Silicon Alley: 800 Croydon firms have closed under Mayor Perry

Posted on February 4, 2025 by insidecroydon

CROYDON IN CRISIS: The borough’s part-time Mayor got all excited at the weekend over a newspaper report that made some exaggerated claims about business growth, but which overlooked official data. By SANDRA STEAD

Easily pleased: Mayor Perry is desperate for any hint of good news, however flaky

Small-time businessman and part-time Mayor Jason Perry got himself in a bit of a lather over the weekend, when a dodgy press release was swallowed hook, line and sinker and regurgitated by one sub-standard publication.

“Croydon ‘could become the UK’s answer to Silicon Valley’, data shows,” was the rather exaggerated claim made on a quiet news day by a diminishing circulation weekly newspaper. This was carried alongside a dramatic drone shot of Croydon town centre, taken from a sufficiently high altitude that the multiple closed-down shops and general dereliction of North End could not be seen.

The article’s intro claimed that small firms in Croydon “are growing at a faster rate than almost anywhere else”, and that the borough had seen a 24% “spike in microbusiness numbers during the past 12 months, greater than the rest of London and third in the UK overall”.

Which all sounds impressive. Trouble was, there was precious little evidence offered to back-up the claims. Continue reading →

Posted in Business, Mayor Jason Perry | Tagged , , , , , | 11 Comments

Ashburton and Coulsdon public libraries begin to open up

Posted on February 4, 2025 by insidecroydon

Having closed four public libraries last year – at Bradmore Green, Sanderstead, Shirley and Broad Green – Croydon’s Conservative Mayor Jason Perry is oh-so-gradually rolling out longer opening hours at what remains of the borough’s library network.

Opening up: Coulsdon is one of two public libraries which has had its opening hours extended

Ashburton Library and Coulsdon Library are now open full time, from 10am to 6pm on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday, and from 9am to 5pm on Saturday.

“These increased hours will give residents more opportunities to visit and enjoy all that Croydon’s libraries have to offer, from clubs and activities to reading, research and study,” the council said in a statement issued last week.

Six of Croydon’s remaining public libraries, however, are only open three or four days a week.

“From April, all the borough’s libraries will be open five to six days a week, and Central Library and Thornton Heath Library will see their hours extended,” the council is promising. Continue reading →

Posted in Ashburton, Broad Green, Coulsdon, Croydon Council, Libraries, New Addington, Norbury, Old Coulsdon, Purley, Sanderstead, Shirley North, Shirley South, South Norwood, Thornton Heath | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Arson investigation after hay bales fire in Carshalton field

Posted on February 4, 2025 by insidecroydon

The police and London Fire Brigade are investigating possible arson after 20 large bales of hay in a field in Carshalton were destroyed by fire at the weekend.

Field fire: it took firefighters from four stations eight hours to put out the burning hay in a Carshalton field

Four fire engines and around 25 firefighters took eight hours to tackle the fire on Woodmansterne Road on Saturday.

A tractor assisted in removing the bales and turning over hay so that crews could damp down hot spots.

There were no reports of any injuries.

The Brigade’s Control Officers took the first of six calls at 3.14pm and mobilised crews from Wallington, Purley, Sutton and Mitcham fire stations to the scene. Continue reading →

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Join iC’s 3 lucky winners at Mozart Players’ Changing Seasons

Posted on February 3, 2025 by insidecroydon

Congratulations to loyal readers Paul Ainscough, Ian Anderson and David White: all three have won a pair of tickets – worth £65 – for the London Mozart Players’ Changing Seasons concert at the Fairfield Halls on Saturday, February 15.

The concert is a new multi-genre spectacular from Croydon’s resident orchestra, created as a reflection on the climate emergency and its impact on our future.

When Vivaldi wrote his Four Seasons in 1723, the world was a different place.

As nature continues to inspire art, Vivaldi’s piece remains popular and still has a place in today’s society, as this London Mozart Players concert will strive to demonstrate. This exciting production mixes Vivaldi’s classic with new commissions from four talented local arts groups. Continue reading →

Posted in Art, Fairfield Halls, Inside Croydon, London Mozart Players, Music | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Housing association CEO takes lead role at Whitgift Foundation

Posted on February 3, 2025 by insidecroydon

For the first time in more than 400 years, the Whitgift Foundation is to be led by a woman.

On a mission: Fiona Fletcher-Smith, appointed as chair of the Whitgift Foundation’s Court of Governors

“That’s if you don’t count Queen Elizabeth I,” confided a wag at the Whitgift Almshouses, where the charity and multi-million-pound property business has its offices.

