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

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Council axes Fieldway youth team two weeks before Christmas

CROYDON IN CRISIS: Around a dozen youth workers, many based in New Addington, were told they would lose their jobs last week, as Mayor Jason Perry looks to outsource outreach provision to charities and voluntary groups to save some cash. EXCLUSIVE by STEVEN DOWNES

Ho! Ho! Ho!: there’ll be no Merry Christmas for council youth workers thanks to Scrooge-like Mayor Perry

Like a 21st Century Mr Scrooge, Jason Perry, the council’s Mayor, handed redundancy notices to around a dozen youth workers just a fortnight before Christmas.

In this Croydon version of the Dickens classic, though, it could be the people of New Addington and the rest of the borough who end up being the ones haunted by Perry’s decision.

Inside Croydon understands that the majority of those council staff being laid off are based at the Fieldway Centre in New Addington, which coincidentally Perry and the beancounters in charge of Croydon’s public services fancy flogging off to help pay off some of the borough’s toxic debt.

Some members of the council’s “youth engagement service” might manage to get alternative jobs within the council, and it is possible that others could pick up work through Croydon Voluntary Action, the umbrella organisation which endeavours to co-ordinate the third sector’s efforts around the borough.

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Posted in Children's Services, Croydon Council, Fieldway, Mayor Jason Perry, New Addington, New Addington North, Youth Services | Tagged , , , , , , , | 7 Comments

Man arrested for murder after Carshalton woman’s stabbing

A murder investigation is underway after a woman was found with stab wounds in Carshalton.

The police have named the victim as Gemma Devonish, 42, who was found by officers yesterday morning after being called to an address in Nutfield Close, off Wrythe Lane. She was pronounced dead at the scene.

A 38-year-old man was arrested in the early hours of this morning on suspicion of murder and remains in custody, according to the Met.

The police say that the suspect and Devonish were known to each other. “At this time, detectives are not looking for anyone else in connection with this incident,” the Met said. Continue reading

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Cancer charity receives £3,500 from pub’s raffle and quiz

The Crown and Sceptre pub in South Croydon raised an impressive £3,585 for the South East Cancer Help Centre by hosting a hugely successful charity quiz night.

Pub quiz: the South Croydon boozer surpassed all expectations with its charity quiz and raffle

The evening saw locals come together in a fantastic display of generosity and support. Teams battled it out over a series of challenging quiz rounds, with the community pub on Junction Road buzzing with friendly competition and laughter. In addition to the quiz, a raffle featuring donated prizes helped boost the fundraising total.

“We are overwhelmed by the generosity of everyone who attended,” said Michael Laker, the pub’s licensee. Continue reading

Posted in Charity, Pubs, South East Cancer Help Centre | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

In Sutton, Mary Poppins better look out when Kingdom comes

EXCLUSIVE: ‘Environment’ officials stopped a bus to issue a penalty notice to an old man for dropping a fag end, when the man is a non-smoker. Among a growing number of complaints include an old lady fined £150 for harmlessly feeding the birds. But Sutton has still signed a £900,000 contract – and the council gets a slice of the incentivised action.
By DAVE BURTON

Slice of the action: under its new deal with Kingdom, Sutton Council gets 15% of all fines revenue

Residents in Sutton are becoming increasingly angry over the conduct of high street bounty hunters – or “Environmental Enforcement Officers” – whose company has been hired by the council to patrol Sutton High Street, issuing Fixed Penalty Notices for often minor offences.

And, it has been shown, sometimes for no offence whatsoever.

These kerbside coppers would give Mary Poppins a hard time. When they tried to slap a £150 fine on an old aged pensioner for simply feeding the birds, they were later forced to cancel the FPN and apologise.

But the episode is just the latest among a cluster of complaints about the officials, who work for a contractor called Kingdom Local Authority Services. Often, for a quiet life, residents who receive a FPN simply pay the fine rather than face the prospect of battling the bureaucracy of the council. Or worse, court and the risk of fines of thousands of pounds. On occasions, Draconian rules are being used to levy fines against people who often don’t have the money to pay for their next meal. Continue reading

Posted in Barry Lewis, Luke Taylor MP, Sutton and Cheam, Sutton Council | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 6 Comments

Tidy’s Blues Sandwich, The Oval Tavern Addiscombe, Dec 22

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Councillor complains over legal failings: ‘It feels morally wrong’

CROYDON IN CRISIS: No one will face legal action for their part in the council’s financial collapse, despite Town Hall bosses spending hundreds of thousands of pounds on special reports and advice from high-powered barristers. Yet one of Mayor Perry’s most senior aides seems surprised at the predictable outcome

Jason Cummings, the Conservative-run council’s most senior cabinet member, maintains that misconduct did take place in Croydon in the years leading up to the authority’s financial collapse in 2020 – despite the Metropolitan Police saying that they will not investigate the senior staff and councillors who were behind the Brick by Brick scandal and the Fairfield Halls fiasco.

