West Croydon firm raises £30,000 for youth knife crime charity

Posted on April 11, 2025 by insidecroydon

A relatively small insurance firm based in West Croydon has raised £30,000 in just a year, money that is being donated to local anti-violence charity Lives Not Knives.

Cheque mates: LNK’s Eliza Ribeiro (second right) accepts part of the donation from FSB Insurance Service, and Rugby World Cup-winner Will Greenwood (right)

“If a small team like ours can help raise £30,000, imagine the difference we could make if more local businesses got involved,” said Duncan Ruby, of FSB Insurance Service.

LNK works with young people aged from nine to 21, offering mentoring, education and safe spaces that give them alternatives to violence.

With LNK nominated as their charity of the year for 2024, members of the insurance firm undertook a sponsored 30-mile trek across the South Downs. “The event was more than just a physical challenge, it became a rallying point for donations and awareness,” Ruby said. Continue reading →

Posted in Business, Charity, Lives Not Knives | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

‘Suez-gate’: LibDems withhold video ahead of ward by-election

Posted on April 10, 2025 by insidecroydon

INSIDE SUTTON: Mystery surrounds another missing tape of an important council meeting – coincidentally just as a council by-election is taking place. EXCLUSIVE by BELLE MONT, Political Editor

Vote LibDem: Sutton Central residents have received  leaflets for today’s by-election written in Cantonese

The Liberal Democrats in Sutton have been accused of suppressing an official recording of a recent planning meeting in an effort to cover up their party’s support for an application to build a potentially explosive food waste industrial plant on Beddington Lane.

The planning meeting took place on April 2. But a week later, and the video recording of the meeting has still to make an appearance on Sutton Council’s website.

“Soon, Liberal Democrat Sutton will have more missing tapes than Richard Nixon’s Oval Office,” said one wag with a very long memory.

Given that the LibDems are today trying to hang on to a council seat in a by-election in Sutton Central ward, some opposition groups are crying foul, suggesting that the council’s £240,000 pa chief executive, “Hapless Helen” Bailey, is doing a favour for her LibDem chums by suppressing the video nasty from the planning meeting. Continue reading →

Posted in Barry Lewis, Helen Bailey, Jayne McCoy, Nick Mattey, Ruth Dombey, Sutton Council, Tim Foster | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Labour blocks members from questioning mayoral candidates

Posted on April 10, 2025 by insidecroydon

A real meeting: senior figures in Croydon Labour, including MP Sarah Jones and Labour council group leader Stuart King, didn’t bother with their party’s sham selection hustings, and attended a real meeting instead. Perhaps they already know the outcome of the ballot?

Our Political Editor, WALTER CRONXITE, sneaked in at the back of Labour’s Zoom room last night to discover what the party’s 2026 mayoral candidates might have to offer to the people of Croydon, and found himself in a dystopian bonus episode of Severance

When is a hustings not a hustings? When it’s a London Labour Party hustings.

Rowenna Davis and Manju Shahul-Hameed, two Croydon councillors, last night appeared in a specially arranged Zoom meeting, supposedly to answer questions about their candidacies to be selected by party members to be Labour’s candidate for Croydon Mayor in the local elections to be held in 2026.

This would be the only party-organised appearance by the councillors before members get to vote. There is to be no in-person selection meetings at which the candidates can be asked questions directly by Labour members. And, indeed, no members got to ask a single question of Shahul-Hameed or Davis in this online meeting organised by Labour’s London region officials. Continue reading →

Posted in 2026 council elections, 2026 Croydon Mayor election, Broad Green, Croydon Council, Manju Shahul Hameed, Mayor Jason Perry, Rowenna Davis, Tony Newman, Waddon | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 8 Comments

A year after centenary, Ashburton Park gets £1.6m Lottery grant

Posted on April 10, 2025 by insidecroydon

Long-awaited investment: Ashburton Park has been awarded a £1.6m Heritage Lottery grant to celebrate its centenary. Which was in 2024

No mention of the former ‘home for inebriates’ in council’s restoration plans for public park in Addiscombe, KEN LEE reports

The National Heritage Lottery Fund has provided a £1.6million grant to Croydon Council to upgrade Ashburton Park to celebrate its centenary, in a project that won’t be completed until at least four years after that 100th anniversary.

