Croydon Bakeoff has the recipe for our town's success

After meeting residents this morning and feeding the ducks at Waddon Ponds, I headed to Croydon Bake Off, a seasonal competition organised locally by Christo Matthews through the Croydon Eats Out (CEO) group, which aims to bring residents together for food-based events throughout the year. The event takes place in the vibrant town centre in the courtyard by Matthews Yard and is staffed and supported by a series of local volunteers from across the Borough. Entrants into the competition are judged by professional chefs and can serve up sweet or savoury dishes for the members of the public to taste and enjoy throughout the day.

Tasty treats on offer included lavender flavoured cupcakes, homemade sausage rolls and freshly made quiche. The event attracted several hundred people throughout the day and everyone I spoke with thoroughly enjoyed themselves and were very supportive of the competition.

Many entrants for the competition had heard about it on Twitter and Facebook through Croydon’s thriving social media scene. Today’s Bakeoff was another perfect example of key members of our community coming together to organise great events that promote and publicise our town by showcasing our community spirit. It is this community spirit that I saw during the opening of Waddon’s leisure centre earlier in the year, and it is this community spirit that we must all continue to support to give our town the national recognition it deserves.

Conservatives Continue to Build a Stronger Croydon

On Saturday, the Croydon Conservative Group met for its annual conference, which saw an array of key speakers from across the Conservative movement gather to discuss and debate policy for improving the borough. Led by Gavin Barwell MP, this year’s conference included several high profile speakers, including Tim Montgomerie from The Times, Ryan Shorthouse from Bright Blue, Charlotte Vere from Women On, Charles Tannock, MEP for London and Alok Sharma MP, one of the Conservative Party’s Vice-Chairmen. We were also joined by supporters including National Conservative Future Chairman Ben Howlett and Shaun Bailey, adviser to Downing Street.

Key topics explored in the discussions included how the Conservative Party can continue to modernise and how it can successfully deliver a majority in the election in 2015. The conference also examined how we can reach out to new supporters and galvanise existing support from our activist base. The second half of the conference included a Dragons’ Den style session, with Croydon Council Leader Cllr Mike Fisher and his team offering members of the public to pitch ideas to them to improve Croydon.

I have helped organise the Croydon Conservative conference for many years now, and I have to say that this year’s was the best ever so far. Introducing the debates, it was clear that the Conservative group is continuing to come up with the best ideas and policies to improve the borough. Our team is at its strongest ever, having delivered a state of the art leisure centre in Waddon, securing a £1billion investment to regenerate the town centre, improving Croydon’s reputation and infrastructure and putting residents first.

Croydon has a very bright future ahead, and the Conservatives are committed to further improving the quality of life for residents in our town. This year’s conference demonstrated we are still leading with the big ideas and issues that matter, in stark contrast to the confused, divided and policy-light Labour group.

David Weir opens Waddon Leisure Centre

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!