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Tag Archives: Hamida Ali
Croydon votes 4-to-1 in favour of having directly elected mayor
CROYDON IN CRISIS: After a disastrously run, high-spending campaign by Labour opposing change, every ward in the borough voted for a new way of running the council. By STEVEN DOWNES Katherine Kerswell took to the low stage at Trinity School … Continue reading
Posted in 2021 Mayor Referendum, 2022 council elections, Croydon Council, Croydon North, Hamida Ali, Katherine Kerswell, Steve Reed MP, Tony Newman
Tagged #ABitLessShit, Croydon, Croydon Council, Croydon North, DEMOC, Democratically Elected Mayor for Croydon, Hamida Ali, Katherine Kerswell, Labour, London Borough of Croydon, Mayoral referendum, Steve Reed OBE, Tony Newman
24 Comments
Child’s transplant delayed by council SEND decisions
As the Ofsted inspectors visit Fisher’s Folly this week, one family’s struggle to get the council to provide a decent standard of education for their son with SEND has forced them to write this open letter to the council leader … Continue reading
Has Labour already lined up its candidate for elected mayor?
CROYDON IN CRISIS: The governance referendum is not until Thursday, but despite officially opposing the proposal to move to a directly elected mayor, some senior Labour figures may have already moved to find a candidate to stand for the office … Continue reading
Further £38.4m to be sliced from next year’s council budget
CROYDON IN CRISIS: Town Hall leadership hoped to keep the latest round of cuts secret until after next week’s referendum, as the consequences of the borough’s bankruptcy start to hit home. EXCLUSIVE by STEVEN DOWNES £12m of adult social care … Continue reading
Posted in 2021 Mayor Referendum, Adult Social Care, Callton Young, Croydon Council, GLL - Better, Hamida Ali, Jason Cummings, Leisure services, Libraries, Purley Pool, Richard Ennis, Section 114 notice, Stuart King, Tony Newman
Tagged Callton Young, Conservative, coronavirus, Council budget, Covid-19, Croydon, Croydon Council, DEMOC, Democratically Elected Mayor for Croydon, Hamida Ali, Labour, Purley, Purley Pool, Richard Ennis, Save Purley Pool Campaign, Section 114, Steve Reed OBE, STUART KING, Tory
21 Comments
Labour councillor was given ‘no real reason’ for deselection
CROYDON IN CRISIS: The damaging ‘Groupthink’ culture under the toxic leadership of Tony Newman remains firmly in place at the Town Hall, where an elected official has told colleagues he was blocked from standing despite never breaking any rules. EXCLUSIVE … Continue reading
Regina Road residents angry as Knight ducks another meeting
CROYDON IN CRISIS: The blundering £800 per day bureaucrat in charge of fixing the council’s ‘appalling’ housing has cancelled a scheduled meeting with residents. EXCLUSIVE by STEVEN DOWNES and MICHAEL NELSON Residents of the tower blocks on Regina Road are … Continue reading
Posted in Alison Knight, Community associations, Croydon Council, Hamida Ali, Housing, Katherine Kerswell, Regina Road Residents' Support Group, South Norwood
Tagged Alison Knight, Croydon, Croydon Council, Hamida Ali, Katherine Kerswell, Labour, Regina Road, Regina Road Residents' Support Group, South Norwood
7 Comments
Town Hall leadership hatched plan to break election budget
EXCLUSIVE: Labour councillors who crashed the borough’s finances decided to ignore the Election Commission’s strict rules on spending for their anti-mayor referendum campaign. By STEVEN DOWNES Hamida Ali, the leader of the Labour group at the council, wanted to break … Continue reading
Reed goes video ga-ga as Labour campaign gets desperate
CROYDON COMMENTARY: If the lies don’t get you angry, the cant and hypocrisy surely will. STEVEN DOWNES, Editor of Inside Croydon, on the barrel-scraping going on over next month’s mayoral referendum At a time when Michael Gove is put in … Continue reading
Posted in 2021 Mayor Referendum, Croydon Council, Croydon North, Hamida Ali, Steve Reed MP, Stuart Collins, Tony Newman
Tagged Croydon, Croydon Council, Croydon North, DEMOC, Democratically Elected Mayor for Croydon, Hamida Ali, London Borough of Croydon, Mayor, Steve Reed OBE, Tony Newman