The park was acquired by Croydon Corporation in 1924, so the council’s efforts to “celebrate” Ashburton Park’s significant anniversary are already running a little behind schedule.

At the centre of the project will be the repurposed Edwardian-era park lodge, which was handed over to the Oasis education charity to use the building as a youth centre in memory of 15-year-old Zaian Aimable-Lina, who was murdered in Ashburton Park in December 2021.

The Heritage Lottery grant announced this week follows surveying work conducted by the council to develop a conservation plan and landscape designs. Continue reading →

Posted in Addiscombe East, Ashburton, Ashburton Park, Charity, Community associations, Croydon Council, Croydon parks, Friends of Ashburton Park, Schools | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 6 Comments

Planning consent granted for 580 flats in ‘space-age’ Croydon

Posted on April 9, 2025 by insidecroydon

Croydon Council has approved the plans to convert two 1960s office blocks on Wellesley Road, Apollo House and Lunar House, from office to residential use. More than 580 flats will be created as part of a scheme on behalf of Singaporean-based property developers Ho Bee Land.

‘Space age Croydon’: the random naming of Apollo and Lunar House almost 60 years ago has been invested with great significance

Ho Bee Land bought the government-owned blocks for £99million in 2015. Now that Home Office staff have moved into 21st Century offices in Ruskin Square, Ho Bee Land has brought its conversion plans forward.

Under Permitted Development planning rules, now that the Conservative-led council has lifted previous restrictions against office-to-resi conversions in the town centre, Ho Bee Land could pretty much do as they please. So this was something that was always going to go through on the nod.

“This prior approval determination secures the change of use from commercial to residential, with consent for 583 homes across the two sites,” Ho Bee Land’s London-based architects say.

The number of units is around 40 fewer than had been initially proposed, but the project still represents one of the biggest residential projects in Croydon. Continue reading →

Posted in Business, Fairfield, Housing, Lunar House/Apollo House, Planning, Property | Tagged , , , , | 12 Comments

Youngsters take to the stage for 30th NT Connections festival

Posted on April 9, 2025 by insidecroydon

In the spotlight: performers from Croydon Youth Theatre Organisation, the BRIT School and the Churchill Theatre Young Company have taken part in the NT Connections festival

Young people across London – including from Croydon, Sutton and Bromley – have been taking part in nationwide celebrations of the National Theatre Connections’ 30th anniversary.

Connections is the National Theatre’s annual youth theatre festival, where youngsters from across Greater London perform new plays. In total, 35 youth theatre groups are taking part in the festival.

The Theatre Peckham festival was the third festival to take place nationwide, and featured some local groups: the BRIT School performed Brain Play, by Chloe Lawrence-Taylor and Paul Sirret, at Theatre Peckham last month, while Croydon Youth Theatre Organisation performed Normalised, by Amanda Verlaque, there in March, too. Continue reading →

Posted in BRIT School, CYTO, Schools, Theatre | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Beckenham drug-dealer given 28 years over cocaine imports

Posted on April 9, 2025 by insidecroydon

Guilty: Kurtis Hoyte has been sentenced to a total of 28 years for drug dealing and money laundering

A drug-dealer from Beckenham has been convicted for supplying cocaine and jailed after evidence gathered from his encrypted phone showed he had imported more than half a tonne of the Class A drug – estimated to have a street value of almost £40million.

Kurtis Hoyte was investigated by the Organised Crime Partnership – a National Crime Agency and Metropolitan Police Service joint unit – and arrested in May 2020 after he was observed handing over 5kg of cocaine to the driver of a flat-bed truck near Beckenham Hill Station.

