Steven Downes
@sdownes.bsky.social
Father, husband, journalist and author. Winner of Royal Television Society award. Founder InsideCroydon.com. Former Editor of Athletics Weekly. Secretary SJA for 12 years.
Want some writing or editing done, or have a story tip? [email protected]
Want some writing or editing done, or have a story tip? [email protected]
Reposted by Steven Downes
Man sentenced to 13 years for 'brutal killing' of Croydon teen insidecroydon.com/2025/11/17/m... #Croydon #Crime #Gangs #CamronSmith
Man sentenced to 13 years for ‘brutal killing’ of Croydon teen
Romario Gordon was today sentenced at the Old Bailey to 13 years in prison for his part in the killing of 16-year-old Camron Smith in front of his mother, in July 2021. The jury at his trial at the…
insidecroydon.com
November 17, 2025 at 4:59 PM
Man sentenced to 13 years for 'brutal killing' of Croydon teen insidecroydon.com/2025/11/17/m... #Croydon #Crime #Gangs #CamronSmith
Reposted by Steven Downes
#BINMAGEDDON: Veolia performance is worse under new deal insidecroydon.com/2025/11/17/b... #Croydon #CroydonInCrisis #LitterFreeNorbury @rosslydall.bsky.social
#BINMAGEDDON: Veolia performance is worse under new deal
CROYDON IN CRISIS: The rubbish contractor handed a £40m eight-year contract by Mayor Jason Perry, just two years after he sacked them for underperforming, is now taking longer to clear fly-tips tha…
insidecroydon.com
November 17, 2025 at 3:15 PM
#BINMAGEDDON: Veolia performance is worse under new deal insidecroydon.com/2025/11/17/b... #Croydon #CroydonInCrisis #LitterFreeNorbury @rosslydall.bsky.social
Reposted by Steven Downes
£18.7m rail scheme brings contactless ticketing to 50 stations insidecroydon.com/2025/11/17/1... #Croydon #Dorking #Oxted #Contacless @abcommuters.bsky.social @christianwolmar.bsky.social
£18.7m rail scheme brings contactless ticketing to 50 stations
Rail passengers will be able to use pay as you go with contactless ticket barriers at 21 more stations served by Southern, Thameslink and Great Northern from December 14. The stations getting the u…
insidecroydon.com
November 17, 2025 at 1:27 PM
£18.7m rail scheme brings contactless ticketing to 50 stations insidecroydon.com/2025/11/17/1... #Croydon #Dorking #Oxted #Contacless @abcommuters.bsky.social @christianwolmar.bsky.social
Reposted by Steven Downes
Glow Christmas concert, St John's Old Coulsdon, Nov 28 insidecroydon.com/2025/11/17/g... #Croydon #Coulsdon #Christmas
Glow Christmas concert, St John’s Old Coulsdon, Nov 28
S U B S C R I B E R A D V E R T I S E M E N T
insidecroydon.com
November 17, 2025 at 12:35 PM
Glow Christmas concert, St John's Old Coulsdon, Nov 28 insidecroydon.com/2025/11/17/g... #Croydon #Coulsdon #Christmas
Reposted by Steven Downes
Get your latest Croydon news from insidecroydon.com.
Support our #journalism at www.patreon.com/insidecroydon
#Croydon
Support our #journalism at www.patreon.com/insidecroydon
#Croydon
October 7, 2025 at 3:31 PM
Get your latest Croydon news from insidecroydon.com.
Support our #journalism at www.patreon.com/insidecroydon
#Croydon
Support our #journalism at www.patreon.com/insidecroydon
#Croydon
Reposted by Steven Downes
This is v worthwhile and is the future of local journalism
Support your independent, locally-based news website. Click here to sign-up as a donor: patreon.com/insidecroydon #Croydon #News #Journalism
November 11, 2025 at 9:41 AM
This is v worthwhile and is the future of local journalism
Reposted by Steven Downes
Britain’s biggest housebuilder urges government to support first-time buyers.
