Tag Archives: Tim Pollard

Tories could face £5,000 fine over alleged breach of data law

Tim Pollard, the leader of Croydon Conservatives, has been accused of breaking data protection laws with an email widely circulated to residents asking them to support his party’s latest petition over council policy. If enough Croydon residents complain, Pollard and … Continue reading

Posted in Croydon Council, Gavin Barwell, Planning, Purley, Sanderstead, Tim Pollard | Tagged , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Croydon’s silly season stats which do not stand up to scrutiny

CROYDON COMMENTARY: The infamous maxim that if you repeat a lie often enough it becomes the truth has flourished in Croydon this week. STEVEN DOWNES is just glad the silly season is over Thank goodness it’s September. I wouldn’t usually … Continue reading

Posted in Business, Croydon 8/8, Croydon Advertiser, Croydon Council, Evening Boris, Jon Rouse, Mayor of London, Mike Fisher, Sadiq Khan, Steve O'Connell, Tech City, Tim Pollard, Tony Newman | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Pollard’s Tories too timid in their call to axe 10 councillors

Croydon Council Tax-payers are subsidising the local Conservative and Labour parties to the tune of nearly £100,000 per year. No wonder the duopoly at the Town Hall don’t want to make any serious reductions to the number of councillors, reports … Continue reading

Posted in 2018 council elections, Broad Green, Croydon Council, Dudley Mead, Gavin Barwell, John Wentworth, Sanderstead, Selsdon & Ballards, Tim Pollard, Tony Newman | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

Tories’ ‘secret housing list’ was published on council website

Croydon’s bungling Conservative opposition councillors have dropped another bollock, this time being caught out protesting over a “top secret” list of sites for housing development when the list was available on the council website, while residents in properties neighbouring the … Continue reading

Posted in Bernard Weatherill House, Brick by Brick, Coulsdon, Croydon Council, Housing, Jo Negrini, Planning, Property, Tony Newman, URV | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Down with this sort of thing: Tory petitioners get it wrong, again

After last month’s debacle, it should be clear to most reasonable people that “government by referendum” is full of unintended consequences. Closer to home, here in Croydon, it appears that opposition through petition is a bit crap, too. Mario Creatura, … Continue reading

Posted in Coulsdon Town, Croydon Council, Croydon parks, Dudley Mead, Environment, Fly tipping, Gavin Barwell, Mario Creatura, Quadron, Refuse collection, Stuart Collins, Tim Pollard, Waste incinerator | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Caption competition: God Save The Queen, bless ‘er

This is what passes for “positive publicity” from Croydon Council: a badly taken picture, which fails to illustrate the point it is trying to make. Who’d have thought that the council has a professionally staffed press office which costs tax-payers … Continue reading

Posted in Patricia Hay-Justice, Steve O'Connell, Tim Pollard, Tony Newman | Tagged , , , | 13 Comments

Philp’s Easter Sunday photocall could prompt an unholy row

After a week in which he had already been accused of being a Tory “toady”, an “exemplary arse-kisser” and of “brown-nosing”, Chris Philp, the relative new-comer as the Conservative MP for Croydon South, has now opened himself up to being … Continue reading

Posted in Chris Philp MP, Croydon South, Sanderstead, Tim Pollard | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Is this the election real life? Is this just MP Barwell’s fantasy?

WALTER CRONXITE reviews “the world’s longest job application”, the Croydon Central MP’s account of the 2015 General Election campaign If anyone needed further evidence that self-serving career politicians are only in it for themselves, then Gavin Barwell’s How To Win … Continue reading

Posted in 2014 council elections, 2015 General Election, Croydon Central, Gavin Barwell, Sarah Jones MP | Tagged , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

Never mind the bollocks, here’s the Croydon Conservatives

It’s been Anarchy in the Town Hall this week, as our Tory councillors have been channelling their inner Johnny Rottens. WALTER CRONXITE suggests that such cunning stunts fail to serve their residents So who lost out from the decision of … Continue reading

