CROYDON IN CRISIS: Just hours before his council was due at the High Court to face a possible Judicial Review over its closure of Access Croydon, the Mayor announced that he was moving the housing service.
EXCLUSIVE by STEVEN DOWNES
Judicial Review: Mayor Jason Perry must have a season ticket for the High Court, his council has to defend cases there so frequently
With Jason Perry and Croydon Council virtually on the steps of the Royal Courts of Justice for today’s hearing before a High Court judge over the closure of Access Croydon, at the 11th hour yesterday evening the calamity council issued a note proclaiming a change in service.
Not that the shift of a housing front desk to a building on South End is likely to materially alter the grounds of the legal test case, since Perry’s omnishambles council maintains that appointments to see council housing staff will still need to be by appointment only.
It is almost as if no one at Perry’s council has quite grasped the fundamental point of the application for a Judicial Review over the closure of public access to statutory services.
The legal case, with the backing of 30 Croydon voluntary organisations and charities, is being brought over claims that the council’s cost-cutting move to shut itself off from the people it is supposed to serve breaks the law in respect of its statutory responsibilities for homeless people. Continue reading
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