Over the past three weeks, people from across the borough have been participating and celebrating our rich, diverse and cultural history at the first Croydon Heritage Festival.
Tomorrow is the South End Food Festival, where restaurants will offer al fresco dining and stalls where visitors can sample the extraordinary range of food and drink on offer in Croydon's South End Restaurant Quarter. There will be entertainment from a main stage, roaming street theatre and plenty of activities for all ages.
A section of South End between Aberdeen Road and Spices Yard Car Park will be closed to traffic for this event taking place between 11am to 4pm.
As a follow up to October's meeting on The Old Town Masterplan, Croydon Council is inviting local residents to an ideas workshop
that will be held on Tuesday 26 March, 6.30pm-8.30pm at Matthews Yardfor people who live, work and shop in Old
Town.
The workshop will be an opportunity for local residents and
business owners as local experts, to provide Allies and Morrison Urban
Practitioners and Croydon Council with valuable local opinions and information
on the buildings, streets, public spaces and transport in the Old Town area and
also let us know what you believe are the important issues and opportunities for
the built environment.
Attendees will also be able to discuss and
explore options for the future of the area with the masterplanning team and
other local people. The information gained at this event will be used to inform
the emerging options being developed through the masterplaning
process.
To confirm your attendance please email:
oldtownmasterplan@croydon.gov.uk
David Weir & school children posing with his medals
Last night, the Paralympian David Weir CBE
came to Waddon to officially open Waddon Leisure Centre. It was amazing to meet
him after his incredible achievement at the recent London 2012 Paralympic Games
of winning four gold medals. School children were inspired by him and proudly
showed off his medals to us all.
The Mayor of Croydon, Councillor Eddy Arram
and the Leader of the Council, Councillor Mike Fisher also attended to officially
open the Centre. Those present were proud and delighted that this day had
finally arrived and cannot wait to use the facilities.
Sitting at the very heart of the community
it will transform Waddon and is a project that as a Council we are all tremendously
proud of delivering after an election pledge in 2006. It is a fitting tribute
that three rooms were named after three local community activists; the late
Frank Fadden, whose wife Grace was present and very proud; the late Councillor
Jonathan Driver and Peter Collier, who attended and brought along his delighted
family. The rooms are called- the Frank Fadden Community Room, the Peter
Collier Fitness Studio and the Jonathan Driver Swimming Pool.
What’s really special about Waddon Leisure
Centre is that it is equipped for people with disabilities and David Weir was
very pleased to see that disabled people were able to access the swimming pool
via a wheelchair pit and promised to use it himself.
I hope you will get involved and use the leisure centre and remember to tell your friends and family all about it!
Over the last six years my ward colleagues Simon, Tony and I have been working alongside Croydon Council to ensure that our key election pledge of delivering a new state-of-the-art leisure centre for Waddon residents could be achieved.
I am proud and delighted to announce that the new state-of-the-art leisure centre will be complete and ready-to-use at the end of January 2013.
Before the new Waddon leisure centre opens to the general public, Croydon Council are hosting preview sessions that will be open to Waddon residents. The sessions will be on:
Friday 25th January (4-7pm) and Saturday 26th January (9am-1pm)
I hope that you will take the opportunity to preview this exciting new facility and note that all attendees will be given a free three-day pass!
As Croydon's youngest councillor I try to encourage other young people to become involved in their local communities by attending resident or council led meetings or participating in Council led initiatives to improve their local areas. All decision makers across Croydon have a duty to listen to young people having their say in how our town is run.
On Monday 8th October, Croydon Council is hosting a Young People's Question Time at Croydon College from 5.30pm to 9.30pm where young people across the borough will be given a chance to question Council cabinet members and senior council officers about the issues and services that matter most to them.
I hope to see many of the young people in Waddon and across the borough attending this important event.
For more information and to register please email: communications@croydon.gov.uk
Yesterday Property Week announced that Nestle were leaving Croydon after 47 years in the borough after signing a deal to relocate to City Place in Crawley, just outside Gatwick Airport.
This news was confirmed today by all parties and Cllr Mike Fisher, Leader of Croydon Council expressed his disappointment at this decision stating that:
“We are obviously very disappointed that Nestlé has decided to leave the borough after more than 40 years.
“We have done everything we possibly could to avoid this outcome, but ultimately we have to respect the fact that Nestle are a footloose global company and can choose where they locate their business.”
However current Nestle staff can take comfort in the fact that the location is not as far away as some previously predicted as most of them will be able to commute to the new offices. The Council has also pledged to offer Nestle any support that they need to ensure that staff can make a smooth transition. Another bonus is that relations between the two boroughs are positive as both are partners in the Coast to Capital Local Economic Partnership (LEP)
Whilst this is disappointing news if we continue to focus on regenerating the town centre then we will be able to attract potential investors, creating a place where people want to live and an economy that links outer London to Gatwick and the world.
