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Tag Archives: URW
Westfield consult public for 6th time and deliver more delays
Paris-based multi-bilion developers URW today begin another public consultation over the future of the town centre – Consultation No6 – which means that their latest planning application, already two years late, won’t see the light of day until long after … Continue reading
Posted in "Hammersfield", Allders, Business, Centrale, CPO, Croydon Council, Housing, Mayor Jason Perry, North End Quarter, Planning, Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield, Whitgift Centre
Tagged Allders, Allders Car Park, Allies and Morrison, Centrale, Croydon, Croydon Council, Hammersfield, London, Mayor Jason Perry, North End Quarter, The Croydon Project, Unibail Rodamco Westfield, URW, Westfield, Whitgift Centre, Whitgift Foundation
22 Comments
Rubbish contractors don’t know how many bins there are
Four years after being caught out ripping out 1,000 street bins – all to make work for rubbish contractors Veolia a bit easier – and now Croydon Council is forced to admit it has no real idea of how many … Continue reading
Posted in Inside Croydon
Tagged Allders, Andrew Fisher, Coulsdon, Coulsdon banking hub, Council Tax, Croydon, Croydon Council, Golden handshake, Hammersfield, Katherine Kerswell, Kerswell yoghurt, Labour, Litter Free Norbury, Mayor Jason Perry, Pay-off, Surrey Street, Tony Hooker, Tory, Unibail Rodamco Westfield, URW, Veolia, Westfield, Whitgift Centre, Whitgift Foundation
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CEO quit council with £50,000 pay-off to not work for 3 months
This was awkward: Jason Perry, the politician who promised to clawback money from the massive golden handshake paid to the previous council CEO, in October found himself overseeing a pay-off to Katherine Kerswell, as she resigned after five years as … Continue reading
Posted in Inside Croydon
Tagged 000, Allders, Andrew Fisher, £50, Council Tax, Croydon, Croydon Council, Golden handshake, Hammersfield, Katherine Kerswell, Kerswell yoghurt, Labour, Mayor Jason Perry, Pay-off, Surrey Street, Tory, Unibail Rodamco Westfield, URW, Westfield, Whitgift Centre, Whitgift Foundation
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Croydon and council at centre of new £100m housing scandal
The housing scandal at Regina Road was appalling, but by September 2025, Croydon found itself embroiled in another dreadful instance of the shortcomings of tall residential towers. Plus our writers get lost searching their way through the half-closed shopping mall, … Continue reading
Posted in Inside Croydon
Tagged Allders, Andrew Fisher, Council Tax, Croydon, Croydon Council, Hammersfield, Jeremy Corbyn, Labour, Liberal Democrats, Mayor Jason Perry, Nigel Farage, Purley Pool, Reform, Reform Ltd, Reform UK, Sharon Carby, Tory, Unibail Rodamco Westfield, URW, Westfield, Whitgift Centre, Whitgift Foundation
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How Farage’s party picked a dead woman as election candidate
Into August, and the news stories just kept coming, including the latest moves by Westfield to make the Whitgift Centre ever more inaccessible, and the public library where council contractors chucked thousands of books on to the street. There was … Continue reading
Posted in Inside Croydon
Tagged Allders, Andrew Fisher, Council Tax, Croydon, Croydon Council, Hammersfield, Jeremy Corbyn, Labour, Liberal Democrats, Mayor Jason Perry, Nigel Farage, Purley Pool, Reform, Reform Ltd, Reform UK, Sharon Carby, Tory, Unibail Rodamco Westfield, URW, Westfield, Whitgift Centre, Whitgift Foundation
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The cash-strapped council paying consultant £726 PER HOUR
The dog days of a long, hot summer are not usually a time for significant news stories. But that wasn’t to be the case in Croydon as readers flocked to this news site for our coverage in in July and … Continue reading
Posted in Inside Croydon
Tagged Adecco, Allders, Andrew Fisher, Council Tax, Croydon, Croydon Council, Dean Shoesmith, Hammersfield, Ian Dunt, Katherine Kerswell, Kevin Day, Labour, Liberal Democrats, Mayor Jason Perry, Purley Pool, Tory, Unibail Rodamco Westfield, URW, Westfield, Whitgift Centre, Whitgift Foundation
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When council boss blocked staff from reading Inside Croydon
Our review of the year’s Croydon news continues with a ecelctic mix of the infuriating and the absurd, as the unelected and unaccountable £204,000 per year public servant at the head of the council looked increasingly all at sea JUNE … Continue reading
Posted in Inside Croydon