Cummings was speaking after the belated release of the Kroll Report, in which independent investigators – who were paid a generous £310,000 by Croydon Council – failed even to manage to interview some of the key figures at the centre of the council mismanagement between 2014 and 2020 – including Jo Negrini, Colm Lacey, Richard Simpson and Paul Scott. Continue reading

Posted in Brick by Brick, Colm Lacey, Croydon Council, Fairfield Halls, Jason Cummings, Jo Negrini, Mayor Jason Perry, Report in the Public Interest, RIPI II: Fairfield Halls, Shirley South, The Penn Report | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Work on Selhurst Park’s £150m main stand to start next year

More than six years since Crystal Palace first applied for planning permission, construction work is on course to start at the end of the football season, while  south London-based businessmen have been lined up to buy out John Textor as the club’s co-owner

Crystal Palace say that their £150million main stand development at Selhurst Park is “progressing well”, with demolition and building works all set to start at the end of the Premier League season next May.

Coming in to land: work is due to begin on Crystal Palace’s spaceship-like main stand next summer

Also closing in on a conclusion is the status of the club’s ownership, after John Textor’s efforts to switch allegiance with a takeover of Premier League rivals Everton were confirmed today as being thwarted. The club’s co-owners are hopeful that another business group will step in to buy out Textor’s stake.

Club chairman Steve Parish’s ambitions, meanwhile, are focused on up-grading Palace’s 100-year-old stadium. Continue reading

Posted in Business, Croydon Council, Crystal Palace and Upper Norwood, Crystal Palace FC, Football, John Textor, Planning, Sport, Steve Parish | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

NHS appeals to Londoners: help us to help you at Christmas

Faced with a surge in demand for hospital beds because of seasonal viruses, the NHS in London is asking the public to “help us help you” this Christmas.

As winter viruses flourish, the NHS is under increased pressure, with more patients coming into hospital sick and space urgently needed to treat them. Last week saw flu admissions increase daily with 1,621 people being admitted to hospitals across the capital, a 67% increase on the week before.

The increase in people needing hospital treatment can be prevented by people getting a flu vaccine. For anyone eligible and still not protected, today is your last chance to book winter vaccinations online or via NHS 111 for an appointment at a local vaccination site. Continue reading

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Government must act to end the chaos, austerity and decline

New dawn fades?: even getting rid of the £82,000 per year ‘executive’ Mayor won’t solve Croydon Council’s problems

Will Labour’s council reforms announced this week build a new Jerusalem in our hard-pressed town halls? ANDREW FISHER analyses the government’s English Devolution White Paper, and what it might mean for Croydon

‘Stability, investment and reform’: deputy PM announcing her devolution plans this week

Unveiling her new White Paper on Monday, the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, Angela Rayner, said, “It’s a plan for putting more money in people’s pockets, putting politics back in the service of working people and a plan for stability, investment and reform, not chaos, austerity and decline.”

I’ll believe it when I see it.

In Croydon, we’ve had a 21% increase in Council Tax since 2023 (taking more money out of people’s pockets), while public services are being closed or cut back. And despite all that pain, the council has sunk to a worse financial state than ever – with a £83 million budget deficit forecast for 2025-2026.

“Chaos, austerity and decline” certainly sums up Croydon Council’s performance for much of the last decade.

The eye-catching feature of the White Paper for Croydon is the curiously-phrased commitment to “discontinue” local council mayors, which means we might soon dispense with the £82,000 “Executive Mayor” who promised to “fix the finances”, but has made them even worse. Continue reading

Posted in Andrew Fisher, Croydon Council, Improvement Board, Mayor Jason Perry | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Cocoa Jones: a melting pot of Christmas chocolate indulgence

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Town Carol Service of Nine Lessons, Croydon Minster, Dec 22

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Nasen Saadi is found guilty of Bournemouth beach murder

Guilty: Nasen Saadi, filmed being interviewed by police in May

Nasen Saadi, 20, from Purley, has today been found guilty of murder and attempted murder after stabbing two women on Bournemouth beach earlier this year.

