Dance, Music, Theatre, Whitgift School
Tagged drama, Education, South Croydon, Whitgift Foundation, Whitgift School
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Elvery’s ex-business partner guilty of financial misconduct
WALTER CONXITE reports on more disturbing news involving “dishonest” conduct around the private business of Croydon Council’s most senior official
The co-director of a private company that was run with Croydon Council’s new chief executive, Nathan Elvery, has been found guilty of financial misconduct and bringing the accountancy profession into disrepute after she admitted to forging her business partner’s signatures on the company accounts.
Croydon CEO Nathan Elvery: never noticed that someone was forging his signature on his private company’s accounts
Elvery established Sundragon Associates Ltd in August 2009, even though he was Croydon Council’s full-time deputy CEO and executive director in charge of the borough’s finances at the same time. He formed the private company together with Tracie Evans, who was then the director of finance at Barking and Dagenham. There were no other directors in the business. Sundragon was wound-up in April 2012.
The disciplinary hearing of CIPFA, the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy, which reported last month, described Evans’ actions in signing the accounts in her business partner’s name as “dishonest”. Elvery gave evidence to the disciplinary panel, claiming no knowledge of the forgeries, something which Evans denied. CIPFA gave Evans a “severe reprimand”.
Last year, when Inside Croydon investigated Elvery’s involvement in his Sundragon private business while a full-time employee at Croydon, he threatened legal action against this website in an unsuccessful effort to gag us.
The council also broke the law over information requests and at first deliberately withheld information about their senior executive’s involvement in his moonlighting activities.
Although Sundragon was set-up to offer consultancy services to local authorities over the use of IT systems, Elvery has always claimed that there was never any conflict of interest with his day job at Croydon. He has also said that he never gained any financial benefits from the company, which in its first year’s trading had a £50,000 turnover.
Last month, Elvery was made full-time chief executive of Croydon Council, a job which was never advertised.
Just days before, at a disciplinary meeting of CIPFA, Elvery’s one-time business partner admitted to forging her co-director’s signature on formal accounts lodged with Companies House. CIPFA published its report on the hearing last month. Continue reading
Clacton gets Carswell, as McKenzie looks to Croydon again
Clacton’s to get Douglas Carswell. Croydon North looks as if it will get Winston McKenzie as its next UKIP parliamentary candidate. Again.
Winston McKenzie: seeking selection as the UKIP candidate in the Croydon North constituency where he is the local party chairman
As UKIP puffs out its chest at the thought of becoming a proper, grown-up political party, with a real MP and all that stuff (as and when the stunned Tories get round to moving the writ for the by-election in Clacton caused by Carswell’s defection), here in Croydon credibility doesn’t seem to be a priority for the fourth party.
McKenzie is one of six candidates seeking selection in Croydon North at a UKIP meeting being held next Wednesday. Two-thirds of the list is made up of names familiar to Inside Croydon’s loyal reader, since four of them – including McKenzie – were rejected when they sought selection as the UKIP candidate for the much more politically attractive parliamentary seat of Croydon South.
Steve Reed OBE is the Labour MP for Lambeth South, and has such an unassailable majority that the local Conservatives have opted to put up the Fairfield councillor, Vidhi Mohan, as their no-hoper candidate at next May’s General Election, rather than waste any effort or the talents of anyone with real ability. UKIP’s chances in Croydon North are slimmer still.
McKenzie was the UKIP parliamentary candidate in Croydon North at the 2012 by-election, when he polled 5.7 per cent of the vote, saving his deposit, while losing the vestiges of any integrity he may have had with the wider public by pursuing a homophobic campaign of innuendo against Reed, in which McKenzie asserted that it was “child abuse” for gay couples to adopt.
The Return of the Native: How Zaha came home to Palace
Bringing in a £10-million England international winger for £1.5 million should go down in anyone’s book as a “good bit of business”. That the deal that will see the return of Wilfried Zaha to Selhurst Park, , initially on loan from Manchester United, was done at all depended on Crystal Palace actually having a manager in place.
Tuesday night showed that Wilf Zaha, back row, is nowhere to be found in Louis van Gaal’s plans at Manchester United
But the role of Neil Warnock in the deal was minimal.
But the delays and prevarication over the appointment of a replacement for Tony Pulis as manager might have seen Zaha slip through Palace’s fingers and join QPR or Newcastle, among others. Had that happened, it will have only underlined the potential damage suffered by the club in the last fortnight.
Zaha’s Manchester United career reached its nadir on Tuesday night. A bit like Louis van Gaal’s. It is possibly the only thing the two have in common.