Tagged Allders, Allders Parade, Council Tax, Croydon, Croydon Council, Fiona Fletcher-Smith, Hammersfield, Katherine Kerswell, Labour, Liberal Democrats, Mayor Jason Perry, Purley Pool, Tory, Unibail Rodamco Westfield, URW, Westfield, Whitgift Centre, Whitgift Foundation
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Planning application for Westfield scheme stalled to mid-2026
EXCLUSIVE: ‘”Rome wasn’t built in a day”, but it never took this long’. More broken promises from the Paris-based developers as their housing scheme for the town centre is delayed again. By STEVEN DOWNES Their planning application was supposed to … Continue reading
Posted in "Hammersfield", Allders, Business, Centrale, CPO, Croydon Council, Housing, Mayor Jason Perry, North End Quarter, Planning, Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield, Whitgift Centre
Tagged Allders, Allders Car Park, Allies and Morrison, Centrale, Croydon, Croydon Council, Hammersfield, London, Mayor Jason Perry, North End Quarter, Unibail Rodamco Westfield, URW, Westfield, Whitgift Centre, Whitgift Foundation
16 Comments
Figures show how exodus from Whitgift Centre is speeding up
The number of empty retail units in the Whitgift Centre has increased by more than 50% in the past year, according to recent research. Now under the management of Westfield, the Whitgift Centre was supposed to have been demolished and … Continue reading
Posted in "Hammersfield", Allders, Business, Centrale, Croydon Council, Mayor Jason Perry, Planning, Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield, Whitgift Centre
Tagged Allders, Centrale, Croydon, Croydon Council, Hammersfield, London Borough of Croydon, Mayor Jason Perry, Sarah Jones MP, Unibail Rodamco Westfield, URW, Westfield, Westfield Europe Ltd, Whitgift Centre
26 Comments
Westfield is forced to fence off Centrale’s leaky entrance
As one door opens, another slams into shoppers’ faces on North End, as temporary fencing was erected outside the entrance to Zara and House of Fraser Less than a week after Westfield was trumpeting the opening of two “kiosks” in … Continue reading
Posted in "Hammersfield", Allders, Business, Centrale, Croydon Council, Mayor Jason Perry, Planning, Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield, Whitgift Centre
Tagged Allders, Centrale, Conservative, Croydon, Croydon Council, Hammersfield, London Borough of Croydon, Mayor Jason Perry, Unibail Rodamco Westfield, URW, Westfield, Westfield Europe Ltd, Whitgift Centre
2 Comments
Croydon transformed! Westfield open two kiosks in Allders
EXCLUSIVE: Work on the ageing Whitgift Centre might now not begin before 2028, while Westfield are angling for a public subsidy of at least £100m. Today, as two shops opened on the high street, STEVEN DOWNES took a place at … Continue reading
Posted in "Hammersfield", Allders, Business, Croydon Council, Mayor Jason Perry, Planning, Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield, Whitgift Centre
Tagged Allders, Conservative, Croydon, Croydon Council, Hammersfield, London Borough of Croydon, Mayor Jason Perry, Unibail Rodamco Westfield, URW, Westfield, Westfield Europe Ltd, Whitgift Centre
19 Comments
After the delays, we reveal traders set for Allders kiosks
EXCLUSIVE: Months late, and with only six of the seven units allocated, Westfield is finally about to find a use for part of the town centre’s former department store. By STEVEN DOWNES More than a year after being granted planning … Continue reading
Posted in "Hammersfield", Allders, Business, Croydon Council, Mayor Jason Perry, Planning, Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield, Whitgift Centre
Tagged Allders, Conservative, Croydon, Croydon Council, Hammersfield, London Borough of Croydon, Mayor Jason Perry, Unibail Rodamco Westfield, URW, Westfield, Westfield Europe Ltd, Whitgift Centre
14 Comments
‘Permanently closed’: Whitgift Centre works mark end of days
CROYDON IN CRISIS: With the 60-year-old shopping mall increasingly blocked off for what remains of its visitors, it cannot be long before the last remaining tenants of the Whitgift Centre give up and leave The long and tortured process which … Continue reading
Costa Del Croydon offers beach experience unlike any other
Westfield’s latest sop for failing to deliver the long-promised regeneration of the town centre has been to have tons of sand dumped on the top of a shopping centre’s multi-storey car park. KEN TOWL donned his ‘Kiss Me Quick’ hat … Continue reading
We need a new approach to the town centre’s old problem
CROYDON COMMENTARY: Six months ago, after the latest, tokenistic ‘consultation’ over the town centre redevelopment, TED GUSH wrote that the credibility of Westfield and its regeneration scheme was ‘officially in tatters’. Now, he reacts to the latest Property Week report It … Continue reading
‘It has to be’: Westfield scheme needs millions of public money