Not a word about cutting profit margins, ever rising profits, gobbling previous stamp duty support, building substandard homes, builders secretly exchanging data to hike prices.
Not a word about cutting profit margins, ever rising profits, gobbling previous stamp duty support, building substandard homes, builders secretly exchanging data to hike prices.
Britain’s biggest housebuilder urges government to support first-time buyers
Taylor Wimpey chief Jennie Daly calls for revival of help-to-buy equity loan scheme to revive property market
www.theguardian.com
November 16, 2025 at 8:31 AM
Britain’s biggest housebuilder urges government to support first-time buyers.
Not a word about cutting profit margins, ever rising profits, gobbling previous stamp duty support, building substandard homes, builders secretly exchanging data to hike prices.
Not a word about cutting profit margins, ever rising profits, gobbling previous stamp duty support, building substandard homes, builders secretly exchanging data to hike prices.
Reposted by Steven Downes
My latest #Croydon tale
The heretic bishop who recanted to avoid burning at the stake insidecroydon.com/2025/11/16/t... #Croydon #Heretic #History @balhnews.bsky.social
The heretic bishop who recanted to avoid burning at the stake
SUNDAY SUPPLEMENT: Reginald Peacock was consecrated as a bishop in a service conducted in the Archbishop’s palace in Croydon, but had to survive a show trial and ritual humiliation on the str…
insidecroydon.com
November 16, 2025 at 12:26 PM
My latest #Croydon tale
Reposted by Steven Downes
We don’t do court reports, but this is an important warning about the dangers of helicoptering.
Penis-swinging duo branded 'pair of idiots' after naked garden antics
Graeme Elder, 39, was fined £400 following the incident in a garden in Perth in September
www.dailyrecord.co.uk
November 16, 2025 at 11:58 AM
We don’t do court reports, but this is an important warning about the dangers of helicoptering.
Reposted by Steven Downes
Not everyone is unhappy about the Government's descent into anti-refugee politics
November 16, 2025 at 9:54 AM
Not everyone is unhappy about the Government's descent into anti-refugee politics
Reposted by Steven Downes
We need more Council houses in towns and cities, but instead Labour will concrete over the countryside to build more unaffordable mansions
If you care about our green spaces, our green belt, and our green fields, then you have to vote Green
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
If you care about our green spaces, our green belt, and our green fields, then you have to vote Green
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Nature is not a blocker to housing growth, MPs find
The Environmental Audit Committee found the government's measures are not enough to meet targets.
www.bbc.co.uk
November 16, 2025 at 2:57 PM
We need more Council houses in towns and cities, but instead Labour will concrete over the countryside to build more unaffordable mansions
If you care about our green spaces, our green belt, and our green fields, then you have to vote Green
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
If you care about our green spaces, our green belt, and our green fields, then you have to vote Green
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Reposted by Steven Downes
There were 93 homicides in London last year: population 9 million
In New York - population 8.5 million - there were
391.
London's homicide figure is 6 times lower than LA, 9 times lower than Miami, 17 times lower than Chicago.
And it's falling year on year despite the population increasing
In New York - population 8.5 million - there were
391.
London's homicide figure is 6 times lower than LA, 9 times lower than Miami, 17 times lower than Chicago.
And it's falling year on year despite the population increasing
November 16, 2025 at 5:28 PM
There were 93 homicides in London last year: population 9 million
In New York - population 8.5 million - there were
391.
London's homicide figure is 6 times lower than LA, 9 times lower than Miami, 17 times lower than Chicago.
And it's falling year on year despite the population increasing
In New York - population 8.5 million - there were
391.
London's homicide figure is 6 times lower than LA, 9 times lower than Miami, 17 times lower than Chicago.