The police seized three phones, one of which was an encrypted EncroChat device. Forensic examination of messages showed he had used this to orchestrate the importation of 540kg of cocaine over a nine-month period between June 2019 and March 2020, using the handle “Retroblade”. Continue reading →

Posted in Bromley Council, Crime, Policing | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Mayor’s community fund offering grants for voluntary groups

Posted on April 9, 2025 by insidecroydon

Charities and voluntary groups in the capital are being invited to apply for funding to make a difference in their community, through the Mayor of London’s Community Weekend being staged this September.

Funding opportunity: applications are open for grants towards community events in London in September

This is the second time the event has been hosted by The National Lottery Community Fund and the Mayor of London, Sir Sadiq Khan.

The Mayor’s Community Weekend takes place from Friday September 12 to Sunday September 14. “It aims to unite people through community-led activities which make a positive difference,” the blurb from the Lottery says.

This year, £385,000 of National Lottery funding is available for events and activities that “get people involved in their community, instil safety, trust and belonging, build relationships, improve the local environment and help young Londoners thrive”. Continue reading →

Posted in Charity, Community associations, Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Landowner wants public cash to help delayed Westfield project

Posted on April 8, 2025 by insidecroydon

In the hot seat: Roisha Hughes has taken over the daunting job of steering the 400-year-old John Whitgift Foundation into the 21st Century. Photo: Lee Townsend/InsideCroydon

EXCLUSIVE by STEVEN DOWNES

The Whitgift Foundation is in talks with the Mayor of London and central government for another multi-million-pound bail-out for Croydon, this one likely to centre around building around 3,000 homes in the town centre.

That’s according to an interview given by Roisha Hughes, the new chief executive at the John Whitgift Foundation, which is among Croydon’s biggest employers and is the borough’s largest landowner. Continue reading →

Posted in "Hammersfield", Allders, Business, Centrale, Charity, Housing, London-wide issues, Mayor of London, North End Quarter, Old Palace, Planning, Property, Roisha Hughes, Schools, TfL, Tom Copley, Trinity School, Under The Flyover, Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield, Whitgift Centre, Whitgift Foundation, Whitgift School | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 7 Comments

Labour sticks with Anonyvoter to choose its mayor candidate

Posted on April 8, 2025 by insidecroydon

Labour’s inexplicably delayed selection process to choose a candidate to run for Croydon Mayor in 2026 enters its final stages tomorrow, but without the party holding a single in-person selection meeting with the pair of wannabes, councillors Rowenna Davis and Manju Shahul-Hameed.

Croydon Labour is not being trusted to organise any aspect of the process, with the party’s London region office in control, including for tomorrow evening’s virtual hustings, where the candidates will no doubt go into great detail about their plans for a Croydon air show or expand on their work in the charity sector…

Yet no confirmation has been sent to members of exactly how they will get to vote for their favoured candidate, in a process that is supposed to be completed before Easter.

Continue reading →

Posted in 2026 council elections, 2026 Croydon Mayor election, Broad Green, Croydon Council, Manju Shahul Hameed, Mayor Jason Perry, Rowenna Davis, Tony Newman, Waddon | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

A century of Selsdon captured in new exhibition’s photographs

Posted on April 8, 2025 by insidecroydon

A century of Selsdon: this is a view down Selsdon Lane which linked Selsdon with Addington Village. The buildings on the right housed workers for the farm and the mansion

CHRIS JONES, Editor of The Selsdon Gazette, the publication of the area’s residents’ association, outlines a century of suburban growth, which is now the subject of a free exhibition at the local library

One hundred years ago, in 1925, Selsdon was a small hamlet comprising a mansion (about to be converted into a hotel) with associated lodges and cottages, a farmhouse flanked on either side with small cottages and a couple of largish Edwardian houses.

It was surrounded by fields and woods and crossed by two narrow lanes.