Amie Gray, 34, was killed and 38-year-old Leanne Miles was seriously injured in the attack on Durley Chine Beach on May 24.

Saadi was found guilty following a nine-day trial at Winchester Crown Court.

The prosecution said Saadi “seems to have wanted to know what it would be like to take life”.

After nine days of trial, the jury had retired to consider its verdict on Tuesday, and deliberated for five hours and 36 minutes. Continue reading

Posted in Crime, Knife crime | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Westfield need to rebuild Croydon credibility before all else

CROYDON COMMENTARY: Following the brief, tokenistic ‘engagement’ with the public over plans for the town centre, TED GUSH says that the whole approach offered by Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield and the council to the so-called ‘North End Quarter’ needs to be seriously challenged

This scheme is no more: This Westfield has ceased to be! It’s expired and gone to meet its maker! Its a stiff! Bereft of life! This is an ex-Westfield!

I think the big problem here is credibility.

Generally any business or person that loses credibility needs to focus on regaining it, prior to proposing any new ideas or excuses.

The Whitgift Centre had a credible reputation and was generally respected by locals and “shopping centre cognoscenti” when it opened in the 1970s as an open air, modern shopping mall which people travelled to visit.

The first Westfield Centre in Britain, at Shepherds Bush, had a similar reception in its early years, so the notion of a combined Westfield at Whitgift had considerable credibility.

Clearly, even by 2010, the Whitgift was a very tired retail environment but its historic reputation was a pretty good fit. Sadly, the recent history of this once promising project is now such a tale of woe and incompetence that its credibility is officially in tatters.

Think Dead Parrot Sketch.

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Posted in "Hammersfield", Allders, Business, Croydon Council, North End Quarter, Whitgift Centre | Tagged , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Judge adjourns Elianne Andam murder trial until New Year

The teenager who killed a Croydon schoolgirl last year had ‘anger issues’ and ‘could get triggered easily’, the Old Bailey jury has been told

Murdered in the street: Elianne Andam

The jury in the Old Bailey trial into the killing of Croydon teenager Elianne Andam has been sent home for Christmas, having been told that the accused, Hassan Sentamu, will not be giving evidence.

The judge, Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb, adjourned proceedings until the New Year after the end of the prosecution’s opening case against Sentamu, 18, from New Addington.

When the trial resumes, the jury will hear from psychiatric experts called by the prosecution and defence.

In her parting message to jurors, with warnings about their internet use, Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb said: “It’s a season of peace and goodwill. I hope you find peace and good will in the time you have off.” Continue reading

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Help primary choir’s final big push to get Christmas No1

A Croydon primary school will be appearing on BBC local television news today, appealing to the public for their help with one last big push to try to get their special song to the Christmas No1 spot.

St James the Great Primary School in Thornton Heath’s Christmas single, Joy on Christmas Day, is competing in the charts with established pop acts like Ed Sheeran and Sabrina Carpenter. Continue reading

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Cabinet member Roche goes months without updating register

Open to work: council cabinet member Scott Roche has updated his personal profile, just not the council register which is a legal requirement

Another week, and another Croydon councillor has been found out as breaking the council’s code of conduct by failing to update their declarations of interest in a timely manner.

This time it is Conservative council cabinet member Scott Roche, who is paid nearly £40,000 per year in Town Hall allowances, but who hasn’t updated his record for two years, leaving it providing false and misleading information. Continue reading

Posted in Clive Fraser, Croydon Council, Scott Roche, Shirley South, Stephen Lawrence-Orumwense | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

Thousands left without water as SES crisis enters third day

A ‘critical valve’ has left thousands of people across south-west London and Surrey without reliable water supplies, affecting a major hospital and forcing schools to close. BERTIE WORCESTER-PARK reports

Emergency measures: households from Cheam to Carshalton, to Epsom and South Croydon, have been affected by the SES Water issues

Up to 4,000 households across Carshalton, Sutton, Cheam, Epsom and even South Croydon have had intermittent water supplies for three days, with SES Water criticised for its slow response to the emergency.

A “critical valve” at SES Water’s Cheam treatment works has restricted the flow of water to part of the network, says SES. The company has admitted that its water reserves are low.

As a first response, SES set up two water stations, at Bourne Hall in Ewell and the Upper High Street car park in Epsom, followed by stations at Cheam Library and Westcroft Leisure centre in Carshalton.