The appointment of Fiona Fletcher Smith to the unpaid role as chair of Whitgift’s Court of Governors also signals potentially a significant shift in the Foundation’s outlook, after decades of being managed – perhaps mis-managed – by City bankers.

Fletcher Smith comes with huge experience in public sector housing, and is currently the chief executive at L&Q, one of Britain’s largest housing associations. Continue reading →

Posted in "Hammersfield", Business, Charity, Fiona Fletcher Smith, Roisha Hughes, Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield, Whitgift Centre, Whitgift Foundation | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 6 Comments

NHS plans bring Coulsdon’s eight-year saga close to an end

Posted on February 3, 2025 by insidecroydon

Residents’ associations in and around Coulsdon are encouraging their members and other locals to weigh-in with support for plans to build the long-promised NHS medical centre on the site of a former primary school on Malcolm Road.

Less-than-handsome: the CGIs of the proposed medical centre are unlikely to win plaudits for architectural merit

With £9.8million funding approved by the NHS last year, planning approval should be a formality, although given the curse of Brick by Brick on so many schemes around the borough, the RAs are taking nothing for granted.

The medical centre was one part of a multi-site proposal for Coulsdon, using council-owned land, which made only glacially-slow progress. Seven years after it was granted planning permission, housing on the Lion Green car park began to be occupied only last year – though the cash-strapped council had to flog off the flats in a suspiciously convoluted finance scheme. Continue reading →

Posted in Cane Hill Park Residents' Association, Chris Philp MP, Community associations, Coulsdon, Coulsdon Medical Centre, Coulsdon Town, Coulsdon West Residents' Association, Croydon NHS Trust, Croydon South, East Coulsdon Residents' Association, HADRA, Health, Old Coulsdon Residents' Association, Place Review Panel, Planning | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Petition to close Kenley level crossing where schoolboy died

Posted on February 3, 2025 by insidecroydon

In just two days, more than 1,200 people have signed a petition to close down the “hazardous” pedestrian level crossing where schoolboy Jaiden Shehata was killed last month.

‘Avoidable hazard’: the Bourne View level crossing, which locals claim is a danger to the public

The Riddlesdown Collegiate Year 7 pupil died after being hit by a train in “a tragic accident” near Kenley railway station, when he was on his way to school on January 23.

The petition calls for the Bourne View level crossing in Kenley to be closed. “This dear child was not the only casualty that this crossing has claimed,” the petitioners state. “Multiple lives have been lost due to its potential dangers.” It is not known what evidence there is to support such a claim.

The petition says: “This hazardous crossing is directly responsible for the heart-rending grief and the unnecessary loss of precious lives. Continue reading →

Posted in Kenley, Riddlesdown, Schools | Tagged , , , , , | 11 Comments

For planner Cheesbrough, budget increase is ‘non-negotiable’

Posted on February 2, 2025 by insidecroydon

CROYDON IN CRISIS: All those public consultations that don’t ever make any difference to what the council sets out to do? This week, one director made it clear that they are indeed pointless exercises, as KEN LEE reports

Budget showdown: our bankrupt borough is facing even tougher times. But one director believes her spending should be allowed to increase – whatever the public thinks

Croydon Council is ploughing on full steam ahead for the financial rocks once again, with a budget overspend this year predicted of more than £20million and a shortfall between income and expenditure for 2025-2026 of a whopping £83million. And all with this year’s budget and Council Tax-setting meetings for Croydon’s dysfunctional council coming up next week.

Yet at a meeting in the Town Hall Chamber last Tuesday, one senior council director, despite admitting “significant underachievement of income” by her department over the past four years, was lobbying to reverse cuts to her budgets and seeking an increase in her staffing.

“Having a permanent planning team is very important,” the very self-important Heather Cheesbrough told councillors on the streets and environment scrutiny sub-committee. Continue reading →

Posted in Alasdair Stewart, Business, Croydon Council, Heather Cheesbrough, Karen Agbabiaka, Louis Carserides, Planning | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 21 Comments

Spackman was at the heart of Croydon’s art scene for 30 years

Posted on February 2, 2025 by insidecroydon

SUNDAY SUPPLEMENT: The Croydon Camera Club, the Writers’ Circle and even a masonic lodge all found a warm welcome at the Edridge Road home of a family of artists, as DAVID MORGAN explains

Frieze frame: American-born Cyril Spackman was a noted and influential artist in Croydon for much of the 20th Century

The building of the Croydon Flyover in the 1960s required the demolition of many properties; No1 Edridge Road was one of them.

It had been a hub of creativity for more than 30 years. Cyril and Ada Spackman lived there. He was an internationally recognised painter, etcher and sculptor. She was a talented musician. As well as developing and fostering their own skills, they also provided a base for local photographers and writers.

Spackman was born in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1887, the son of a Welsh methodist minister who had emigrated to America. Initially studying architecture in Cleveland under Henry Kellar, Rev John Spackman’s son later came to King’s College, London, to study architecture under TE Lidiard James.

Trouble was, young Spackman wanted to be a painter, rather than an architect. And that’s what he set out to do when he left university. Continue reading →

Posted in Art, Croydon Camera Club, David Morgan, History | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Met’s month-long amnesty on potentially lethal blank guns

Posted on February 2, 2025 by insidecroydon

Croydon is among the police stations around the capital which, from tomorrow, will be allowing people to hand in a certain type of blank gun as part of a month-long amnesty aimed at getting these potentially deadly weapons off the streets of London.

The guns, known as TVBFs, or “top-venting blank firers”, are made in Turkey, and in their original form they pose little risk. But an increasing number have been converted and have been used in serious violence. Anyone found to be in possession of one, after the amnesty, could face up to 10 years’ imprisonment. Continue reading →

Posted in Crime, London-wide issues, Policing | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

Younger Generation Theatre Group auditions, Purley, Mar 9

Posted on February 2, 2025 by insidecroydon

Continue reading →

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Trinity School’s Steinway festival is hitting all the right notes

Posted on February 1, 2025 by insidecroydon

Oh what a Circus, oh what a show: pupils from age 10 to 18 have been encouraged to give lunchtime recitals in the busy school corridor

Trinity School is staging piano performances by more than 120 musicians in a week-long festival – with recitals by schoolboys and girl pupils (Trinity has a co-ed Sixth Form) played in the school corridor to renowned international performers making special guest appearances on the main stage.

This year’s Trinity Piano Festival, an annual celebration of music and piano-players, has reached its mid-point, and continues to Tuesday. Continue reading →

Posted in Art, London Mozart Players, Music, Schools, Trinity School, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Croydon follows Brighton and Medway with care-leavers’ app

Posted on February 1, 2025 by insidecroydon

Croydon Council has released a care leavers app to support what they now term as “care-experienced young people” – care leavers – who are taking their first steps towards independent living.

The council claims that Croydon Cares “has been co-designed and developed by care-experienced young people to provide vital information and advice on money, finance, housing and accommodation, as well as health and wellbeing”.

Croydon Council has a pretty dismal record with its use of outward-facing technology.

Such as when they paid at least £500,000 to a developer with no previous track record for the Crap App for waste and fly-tipping issues. The app never functioned properly and was a cost to the council when opensource options were available free of charge.

The Crap App was so bad, it had to be replaced in 2018 with a marginally better functioning Crap App 2.0.

Or the dreadfully dull, under-researched, unchecked music heritage trail app, delivered at huge expense but which hardly anyone bothered to download. And then there was the Croydon Digital team dabbling in procuring “smart” bus shelters…

Croydon Cares may not be such a flop. It has been developed by a small family company based in Bournemouth, This Is Focus Ltd, who have basically re-skinned a similar smartphone tool that they have already produced for other local authorities, including Brighton and Hove, Greater Manchester (where it has been in used since 2022), Hounslow and Medway. Continue reading →

Posted in Children's Services, Croydon Council, Mayor Jason Perry, Youth Services | Tagged , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Angel of Peace concert, The Sixteen, Croydon Minster, Mar 17

Posted on February 1, 2025 by insidecroydon

Continue reading →

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Directors leave scrutiny short of answers over council job cuts

Posted on January 31, 2025 by insidecroydon

KEN LEE reports from the frontline of budget discussions at the cash-strapped council, after a meeting where everyone is working very, very hard, but no one in charge bothered to turn up equipped to provide any answers 

Very, very important: council director Heather Cheesbrough

Councillors from both larger political parties were left stunned and more than a little peeved at a Town Hall meeting this week when two of Croydon’s most senior directors turned up for the meeting to propose job cuts – but then admitted that they had no idea of how many jobs they wanted to axe.

