The Bird House Saga

I received information from Croydon Council yesterday concerning the "Bird House" on Sydenham Road.

I have been banging on about this for almost 4 years, and was told by the council in April of this year that there was planning permission for it.

Unfortunately, the council had given me information relating to the wrong building.

The reality is that the "Bird House" has a history of being owned by a landlord who defaulted on repairs, and could not be traced. Broomleigh Housing Association took the property over and, because a new building could not be built on the site, sold it to Whitstable Investments Ltd of Jersey.

All the buildings in Sydenham Road of this design and date were put on a local list which prevented them from being demolished. This was recently lifted.

Croydon Council have obtained information from the Land Registry and will be contacting the owner to start proceedings to get them to place the properties back into residential use.

I would like to thank the recently appointed member of the Empty Properties Department of Croydon Council for being the first person in the council, in almost 4 years, to actually bother to look into this properly and to state that they will actually try to do something about it.

It is a disgrace that the building has been left to rot and decay over the years. It would have made a fine home for someone, now it seems that it will end up being demolished.

I shall watch developments with interest.

The Times

My thanks to The Times for allowing me to plug this site in their article about the empty homes crisis, and publicly remind Croydon Council that "The Bird House" in Sydenham Road is still untouched and unloved.



"A large property in Sydenham Road, Croydon, has been derelict for years and I featured it on www.croydoniscrap.com, the website where I name and shame squalid buildings, derelict land and streets that are a blight on the community and the environment.

Croydon council claimed in April that it had approved an application to build flats there. However, as yet, there is no sign of any building work commencing.

Ken Frost,

Croydon"

Ken Praises Croydon

24dash.com reports that the Mayor of London, Ken Livingstone, has praised Croydon Council for exceeding his target for building new homes and for ensuring over half of them were affordable.

The figures show that Croydon:

-Delivered 1,121 new homes last year, exceeding the Mayor's London Plan 2006/07 target of 903

-Provided 558 affordable homes, exceeding the Mayor's target that 50% of all new homes should be affordable.

The Mayor told Croydon it was a "good performer" adding:

"I am delighted to see you demonstrating to others that, given the political will and commitment, it is possible to increase both overall supply and the proportion that is affordable."

Croydon Council are to be congratulated to for exceeding plans.

However, given the pressure on housing, I would like to ask why it is that derelict houses such as the "Bird House" on Sydenham Road are still allowed to rot?

Croydon Regeneration

The Croydon Guardian reports that tonight Croydon, "once described as a 'complete concrete hell' by David Bowie, will announce a multibillion-pound regeneration plan that will, potentially, turn it into a beacon of sustainability, drawing on ideas from other European cities including Barcelona.

The architect Will Alsop, who once tried to reinvent Barnsley as a walled Tuscan hill town, is to mastermind the transformation, which has as its centrepiece 'a vertical version of the Eden Project' rising more than 30 storeys in Park Hill Park.
Effectively a giant greenhouse in the form of a skyscraper, it would become Croydon's primary visitor attraction with different species planted in 'sky gardens' on each floor.

Alsop has proposed hacking back 'a forest of car parks' choking the town centre, shutting eight-lane highways to through traffic and building a pedestrian-friendly 'emerald necklace' of parks.

The river Wandle is also to be brought back to the surface 40 years after it was buried in culverts and Alsop hopes to revive fishing for Wandle trout."

The plans don't stop there:

"20,000 new homes will be built to increase the town centre population from fewer than 5,000 residents to 50,000. Glass apartment blocks will be connected by high-level covered walkways crossing the main Wellesley Road, which will be reduced from eight lanes to two.

Pod-shaped buildings will rise up on stilts and scores of public squares and miniature parks will be built throughout the town centre, inspired by the regeneration of Barcelona after the 1992 Olympics."

Admirable in every way. However, I do have two caveats in respect of the ambitions of the council and the architect:

1 Why is the council wasting so much time and resources on trying to build the unwanted and unnecessary arena in Dingwall Road?

2 We have seen plans like this, eg high level walkways, before. Those of you with long memories may recall an exhibition held near the Fairfield Hall in the early 1990's. This was to showcase proposed designs for a "brave, new Croydon". We were treated to stunning models and drawings showing; glass walkways, communal gardens and elegant office/residential tower blocks. Needless to say, these plans came to nowt.

I wonder if any of us will live long enough to see these plans come to fruition?

The Times

My thanks to The Times for mentioning this site in today's Property section:

"The Bricks and Mortar e-mail inbox usually contains only pictures of immaculately maintained houses. But images of decay and dilapidation have been appearing, after our report last week on the scandal of Britain’s 840,000 empty homes. Readers have sent us snaps of vacant and neglected dwellings down their streets, properties that could be made viable if local authorities would only assume proper responsibility for this issue.

One blogger from Croydon has set up a website (www.croydoniscrap.com) to ensure that his borough’s empty homes do not remain blots on the townscape but become part of the solution to the housing crisis. Whitehall has plans for 3 million new homes by 2020, but it cannot afford to forget that a good proportion of these homes are already standing."

I hope that the authorities take note, and start to clean up these blots on our "townscape".

The Bird House Revisted

Those of you with long memories may recall that one of the very first derelict sites that I "named and shamed" on this site was the "Bird House", a substantial derelict property on Sydenham Road.

Sadly over three years on, the property remains very much untouched (despite Croydon Council, in April this year, telling me that they had given planning permission for a development of flats).

In order kick start things along I sent the following to The Times Property editor today, together with some photos, as the paper had requested photos of derelict empty buildings from around the UK.

I will keep this site updated with any developments, should they occur.

"Re your article in Friday's Property section, 'Why Are They Empty?', in which you asked for photos of derelict property.

Please find attached photos of a large property in Sydenham Road, Croydon.

It has been derelict and abandoned for years, and I have featured it regularly on one of my websites www.croydoniscrap.com (in this site I name and shame squalid buildings, derelict land, streets and other areas that are a blight on Croydon, the community and the environment).

Croydon council claimed in April this year that they have received and approved an application to build flats there:

However, as yet, there is no sign of any building work commencing.

Suffice to say the residents of Sydenham Road and the surrounding streets deserve better than this.

To add to their misery Lower Addiscombe Road (just around the corner) is falling into a state of decay and neglect; as I highlighted over 3 years ago.

Given the housing problems in Britain, it is a national scandal that so many areas are allowed to decay in this manner.

Kind regards

Ken Frost"

Funding Cut

It looks as though the government has put the mockers on some of Croydon's regeneration schemes. Chancellor Alistair Darling announced during the Comprehensive Spending Review that the £77M that Croydon was supposed to be receiving in funding through the Local Enterprise Growth Initiative (LEGI) may be unavailable in the future.

It seems that Croydon Labour group leader, Councillor Tony Newman (ex Council Leader), is trying to blame the current Conservative council for this.

Given that it was the Labour administration under Newman that bankrupted Croydon in the first place, I find his comments to be "a bit rich".

Shortlist For Regeneration

Property Week reports that Croydon Council has narrowed its list of development partners for a £450M urban regeneration vehicle down to three.

Land Securities Trillium, Mapeley with Terrace Hill and housebuilder Fairview and builder John Laing Projects and Developments are in the final list to partner Croydon Council in redeveloping five council-owned sites worth around £89M.

The centrepiece of the project will be to provide 200,000 sq ft of office space for the council as well as working to regenerate Croydon Town Centre.

Let us hope that the regeneration of Croydon, much vaunted over the past 15 years, finally becomes a reality.

Croydon's Cultural Quarter

As our beloved council rushes headlong into creating a "cultural quarter". I draw their attention to this quote from The New Statesman:

"History, however, will judge whether these qualities can actually be planned and paid for".

Quite!

East Croydon Station

Congratulations to East Croydon Station for being awarded the accolade as being the worst station in the country.

This is the first thing that visitors to our town see and experience.

It is pretty shameful that things have been allowed to get so bad!

Thames Water Is Shite

I am proud to announce the birth of new website.

Thames Water Is Shite

Anyone with any stories about Thames Water, or who know people with stories about Thames water, please send them in.

Thanks.

Ken

Cheap and Unloved

Seemingly house prices in Croydon are among the lowest in the London.

At an average of £244,680, the borough is the fourth cheapest in London - beaten only by the boroughs of Barking and Dagenham (£204,367), Bexley (£222,028) and Havering (£222,313).

The reason for this shame?

1 The creeping decay and squalor eating away the heart of Croydon

2 The delay, caused by the intransigence of the Croydon council, in developing Dingwall Road

3 Above inflation council tax increases year on year

People simply don't want to live here, and who can blame them?

New Office Block

Property group Terrace Hill Group PLC has said that it has received planning consent for a 204,000 square foot 14-storey office building in George Street, Croydon, opposite East Croydon railway station.

The company says that it plans to start construction in late 2007, at a cost of £100M.

The End is Nigh For Allders

It looks as though the end is nigh for Allders, if this report in the Croydon Guardian about the building site that Croydon will be turned into is anything to go by:

"Originally the £500million shopping centre (Park Place) was to be built in two phases, easing the disruption to residents, transport and businesses nearby and allowing the Allders department store to move into new premises with minimum disruption.

But now the mammoth retail complex will be built in one go and fears are growing over the future of the North End department store which began trading in Croydon in 1862.

The council confirmed this week that Park Place would be constructed in a single phase development."

It is sad to see the Allders building go. However, the store itself has long since died (eg the mens' department) and is a pathetic shadow of its former self which should most certainly be put out of its and our misery.

Crane Collapse

My commiserations to the seriously injured driver of the crane, that collapsed onto the roof of the Croydon Park Hotel on Saturday, I wish him a speedy and full recovery.

It is at least some relief that there seem to have been no other serious injuries.

This website has a very good series of photos showing the collapse in real time:

- Crane Collapse

One piece of friendly advice to Altitude 25 and their associates Howard Holdings, who are the building site developers, it may be wise to publish some information on your websites about the collapse together with a note of sympathy to the driver.

As at this time, there is no mention of the collapse on either of the sites.

Tree Felling

I am saddened to read that in the last five years Croydon Council has felled 2600 trees, yet only replanted 600 of those that have been cut down.

Seemingly the borough has such appalling finances it cannot afford to replace any more of the trees.

That being the case I am forced to ask why the council is so dead set on supporting the Arrowcroft arena scheme (with no green space), when the Stanhope scheme eschews the unwanted white elephant of an arena in favour of a new park planted with mature trees.

Council Divided Over Arena

It would seem that the council is not as fully behind the arena development as they would like to have us believe.

Centrale

It seems that the ludicrously named waste of space of a shopping centre, Centrale, is to experiecne something of a makeover in order to attract more shoppers.

The "makeover" will in effect be nothing more than adding some coloured lights to the outside.

A few problems with this:

1 Centrale is shut at night

2 Around 50% of Centrale's retail units are empty

3 The shoppers who use Croydon are not so stupid as to be attracted to Centrale, merely by the addition of a few coloured lights. Empty retail units are the issue, not the lighting.

4 The only shop worth visiting within Centrale is House of Fraser. This in itself is showing significant signs of decline, as the food hall has now lost its fresh vegetable counter and the fish counter. Clearly they are not making any money.

5 Centrale is located near the very run down area of West Croydon, where no one wants to be near or go (least of all at night time). Until that part of town is regenerated, anything placed within spitting distance will be negatively impacted by the decay.

Those in charge of "planning" the development of Croydon have lost the plot. Croydon currently projects a downmarket, tacky and third rate image.

People are not the slightest bit interested in coming to Croydon to shop, as they know they will be greeted by the sight of decay and squalor (eg Dingwall Road) and lack of quality shops/amenities (look how far Allders has declined in the last few years, that shop is now a joke).

The solution being proposed by Croydon Council, and their "trusted" associates in the property development companies, is that we have a third shopping centre built in Croydon.

They don't get it, do they?

Until the problems of the decay and squalor that are eroding Croydon town centre are addressed, shopping centres such as Centrale will remain empty and neglected.

Sweating The Assets

Croydon Council have announced a joint venture proposal whereby the council will put between £30m and £60m of property assets into a specially created limited partnership, to be matched by funds from a private sector developer.

The private investor will take over the development of the joint venture, which will also take on bank debt to help regenerate Croydon town centre and, in theory, make profits for both the council and the private company. The ultimate value of the vehicle has been estimated at £450m.

Councillor Tim Pollard, a fan of the arena development, said:

"We have to make better use of our assets. The Government White Paper has been encouraging councils to look to their assets and make sure they are sweating them. In this kind of deal it makes a lot of sense for us to put in our assets and the private sector to put in the equity."

I am most certainly in favour of the council making the most of its, sorry, our assets. However, given the lamentable shortcomings demonstrated so far with regard to the "regeneration" of Croydon (eg the arena) are the council actually capable of making a success of this?

The Bird House II

I have had a response from Croydon Council, regarding the query I sent to them on Friday about the "Bird House" at Sydenham Road.

It seems that an application to build flats on the site has been received and approved by the Council.

That is good news, the residents of Sydenham Road have had to endure that dangerous, decaying eyesore for over seven years. Finally something is being done about it.

The only question being, when will work commence?

The Bird House

Text of enquiry sent to Croydon council today:

"Given Croydon Council's predilection to use compulsory purchase orders (see www.catarena.org), why have the council not used one on this derelict eyesore in Sydenham Road?

I first wrote about it in February 2004, yet it remains untouched and unloved.

Instead of providing much needed accommodation for human beings, this decaying carbuncle is merely providing a home for flocks of pigeons.

The owners and Croydon council should be ashamed of themselves for not ensuring that this building is used for the purpose for which it was intended."

CATARENA

Announcing a new website.

Croydon Against The Arena (www.catarena.org) is a site dedicated to opposing Croydon Council's plans to build an arena on land adjacent to East Croydon station.

This site has been created to provide a news source and public forum for the citizens of Croydon who are opposed to the plans of Croydon Council and Arrowcroft to compulsory purchase the land adjacent to East Croydon station, in order to construct an arena.

All contributions, news items and comments welcome.

The "Charm" Offensive

I received an interesting letter today, from Croydon Council's Corporate Solicitor. In it he notes that the council have seen my letter to the Secretary of State, objecting to the CPO of the land near East Croydon station, and would welcome an opportunity to arrange a meeting between myself and the project team "to discuss your concerns in more detail".

Seemingly an Associate, within the compulsory purchase and compensation team of Donaldsons (an independent firm of surveyors and property consultants), will contact me in due course.

That's very nice, but why leave it to this stage to invite me for a friendly chat?

I have, after all, made my opposition to the Arrowcroft scheme very clear for quite some time now (in fact I have been objecting to it since before this administration was elected to office, last May).

I wonder if this sudden desire to engage with me has something to do with the forthcoming public inquiry into the the CPO?

CPO Objection

Here is the text of the letter that I sent 3rd February to Ruth Kelly, laying out my objections to the Compulsory Purchase Order (CPO) of the Gateway site:

"Dear Ms Kelly,

Subject Compulsory Purchase of the Gateway Site Croydon Served 16 January 2007

I wish to formally object to Croydon Council’s proposed Compulsory Purchase Order (CPO) of the Gateway development near East Croydon Station.

Please note that I am a long term resident of Croydon, and have no commercial interest or links with the proposed development or rival developers.

I have for the last three years been running www.croydoniscrap.com which highlights the ongoing decay and squalor that is eroding the heart of Croydon, in the hope of shaming those responsible to address the problem.

Dingwall Road in Croydon is without a doubt one of the most shameful areas within Croydon’s town centre. It is one of the main thoroughfares leading to East Croydon station and is used by commuters, visitors and residents on their way to and from the station.

However, instead of being a thriving and bustling thoroughfare of commerce, industry and residential properties; its “piss poor” derelict appearance has more similarity to the devastation following a nuclear attack, rather than the main thoroughfare of what is meant to be one of London's more prestigious outer boroughs.

There have been plans for the redevelopment of this site (known as the Gateway) for many years now. Unfortunately the two competing developers (Arrowcroft and Stanhope Schroders) have two rival plans. Arrowcroft want to include in their development an arena, this is the plan currently favoured by both the previous Labour council and the new Tory administration. Stanhope Schroders do not have plans for an arena, but do actually own a large part of the land on which the Gateway project would be constructed.

As such there is now a protracted legal battle (see Legal Battle) between the council and Arrowcroft on one side, and Stanhope Schroders on the other.

Needless to say the long suffering residents of Croydon, who have to endure the squalor and danger of walking down this scrofulous tumour on Croydon’s backside, have to wait whilst the legal teams fight it out.

In October 2006 Croydon Council’s Cabinet member for Finance and Regeneration, Tim Pollard, published a Cabinet Member’s Bulletin, which summarised a visit that he made to Hamburg to see an arena exactly the same as that proposed by Arrowcroft for the Gateway Site.

On the face of it the report shows that Pollard is enthusiastic about the arena. However, read the report closely and you will see that all is not well:

· The arena in Hamburg is not in the city centre, as such the large influx of people who attend sporting events and pop concerts do not disrupt the daily lives of the residents or commercial activities of Hamburg. Croydon’s arena would cause disruption.

· The Hamburg arena, as per Pollard, has an “uninspiring exterior”, ie it is ugly. He notes that it would have to look a lot better, if it were to be placed in a city centre such as Croydon.

· Most of the visitors to the Hamburg arena come by car. Yet those coming to the Croydon arena would be expected to endure the misery of public transport, thus displacing and inconveniencing those who currently live, commute and shop in Croydon.

· In another part of Pollard's report he notes:

“It has long been recognised that East Croydon Station needs to be redeveloped as it is reaching capacity at peak times. This is likely to be exacerbated by the new developments which are about to start in the town centre. Network Rail expects to release a development brief shortly and is keen to work jointly with Croydon Council to procure a development partner.”

In other words, East Croydon station will not be able to cope with the increase in numbers brought about by the arena. To trust Network Rail and the council to find an, as yet, undiscovered solution to this problem is taking far too great a leap of faith.

· The location of the Hamburg arena (outside the city and away from bars), and the fact that visitors come by car meant that those using the facilities were sober and well behaved. Given the fact that there are a large number of bars and clubs in Croydon, and the fact that visitors would not be driving it is reasonable to assume that those coming to the Croydon arena would be considerably less well behaved.

I detect, from the tone of the report, a sense of doubt about the project creeping into Pollard's mind. There are too many “ifs” for my liking.

I would note that Croydon Council own none of the land, but the previous administration signed with Arrowcroft and committed to the scheme some years ago. Councillor Pollard notes that the Council have a legally binding contract with Arrowcroft (source

Contract)

This more than lilkely means that if the deal with Arrowcroft fails, there may be penalties imposed on Croydon. I note the following:

· Croydon is effectively bankrupt

· Croydon cannot afford the penalties, if they arise

· The current administration quite clearly do not like the arena project. However, the decision to go ahead is most likely being based on the fear of penalties rather than the benefits (of which there are none) of having an arena.

Clearly the decision to impose a CPO is flawed, and has been taken for the wrong reasons.

William Hill, Head of Property at Schroders said:

“I do not know whether to laugh or cry. This must be a first. A CPO brought by a Council to stop the immediate regeneration of derelict land by a willing, able and fully funded developer with construction scheduled to start in a matter of weeks.”

David Camp, chief executive of Stanhope, said:

“As baffling as this all may seem, the benefit of the CPO starting is at long last the Arrowcroft arena proposals will be subject to some impartial and proper scrutiny.”

“Over five years on from the submission of the arena scheme for planning we still do not know who the arena operator is, where the funding for the scheme is coming from and the basis of the viability assessment carried out.”

I would also remind you that the Secretary of State granted permission to Stanhope and Schroders’s scheme in the high court. I draw your attention to the minutes of the Select Committee on Office of the Deputy Prime Minister: Housing, Planning, Local Government and the Regions (1 November 2004). Where it was made very clear that the committee believed that the then Labour administration had a conflict of interest.

The minutes also note that the then Labour administration made the dispute between themselves and Stanhope personal. Sir Paul Beresford is quoted as saying:

“I just happen to have been given the Croydon Gateway report that you gave to your Labour group. It is quite abusive, it is personally abusive. I find it quite extraordinary...

It is the report that went to the Labour group on 5 February this year and it says: "These so-called blue-chip developers have acted like irritable children when their toy has been snatched from them, whining and screaming to the press and anyone else who will listen." Then it goes on to name a number of individuals, including Sir Stuart, but naming him with a rather abusive phrase, which I will not use, and others that have resisted or not agreed with you also get abusive names applied to them?..


Calling one of the individuals, that I have not named, ‘Mr Slime’ and another one ‘Mr Dud’..

You are in a position where, certainly by the paper, you have got some personal difficulties with individuals, you want an Arena on the schemes and really you want Arrowcroft to do the development, so that, in essence, anyone else putting in an application, including the people that own the land, is wasting their time?..”

Source:

Parliament

It is clear that the then Labour administration had no intention of viewing any other scheme impartially. Therefore the scheme, and related CPO, is flawed and should be blocked.

My recommendations are as follows:

· The residents of Croydon do not want or need an arena. Therefore the arena should be ditched.

· The residents of Croydon want Dingwall Road to be developed as speedily and as decently as possible. Go for the plan that can be started as quickly as possible.

· The council must stop wasting time on legal battles with Stanhope Schroder, simply because their development does not have an arena.

Get the site redeveloped now!

Abandon the CPO and the flawed Arrowcroft proposal.

We, the residents of Croydon, are fed up with the ongoing delays and empty promises of the council.

I would also note that Andrew Pelling MP (Croydon Central) has written to me, with his support.

To read Councillor Pollard’s report visit this link:

Pollard

Take a virtual walk down Dingwall Road via this link:

Dingwall Road

Please feel free to contact me if you need further details.

Yours sincerely,

Ken Frost MA FCA FIPFM"

Inquiry Confirmed

Further to my recent letter to Ruth Kelly (Secretary of State for Communties and Local Government), objecting to the CPO being enacted by Croydon Council in respect of the land to be used for the Gateway development, I have received a letter today from her Casework Manager for South East London.

Extract:

"..Further to my earlier letter acknowledging your objections to the above order, the Secretary of State has notified the acquiring authority that she intends to hold an inquiry into that order..."

Good, let us stop the absurd arena plan once and for all!

Arrowcroft Abandons Highcourt Action

Property Week reports that Arrowcroft have told the High Court that it will not proceed with the action against communities secretary Ruth Kelly, who gave planning consent for the rival Stanhope Schroders' scheme for the Croydon Gateway development last June.

Arrowcroft believes that the subsequent decision by the council to compulsorily purchase the site for the Arrowcroft scheme, means that it does not need to proceed with the court case.

Pride comes before a fall!

The Arrowcroft "Newsletter"

I received the following email from Croydon Council today, in respect of my enquiry regarding the Arrowcroft "newsletter".

Dear Mr. Frost,

Thank you for your email dated 8/02/07, sent to Croydon Council, in which you ask questions pertaining to a newsletter you have received recently.

It is very likely that the document you refer to is the spring 2007 newsletter produced by Arrowcroft.

Croydon Council has a devolvement agreement with Arrowcroft to develop the Gateway site adjacent to East Croydon station. In order to keep local people informed of progress with development, Arrowcroft produces a regular newsletter which is distributed to households within the CR0 postcode area. The Council is aware of and approves the content of the newsletter. No residents’ addresses have been supplied by the Council to Arrowcroft. The design, printing and distribution of this newsletter is paid entirely by Arrowcroft and so no Croydon Council taxpayers’ money is used for this purpose.

I hope this answer allays your concerns.


In my view, given that the content of "newsletter" is approved and reviewed by the council (ie they derive political/PR benefit from the "newletter"), yet paid for by Arrowcroft, does this not constitute some form of "election" or "political" contribution that should be declared by both Arrowcroft and the council?

I have raised the matter with my MP, Andrew Pelling.

Gateway Propaganda Sheet

Sent to Croydon Council today:

"Yesterday I, and I assume other residents living in Croydon, received another expensively produced colour 4 page propaganda sheet outlining the benefits of the Arrowcroft/Croydon Council proposal for the Gateway site.

It was remarkably "economical with the actualite", eg it scrupulously refuses to mention that Stanhope own the gateway site and have a rival plan for it.

The propaganda sheet notes that Arrowcroft are in "partnership with Croydon Council", and makes liberal references to Croydon Council.

I assume that the wording and layout has been approved by the council prior to distribution.

I have a number of questions:

1 Did the council pass on my address details, and the address details of other residents, to Arrowcroft?

2 How much does this regular propaganda sheet cost to produce?

3 Who is paying for it, Arrowcroft or Croydon council (ie the taxpayers)?

I look forward to hearing from you.

Kind regards

Ken Frost MA FCA FIPFM"

Compulsory Purchase of the Gateway Site

I have today submitted a formal objection to Croydon Council's proposed Compulsory Purchase Order (CPO) of the Gateway development near East Croydon Station, to The Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government Planning Division.

Beanos

Congratulations to Beanos for actually doing something positive for Croydon.

Quote from an email just received from them:

"Following on from my email update a couple of weeks ago, I am pleased to say that the "rescue package" is under way and there is hope for a future world that includes BEANOS! As I mentioned previously, this will mean us trading on just the ground floor and letting the top two floors to stall units selling goods complimentary to our trade, in fact, an Indoor Market based around the appeal of BEANOS.

Our construction team is busy with hammers and sharp implements as we try to re-organise the ground floor giving us the room to build these stall units.

We have actually finished (well, almost) 19 on the top floor and you can get an idea if you go to this link:

www.beanosmarketplace.co.uk"