Today, Cheam High School will be closed due to health and safety concerns as it has no water. Nonsuch High School and Cheam Fields Primary School closed on Tuesday. St Helier Hospital has also been affected. Continue reading

Posted in Carshalton and Wallington, Epsom and Ewell, Luke Taylor MP, St Helier Hospital, Sutton and Cheam | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

10% off Theatre Tokens in special TfL offer for Christmas

Transport for London has partnered with Official London Theatre to offer discounts on Theatre Tokens ahead of Christmas. The partnership allows Londoners to save 10% on Theatre Tokens and make additional savings when used on Official London Theatre’s “See It Live in 2025” deals.

A bit of a song and dance: TfL is offering discounts on Theatre Tokens

With no expiry date, Theatre Tokens can be redeemed at top shows across London and nationwide. When booking Theatre Tokens, customers should use the code “TfL” to claim this offer – available, TfL says, “only while stock lasts”.

The Play That Goes Wrong, at the Duchess Theatre, near Covent Garden on the Piccadilly line, and Temple on the District and Circle lines, is among the shows included in the discount deal. Other top theatre shows offering deals on Official London Theatre’s site include 101 Dalmatians – The Musical, Back To The Future: The Musical, Mrs Doubtfire, The Mousetrap, and Wicked. Continue reading

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Mayor Perry could be ‘discontinued’ under devolution reforms

Our political editor, WALTER CRONXITE, delved deeper into the White Paper on English devolution to discover a proposal which could end directly elected borough mayors in London, including Croydon

Bitten off more than he can chew: out of his depth Jason Perry could end up being a one-term mayor

Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner made a speech yesterday promising devolution across England, with a mayor for every region in a major redesign of local government.

But buried in the proposals contained within the Labour government’s White Paper were a couple of paragraphs that appear to sound the death knell for the five mayors of boroughs within Greater London – and that includes Croydon and could make Jason Perry a one-term mayor.

“Mayors are the government’s strong preference,” the White Paper states at paragraph 2.2.2.

But for Tory Mayor Perry, elected in 2022 and who is pitching for another four-year term on £82,000 per year, such preference does not extend as far down as local council level in a city which has a mayor who already has strategic powers.

The White Paper, issued yesterday, says that the government will “discontinue the individual local authority devolution model in its mayoral form”.

For proposals heralded as offering more devolved powers from Whitehall, this decision appears to be, at least, contradictory, if not downright anti-democratic. Continue reading

Posted in 2026 council elections, 2026 Croydon Mayor election, Croydon Council, London-wide issues, Mayor Jason Perry, Mayor of London | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 18 Comments

Council’s trading standards team wins London-wide award

Croydon Council’s trading standards team has been named as London’s Team of the Year.

The annual London Trading Standards awards celebrate the achievements of dedicated officers across 10 award categories.

London Trading Standards praised Croydon’s team for its efforts over the past year, detailing how they had seized thousands of illicit vapes, undertaken hundreds of age-restricted product test purchases, investigated many doorstep crime cases and intervened in a number of scam victims’ cases.

London Trading Standards also recognised how Croydon’s team had developed successful relationships with schools, and advising and educating parents, teachers and pupils on the dangers of vapes. Continue reading

Posted in Croydon Council, Trading Standards | Tagged , , , , , | 3 Comments

Foundation sets £7m price tag on Old Palace’s listed buildings

For sale: several not-so-careful owners, might suit a private school, good transport links to central London, handy for the trams and street market

CROYDON IN CRISIS: The Whitgift Foundation, the borough’s biggest landowner, is now flogging off the Tudor palace home of the charity’s founder. It might not be an ‘easy’ sale. By STEVEN DOWNES

“For sale with vacant possession”. The estate agent’s phrase is familiar enough, but is nonetheless jarring when applied to the listed buildings of a former Archbishop’s palace that has been home to a girls’ school for more than a century.

As Inside Croydon first reported last month, the Whitgift Foundation, the borough’s biggest private landlords, are flogging off the buildings of its Old Palace of John Whitgift School, which will be closing its gates to its pupils for a final time next July. Old Palace’s prep school closed last summer, and many of its senior pupils have already made the move to other schools.

After a disastrous decade of property mismanagement, mostly caused by the failure to redevelop its commercial property around the Whitgift shopping centre, The Foundation is asking £7million for Old Palace School.

It might not be an easy sale. Continue reading

Posted in "Hammersfield", Business, CPO, Education, Old Palace, Schools, Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield, Whitgift Centre, Whitgift Foundation | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

‘I am not responsible’ Purley student told murder detectives

Criminology student Nasen Saadi said under caution ‘You haven’t found a murder weapon, you haven’t found the trousers, the bag’

The Croydon student accused of murdering Amie Gray in a brutal knife attack on a Bournemouth beach in May told the police that he was not responsible and he would not “attack someone for no reason”, a court was told.

