It was fantastic to join the thousands of fans who lined the streets of South Norwood to see Crystal Palace Football Club bring the FA Cup home on Monday. The atmosphere was brilliant as the Eagles toured the area round the stadium in an open top bus, with residents of all ages joining the celebrations. I want to say a huge thank you to all those who worked hard behind the scenes to make it happen, from the Council’s highways team who facilitated the road closures, to our clean-up crews who tidied up and our partners the Police, who helped to make sure everyone stayed safe. Whether you’re a football fan or not, this was a historic moment for our local club and it was incredibly special to see our community come together to celebrate their achievement – South London and Proud! If you missed it, you can see our photos at CPFC FA Cup celebratory parade and party | Flickr

Purley blitz clean

Our latest blitz clean is well under way in Purley, and on Wednesday I joined our blitz squad in the town centre to check on their progress. One of the important features of our blitz cleans is working with partners, businesses and residents, to help them understand their responsibilities and how they can help in keeping our high streets looking their best. For businesses, this includes keeping their premises free of graffiti, so we’ve introduced free graffiti removal kits, to help them to keep their premises and our high streets looking good. The blitz cleans are an important part of our Cleaner Croydon campaign – working with our communities to restore pride and keep our borough looking its best.

Improving your journeys

It was good to welcome Commissioner of Transport for London, Andy Lord to Croydon this week. I thanked him for the 101 new bus shelters delivered in Croydon in just 100 days – a great partnership making a real difference to residents’ journeys. There is positive news about the SL7 Superloop too – no changes planned, and the route won’t be stopping in Sutton. We also spoke about tackling antisocial behaviour around East and West Croydon stations, and how we can strengthen our joint working together. It was an opportunity to update him on some of the excellent work our Town Centre Taskforce is doing to make the heart of Croydon cleaner and safer for everyone.

Have a great weekend.

Jason Perry
Executive Mayor of Croydon