As the once mighty United went down 4-0 in the League Cup to a franchise side at a town most famous for its concrete cows, Zaha was pointedly left on the bench, surplus to requirements. If Zaha couldn’t merit a place among the shambles that was happening in front of him, then he would surely have little prospect of ever playing for United under van Gaal. Continue reading
Posted in Crystal Palace FC, Football, Sport, Wilfried Zaha
Tagged Crystal Palace, Crystal Palace FC, Neil Warnock, Selhurst, Selhurst Park, Steve Parish, Tony Pulis, Wilf Zaha, Wilfried Zaha, Zaha
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Watch out Puncheon, Warnock’s back in charge at Palace
Seven years ago, when he last rolled up at Selhurst Park, Neil Warnock declared it would be his last job in football. There are many Palace fans, and Jason Puncheon, who today will be wishing that it was.
Get in there: Neil Warnock celebrates landing the Palace manager’s job. Allegedly
At an age when most people are looking towards settling down in their slippers in an armchair, or with a cushty place on the TV pundits’ sofa, 65-year-old Warnock was today named as the Palace boss.
In a sign of the times, Warnock’s appointment was officially announced first on the Twitter feed of Neteller, the club sponsor. “Before criticism comes the way of #cpfc comms team, the decision to have Neteller release before the club’s own website is out of our hands,” one of the Selhurst Park staff tweeted.
Warnock replaces Tony Pulis, the Manager of the Year, who left Palace on the eve of the season when no agreement could be reached over his role in the club’s transfer business while Iain Moody was the club’s director of football. The somewhat discredited Moody has now left the club.
It would appear that Warnock was decidedly second choice, or even fourth or fifth choice, after Malky Mackay (see Moody, above), Tim Sherwood and even Pulis all over again. Steve Clarke, the former West Brom manager and Scotland international defender, was understood to be the club’s preferred choice until talks broke down this morning.
Posted in Crystal Palace FC, Football, Sport
Tagged Crystal Palace, Crystal Palace FC, Neil Warnock, Selhurst, Selhurst Park, Tony Pulis
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Councillors are not ‘Appy with MyCroydon’s performance
The MyCroydon smartphone app, a vital part of Labour’s new council administration’s “Don’t Mess With Croydon” T-shirt and slogans campaign, doesn’t work properly.
Who says so? A group of Labour councillors, including the deputy cabinet member for T-shirts and slogans.
MyCroydon is an application which can be downloaded on to people’s smart phones, tablets and other mobile devices and allows them to report a range of problems and incidents to the council, such as abandoned cars, blocked drains and fly-tipping.
As Inside Croydon first reported earlier this year, the previous Tory council never put the contract for the MyCroydon app out to public tender, snubbing the many coders and app development companies based in Croydon. Continue reading
Fundraising walkabout at Beddington Farmlands, Aug 30
Posted in Croydon Greens, Environment, Waste incinerator, Wildlife
Tagged Beddington Farmlands, Environment, Green Party, incinerator, Sutton, Viridor
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Pedestrians baffled by Crystal Palace’s missing crossings
Church Road’s fully operational pedestrian crossing – a rare sight of a crossing as it should appear on this busy road
Loyal reader ANDY HEBDEN went for a walk in the rain along Church Road and was struck… well, fortunately not by a car, although he was confused by the various states of pedestrian crossings along the route
I thought I’d share with you a mysterious and somewhat baffling situation near where I live in beautiful Upper Norwood.
Church Road, linking Beulah Hill and the Crystal Palace triangle, is one of Upper Norwood’s busier roads. I’ve had the pleasure of strolling down it many a time.
While doing so, my wife and I have been struck by the seemingly random “safe” crossing points along its length.
Ofsted reports signal concerns over College’s free school plan
The school places shortage has already prompted a range of daft ideas in Croydon, from the notion of sticking a primary school in a listed building overlooking a six-lane urban motorway, to building on Metropolitan Open Land with barely a thought for the traffic implications in an already congested area.
And here’s the latest: having Croydon College run a secondary free school. GENE BRODIE goes over the college’s own end-of-term reports
Croydon College is proposing to open a free school on its site, next to Fairfield Halls and opposite East Croydon Station, to cater for 11- to 18-year-olds with six forms of entry – 180 pupils in each year. The school will be called The New Croydon Academy.
Croydon certainly needs more secondary schools. There remains huge distrust of some of the academy chains, as so many of their students seem mysteriously to “disappear” just before they are due to sit their GCSE exams. Croydon also has the worst educational outcomes for students of all the outer London boroughs south of the river.
Could Croydon College do better?
More information on what the college principal, Frances Wadsworth, calls “an exciting opportunity for Croydon”, can be found at www.croydonacademy.org.uk.
But you might already know what to expect. When you get to the website, it is knee-deep in vague educational platitudes such as: “Success through Learning, Learning for the Future and Investing in Learning”. Continue reading
CAB is celebrating its priceless volunteers on 75th anniversary
Staff and volunteers at Croydon Citizens Advice Bureau are holding a special event on Wednesday September 3 to celebrate the 75th birthday of the Citizens Advice service and to launch the Friends of Croydon CAB.
Croydon’s first Citizens Advice Bureau, in 1939, at Lansdowne Road. Photograph from the Imperial War Museum collection
The first 200 Citizens Advice Bureaux were opened in 1939 as a response to the outbreak of the Second World War. Croydon CAB was one of the first.
There are now 338 bureaux, all independent charities, delivering free, confidential, impartial and independent advice from over 3,500 locations, including South Norwood, New Addington and Access Croydon in Bernard Weatherill House.
Croydon CAB is run by a small core of paid staff and about 60 volunteers, and last year they helped a total of 8,973 local people with 16,650 separate problems.
The Mayor of Croydon, Manju Shahul-Hameed, will be attending Croydon CAB’s anniversary event and speakers will include representatives from Citizens Advice head office and Croydon Council. Peter Stokes, Croydon CAB’s chief executive, will talk about the history of Citizens Advice, including a short film from the archives which illustrates just how much the service has changed over the years, and will talk about Croydon CAB’s vision for the future. Staff, volunteers and guests will be invited to share a 75th anniversary cake.
Posted in Charity, Community associations, Croydon CAB
Tagged Citizens Advice Bureau, Croydon, Croydon CAB, New Addington, West Norwood
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Where there’s life there’s Hope in Carshalton’s best pub
Out and about in Carshalton? ANDREW LENG suggests a visit to the area’s co-operative, community-run pub, rated among the best in the whole of England
My only previous visit to this part of leafy Surrey was to see Carshalton Athletic take on Croydon at Colston Avenue many years ago. The pub that I visited wasn’t one that sticks in the mind. Come to think of it, the match wasn’t that entertaining either. I’ve not had cause to go back, since both teams went in opposite directions league-wise.
The Hope: a pub which delivers on expectations if you’re seeking a wide selection of real ales
So, I checked out The Hope’s website on the internet for directions. The website is impressive, giving a potted history of the pub and the awards that it has won in its relatively short time of existence as a real ale venue. The pub is unusual, in that it is owned and operated by a local community co-operative, which came together four years ago when the pub was in imminent danger of closing and being sold off for development (sound familiar?).
The website is constantly updated to show what beers are coming to The Hope, with most of the regular beers coming from breweries from the Midlands and the south-east. It’s nice to see that two of my favourite breweries, Dark Star and Oakham, feature on this list. With seven real ale pumps, it is my kind of place. Continue reading
Royal Mail confirms reduced service in Coulsdon – via email
The inbox at Inside Croydon Towers has been inundated with an email from the Royal Fail following our report on Friday about the axing of postal collections in Coulsdon, where in future there will be but a single collection from post boxes each weekday.
Someone describing herself as “senior external relations manager” – which in plain English would probably be better known as a professional dissembler – Sally Hopkins, has written to us.
It is significant that Hopkins opted to use email, rather than the much-reduced “service” now provided by her employers. We have not had a mail delivery since Friday lunchtime, and we don’t expect any post being delivered to our business premises before midday on Tuesday. If we are lucky. We are not located in anything which someone might describe as a “rural” or “remote” location.
“I am writing to challenge some of the claims in this current posting,” Hopkins dissembles, before going on to regurgitate Royal Fail Group’s latest press release. Not once does she mention Coulsdon or the reduced levels of postal collection services being provided there by her privatised employers.
South Croydon community stages business big breakfasts
Please join the South Croydon Community Association and Chef Malcolm John, at his Brasserie Vacherin restaurant, for the opportunity to network and tap into local skills over a delicious breakfast.
£10 per head, to include pastries, continental and English breakfast buffet including tea and coffee.
BRASSERIE VACHERIN
48- 50 South End, Croydon, CR0 1DP
020 8774 4060
- Saturday 20 September
- Saturday 18 October
- Saturday 15 November
- Saturday 13 December
- Saturday 24 January 2015 (at 9.30 am)
To reserve your place contact Brasserie Vacherin
Email: info@brasserievacherincroydon.co.uk
Telephone: 020 8774 4060