‘Mistaken identity’: Nasen Saadi, filmed being interviewed by police in May

Nasen Saadi, 20, from Purley, is on trial charged with the murder of 34-year-old Amie Gray at Durley Chine Beach, West Undercliff Promenade, on May 24, and the attempted murder of Leanne Miles.

As the murder trial at Winchester Crown Court entered its second week yesterday and the prosecution case reached its conclusion, it was announced to court by Saadi’s defence lawyer, Charles Sherrard KC, that he would not be taking the witness box to give evidence.

“It turns out the defendant has nothing to say. Odd, isn’t it?” Sarah Jones KC, prosecuting, told the jury.

The jury has instead been shown video footage of Saadi’s police interview from May 31. Continue reading

Posted in Crime, Knife crime | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Negrini doctored specialist reports and withheld finance details

CROYDON IN CRISIS: Investigators from Kroll never had investigatory powers to check people’s bank accounts in the search for possible fraud over the £73m refurbishment of the Fairfield Halls. But there was evidence in the public domain of ‘direct personal gain’, as STEVEN DOWNES reports

Jo Negrini withheld financial details from councillors and doctored reports prepared by third-party, outside contractors over projected costs and the multi-million-pound overspend on the Fairfield Halls refurbishment, according to a report by independent investigators.

The Kroll Report into the £73million Fairfield fiasco, finally released last week, provides little detail we didn’t already know.

Much of that work was initially done, after all, as long ago as 2021 by auditors Grant Thornton in their Report In The Public Interest. There was also other material revealed by the Penn Report, which when the council refused to publish it, this website did in 2022.

Besides, from the very first moment the public was allowed back into the Fairfield Halls in September 2019, when it reopened after the over-running three-and-a-half year closure for “refurbishment”, it was clear that the project had been badly botched and that few of the upgrades and modernisations expected or promised for the ageing venue had been done.

Deadly duo: Jo Negrini and Colm Lacey, who she appointed as the council’s development chief, withheld vital details about the Fairfield project and Brick by Brick

The  extent of the overspend, more than £40million, in the works supervised by Brick by Brick had not been released at the time – it was just a year before the council cascaded into its financial collapse.

But even in 2019, most agreed upon visiting the arts venue upon its reopening that what had been delivered was little more than a fresh coat of paint.

What the Kroll Report makes clear, though, is that from as early as 2011, under Conservative as well as Labour council administrations, senior council staff always knew that the promised refurb could never be achieved on a budget of £30million. The council cabinet member for development in the period up to 2014 was Tory councillor Jason Perry.

The Kroll report suggests that from 2014 onwards, at the centre of every decision to go ahead with the project was Jo Negrini, and her sidekick, Colm Lacey. Continue reading

Posted in Alison Butler, Brick by Brick, Business, College Green, Colm Lacey, Crime, Croydon Council, Fairfield Halls, Jacqueline Harris-Baker, Jo Negrini, Katherine Kerswell, Lisa Taylor, Mott MacDonald, Paul Scott, Report in the Public Interest, Richard Simpson, RIPI II: Fairfield Halls, Section 114 notice, Shifa Mustafa, The Penn Report, Tony Newman | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 15 Comments

Council has £1m loan in the pipeline for heating no one needs

At a committee meeting tonight in Sutton, councillors will be asked to approve a £1m loan for the discredited council-owned heat network, SDEN.
But questions are being asked about the viability of the plans, while residents are kept in the dark about an ugly gantry to be built over the River Wandle.
EXCLUSIVE by DAVE BURTON

Hot and bothered: the Lavenders, better known as Riverside, largely comprises Clarion social housing heated by a communal system. SDEN is keen to land a supply deal

For six years, SDEN has been trying to convince Clarion Housing to buy its heat and hot water to supply its Lavenders social housing estate at Hackbridge.

The Lavenders, better known locally as Riverside, comprises mainly social housing, though some homes are privately owned: Bobby Dean, the Liberal Democrat MP for Wallington and Carshalton and borough councillor for The Wrythe, is a resident.

The 348 properties were built with a high standard of insulation.

When planning permission for the Lavenders was granted, it included a condition that the estate should have a combined heat and power network, or CHP in councilspeak jargon. But this was never implemented. Continue reading

Posted in Bobby Dean, Carshalton and Wallington, Nick Mattey, Richard Simpson, Sutton Council | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment