Inside Croydon

Why were Labour MPs threatened with losing the party whip, and what does it mean? ANDREW FISHER on how Croydon’s MPs voted over the removal of pensioners’ Winter Fuel Payment

The decision to cut the Winter Fuel Payment for 9-out-of-10 pensioners has proved controversial for Labour, has seen MPs’ inboxes deluged with correspondence, while a petition raised by charity Age UK attract half a million signatures, in what has become the first major skirmish for Keir Starmer’s new government.

Transport for London has today started a consultation on three bus routes, which is likely to affect journeys in and around Streatham and Morden, and will see the end of the 118.

Under TfL’s “proposals” (which mean it is what they intend to do, come what may…):

Route 118 would no longer run

Route 45 would directly replace route 118, operating between Denmark Hill and Camberwell Green and Morden

Bus stops between Brixton Hill and Clapham Park no longer served by route 45 would instead be served by route 59 if it were to change as proposed

Network Rail is to carry out track repair works in the Crystal Palace area for nine days from August 24 until September 1, with Thameslink and Southern disrupted.

Passengers are being advised to “plan ahead” during the “major track upgrade”, which will include the Bank Holiday weekend.

The works are part of a plan to “reduce train delays and improve passenger experience”.

Five sets of switches and crossings and nearly one mile of track will be replaced by Network Rail.

From August 24 until September, there will be no Southern services at these stations:

A man from Streatham has been jailed for seven years after an investigation into the importation and distribution online of gamma-Butyrolactone, the drug GBL.

Ricardo MacQueen De Aguiar, 36, of Hopton Road, Streatham, was sentenced at Croydon Crown Court last week for importing the Class-B drug GBL, possessing and distributing GBL and two counts of assault on an emergency worker.

He was also sentenced for breaching a previous Sexual Harm Prevention Order and issued a further order for seven years.

De Aguiar pleaded guilty to all counts.

Three people trapped by fire were rescued to safety from a house in Streatham Park in the early hours of this morning – the Fire Brigade remarking at the difficulty of their operation because of the way the three-storey building had been converted into three flats.

Ten fire engines and around 70 firefighters were called out to tackle a fire on Aldrington Road, off Mitcham Lane, where a ground-floor flat was “completely destroyed in the blaze”, according to the London Fire Brigade.

CROYDON COMMENTARY: After his second election campaign in five months, PETER UNDERWOOD, who stood for the Green Party in Croydon East, reflects on how the number of votes cast ought to be a warning to the two larger parties

We knew there would be some shifting around in Croydon following the boundary review that increased Croydon’s constituencies from three to four (or, strictly, three-and-a-half, as we share one with Lambeth).

HUSTINGS UPDATE: One of the election hustings organised for later this week, the Croydon TUC event in Ruskin House on June 20, has been postponed (in part, at least, to allow Croydon East candidates to attend the event in their constituency on the same evening)

Croydon hustings:

June 20: Citizens UK: Croydon East hustings Woodside Baptist Church, SE25 4SP 7.30pm

June 20: East Coulsdon Residents’ Association: Croydon South hustings at Coulsdon Community Centre, Barrie Close CR5 3BX 7.30pm

As postal voters start to receive their ballot papers ahead of the General Election on July 4, others in parts of Croydon are beginning to feel that their votes are being taken for granted by Tories and Labour, as our political editor, WALTER CRONXITE, explains

Without wanting to be too Orwellian, all voters are equal but some voters are more equal than others.

If you have a question to put to an election candidate, or to a political party which is seeking your vote in Croydon, here’s a way you can try to get some answers

Hustings used to be the way for the election candidates to be assessed and judged by the voting public: a grand Town Hall event, packed out with an electorate, many of them eager to put their own questions to the individuals who fancied that they could represent the constituency at Westminster for the next five years.