And it's falling year on year despite the population increasing
Reposted by Steven Downes
The heretic bishop who recanted to avoid burning at the stake insidecroydon.com/2025/11/16/t... #Croydon #Heretic #History @balhnews.bsky.social
The heretic bishop who recanted to avoid burning at the stake
SUNDAY SUPPLEMENT: Reginald Peacock was consecrated as a bishop in a service conducted in the Archbishop’s palace in Croydon, but had to survive a show trial and ritual humiliation on the str…
insidecroydon.com
November 16, 2025 at 11:11 AM
The heretic bishop who recanted to avoid burning at the stake insidecroydon.com/2025/11/16/t... #Croydon #Heretic #History @balhnews.bsky.social
Reposted by Steven Downes
Friends of Chaldon Church Quiz Night, Village Hall, Nov 28 insidecroydon.com/2025/11/16/f... #Chaldon #Surrey #Quiz
Friends of Chaldon Church Quiz Night, Village Hall, Nov 28
S U B S C R I B E R A D V E R T I S E M E N T
insidecroydon.com
November 16, 2025 at 10:32 AM
Friends of Chaldon Church Quiz Night, Village Hall, Nov 28 insidecroydon.com/2025/11/16/f... #Chaldon #Surrey #Quiz
Reposted by Steven Downes
Old Coulsdon Christmas lights switch-on, Tudor Parade, Nov 22 insidecroydon.com/2025/11/16/o... #Croydon #Coulsdon #Christmas
Old Coulsdon Christmas lights switch-on, Tudor Parade, Nov 22
S U B S C R I B E R A D V E R T I S E M E N T
insidecroydon.com
November 16, 2025 at 9:32 AM
Old Coulsdon Christmas lights switch-on, Tudor Parade, Nov 22 insidecroydon.com/2025/11/16/o... #Croydon #Coulsdon #Christmas
Reposted by Steven Downes
Now Thames Water blamed for blocking River Wandle for fish insidecroydon.com/2025/11/15/n... #Sutton #RiverWandle @thames21.bsky.social
Now Thames Water blamed for blocking River Wandle for fish
Thames Water have been accused of another botched job, this time on the River Wandle near Beddington, where their works have made it impossibly difficult for fish to swim upstream. A local environm…
insidecroydon.com
November 15, 2025 at 3:28 PM
Now Thames Water blamed for blocking River Wandle for fish insidecroydon.com/2025/11/15/n... #Sutton #RiverWandle @thames21.bsky.social
Reposted by Steven Downes
“on article 8 of the ECHR in particular the right to family life ..we want to constrain in legislation the way that that is applied in immigration cases” Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood tells Sky’s Trevor Philips
Who would have imagined we would ever hear this from a Labour government
Who would have imagined we would ever hear this from a Labour government
November 16, 2025 at 8:55 AM
“on article 8 of the ECHR in particular the right to family life ..we want to constrain in legislation the way that that is applied in immigration cases” Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood tells Sky’s Trevor Philips
Who would have imagined we would ever hear this from a Labour government
Who would have imagined we would ever hear this from a Labour government
Reposted by Steven Downes
"If you're not careful, the newspapers will have you hating the people who are being oppressed and loving the people who are doing the oppressing." Malcolm X.
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
Dark forces are preventing us fighting the climate crisis – by taking knowledge hostage | George Monbiot
The fundamental problem is this: that most of the means of communication are owned or influenced by the very rich, says Guardian columnist George Monbiot
www.theguardian.com
November 16, 2025 at 10:41 AM
"If you're not careful, the newspapers will have you hating the people who are being oppressed and loving the people who are doing the oppressing." Malcolm X.
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
Reposted by Steven Downes
Shabana Mahmood on the BBC this morning talking about desperate people fleeing war and persecution as being given a "golden ticket" and "handouts" and saying she's got a "moral mission" to take them away from them
Indistinguishable from the rhetoric of Reform www.adambienkov.co.uk/p/shabana-ma...
Indistinguishable from the rhetoric of Reform www.adambienkov.co.uk/p/shabana-ma...
