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Tag Archives: Hamida Ali
Council faces new storm over ‘missing’ £73m housing money
CROYDON IN CRISIS: Auditors are refusing to sign-off the Town Hall accounts because of missing millions from a complex nexus of housing companies, which could force the council to tip over the edge into bankruptcy for a second time in … Continue reading
Posted in Alison Butler, Brick by Brick, Business, Croydon Council, Hamida Ali, Housing, Jo Negrini, Katherine Kerswell, Report in the Public Interest, Richard Simpson, RIPI II: Fairfield Halls, Section 114 notice, Tony Newman
Tagged Alison Butler, Brick by Brick, Croydon Council, Fairfield Halls, Grant Thornton, Hamida Ali, Jo Negrini, Katherine Kerswell, Labour, Report in the Public Interest, Richard Simpson, RIPI, S114, Section 114, Simon Hall, Tony Newman
21 Comments
Thousands of girls’ school teachers fear Trust’s ‘fire and rehire’
Our education correspondent, GENE BRODIE, reports from the picket line at Croydon High, where dozens of teachers fear that they will lose their jobs in a dispute with what some have called a ‘petty and vindictive’ schools trust Croydon High … Continue reading
Posted in Croydon High, Education, Schools
Tagged Croydon High, Croydon High School, GDST, Girls Day School Trust, Hamida Ali, Selsdon
3 Comments
Hibberd handed key economic job as exec hiring continues
One of the directors recruited at Croydon this week has a track record that saw him blamed by the trades unions in Brighton for his part in causing a damaging bins strike last year While most of what’s left of … Continue reading
£67m fraud at Fairfield: Town Hall row over calling in police
CRISIS SPECIAL: The council’s most senior legal official wants to check the £70m Fairfield fiasco for fraud, but the borough’s Labour councillors don’t want to call in the police, yet their leader says she has already reported it to the … Continue reading
Posted in Alison Butler, Brick by Brick, Chris Clark, College Green, Crime, Croydon Council, Fairfield Halls, Felicity Flynn, Hamida Ali, Jo Negrini, John Jones, Lisa Taylor, Lynne Hale, Mott MacDonald, Oliver Lewis, Paul Scott, Planning, RIPI II: Fairfield Halls, Robert Ward, Sean Fitzsimons, Simon Hall, Stuart Collins, Stuart King, Tony Newman
Tagged Alison Butler, Andrew Pelling, Brick by Brick, Conservative, Croydon, Croydon Council, Fairfield Halls, Grant Thornton, Hamida Ali, Jo Negrini, Labour, Paul Scott, Report in the Public Interest, RIPI, Robert Ward, Sarah Ironmonger, STUART KING, Tony Newman, Tory
24 Comments
Kerswell gets her fourth council finance chief in 12 months
Council correspondent KEN LEE reports on the latest bit of empire-building going on at Fisher’s Folly Croydon’s cash-strapped council, which over the past 18 months has been handing out P45s willy-nilly to hundreds of the low-paid front-line workers who grafted … Continue reading
Council’s tax benefit cuts are ‘Dickensian’ and ‘discriminatory’
CROYDON IN CRISIS: Now the council’s discredited leadership has the gall to claim that 80% of the borough’s residents support their arse-covering move to cut benefits from the poor, the disabled and elderly. By STEVEN DOWNES Croydon’s Labour-run council has … Continue reading
Inside Croydon’s Person of the Year 2021: Fransoy Hewitt
Posted in Croydon Council, Hamida Ali, Housing, Inside Croydon, Regina Road Residents' Support Group, South Norwood
Tagged Axis, Croydon, Croydon Council, Fransoy Hewitt, Hamida Ali, Inside Croydon, Inside Croydon Person of the Year, ITV News, Regina Road, Sarah O'Connell, Soouth Norwood, South Norwood, Steve Reed OBE
3 Comments
De-selected councillor Pelling: ‘This is damaging my health’
CROYDON LABOUR IN CRISIS: The target of an anti-democratic disciplinary process has made it clear that his party’s pursuit of him is damaging him, while further de-selections of council candidates are threatened. EXCLUSIVE by STEVEN DOWNES Andrew Pelling, the Labour … Continue reading
Posted in 2022 council elections, 2022 Croydon Mayor election, Andrew Pelling, Hamida Ali, Jamie Audsley, Tony Newman, Val Shawcross, Waddon
Tagged Andrew Pelling, Croydon, Croydon Council, Hamida Ali, Joel Bodmer, Labour, Local Campaign Forum, Steve Reed OBE, Tony Newman, Val Shawcross, Waddon
9 Comments
Scrooge-like council shuts voluntary food hub at Christmas
While dozens of voluntary groups and community organisations have been doing their bit to help the borough’s most vulnerable through the second pandemic Christmas, budget cuts at cash-strapped Croydon Council have seen their own voluntary sector organisation forced to shut … Continue reading
Nine months on and council tenants are still being ignored
CROYDON IN CRISIS: If 2020 was Croydon Council’s year of Negreedy and bankruptcy, 2021 has been the year of leaks, mould and a local authority exposed as incompetent and uncaring about those living in its properties. And there are worrying … Continue reading
Posted in Alison Butler, Alison Knight, Croydon Council, Hamida Ali, Housing, London-wide issues, Regina Road Residents' Support Group, South Norwood, Steve Reed MP, Tony Newman
Tagged Alison Butler, Croydon, Croydon Council, Croydon North, Daniel Hewitt, Fransoy Hewitt, Hamida Ali, ITV News, Labour, News At Ten, Regina Road, Sarah O'Connell, South Norwood, Steve Reed OBE, Tony Newman
4 Comments
Wheatley is appointed as chair of housing improvement panel
CROYDON IN CRISIS: Nine months after the conditions in council flats in South Norwood caused a national scandal, and after spending £104,000 on one director who never bothered meeting the Regina Road Residents’ Support Group, the council has got around … Continue reading
Posted in Community associations, Croydon Council, Hamida Ali, Housing, Regina Road Residents' Support Group, South Norwood, South Norwood Community Kitchen, South Norwood Tourist Board
Tagged Alison Knight, Croydon, Croydon Council, Hamida Ali, Labour, Martin Wheatley, Regina Road, Regina Road Residents' Support Group, South Norwood
3 Comments
Two years late and council safety ‘strategy’ is barely changed
After a week when the borough’s streets were smeared in blood once again, after stabbings on Church Street in the town centre and on Central Parade in New Addington, Croydon’s dysfunctional council is finally getting around to publishing an updated … Continue reading
Veteran councillor Ryan is deselected while in hospital bed
WALTER CRONXITE, political editor, on the latest casualties of the council’s financial collapse Pat Ryan, a Croydon councillor for nearly 30 years, was last night deselected by members at a Labour Party meeting in his home ward of Crystal Palace … Continue reading
Posted in 2022 council elections, Addiscombe East, Addiscombe West, Amy Foster, Bensham Manor, Crystal Palace and Upper Norwood, Felicity Flynn, Hamida Ali, Humayun Kabir, Jerry Fitzpatrick, John Wentworth, Kola Agboola, Leila Ben-Hassel, Mike Bonello, New Addington North, New Addington South, Nina Degrads, Norbury, Pat Ryan, Patsy Cummings, Shafi Khan, South Norwood, Steve Reed MP, Woodside
Tagged Addiscombe West, Amy Foster, Croydon Council, Crystal Palace, Crystal Palace and Upper Norwood, Felicity Flynn, Hamida Ali, John Wentworth, Kola Agboola, Labour, New Addington, Pat Ryan, Rowenna Davis, Tony Newman
2 Comments
Ali offered £3.1m lifeline to help reduce cuts to services
CROYDON IN CRISIS: One Labour councillor has provided an idea which could help to reduce some of the drastic cuts in the Town Hall budget. But so far, they’ve not received a reply. By WALTER CRONXITE, political editor It’s a … Continue reading
Cash-strapped council still going over-budget, report finds
CROYDON IN CRISIS: Government commissioners say that there’s been ‘an opportunity missed’ because of the slow pace of change under council CEO. By STEVEN DOWNES Katherine Kerswell, the chief executive of the cash-strapped council, has been subjected to overt criticism … Continue reading
Posted in Croydon Council, Hamida Ali, Improvement Board, Katherine Kerswell, Report in the Public Interest, Richard Ennis, Section 114 notice, Tony McArdle
Tagged Department for Levelling Up, DLUHC, Hamida Ali, Improvement Panel, Katherine Kerswell, Report in the Public Interest, S114, Section 114, Tony McArdle
6 Comments
Council rehomes families from overcrowded Regina Road flats
EXCLUSIVE: New heaters have been promised by the middle of this month, as officials finally start to make changes for those living in ‘appalling’ conditions in South Norwood council flats. By STEVEN DOWNES Families with more than two children living … Continue reading
Posted in Clive Fraser, Community associations, Croydon Council, Hamida Ali, Health, Housing, Patricia Hay-Justice, Patsy Cummings, Regina Road Residents' Support Group, South Norwood
Tagged Croydon, Croydon Council, Hamida Ali, Labour, Patricia Hay-Justice, Regina Road, Regina Road Residents' Support Group, South Norwood
1 Comment
Council leader Ali rules herself out of running to be Mayor
EXCLUSIVE: Newman’s protégé makes a call for ‘a break from the recent past’ at the Town Hall. Plus another sitting Labour councillor decides against standing in 2022. By STEVEN DOWNES The Tony Newman era at Croydon Town Hall should really, … Continue reading
Labour to pick their Mayor candidate just in time for Christmas
EXCLUSIVE: Political editor WALTER CRONXITE reveals how Labour is giving potential mayoral candidates barely a week to put themselves forward for a selection process which appears to have Steve Reed’s fingerprints all over it Anyone wanting to be considered as … Continue reading
Posted in 2022 Croydon Mayor election, Alisa Flemming, Carole Bonner, Croydon Central, Croydon Council, Croydon North, Hamida Ali, Jamie Audsley, Jason Perry, Leila Ben-Hassel, Sarah Jones MP, Steve Reed MP, Tony Newman, Val Shawcross
Tagged Conservative, Croydon, Croydon Central, Croydon Council, Croydon North, Donna Murray-Turner, Hamida Ali, Labour, London Borough of Croydon, Mayor, Sarah Jones MP, Steve Reed OBE, Tory, Valerie Shawcross
2 Comments
Labour council benefit cuts will hit 20,000 ‘horrendously’
CROYDON IN CRISIS: Axing Council Tax support will affect 20,000 of the borough’s poor and disabled, with ‘devastating consequences’. By STEVEN DOWNES The Labour leadership of Croydon’s cash-strapped council last night voted in favour of drastic cuts to the borough’s … Continue reading
Labour wants to cut voluntary sector funding by a ‘full Negrini’
CROYDON IN CRISIS: A year after they gave a ‘golden handshake’ to the council CEO who helped bankrupt the borough, part of the £38.4m Town Hall budget cuts will impact dozens of charities and community groups. EXCLUSIVE By STEVEN DOWNES … Continue reading
Posted in Age UK Croydon, CAYSH, Charity, Community associations, Croydon CAB, Croydon Council, Croydon Vision, CVA, Hamida Ali, Jo Negrini, Mind in Croydon, South West London Law Centres, Steve Phaure, Whitgift Foundation
Tagged Asian Resource Centre of Croydon, Croydon, Croydon BME Forum, Croydon Carers Support Centre, Croydon Council, Croydon Voluntary Action, CVA, Hamida Ali, Jo Negrini, Labour, Steve Phaure, Whitgift Foundation
7 Comments
Cynical, hypocritical and devious: benefit cut to hit thousands
CROYDON IN CRISIS: For weeks, the Town Hall’s Labour leadership has been planning a cut to Council Tax discounts that will cost some of the borough’s poorest £25 per week or more – and see ‘means testing’ used in the … Continue reading
Posted in Callton Young, Council Tax, Croydon Council, Hamida Ali, Stuart King
Tagged Callton Young, Council Tax, Council Tax Support, Croydon, Croydon Council, CTS, DPAC, Hamida Ali, Labour, STUART KING
4 Comments
The referendum result shows that time for change is overdue
CROYDON COMMENTARY: Last week’s decisive vote for a new way of running the council should only be a first step, according to an open letter to all the borough’s councillors from Kenley resident BRIAN WATSON Now that a directly elected … Continue reading
Landscape of deceit: director deletes qualification claim
By STEVEN DOWNES Five days ago, this website carried an article written by Steve Whiteside that exposed Heather Cheesbrough, “BA (Hons) PG Dip LA CMLI MRTPI”, Croydon Council’s “director of planning and strategic transport”, as claiming to be something that … Continue reading
Ali’s efforts at spin catch the eye of not-so-noble judges
CROYDON COMMENTARY: In a week when two journalists were announced as winners for the Nobel Peace Prize for their courageous work in fighting for freedom of speech against despots, GEOFF JAMES reports on a less well-publicised award-winning effort Nobel Prizes … Continue reading
After defeat, pressure mounts on ‘lame duck’ council leader
CROYDON IN CRISIS: ‘We mocked the electorate by putting burning £20 notes on our election material’. What now for Croydon Labour, after a nasty and petty waste of around £20,000 in party funds on a referendum campaign they could never … Continue reading
Posted in 2021 Mayor Referendum, Andrew Pelling, Croydon North, Hamida Ali, Steve Reed MP, Tony Newman
Tagged Andrew Pelling, Croydon, Croydon Council, DEMOC, Democratically Elected Mayor for Croydon, Gerry Meredith-Smith, Hamida Ali, Labour, London Borough of Croydon, Steve Reed OBE, Tony Newman, Waddon
5 Comments