A Liverpool firm of builders, Richard Costain and Sons, had come south to seek fame and fortune around London. Their first venture was an estate of upmarket housing in Kingswood, but then enticed by a government subsidy of £75 per house they embarked upon the Selsdon Garden Village estate of cheaper houses that the middle classes and better-paid manual workers could afford to buy and own. Continue reading →

Posted in Community associations, History, Housing, Robert Ward, Selsdon and Addington Village, Selsdon Residents' Association | Tagged , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Keeping busy is keeping punk star Griffiths so much happier

Posted on April 8, 2025 by insidecroydon

CROYDON COMMENTARY: Griff Griffiths is the one-time member of a punk band, now hosting a drivetime radio show on NewDawn FM. Invited on to the show, before they went on air, old friend RICHARD PACITTI, pictured left, had a catch-up about life, love, music, mental health and over-diagnosis

I’ve written about Griff Griffiths for Inside Croydon before. He, along with Mark Williams, was the creator of Are They Hostile, the documentary film about the punk, new wave and indie music scene in Croydon in the 1970s and ’80s. It was a song from Griff’s band, the Bad Actors, that gave the name to the film, the CD and vinyl LP that accompanied it.

Rock star: Griff Griffiths always seems to say ‘Yes’. It has helped improve his mental health

I later wrote about Griff’s autobiography, I Was the King of Spain, which charts his kaleidoscopic life, his many careers and the difficulties that he had with his mental health. The title of the book related to a time when his thoughts and behaviour became so strange that he was admitted as an in-patient at The Priory. In that piece I commented on the relationship between creativity and mental health.

At the time I renewed my acquaintance with Griff in 2022, as well as making the film, he was drumming in a Jam tribute band and with Circa 79, whose name gives a hint of the era of music they play. Continue reading →

Posted in Charity, Cinema, Health, Mind in Croydon, Music | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Man’s dead body discovered behind shops off St James’s Road

Posted on April 7, 2025 by insidecroydon

Enquiries ongoing: police and the London Ambulance Service were in attendance when the body of a man was found in West Croydon this morning

The Metropolitan Police have confirmed to Inside Croydon that the body of a man was found this morning in the yard area on Wellington Road, which runs behind a row of shops on St James’s Road in West Croydon.

In a statement from Scotland Yard, the Met said: “Police were called at 09:03hrs on Monday, 7 April to Wellington Road, Croydon, following the concern for welfare of a man. Continue reading →

Posted in Broad Green, Crime, London Ambulance Service, Policing | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

BINMAGEDDON 2: Clinical waste collections halved in new deal

Posted on April 7, 2025 by insidecroydon

CROYDON IN CRISIS: Residents and carers using a special service to dispose of  hygiene waste were given less than two weeks’ notice that the service was being discontinued – potentially creating ‘a health and safety issue of enormous proportions’. By KEN LEE, Town Hall reporter

You’re gonna need a bigger bin: under their enhanced contract in Croydon, Veolia will no longer collect clinical waste separately

More troubling details have emerged about the £40million, eight-year contract that Mayor Jason Perry has handed to rubbish contractors Veolia, just two years after the firm was sacked for its multiple and regular failures.

Veolia have been allowed to stop carrying out collections of clinical waste, which will create “a health and safety issue of enormous proportions”, according to one Council Tax-payer.

But not according to Croydon’s £84,000 per year part-time Mayor. Effectively halving the frequency of clincial waste collections, according to Perry, “is about doing things differently for the better”.

Perry called it “an enhancement of the current service and not a cut to service”.

Which, of course, is just another Perry porkie pie. Continue reading →

Posted in Business, Croydon Council, Environment, Health, Mayor Jason Perry, Refuse collection, Scott Roche, Veolia | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 12 Comments

Instant comedy classics as Longhurst ‘creates’ Croydon history

Posted on April 7, 2025 by insidecroydon

With the help of AI and a bit of PhotoShop, one Croydon creative has made an entire online library of fake “histories”, all about Croydon – from the glory days of the Whitgift Centre, to circus elephants on George Street, to live facial recognition.

And it is all delivered with sharp-witted scripts, convincing, old-school newsreel-style voiceovers, and even dusting off some long-forgotten Grandstand theme music. Continue reading →

Posted in Art, Cinema, Comedy, History, Inside Croydon, Under The Flyover, Whitgift Centre | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Norbury charity’s boxing clever with £80,000 from Wates trust

Posted on April 7, 2025 by insidecroydon

Be Inspired, a Croydon-based group dedicated to tackling youth crime and supporting young people, has received an £80,000 grant from the Wates Family Enterprise Trust.

Ring craft: Wates manager Marc Rice (right) has been helping at Be Inspired in Norbury for almost three years

The grant will be used to help develop Be Inspired’s “Generation Change” programme, which delivers one-to-one and group work on employability, including confidence building, work experience and job interview skills.

Be Inspired was previously known as Gloves Not Gunz and Urban Yogis UK. Based at Norbury Park Pavilion, the group runs programmes using sport and education to develop life skills, social awareness and self-discipline. Be Inspired offers boxing, yoga and jiu-jitsu classes, alongside mentoring, employment and educational support, and mental health therapy, including support for trauma and substance abuse. Continue reading →

Posted in Be Inspired, Boxing, Business, Charity, Crime, Norbury, Wates Group | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Star performance by Scorziello brings true anarchy to Coulsdon

Posted on April 6, 2025 by insidecroydon

Our veteran theatre critic, BELLA BARTOCK, slips into her kitten heels and puts on her pearls for a big night out in Coulsdon, where the performances on stage were truly electric

Un’impresa: Indianna Scorziello gives a bravura performance as The Maniac, here with Zack Hall as the gormless constable. At least, that’s what we think she says

I was quite taken by surprise when the doorbell rang. It was Kenny, my nephew, at the time we had arranged for him to pick me up. But I hadn’t heard him pulling up on the drive.

Where was the Roller, I asked him, and he told me he’d got rid of it, something about reducing our “carbon footprint”. “Don’t be so silly,” I said. “How can a Rolls Royce, with four wheels, have a footprint?”

Kenny said he’d gone electric, that he’d got a really good price for the old gas-guzzling Rolls, and besides, there was a terrific discount deal on used Teslas. “People just don’t seem to want them any more,” Kenny said. Continue reading →

Posted in Art, Comedy, Coulsdon, Theatre, Theatre Workshop Coulsdon | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Find beauty in the mundane as Thames gives up lost treasures

Posted on April 6, 2025 by insidecroydon

All on display: one of the London Museum curators puts the final touches to one of the more than 350 items at the mudlarking exhibition which opened this week

SUNDAY SUPPLEMENT: There’s artefacts of history all around us, but as Minster archivist DAVID MORGAN found at an exhibition this week, there can be few sites as rich in finds as London’s often perilous river banks

An exhibition has just opened at the London Museum Docklands called “Secrets of the Thames: Mudlarking London’s Lost Treasures”.

New find: a stoneware Bartmann bottle, probably from Germany and at least 400 years old, half-buried among pebbles on the foreshore of the Thames

It is the first major exhibition devoted to mudlarking, the search for artefacts and objects on the Thames’ foreshore, so I went along to the museum – housed in a 200-year-old Grade I-listed warehouse at West India Quay – to find out how other archivists have been collating and displaying their finds.

The River Thames has been a centre of human activity for more than 10,000 years. Below its waters lay lost or discarded items, from the ordinary to extraordinary, that all contribute to our knowledge of London’s, and Britain’s, history. Continue reading →

Posted in Art, David Morgan, Education, History, London-wide issues | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Selsdon Wood Bat Walk, free event, Farleigh Road, Fri May 30

Posted on April 6, 2025 by insidecroydon

Continue reading →

Posted in Activities, Community associations, Croydon parks, Environment, Friends of Selsdon Woods, Walks, Wildlife | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

BINMAGEDDON 2: Councillors now ordered not to complain

Posted on April 5, 2025 by insidecroydon

EXCLUSIVE: The borough’s elected representatives, our councillors, have this week been ordered not to have direct contact with Katherine Kerswell’s council staff over such mundane issues as bin collections that have been missed by rubbish contractor Veolia. By our Town Hall reporter, KEN LEE

Here we go again: Veolia have just started a £40m, eight-year contract, two years after being sacked for being useless

Less than a week into a new, £40million council contract to handle residential bin collections and street sweeping, as well as other refuse services, and Veolia’s “return” has been met with widespread criticism and confusion among long-suffering residents over bungled changes to collection days.

“Veolia can’t even manage a smooth transition when handing over to themselves,” one Katharine Street source said.

Another described the past week’s performance by Veolia and the council as, “A shambles.” Continue reading →

Posted in Business, Council Tax, Croydon Council, Fly tipping, Katherine Kerswell, Mayor Jason Perry, Refuse collection, Veolia | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 16 Comments

Duo given life sentences for murder of ‘friend’ Lucas Sutton

Posted on April 5, 2025 by insidecroydon

Murderers Keahn Williams and Kai Nelson-Palmer plotted on Snapchat before their ‘pre-meditated, callous act’

Murder victim: Lucas Sutton

Two men have been found guilty of the 2023 Croydon murder of Lucas Sutton.

The Metropolitan Police have described Keahn Williams and Kai Nelson-Palmer as “former friends” of Sutton. Both were in their teens at the time of the killing.

The trial and sentencing of Williams and Nelson-Palmer took place last year – both had been arrested within days of the deadly knife attack – but reporting of the court proceedings was delayed while a third man was on trial.

At the Old Bailey on Wednesday this week, a 19-year-old man was acquitted of the murder. Continue reading →

Posted in Bensham Manor, Crime, Knife crime, Policing | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

100 Years of Selsdon exhibition, Selsdon Library, to May 2

Posted on April 5, 2025 by insidecroydon

Continue reading →

Posted in Activities, Community associations, History, Selsdon and Addington Village, Selsdon Residents' Association, Selsdon Vale and Forestdale | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Charity car wash at Addington Fire Station, Sat May 3

Posted on April 5, 2025 by insidecroydon

Continue reading →

Posted in Activities, Addington, Charity | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Reports of another fuel spill into River Wandle chalk stream

Posted on April 4, 2025 by insidecroydon

Further concerns are being raised about an ‘environmental disaster’, with criticisms of the government agency’s failed clean-up of spill from February being compounded by more pollution on the river this week

For the second time in just a few weeks, there are reports of a significant spill of oil or fuel into the River Wandle.

Further damage: oil floating down the River Wandle, as video’d by an angler yesterday

The Environment Agency has not yet concluded its investigation into the previous spillage, which was diesel fuel which they claim was traced back to a bus depot at Thornton Heath, two miles from where it entered the waters of one of London’s rare chalk streams.

Yesterday, video of oil or fuel floating on top of the water was posted on social media. The incident was filmed at Watermeads Nature Reserve in Mitcham, with the spillage coming down from Poulter Park.

Bobby Dean, the MP for Carshalton and Wallington, tweeted, “I am being made aware of another potentially large oil spill in the Wandle.” Dean said he is in contact with the Environment Agency, Thames Water and the South East Rivers Trust “to establish the scale and the cause”.

In February, Dean called the previous diesel spill “an environmental disaster”. Continue reading →

Posted in Bobby Dean, Carshalton and Wallington, Environment, Wildlife | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

From Dolly Parton to Haydn: Whitgift concert jazzed things up

Posted on April 4, 2025 by insidecroydon

Ready for the music: pupils from 19 Croydon primaries gathered at the Fairfield Halls yesterday for the annual Whitgift School concert

DAVID MORGAN reports from an event which saw one of the Fairfield Halls’ biggest audiences for a while – and certainly one of its most enthusiastic

The excitement and expectation of more than a thousand primary school children from across Croydon created a wonderful atmosphere for the Whitgift School Spring Concert in the vast Concert Hall of the Fairfield Halls yesterday.

This annual event, part of the Whitgift Primary Project, has always been well-supported by local schools. This year, 19 primaries came along. Continue reading →

Posted in Activities, Art, David Morgan, Education, Fairfield Halls, Music, Schools, Whitgift School | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment