A DRAMA teacher has taken his place in the wonderful world of Harry Potter by playing the first character created by J.K Rowling since she wrote the final book in the hit series in 2007.
Glen McCready plays ghostly wizard Zygmunt Budge in the new PlayStation3 game Wonderbook: Book of Potions, in which Zygmunt guides would-be wizards.
The 44-year-old, who lives in South Norwood and teaches at Stagecoach Coulsdon, said he thought he won the part for sounding "just a tiny bit crazier than the other acts".
He added: "I am the voice of Zygmunt in the English-speaking world and all the sounds where he messes up and says 'Ooh' and 'Aah' – those are me across the whole world.
"Which being an egomaniacal actor I am quite pleased about."
Mr McCready recorded the character – who was thrown out of Hogwarts before writing his masterpiece on a secluded island – over the summer at a studio near King's Cross.
The actor added: "He was rather bad-tempered and crotchety but he also had to be encouraging, otherwise the kids would just throw their hands up and say 'I cannot be bothered' – so it was a very interesting tightrope for me to walk as an actor."
The "augmented reality game" has an "emphasis on literacy and learning," Mr McCready added, with players having to read and make recipes as they compete for the Golden Cauldron.
The actor, whose wife Zoe McCready is principal at Stagecoach Coulsdon, said he knew very little of the Harry Potter books before taking on the role, but added he hoped he had indeed pleased its creator.
He said: "She [J.K Rowling] would have heard me quite early on, I think in May, and would have had the chance to say, 'No, no, no this is not what I envisaged'."
Mr McCready has been doing voiceovers since 1997 and has played characters including a Russian super-villain and Japanese gangster.
He added: "I got into acting because I wanted to move away from me, myself and my voice as much as possible. It's about characterising and disguising – a big thrill for me would be to have my nearest and dearest in the audience and for them not to recognise me."
In a statement marking the game's release, Ms Rowling said she had "lots of fun" inventing Zygmunt Budge, adding: "[He] has now come to life in the hands of the Wonderbook creative team.
"I have also been helping to concoct a few surprises to test the skills of young potioneers."
The game was released at the end of November.
PURLEY'S traders and business owners are taking the town's future into their own hands by setting up a Business Improvement District (BID).
The scheme would see each store holder pay a 1.5 per cent levy on their business rates to be spent directly on the town.
Simon Cripps, who heads the Purley Business Association (PBA), is corralling the town's store holders to agree to the scheme and held a meeting in the Jolly Farmers on Tuesday evening.
He said: "The way things are going, Purley is going down and down and down.
"Not only are people shopping outside of the town when it used to be a hub for business but we have the second highest number of empty shops in the borough.
"Not only do we need to attract businesses back into these shops but if they are empty, they at least need to be made to look nice."
Nigel Aliano, who owns the All Bikes shop in Godstone Road, said Purley had turned into a "dirty" and "smelly" place after the "council washed its hand of it".
"There are so many rich and famous people living in Purley and do you ever see them in town? No," he said.
"Purley used to be lovely and now its run down. The car parks and underpasses smell of urine."
Mr Cripps said he did not believe Tesco had sucked the "life blood" out of Purley but did think the development of Westfield in Croydon would draw more people away.
"If the town is going to get an increase of through traffic then we need to make the place appealing to gain any benefit, if not there is a good chance business could be taken away from the town," he said.
"In business you cannot afford to stay still, you either grow or fail, much is the same with business districts such as Purley. We must invest and grow or we will fail."
One of the first issues that needed dealing with in the town is the parking, the business leader said.
"I do think there is enough parking in the town but the car parks are poor and many people don't know they are there."
Mr Cripps said the group would like to see town centre managers back – figures who liaised with businesses and made sure issues were under control.
"The council took those away so we are going to have to invest in these things ourselves," he said.
For more information about the BID, go to www.purleybusiness. co.uk or call Simon Cripps on 020 3137 1826.
CROYDON North MP Steve Reed has been told to do his homework after getting his sums wrong during an attack over school places.
Criticising the government in the House of Commons, Mr Reed said there would be "a shortfall of nearly 2,500 permanent places in Croydon by 2016".
He accused ministers of failing to act, despite the Department for Education (DfE) allocating the borough £110 million to meet unprecedented levels of demand over the next two years.
That money has already been allocated to plans which include opening eight new schools, with the first to take pupils next September.
Asked by the Advertiser to explain his attack in light of the investment, Mr Reed said: "[The £110 million] is no good if we need far more than that; by the council's own figures we're looking at a shortfall of nearly 2,500 places even after all that additional money has been spent."
However, this is not correct.
The council is in the middle of a £167 million programme, to create extra schools places, with £110 million of the funding provided by the Government, and the rest met by the council through borrowing from the Public Works Loans Board (PWLB).
Current plans for new schools, permanent expansions and bulge classes, will create 65 forms of entry by 2016/17.
This would be short of the 82.5 which could be required if demand meets higher predictions adopted by the council last month – and referred to by Mr Reed.
But it does not include further bulge classes, or new schools in years beyond 2014/15.
Spaces for these potential 525 primary and secondary pupils are not covered in the £167 million programme, so would require additional money from the Government or borrowing from the PWLB.
Croydon received a two-year settlement of £63.2 million from the DfE in March, more than any other local authority, and a further £47 million for its schools estates programme earlier this year.
It published an update in November, which revised predictions of how many places will be required due to increased demand.
The worst case scenario is now 82.5 forms of entry (2,475 pupils) across secondary and primary by 2016/17, with a conservative estimate of 38.
The figure prompted Mr Reed to raise the issue with Chancellor George Osborne following last week's Autumn Statement.
He attacked the Government for cancelling Labour's Building Schools for the Future programme shortly after coming to power in 2010.
Mr Reed called on them to "put dogma aside and provide places that children and parents need right here in Croydon".
He claims the council confirmed to him that the DfE funding had not gone towards creating the 82.5 classes.
Tim Pollard, cabinet member for children, families and learners, called Mr Reed's attack "fairly astounding".
He said: "Could thousands of children be left without a school place? Yes, if we didn't do anything. But we are doing a lot things.
"It's just alarmist and silly."
IT HAS not been the most inspiring fortnight for accountability in the local NHS.
First, Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt said he was unable to compel Caroline Taylor, the former head of NHS Croydon, to explain a £28 million misreporting of the trust's finances.
Asked to intervene by a committee investigating the scandal, Mr Hunt took six months to say she answered to Sir David Nicholson, the outgoing chief executive of the NHS.
A few days later, Sir David said he too had "no powers" to force Ms Taylor to give her account of what happened, because she was a former employee of the trust.
Yet Ms Taylor is far from a former employee of the NHS; she went on to two senior jobs in London and is now a director of a health programme covering south-east London.
But if it has been a bad few weeks for accountability, then it's been an equally depressing two years.
Overspent
NHS Croydon posted a £5.5 million surplus in 2010-11, but was later revealed to have overspent by £23 million.
The problems only began to come to light after the trust merged with four others to become NHS South West London (SWL) in February 2011, by which time the key players had left for other positions in the NHS.
An independent investigation by Ernst & Young cost the taxpayer £1 million but blamed "processes". NHS London said "no individual was entirely at fault".
Six local authorities, led by Croydon, set up a joint scrutiny committee of their own but key figures refused to take part. One senior manager did give evidence – then NHS SWL chief Ann Radmore who signed off the accounts – but she was hostile and attended with a lawyer.
When Mr Hunt and Sir David ducked responsibility they ended any hope the committee, now formally dissolved, had of getting the answers they sought.
Cllr Jason Cummings, who led the investigation, said this week: "Have they faced us down? Yes. But they have been allowed to. The people that could have compelled them have all chosen not to."
He stopped short, however, of declaring the committee's efforts a waste of time.
"The principle wasn't to go after and punish someone for what happened in the past," he said. "It was to try and make sure it doesn't happen in the future and, in that, I think we have had notable success.
"While it might not get the headlines, it's the more important side of it. Ultimately what we wanted is for it not to happen again, and the chances of that have been significantly reduced as a result of this process."
Progress
While Mr Hunt refused to compel Ms Taylor to account for her actions, he announced that future committees will have greater powers to compel current employees to give evidence.
Cllr Cummings also has more faith in Croydon Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) than its predecessor – the primary care trust that it replaced in April.
"Those who refused to co-operate with us were people who no patient would recognise, because they sit behind desks and push paper around," he said.
"GPs are on the front line and see the human side. Someone like Caroline Taylor, on the other hand, can be completely dismissive to the consequences of her actions. All the indications we've had is that the CCG is a more open to being scrutinised and, in some cases, has encouraged it."
The unwillingness to face questions extends beyond NHS employees.
Croydon councillors Toni Letts, a former chairman of the trust, and David Fitze, in charge of the audit committee, also snubbed invitations to appear. Labour leader Tony Newman, then vice-chairman, did not give evidence. All felt they either had nothing to add or that the investigation, prompted by council leader Mike Fisher, was politically motivated.
Misgivings
But Labour councillor Sean Fitzsimons, who sat on the committee, said that regardless of their misgivings, the councillors should have cooperated.
"I don't think anyone should have refused to come to the committee, and that goes for everyone," he said.
"There was a strong feeling the original driver behind this review wasn't about going for Caroline Taylor, or someone like that, but to hang Tony Newman out to dry. Whether that was the case, I don't think people should be scared of scrutiny. They should have attended voluntarily."
Asked whether the committee's nine-month effort had been wasted, Cllr Fitzsimons said: "It may not have succeeded in its original intentions, but it has clarified the limitations of the powers available to us.
"The lesson for me is not to allow people to resign before you get to scrutinise them."
Renewed hope? Last week Richard Ottaway called on Mr Hunt to explain why no one at NHS Croydon had been held to account. Not normally one to criticise his own party, the Croydon South MP was left frustrated by the Health Secretary's inability to act. "I've asked Mr Hunt where the buck stops and I'm looking forward to hearing from him," he told the Advertiser. "If I don't get answers pretty soon then I'm going to raise this on the floor of the House."Key players who did not give evidenceCaroline Taylor: The former chief executive of NHS Croydon was head of the trust at the time. She left in February 2011 and has gone on to hold a number of senior positions in the health service in London. Refused to take part in the scrutiny committee and allegedly threatened to sue upon seeing a draft copy.
Mark Phillips: Interim deputy director of finance – and former nightclub owner – left in charge of NHS Croydon's finances despite not being a fully qualified accountant. Ernst & Young said Mr Phillips made "unwarranted adjustments" to the accounts and reported directly to Ms Taylor.
Stephen O'Brien: The director of finance whose extended periods of sick leave left Mr Phillips effectively in control of the finances.
Toni Letts: Selhurst councillor who was chairman of NHS Croydon at the time, and then vice-chairman when she declined to give evidence to the committee. Told Advertiser: "People will judge me as they will. I'm not prepared to talk about it."
David Fitze: Fairfield councillor was chairman of the audit committee which signed off the inaccurate accounts, after they were given the green light by Deloitte and the Audit Commission.
Cllr Tony Newman: Leader of Croydon Labour Party and former vice-chairman of NHS Croydon. Invited to give evidence to committee, but could not arrange date.