Heather Cheesbrough and Karen Agbabiaka rolled up at the Town Hall for the streets and environment scrutiny sub-committee on Tuesday evening, where neither of them could answer some of the most basic questions put to them by councillors. Continue reading →

Posted in Alasdair Stewart, Croydon Council, Heather Cheesbrough, Karen Agbabiaka, Kristian Aspinall, Libraries, Louis Carserides, Scott Roche, Stella Nabukeera | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 8 Comments

Sutton’s £2.3m heritage buildings sale to owner of derelict pub

Posted on January 31, 2025 by insidecroydon

INSIDE SUTTON: Confidential documents show that the council has done a property deal for two of the borough’s historic buildings with an offshore company linked to the developer responsible for the long-neglected Fox and Hounds pub on Carshalton High Street.
EXCLUSIVE By BERTIE WORCESTER-PARK

Gone cheap: the Old Rectory, flogged off by Sutton Council for £535,000

The Liberal Democrats in charge of Sutton Council promised many years ago that they would never sell off the borough’s historic buildings. Only the Conservatives wanted to flog the family silver, they said.

Yet many of the same LibDem councillors in Sutton have just rubbered stamped the sale of two of the borough’s finest buildings: the Grade II*-listed Old Rectory in Carshalton, and the Russettings, the large, Victorian era house used until last year as the council’s registry office and wedding venue.

Inside Sutton can reveal that the buyer in both cases is an offshore company, Nelson Insurance Company Ltd, based in Gibraltar.
Continue reading →

Posted in Carshalton and Wallington, Community associations, Elliot Colburn, History, Planning, Property, Pubs, Sutton Council | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Child killed on railway line at Kenley named by his school

Posted on January 31, 2025 by insidecroydon

The Riddlesdown Collegiate Year 7 pupil who was killed in “a tragic accident” near Kenley railway station when he was on his way to school last week has been named as Jaiden Shehata.

“Jaiden was a kind and popular student and a valued member of Riddlesdown Collegiate,” said a statement published by Riddlesdown.

“We know the loss is being felt by many and we are doing everything we can to support his friends, family and the wider student and staff community at this difficult time.”

As reported last week, the large secondary school was closed last Friday as a mark of respect for Shehata, his family and friends. Continue reading →

Posted in Kenley, Riddlesdown, Schools | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Purley parishes in merger as St Barnabas Church is sold off

Posted on January 31, 2025 by insidecroydon

A Purley church which traces its history back more than 100 years to a time when religious services for residents of Higher Drive were being held in a stable, is being sold.

Last toll of the bells: a church has been on the site on Higher Drive since 1913. The St Barnabas building opened in 1959

The ministering and services of St Barnabas Church are now being merged with the parish work of All Saints, Kenley.

The process of closing the church and selling the site has been ongoing since 2023. The vicar, Rev Justine Middlemiss, first announced the move to her much-reduced congregation in what she described as “probably one of the hardest sermons I’ve ever had to write”.

The parish council had been expressing concerns about the “viability” of continuing to hold services at St Barnabas on Higher Drive for 15 years, according to Rev Middlemass. The church’s congregation had diminished rapidly following the covid pandemic in 2020. Continue reading →

Posted in Church and religions, Kenley, Property, Purley, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments

Bingo! Croydon player scoops the £50,000 jackpot at Centrale

Posted on January 31, 2025 by insidecroydon

A bingo player at Centrale in Croydon scooped an incredible £50,000 prize earlier this month – the third national game jackpot to be called by Mecca Bingo’s Altex Gibson, who has been working at the venue for 20 years.

Prize venue: Centrale’s bingo club has enjoyed its recent success

“When I told her that she’d actually triggered the £50,000 jackpot, she was in shock,” Gibson told Inside Croydon.

Mecca says that their latest, lucky winner is a regular customer at their bingo club on Tamworth Road. The winner, who asked to remain anonymous, was playing with a group of friends when her numbers came up in National Bingo Game. Continue reading →

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‘Sadistic and twisted’ killer Sansom is given full life sentence

Posted on January 30, 2025 by insidecroydon

WARNING: This report includes disturbing details of the nature of a crime which were discovered during the police investigation and later recounted in open court during sentencing at the Old Bailey

Allowed to murder again: Steve Sansom pleaded guilty to the murder of Sarah Mayhew

Murderer Steven Sansom, who was released from prison on licence and then killed again, was today sent back to jail with the Old Bailey judge ordering that he should never be allowed out again.

Sansom, 45, of Burnell Road, Sutton, had admitted killing 38-year-old Sarah Mayhew and disposing of her severed body parts in different places around south London last year. The trial’s prosecution lawyers described the murder as “sadistic”.

On Christmas Eve 1998, when he was a teenager, Sansom murdered a taxi driver Terence Boyle in New Addington, for which he served 20 years of a life sentence.

Sansom’s partner, Gemma Watts, 49, of Holmbury Grove, Forestdale, had also entered a guilty plea to the murder of Sarah Mayhew.

Mrs Justice Cutts sentenced Sansom to a whole-life order. Watts is to serve a minimum of 30 years. In her sentencing, the judge said that it was Mayhew’s “greatest misfortune was to know the two of you”.

The pair were also sentenced to five years each for perverting the course of public justice, the sentences to run concurrently. Continue reading →

Posted in Crime, New Addington, New Addington North, Policing | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Armed police in ‘some kind of stand-off’ at Carshalton house

Posted on January 30, 2025 by insidecroydon

Endgame: the police led a man into the street at Bramblewood Close after a tense six-hour stand-off. Photo  © InsideSutton

INSIDE SUTTON EXCLUSIVE: 4PM UPDATE: A man is seen being led away by police, apparently hand-cuffed, after a tense six-hour incident on a residential street

A tense, six-hour siege of a house on a usually quiet residential street in suburban Carshalton appeared to have come to an end by mid-afternoon, as police emerged with a man in hand-cuffs, under arrest.

According to the Metropolitan Police, they responded to reports this morning of an assault, and called in specialist support when a suspect appeared to be armed. By 3pm, a man was arrested, with no reports of serious injuries, and what is believed to be an imitation firearm taken away for examination.

An estimated 20 specially trained police, many of them armed, some accompanied by police dogs, had been surrounding a house on Bramblewood Close, just off Buckhurst Avenue, since not long after 9am.

Other emergency services, including London Ambulance and London Fire Brigade, were also present at the scene. Continue reading →

Posted in Crime, Policing, Sutton Council | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

Mitcham man convicted of 2023 murder of Felecia Cadore

Posted on January 30, 2025 by insidecroydon

Guilty: Hussain Haron

A 24-year-old man, Hussain Haron, of London Road, Mitcham, was yesterday found guilty of the 2023 murder in Croydon of his ex-girlfriend, Felecia Cadore.

Police were called to a report of “an altercation” at an address in Grenaby Avenue, Selhurst, on June 9, 2023.

Cadore, who was 29, was found in a critical condition with stab wounds and taken to hospital where she died from her injuries on June 14.

Cadore was one of 11 murder victims in Croydon in 2023. Continue reading →

Posted in Crime, Knife crime, Selhurst | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Norbury community celebrates a decade of ‘guerilla’ knitting

Posted on January 30, 2025 by insidecroydon

Norbury knitters: after 10 years, the community group including Katrina Clark, Fay Brown and Sue Ralph, is going strong, meeting at the library to plan their next ‘guerilla’ activity

Knitting Norbury Together is celebrating 10 years of brightening up the streets of Norbury with its knitted installations.

This “guerilla knitting group” is 50-strong, and meets weekly to craft together and plan next steps. Continue reading →

Posted in Charity, Community associations, Norbury, Norbury Park | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Buyers found for two former private schools in South Croydon

Posted on January 29, 2025 by insidecroydon

Impressive vista: Knight Frank’s sales site might suggest that half of Croydon is up for sale. In fact, Coombe House is the 264-year-old listed building at the bottom of the photograph

EXCLUSIVE: The slow saga of the closure of Old Palace School may be about to take a significant step over the future of its former prep school, while Coombe House by Lloyd Park, offered at £6m, is ‘sold subject to contract’

The sites of two private schools in South Croydon appear to have found buyers in potentially multi-million-pound property deals.

“Global property consultancy” – estate agents to you and me – Knight Frank have placed a “Sold – subject to contract” notice on Coombe House, the listed building adjoining Lloyd Park, which was most recently the home of Oakwood School.

The property was placed on the market last August with a £6million price tag.

The same agents have removed all trace from their sales website of the Old Palace nursery and prep school site on Melville Avenue, which had been put up for sale by the financially challenged Whitgift Foundation last June with a £7.5million asking price. Continue reading →

Posted in Charity, Housing, Oakwood, Old Palace, Planning, Property, Schools, South Croydon, Whitgift Foundation | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 7 Comments

Council calls on housing associations to join its ‘partnership’

Posted on January 29, 2025 by insidecroydon

Croydon Council is trying to bring together all the housing associations who manage homes in the borough – it says that there are more than 60 – in an effort “to improve housing standards across the borough”.

Social housing: in recemt years, Croydon’s 60-plus housing associations have done more to provide social housing than the local council

The council says that the first Croydon Housing Association Partnership event will “bring together key housing partners, including representatives from the Greater London Authority and the council to work together to strengthen the landlord offer and meet the borough’s housing needs”.

The dysfunctional council’s press release failed to provide any information on when or where this event might take place. Continue reading →

Posted in Business, Croydon Council, Housing, Mayor Jason Perry | Tagged , , , , , , , | 5 Comments