Croydon Guardian review of 2015: July to September

• Police officers saved a man’s life after he collapsed with a heart attack in sweltering heat – but had to endure verbal abuse from onlookers.

Three constables rushed to revive the man until paramedics arrived on the hottest July day on record. But passersby interfered and heckled.

• An affordable home scheme opened to great fanfare, but unless prospective owners signed up early they would have had to earn more than £56,000 to buy one of the units.

Opening: Green Dragon House

Property developer Inspired Asset management converted the 1960s office block Green Dragon House into 111 flats.

Prices started at £294,950.

• Any estate agent will tell you that good schools, transport and shopping add value to a house. But some would-be home-owners might be drawn to more illict amenities, if an advert for a three-bedroom house in South Norwood was anything to go by. The listing invited offers of £320,000 or more and said owners could enjoy “local drug dealers close by”.

August

• Croydon Council announced it would fine waste contractor Veolia up to £180,000 for missing hundreds of bin collections every week.

Overflowing: Waipong Pang said bins in Spindlewood Gardens had not been collected in weeks

The implementation of a new collection system was followed by a six-fold increase in failings. Veolia thanked the “small proportion” of people affected for “bearing with us”.

• Mental health specialists missed five opportunities to complete suicide risk assessments on an 18-year-old woman in the three months before she was killed by a train, an inquest heard.

Opportunities missed: Veronica Romero-Lopez

Veronica Romero-Lopez died at Wimbledon station after saying goodbye to a friend on the phone. High caseloads were partly to blame, Westminster Coroner's Court was told.

• Poor AS-level results saw St Andrew’s High School sixth form close, leaving pupils including Joe Higgs, pictured, half-way through their courses without a place.

Displeased: Joe Higgs

The school’s pass rate was 71 per cent, an improvement on the previous year, and half of papers were awarded grades A* to C.

September

• A Croydon homelessness campaigner told how he spent weeks on a Greek island helping war refugees who had fled across the Mediterranean.

Playing: A refugee child. Pic: Jad Adams

Jad Adams, of Nightwatch, said “they were just like us, only fleeing for their lives”. Mr Adams handed out croissants, water and nectarines every morning on Leros thanks to donations from the UK.

• Damning statistics revealed London Ambulance Service’s persistent failure to respond to emergency calls on time was putting lives at risk.

A third of all critically-ill patients in Croydon waited too long for paramedics after 99 calls. The trust had missed all but two of its most recent 34 monthly targets.

Later in the year it would be placed in special measures by health regulator the CQC.

• The heartbroken husband of a woman who died after healthcare staff mistook her life-threatening condition for minor illness called for changes to Croydon’s urgent care system.

'Failings': Madhumita Mandal and Croydon University Hospital

Prabanhjan Behera’s wife Madhumita Mandal died of organ failure and sepsis at Croydon University Hospital in 2013. An inquest heard her death may have been “contributed to by failings in care”.