please empty your brain below
Just to provide some kind of balance, don't think for one moment Croydon Council has a monopoly on truly awful redevelopments involving flats in the London Borough of Croydon. The private sector can do a pretty sterling job in this area too.

Amongst others, very close to me in the Purley/Coulsdon area is a truly awful block of nine flats with almost unbelievable construction faults (that we could see as it was being built and tried to draw the council's attention to) and even worse maintenance faults.

Pedantic of Purley | 14.04.26 - 7:19 a.m. | #

I suspect the excursion buses were various routes run by London General to the south coast on Sundays, which ran in the 2000s and possibly into the 2010s. They were numbered in the 77x range from memory.

B2024 | 14.04.26 - 7:25 a.m. | #

The term "polite notice" makes my teeth itch. "How to operate this door" would be understood as a straightforward instruction, with no need for fake nicety.

Waterhouse | 14.04.26 - 7:44 a.m. | #

I believe Brick by Bricks special contribution is not just the poor quality of their end product, but their major role in bankrupting Croydon council. In fact Brick by Bricks role is a classic example of political hubris, either not seeking or ignoring professional advice when it came to running complex projects. It as an excellent example to all those who believe that the solution to the present housing crisis is to build more public housing. A worthy aim but the public sector is so hollowed out they no longer have the expertise either technically, legally, financially or in project management to complete such complex projects successfully. We have the same problem in Germany.

The sad thing is that everyone in Croydon is having to pay for this and quite literally nobody has been called to account.

Keith the Kraut | 14.04.26 - 7:51 a.m. | #

Rose Hill was the bedridden lady in Allo, Allo.

Ackshley | 14.04.26 - 8:19 a.m. | #

According to information displayed on the side of Tower Hamlets dustcarts the littering fine within Tower hamlets has been increased to £500

dg writes: yup

fishislandskin | 14.04.26 - 8:25 a.m. | #

If that Tower Hamlets fine were actually enforced, I'm pretty sure we'd shoot up to become richest borough overnight.

tomb | 14.04.26 - 8:41 a.m. | #

My first thought was that's not really how "save" works. Not spending money you weren't going to spend isn’t a saving.

Nick | Homepage | 14.04.26 - 8:41 a.m. | #

Keith - Absolutely true but behind all this was the then Conservative government encouraging local councils to be more enterprising (even setting up a fund for them to borrow from) rather than continue increasing council tax. Oversight was minimal leading to some bad borrowing.

Another notable achievement for Croydon Council was to buy a large hotel in the borough as an investment. This was bought just before we heard of Covid and you can imagine how that played out. If you think no council can mess this up as much as Croydon, you should see what happened in Woking.

Pedantic of Purley | 14.04.26 - 8:44 a.m. | #

Perhaps 'please ensure...' rather than 'please insure...'.

Pedantic of Purley | 14.04.26 - 8:45 a.m. | #

Is there an ISO standard for bleep bleep push door, should it be buzz buzz push door, or prolonged beep pull door.

The consequences of outsourcing and privatisation is the eventual loss of institutional knowledge in the public sector, decision making deteriorates as a result because 'nobody's done anything'.

Still Anon | 14.04.26 - 8:45 a.m. | #

That bollard wrap is more unsightly than any litter short of a dumped mattress. Motes and beams.

Philip | 14.04.26 - 8:49 a.m. | #

More accurate to say that the St Helier estate [sic] was proper council housing. Like many other estates built as social housing, it now has many private owners and renters (possibly more than council tenants).

Still Anon - Rose Hill is also the name of the road that runs south from the roundabout. There are other bus stops around that junction with names like 'St Helier Avenue, Rose Hill Roundabout'.

St Helier resident | 14.04.26 - 9:14 a.m. | #

Excursions were run by London General / Go-Ahead London to a variety of destinations during the summer and Rose Hill was one of the stops for several of the services. They were run by the commercial department and used buses that would have been used for school buses during term time. See here.

Andrew Smith | 14.04.26 - 10:15 a.m. | #

re Croydon's Brick by Bricks

It is not public/council housing it was a private company whcih had loans from Croydon Council and set up by Croydon council so probbaly not using Council staff just people who thought they knew what to do.

Croydon Council can still mess up though - see Regina Road

Mark | 14.04.26 - 10:24 a.m. | #

Brick by Brick is a private company solely ownes by Crozdon Council, and still existing, whose officers are also appointed bt Croydon Council. The present CEO gives his postal address as the councils offices. This is actually worse. Having set up a Special Purpose Company to do building the council then fully underwrote their debt which both negates the reason for the company, as the debt is still on the councils balance sheet to this day, and removes the actions of the company from the control of the council. That is why I say it was hubris.

Keith the Kraut | 14.04.26 - 10:57 a.m. | #

As a regular user of Wandle Park for many years, that sign was installed back in 2012 when the park was renovated and they wanted to better advertise the tram stop (the nearby bus stop changed from being called "Vicarage Road" to "Vicarage Road / Wandle Park Tram Stop" around the same time).

As for why it's non-standard, no idea, but the font looks similar to other signs in the park.

Jessica | 14.04.26 - 12:29 p.m. | #

If Brick by Brick "(were) loaned £200m, a significant contributor to the council being declared bankrupt with £1.5bn of debts". Significant but there were 1.3 billion other reasons.

Marmaduke Jinks | 14.04.26 - 12:48 p.m. | #

Lambeth charge £500 for spitting!

The door sign should say "THANK YOU" not "THANKYOU"

Bob Walker | 14.04.26 - 5:01 p.m. | #

I think many Councils set up arms length entities to build their ‘social housing’ to exclude it from the depredations of Right to Buy legislation.

ActonMan | 15.04.26 - 5:16 p.m. | #

There are 'Excursion Buses Stop Here sines on both stops at Raynes Park Station, Coombe Lane.
Stop E at Hampton Court, has a tile 'Shuttle Surbiton Coaches to Windsor'. On their Facebook page, the last entry , is 'the Shuttle is suspended due to Covid'. There websites is off line, do they still exist?

David | 15.04.26 - 8:24 p.m. | #

London Transport used to run excursions at weekends to, amongst other places, Whipsnade Zoo, using real red double-deckers (presumably ones otherwise sitting idle in garages in between weekday commuter runs). Memory suggests they went from Hammersmith Broadway, but I may have confused this with the alternative parental day out treat of the 667 trolleybus trip to Hampton Court, which left from King Street.

Labourer | 15.04.26 - 9:59 p.m. | #

As you suggest, the definition of litter is far from clear-cut. Some councils treat urination in public as a littering offence - see for example here

Jon W | 16.04.26 - 10:33 a.m. | #











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