Inside Croydon

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.

Sunday will be a bit of a homecoming for Sadia Kabeya, the outstanding player in England’s outstanding, Grand Slam-winning women’s rugby team.

Kabeya, 22, plays flanker for Loughborough and England, and was recently voted England’s Player of the Year.

But the former pupil at Harris City Academy at Crystal Palace started playing rugby in her teens at Frant Road, with Streatham and Croydon RFC, and she’ll be back there this weekend to encourage the next generation of Croydon girls’ sporting talent.

The 23rd Streatham Common Kite Day will take place on Sunday May 12.

From 11am to 5pm, London’s only free family-friendly kite festival combines world-class kite displays with the opportunity to fly your own.

Thousands flocked to Streatham Common Kite Day in 2023 to see the displays, fly a kite and sample the delicious food and drink on offer at the stalls. The organisers expect similar numbers again this year.

There will be a strange, sad, empty space on a bench near the boundary of the Old Whitgiftians’ Croham Road cricket ground in South Croydon this summer.

It is a spot where Raman Subba Row used to sit in the shade, half a pint of cool cider in hand, watching the Old Whitgiftians -OWs – team play and happy to chat with any who happened to pass by.

RUGBY ROUND-UP: After ill-tempered local derby clashes which had more cards than Christmas, and a revised formula for relegation that would leave Einstein confused, JOHNNY DOBBYN pulls on his flanker’s jersey, right, for the final time this season to preview this Saturday’s crunch fixtures