Shabana Mahmood and the Politics of Extortion
Labour's strategy of telling its supporters to back Reform-style policies, or get a Reform Government, is the politics of the protection racket and it is not going to work
www.adambienkov.co.uk
November 16, 2025 at 9:25 AM
Shabana Mahmood on the BBC this morning talking about desperate people fleeing war and persecution as being given a "golden ticket" and "handouts" and saying she's got a "moral mission" to take them away from them
Indistinguishable from the rhetoric of Reform www.adambienkov.co.uk/p/shabana-ma...
Indistinguishable from the rhetoric of Reform www.adambienkov.co.uk/p/shabana-ma...
Reposted by Steven Downes
After seven years, council dusts off sketches for Minster Green insidecroydon.com/2025/11/15/a... #Croydon #Minster
After seven years, council dusts off sketches for Minster Green
There is to be a brief exhibition of long-delayed plans for Minster Green staged at Croydon Minster from Tuesday November 25 to Saturday November 29, from 11.30am to 4pm (to 7pm on Wednesday Novemb…
insidecroydon.com
November 15, 2025 at 1:07 PM
After seven years, council dusts off sketches for Minster Green insidecroydon.com/2025/11/15/a... #Croydon #Minster
Reposted by Steven Downes
Old Town Carols, with brass band, Croydon Minster, Dec 7 insidecroydon.com/2025/11/15/o... #Croydon #Christmas #Carols
Old Town Carols, with brass band, Croydon Minster, Dec 7
S U B S C R I B E R A D V E R T I S E M E N T
insidecroydon.com
November 15, 2025 at 9:58 AM
Old Town Carols, with brass band, Croydon Minster, Dec 7 insidecroydon.com/2025/11/15/o... #Croydon #Christmas #Carols
Reposted by Steven Downes
Reed orders MPs to vote against environmental protections insidecroydon.com/2025/11/14/r... #Croydon #InfrastructureBill @rspbengland.bsky.social @nationaltrust.org.uk @elliechowns.bsky.social
Reed orders MPs to vote against environmental protections
Labour government is ignoring scientific advice on the risks posed by proposals in their new Bill, while senior ministers have been cosying up to lobbyists fo developers, reports PAUL LUSHION, our …
insidecroydon.com
November 14, 2025 at 4:06 PM
Reed orders MPs to vote against environmental protections insidecroydon.com/2025/11/14/r... #Croydon #InfrastructureBill @rspbengland.bsky.social @nationaltrust.org.uk @elliechowns.bsky.social
Reposted by Steven Downes
Met to look at evidence app to counter domestic violence insidecroydon.com/2025/11/14/m... #Croydon #VAWG #Crime @london.gov.uk @rosslydall.bsky.social
Met to look at evidence app to counter domestic violence
Reporting by this website has helped to prompt the Metropolitan Police to explore the benefits of an app designed to help victims of domestic abuse gather and store evidence. JOHNNY DOBBYN reports …
insidecroydon.com
November 14, 2025 at 4:43 PM
Met to look at evidence app to counter domestic violence insidecroydon.com/2025/11/14/m... #Croydon #VAWG #Crime @london.gov.uk @rosslydall.bsky.social
Reposted by Steven Downes
Sutton woman banned over pet Pomeranian's sorry state insidecroydon.com/2025/11/14/s... #Sutton #Dogs #RSPCA @rspcasouthlondon.bsky.social @rspcaoffficial.bsky.social
Sutton woman banned over pet Pomeranian’s sorry state
A woman from Sutton has been fined and banned from keeping dogs for 10 years after animal charity the RSPCA brought a prosecution against her over her mistreatment of her pet Pomeranian. The dog ha…
insidecroydon.com
November 14, 2025 at 2:34 PM
Sutton woman banned over pet Pomeranian's sorry state insidecroydon.com/2025/11/14/s... #Sutton #Dogs #RSPCA @rspcasouthlondon.bsky.social @rspcaoffficial.bsky.social