Posted in 2018 council elections, Croydon Council, Gavin Barwell, Mike Fisher, Patricia Hay-Justice, Phil Thomas, Sara Bashford, Tim Pollard, Tony Newman | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 10 Comments

Council erases role of Borough Solicitor as Belvir leaves

Julie Belvir, the Borough Solicitor, is to leave her job and the post of most senior legal adviser to the council is to be abolished in a cost-cutting measure. Because it’s not like Croydon Council doesn’t need all the legal … Continue reading

Posted in Clare Hilley, Croydon Council, Julie Belvir, Riesco Collection, URV | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

‘Show me the money!’ Newman takes on the Home Office

Tony Newman described it at the Town Hall last night as, “Levels of incompetence I’ve not seen before.” And given the conduct of some of his most senior councillors, Newman’s seen loads of incompetence in his time. The leader of … Continue reading

Posted in Croydon Council, Tim Pollard, Tony Newman | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Croydon’s under-9s land sponsorship from… the Freemasons

In what could be a unique sponsorship deal, Croydon FC’s under-9s took to the pitch for their match this weekend with their shirts emblazoned with the regalia of a secretive society, the Freemasons. The area’s oldest non-league club has accepted … Continue reading

Posted in Croydon FC, New Addington, Tim Pollard, Tony Pearson | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

100 jobs will be lost with two-year Fairfield Halls closure

The battle for Croydon’s cultural future took a twist at the Town Hall last night, with local Tories arguing against job cuts and wanting to spend more public money on the borough’s flagship arts facility, as STEVEN DOWNES reports Croydon’s … Continue reading

Posted in "Hammersfield", 2018 council elections, Alison Butler, Art, Ashcroft Theatre, Croydon College, Croydon Council, David Lean Cinema Campaign, Dudley Mead, Education, Environment, Fairfield, Fairfield Halls, Housing, Jo Negrini, London Mozart Players, Music, Nathan Elvery, Phil Thomas, Planning, Property, Riesco Collection, Stuart Collins, Theatre, Tim Pollard, Tony Newman, URV, Warehouse Theatre, Whitgift Centre | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

£200,000. 60 pages. And lacking a single original thought

Croydon’s Opportunity and Fairness Commission has published its report. WALTER CRONXITE has read it, so that you don’t have to When it came to publishing the expensively compiled Croydon Opportunity and Fairness Commission’s report, Jonathan Clark, the Bishop and the … Continue reading

Posted in "Hammersfield", Bishop of Croydon, Business | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Torpor in the Town Hall as the Tories miss key questions

With an enfeebled opposition, and by keeping the big money items to late in the action, Tony Newman is managing to turn council meetings into a cure for insomnia, as WALTER CRONXITE reports What follows is our contemporaneous/contemptuous [delete as … Continue reading

Posted in Alison Butler, Croydon Council, Gavin Barwell, Housing, Jason Cummings, Jo Negrini, Nathan Elvery, Planning, Property, RIF, Schools, Taberner House, Tim Pollard, Tony Newman, URV | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Tax-payers pay £5.8m for councillors’ job creation scheme

Political patronage on the rates has reached ridiculous proportions at Croydon Town Hall, reports WALTER CRONXITE Jack Straw and Sir Malcolm Rifkind, parliamentary elder statesmen and former Foreign Secretaries, are clearly not as sharp as they would have liked us … Continue reading

Posted in 2015 General Election, Croydon Council, Gavin Barwell, Tim Pollard, Tony Newman, Whitgift Foundation | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Tory councillors warned over failure to pay party levy

Croydon’s Tory group on the council is feeling the financial pressure, and some elected councillors have been issued with warnings by local Conservative officials after failing to make payments from their council allowances into the campaign fund being used to … Continue reading

Posted in 2014 council elections, 2015 General Election, Chris Wright, Coulsdon, Coulsdon East, Coulsdon Town, Croydon Central, Croydon Council, Dudley Mead, Gavin Barwell, Mario Creatura, Mike Fisher, Tim Pollard, Tony Newman | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

