Croydon Council’s Head of Public Safety is TONY BROOKS. Brooks was recently head hunted at great expense from his job as CRIME CZAR with Camden Council. Before that he was Borough Commander with the Met Police.
For some unaccountable reason n our request to the parks dept to hold the Conan Doyle Lake renaming has ended up on his desk and here’s what he has written to Cllr. Paul Scott : You might have thought the CRIME CZAR had more pressing issues to deal with but apparently not:
‘Cllr Scott,
This is a matter that has only recently come to my attention.
I have now spoken to Paul Dovey who is shown on the letter head.
I have advised that we are not in a position to give permission for the event to take place until I can satisfy our elected members and the Cabinet Member with responsibility for parks, that the necessary consultation has been conducted. I have also advised them that the Cabinet Member was not aware and would need to sanction any such event should it eventually take place.
It appears that they have done a survey through their South Norwood Tourist Board site although I have no information on how many and who contributed. He has promised to send me details of that. I have also asked for details on who they have been communicating with.
I have advised the Parks team to send a letter to the organisers indicating that we are not approving the event for the above reasons. In the meantime we will start the discussions with the cabinet member and look to conduct consultations to add to those already done, when I will be in a position to advise the Cabinet Member.
Tony’
WORDS FAIL US……………BUT THE CEREMONY WIL GO AHEAD!
South Norwood Tourist Board 
The naming of the lake has no connection with public safety but the Sherlock Holmes connection may have made this former Crime Czar think there is somehting here to be solved. .I am not sure Sherlock would be flattered that Tony thinks this is more important than dealing with public safety and crime.
okay….I am new to this…so you have to ask permission of the local ‘crime czar’ to gather in a park? And you have to consult in order to gather in a park? Sounds a bit onerous. Does every football team have to do this?