UNDER THE FLYOVER: In our latest podcast interview, housing specialist Fiona Fletcher-Smith, now the volunteer chair of the Whitgift Foundation’s governors, discusses the housing crisis, the closure of Old Palace School, what’s happening with the long-promised ‘kiosks’ in the Allders … Continue reading
Posted in "Hammersfield", Allders, Boris Johnson, Business, Charity, Croydon Council, Fiona Fletcher Smith, Housing, Inside Croydon, London-wide issues, Mayor Jason Perry, Mayor of London, North End Quarter, Planning, Property, Sadiq Khan, Under The Flyover, Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield, Whitgift Centre, Whitgift Foundation
Tagged Boris Johnson, Court of Governors, Croydon, Croydon Council, Fiona Fletcher-Smith, GLA, Hammersfield, London, Mayor, Mayor Jason Perry, Roisha Hughes, Under The Flyover, Unibail Rodamco Westfield, URW, Westfield, Whitgift Centre, Whitgift Foundation
17 Comments
The Masterplan has just one aim, to make money for Westfield
CROYDON COMMENTARY: The Town Hall planners handing over Masterplan responsibilities for the town centre to Westfield, as Inside Croydon reported this week, has left reader CARL LUCAS angry that our council will be missing a significant opportunity for a sustainable … Continue reading
Posted in "Hammersfield", Business, Centrale, Croydon Council, Environment, Housing, Mayor Jason Perry, Michael Neal, Nicola Townsend, North End Quarter, Planning, Property, Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield, Whitgift Centre
Tagged Carl Lucas, Croydon, Croydon Council, East Croydon station, Hammersfield, London Borough of Croydon, Michael Neal, NEQ, Nicola Townsend, North End Quarter, Tory, Unibail Rodamco Westfield, URW, Westfield, Whitgift Centre
25 Comments
Another Whitgift store to close – and manager blames Westfield
There’s another closing down sale in the Whitgift Centre. And this time, the exiting retail business, toy store The Entertainer, has made it abundantly clear that their decision to quit the increasingly empty Croydon shopping centre was entirely down to … Continue reading
Posted in "Hammersfield", Business, Mayor Jason Perry, Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield, Whitgift Centre
Tagged Camden Coffee House, Conservative, Croydon, Croydon Council, Hammersfield, Mayor Jason Perry, Sainsbury's, The Body Shop, Tory, Unibail Rodamco Westfield, URW, Westfield, Whitgift Centre
3 Comments
Westfield’s latest charm offensive: £1,000 to handful of groups
Westfield, part of the multi-national Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield property group which is worth many billions, last month announced an “important strand of our community strategy”: doling out some modest grants to community groups and charities in the borough. It is more than … Continue reading
Posted in "Hammersfield", Allders, Business, Charity, Community associations, CVA, Mayor Jason Perry, North End Quarter, Steve Phaure, Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield, Whitgift Centre
Tagged Conservative, Croydon, Croydon Council, Croydon Voluntary Action, CVA, Hammersfield, Labour, Liberal Democrats, London Borough of Croydon, Mayor Jason Perry, Steve Phaure, Tory, Unibail Rodamco Westfield, URW, Westfield, Whitgift Centre
6 Comments
Waiting for Westfield leaves us Urban Room for improvement
With not a moment to lose, KEN TOWL dashed down to the Whitgift Centre to try to discover what the multi-national developers might have in store for the town centre, amid their models made of cereal packets and design briefs … Continue reading
Posted in "Hammersfield", Allders, Business, Centrale, CPO, Croydon Council, Ken Towl, North End Quarter, Planning, Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield, Whitgift Centre
Tagged Allders, Allders Car Park, Allies and Morrison, Centrale, Croydon, Croydon Council, Hammersfield, Ken Towl, London, North End Quarter, Unibail Rodamco Westfield, URW, Westfield, Whitgift Centre, Whitgift Foundation
12 Comments
Westfield wants to build five times as many flats in town centre
CROYDON IN CRISIS: The one-time shopping mall developer is shapeshifting its business towards residential property, but appears in no hurry to action any of its promises after more than a decade of blight to North End. By our housing correspondent, … Continue reading
Posted in "Hammersfield", Allders, Business, Centrale, CPO, Croydon Council, North End Quarter, Planning, Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield, Whitgift Centre
Tagged Allders, Allders Car Park, Allies and Morrison, Centrale, Croydon, Croydon Council, Hammersfield, London, Mayor Jason Perry, North End Quarter, Scott Parsons, Unibail Rodamco Westfield, URW, Westfield, Whitgift Centre, Whitgift Foundation
6 Comments
