As recent examples including Homes for Lambeth, Brick by Brick and the calamity at The Fold demonstrate, meeting a 1.5m new homes target in five years is fraught with difficulties. BARRATT HOLMES, housing correspondent, reports on the case of 120 …Continue reading→

EXCLUSIVE by STEVEN DOWNES Unmesh Desai, the London Assembly Member for The City and East London, has been suspended by the Labour Party following what was initially reported as “a police investigation into a serious allegation”. A spokesperson for the …Continue reading→

WALTER CRONXITE, political editor, checks the ‘facts’ where other local news outlets dare not look Steve Reed OBE, the MP who was Labour’s front bench spokesperson on local government at the time that the council for the area he is …Continue reading→

Residents in Addiscombe are angry that the council has ignored hundreds of objections and granted planning permission for 36- and 33-storey towers – and demand a thorough police investigation into the tax-payers’ millions lost on successive Croydon Park Hotel property …Continue reading→

‘Sustainable’ plans for redeveloping the town centre could see as many as 30,000 new flats built, according to one council figure, but a scheme that was originally due to be completed in 2017 now might only be finished more than …Continue reading→

CROYDON IN CRISIS: ‘Lazy’ Clive Fraser and Sean Fitzsimons, long-time loyal supporters of the Labour leadership which crashed the council’s finances, did not have to wait too long before being handed jobs under new(ish) leader Stuart King. EXCLUSIVE by STEVEN …Continue reading→

Political correspondent WALTER CRONXITE on how elected Mayor’s grandstanding over a deal with which he had no involvement has been seen through by ordinary Council Tax-payers Croydon Mayor Jason Perry came under fire last night, as he tried to take …Continue reading→

When councillor Stuart Collins and Veolia imposed Binmageddon on Croydon, they did so with little proper consideration for the practicalities of plonking multiple large wheely-bins outside the borough’s often small, terraced housing. Whole streets have been taken over by Veolia’s …Continue reading→

CROYDON COMMENTARY: With election day a week away, Conservative councillor and member of the scrutiny committee, ROBERT WARD, offers a few ideas for any incoming Mayor Dear New Mayor, Congratulations on your election victory. You have an opportunity to make …Continue reading→

Any ‘clean break’ with the incompetence and graft of the past at Croydon Town Hall that is being offered by Labour Mayoral candidate Val Shawcross appears doomed by her own campaign’s deep-rooted connections with discredited Tony Newman and some of …Continue reading→

Long-suffering residents in Addiscombe are trying to fight proposals to build two blocks of flats, of up to four storeys, that profit-hungry developers, aided by the council’s planners, are proposing to squeeze into a narrow space between the back gardens …Continue reading→

Councillors in Addiscombe are asking the public to lodge objections to a planning application for a tall tower block – another one – close to East Croydon Station. Developers Fifth State want to demolish the unprepossessing CityLink House office building …Continue reading→

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→

CROYDON IN CRISIS: No shame, no accountability, no remorse – Tony Newman’s ‘inner circle’ at the council who helped bankrupt the borough to seek selection to stand again. By STEVEN DOWNES Paul Scott and Alison Butler, two of the leading …Continue reading→

WALTER CRONXITE reports on how a slip of the tongue exposed the charade of Labour councillors’ ‘consultation’. Plus another supporter of Steve Reed is placed in charge of local candidate selections The charade that is Croydon Labour’s “consultation” with its …Continue reading→

CROYDON IN CRISIS: Some of the borough’s politicians have again placed their own self-interests ahead of the public and come up with another dodgy decision, writes WALTER CRONXITE, political editor Not content with having crashed the council’s finances, the Labour …Continue reading→

CROYDON IN CRISIS: The Town Hall’s theatre of the absurd continues tonight with a meeting chaired by a councillor criticised by auditors and government inspectors for failing to raise the alarm over finances and poor governance. STEVEN DOWNES reports Sean …Continue reading→

CROYDON IN CRISIS: Despite his committee being accused of lacking an ‘understanding of the urgency of the financial position’, one key Labour councillor shows no intention of standing down. By political editor WALTER CRONXITE For many residents and front-line council …Continue reading→

After already suffering a decade of development blight in the town centre because of the on-off-on-off-again aborted Westfield scheme, now a key site off Wellesley Road is about to be turned into a hole in the ground for an indefinite …Continue reading→

City Hall has ruled that a developers’ scheme to demolish a previously thriving East Croydon pub and turn the site into (yet another) block of flats does not meet local planning regulations. But Croydon’s own planning department looks ready to …Continue reading→

A senior Labour councillor has produced more red herrings than you will find in an EU fishing quota, as he has claimed that staging a referendum in May over the way the council is run won’t save a penny for …Continue reading→

CROYDON IN CRISIS: Transport correspondent JEREMY CLACKSON reports on how Fisher’s Folly officials have been forced into a sudden U-turn over their money-spinning ’emissions-based’ parking charges New car parking charges, due to come into force at council-run car parks and …Continue reading→

As 2020 moved through May to August, the local authority had more than the coronavirus to cope with, as the pandemic exposed the authority’s shaky financial position. And Inside Croydon led in its coverage of the cash-strapped Town Hall. Here’s …Continue reading→

WALTER CRONXITE, political editor, reports on how Town Hall figures have finally got round to making their own ‘symbolic’ contribution to the borough’s financial crisis which they helped to create Six months after the financial distress signals went up from …Continue reading→

Backbench councillors who have been marginalised for years under Tony Newman and his cronies are beginning to ask some awkward questions. KEN LEE reports Jamie Audsley, a councillor consigned to almost permanent backbench status under the rule of former leader …Continue reading→