18 Comments
Government to pay £2.3m of borough’s asylum children’s costs
The Home Office will pay an additional £2.3million to Croydon this year to cover the rising costs to the borough of being a first stop in this country for unaccompanied asylum-seeking children. The cash-strapped borough last month threatened to copy … Continue reading
‘Dysfunctional’ council had ‘lost its way’, says CEO Kerswell
CROYDON IN CRISIS: Council leadership acknowledges a need for significant change from the authority’s previous culture, in which bullying, cronyism and racism were alleged. But tens of millions of pounds of cuts in services cannot be avoided. By STEVEN DOWNES … Continue reading
Ali promises to release report into ‘collusive, unhealthy culture’
CROYDON IN CRISIS: Has the council leader made another meaningless promise to the borough’s residents over ‘disciplinary action’ against those responsible for the Town Hall’s financial collapse? By STEVEN DOWNES The potentially dynamite but still unpublished Penn Report into possible … Continue reading
Posted in Brick by Brick, Croydon Council, Guy van Dichele, Hamida Ali, Hazel Simmonds, Improvement Board, Jacqueline Harris-Baker, Jo Negrini, Katherine Kerswell, Lisa Taylor, Report in the Public Interest, Section 114 notice, Shifa Mustafa, Tony Newman
Tagged Brick by Brick, Croydon, Croydon Council, Hamida Ali, Jo Negrini, Katherine Kerswell, Labour, Tony Newman
2 Comments
Purley local hits out: ‘It’s always developers before residents’
CROYDON COMMENTARY: This week BRIAN WATSON, a leading member of the Foxley Residents’ Association, vented his frustrations at the inappropriate building works and overdevelopment being allowed in his corner of the borough by writing a letter to the council leader, … Continue reading
£700,000: Croydon counting the costs of council failures
CROYDON IN CRISIS: The Town Hall has been hit with ‘penalty fines’ of its own since its financial collapse 12 months ago. EXCLUSIVE by STEVEN DOWNES £697,300 And rising… That’s how much Croydon Council says it has paid so far, … Continue reading
Posted in Brick by Brick, Croydon Council, Hamida Ali, Improvement Board, Report in the Public Interest, Robert Canning, Section 114 notice, Tony McArdle, Tony Newman
Tagged Brick by Brick, Croydon, Croydon Council, Grant Thornton, Hamida Ali, Improvement Panel, Labour, London Borough of Croydon, MHCLG, Ministry of Housing Communities and Local Government, Price Waterhouse Coopers, Report in the Public Interest, RIPI, Robert Canning, Robert Jenrick, Tony McArdle, Tony Newman
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£800 per day housing chief fails to show for Regina Road meet
CROYDON IN CRISIS: After waiting six months, residents of what was described as some of the worst housing in the country finally got to meet senior officials. But the council’s head of housing had gone off on holiday. EXCLUSIVE by … Continue reading
Posted in Alison Knight, Croydon Council, Hamida Ali, Housing, Katherine Kerswell, Patricia Hay-Justice, Regina Road Residents' Support Group, South Norwood
Tagged Alison Knight, Hamida Ali, Katherine Kerswell, Patricia Hay-Justice, Regina Road, Regina Road Residents' Support Group, South Norwood, Stephen Tate
4 Comments
Croydon warns Whitehall it will end taking child asylum-seekers
Just as the US-backed government in Afghanistan collapsed under assault from the Taliban, with potentially tens of thousands of people urgently seeking refuge outside their homeland, so Croydon Council has announced that it will refuse to take any more unaccompanied … Continue reading
Former health director suing council for constructive dismissal
CROYDON IN CRISIS: ‘Kerswell’s cull’ of the council’s executive directors appointed or promoted by her predecessor, Jo Negrini, is not going as smoothly as might have been hoped. And it appears that most will escape any disciplinary action. By STEVEN … Continue reading
Posted in Brick by Brick, Croydon Council, Guy van Dichele, Hazel Simmonds, Jacqueline Harris-Baker, Jo Negrini, Katherine Kerswell, Lisa Taylor, Report in the Public Interest, Section 114 notice, Shifa Mustafa
Tagged Croydon, Croydon Council, Guy van Dichele, Hamida Ali, Hazel Simmonds, Jo Negrini, Katherine Kerswell, Labour, Shifa Mustafa, Tony Newman
3 Comments
Months after Regina Road scandal, council conducts a survey
CROYDON IN CRISIS: Council is accused of ‘bureaucratic bullshit’, as promises to meet distressed residents have still not been honoured. By STEVEN DOWNES Only now, four months after the scandal of its sub-standard housing in South Norwood was exposed on … Continue reading
Mystery of the ‘lost’ £600,000 expert report into Fairfield Halls
CROYDON IN CRISIS: Suspicions mount over the business of Brick by Brick and the scandal surrounding the Fairfield Halls refurbishment. But even members of the Town Hall’s scrutiny committee are being denied vital information by council directors. By STEVEN DOWNES … Continue reading
Posted in Asmat Hussain, Brick by Brick, Croydon Council, Fairfield Halls, Robert Ward, Sarah Hayward, Sean Fitzsimons
Tagged Asmat Hussain, Brick by Brick, Conservative, Croydon Council, Fairfield Halls, Hamida Ali, Labour, Robert Ward, Sarah Hayward, Scrutiny and Overview Committee, Sean Fitzsimons, Tony Newman, Tory
24 Comments
Croydon Labour spread the word – and a risk of the virus
Croydon’s group of inept Labour councillors is back doing what they do best: being inept. Political editor WALTER CRONXITE reports As a third wave of covid lets rip (nearly 1,200 new cases of infection in the last seven days in … Continue reading
Posted in 2022 council elections, Addiscombe East, Addiscombe West, Croydon Council, Hamida Ali, Maddie Henson, Sean Fitzsimons, Stuart Collins
Tagged Addiscombe, Addiscombe East, Addiscombe West, coronavirus, Covid-19, Croydon, Croydon Council, Hamida Ali, Labour, Maddie Henson, Stuart Collins, Tony Newman
2 Comments
Reports on Fairfield Halls and BxB missing from audit meeting
CROYDON IN CRISIS: Tonight’s meeting of the council’s GPAC – General Purposes and Audit Committee – will mark the end of a error, as Labour councillors risk handing even more control to council executives. By STEVEN DOWNES Karen Jewitt, the … Continue reading
Posted in Brick by Brick, Chris Buss, Fairfield Halls, Hamida Ali, Karen Jewitt, Katherine Kerswell, Tim Pollard, Tony Newman
Tagged Chris Buss, Conservative, Croydon, Croydon Council, General Purposes and Audit Committee, GPAC, Hamida Ali, Karen Jewitt, Katherine Kerswell, Labour, Rapid Review, Report in the Public Interest, RIPI, Scrutiny and Overview Committee, Tim Pollard, Tony Newman, Tory
6 Comments
‘Shoddy’ botched repairs as council housing scandal deepens
CROYDON IN CRISIS: ‘Nothing has changed’: Regina Road residents are planning a protest march next week over the continuing neglect and mismanagement of their council homes. By STEVEN DOWNES Despite solemn apologies and promises made on national television by council … Continue reading
Government-appointed advisers pulled plug on BxB sale
CROYDON IN CRISIS: ‘Improvement Panel’ ordered council to abandon its poor-value deal to sell Brick by Brick, and instead to pay Wates Construction £1.12m to oversee the loss-making builders’ work on 23 sites. EXCLUSIVE by STEVEN DOWNES Hamida Ali, the … Continue reading
Posted in Brick by Brick, Chris Buss, Colm Lacey, Croydon Council, Hamida Ali, Housing, Improvement Board, Katherine Kerswell, Planning, Tony McArdle
Tagged Brick by Brick, Colm Lacey, Croydon, Croydon Council, Hamida Ali, Improvement Panel, Labour, London Borough of Croydon, MHCLG, Ministry of Housing Communities and Local Government, Phil Brookes, Tony McArdle
11 Comments
‘Apologetic Ali’ fails once again as BxB sends in the builders
Council leader tells community meeting she is powerless to act against the council-owned development company, as New Addington residents’ five-year campaign to save a communal space comes to a sad end. By STEVEN DOWNES Not for the first time, Croydon … Continue reading
Posted in Brick by Brick, Colm Lacey, Croydon Central, Croydon Council, Hamida Ali, Louisa Woodley, New Addington South, Oliver Lewis, Planning, Sarah Jones MP, Scott Ainsworth-Payne
Tagged Brick by Brick, Croydon, Croydon Council, Hamida Ali, Labour, Louisa Woodley, New Addington, Oliver Lewis, Warbank Crescent
7 Comments