Segas House school scheme dropped over Minerva sale price

“A victory for commonsense”, to borrow from the UKIP/Freedom Association/Tax-payers Alliance handbook of handy, populist, yet empty statements. But the decision to convert Segas House into a primary school has been binned. The very notion was ludicrous. It was put … Continue reading

Posted in "Hammersfield", CPO, Education, Fairfield, Paul Greenhalgh, Planning, Schools, Segas House, Tim Pollard, Waddon, Whitgift Centre | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Croydon council offices cost more to build than The Shard

Fisher’s Folly, the glass palace that is our council’s headquarters which opened just over a year ago and which cost the borough’s Council Tax-payers’ £144 million, was more expensive to build than The Shard. That’s the conclusion reached by a … Continue reading

Posted in Bernard Weatherill House, Business, Croydon Council, Housing, Jon Rouse, Leisure services, Mike Fisher, Nathan Elvery, Planning, Property, Taberner House, Tim Pollard, Tony Newman, URV | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

‘Our time is now’? Newman is having a bit of a Mayor

WALTER CRONXITE, our man in the Town Hall reception flicking through the visitors’ book, says that the council leader’s “strategy” for funding cannot be delivered unless he agrees to abandoning the patronage on which he depends for his political power … Continue reading

Posted in "Hammersfield", Business, Centrale, City status, Council Tax, Croydon Council, Mayor of London, Tim Pollard, Tony Newman, Whitgift Centre | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Council set to bring pools, parks and library service in-house

Croydon school pupils denied desks to study in the borough’s public libraries, free swimming sessions going under-publicised, and our parks being locked up because of a lack of contractor staff could all be things of the past if outsourced services … Continue reading

Posted in Business, Carillion, Community associations, Council Tax, Croydon Council, Environment, Fusion, John Laing Integrated Services, Leisure services, Libraries, Refuse collection, Timothy Godfrey, Wandle Park, Waste incinerator | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Long overdue that we found proper future for Segas House

CROYDON COMMENTARY: According to senior sources at the Town Hall, the scheme to convert the Grade II-listed Segas House into a primary school, the brainchild during the previous Tory council of Tim Pollard, has been abandoned because the building would … Continue reading

Posted in Art, Croydon Council, David Callam, Education, Planning, Schools, Segas House | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 15 Comments

“Book Token” promoted as Pollard completes Tory takeover

Croydon’s Tory councillors yesterday duly anointed Tim Pollard, the “loyal deputy” who did just enough to cause the downfall of Mike Fisher over #WadGate, as their new leader. With no one else from the 30-strong group of Conservative councillors prepared … Continue reading

Posted in Chris Philp MP, Croydon Central, Croydon North, Croydon South, David Osland, Dudley Mead, Gavin Barwell, Libraries, Mike Fisher, Richard Ottaway MP, Sara Bashford, Tim Pollard | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Mead speaks out at cabinet on behalf of his “inner circle”

In an extraordinary outburst of arrogance, entitlement and pomposity, Dudley Mead, the deputy leader of the Conservative group on Croydon Council, last night underlined exactly why neither he, nor any other councillor with vested interests outside the Town Hall chamber, … Continue reading

Posted in "Hammersfield", Allders, Business, Centrale, Croydon Council, Croydon South, Dudley Mead, Education, Emily Benn, Jo Negrini, Mike Fisher, Planning, Property, Selsdon & Ballards, Steve O'Connell, Tim Pollard, Toni Letts, Tony Newman, Whitgift Centre, Whitgift Foundation | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

Ruskin Square could include theatre if council refunds £3m

Croydon could get a purpose-built, modern 200-seat studio theatre to replace the much-lamented Warehouse Theatre, provided that the council re-allocates a £3 million grant originally intended for the purpose by private developers Stanhope. The news comes as the now Labour-run … Continue reading

Posted in "Hammersfield", Art, Ashcroft Theatre, Business, Cinema, Comedy, Croydon Council, David Lean Cinema Campaign, Dudley Mead, Fairfield, Fairfield Halls, Jo Negrini, Music, Planning, Property, Riesco Collection, Ruskin Square, Theatre, Timothy Godfrey, Warehouse Theatre | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments