#LocalElections2026: Greens make bigger inroads than Reform

Posted on May 9, 2026 by insidecroydon

Final result (after 28 wards declared):
Lab 30 (-4), Cons 28 (-5), Grn 7 (+5), LibDem 2 (+1), Oth* 1, Ref 2 (+2)

  • Ellie Sandover, niece of Labour PM Keir Starmer, elected to council for Bensham Manor ward
  • Mark Adderley, suspended by the Green Party after Labour minister Steve Reed’s complaints, is nevertheless elected to council in Crystal Palace and Upper Norwood
  • Labour shadow cabinet member Chris Clark loses his town centre seat to Greens
  • LibDems take control of new East Surrey Council
  • Reform wins first Croydon Council seats in New Addington South
  • First results in just after 11am – Labour gain from Conservatives and Croydon’s laziest councillor
  • In Lambeth, Greens look set to take control of MP Steve Reed’s old council
  • Croydon is now run by its directly elected Mayor, with Conservative Jason Perry returned yesterday for a second four-year term. Today, the count at the Fairfield Halls will determine who the 70 councillors will be that join him at the Town Hall until 2030

Welcome to Inside Croydon’s unmatched coverage of the 2026 local election count in Croydon, and across south London.

We have reporters at the count at the Fairfield Halls today, the second day of election counts, this time to determine 70 councillors in 28 wards.

Bookmark this page and keep returning and refreshing the page for our live coverage, with updates on events throughout.

Each new post will be timestamped, with the most recent postings being right here at the top of the page.

We welcome your election-day pictures and news, your comments and your observations, which you can send to us (confidentially if you prefer) by email at inside.croydon@btinternet.com Continue reading →

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‘The vote on the left split more than the vote on the right’

Posted on May 9, 2026 by insidecroydon

Gang show at the Fairfield Halls: Jason Perry shortly after yesterday’s result. His Tory mates helped get him re-elected with lies and decpetion, and even broke the law

ELECTION COMMENTARY: Jason Perry, Croydon’s failed Mayor, may have been handed another four years in office, but the voting numbers declared yesterday spell trouble for the borough’s other Conservatives.
By STEVEN DOWNES, Editor, Inside Croydon

Jason Perry, Croydon’s failed Mayor, backed by his Conservative gang members, did not win the borough’s second mayoral election this week. Keir Starmer lost it.

By any reasonable assessment, Jason Perry’s four-year term from 2022 has been an unmitigated failure. Residents’ Council Tax is up by 33%, yet the cash-strapped council’s debt is up by £300million, to £1.7billion.

Perry’s latest budget, forced through with legal threats against opposition councillors, proved to be so unbalanced that the government-appointed Commissioners have ordered  Conrad Hall, the finance director called in to try to untangle the mess created by four years of bungling, to come up with a fresh financial plan for 2026-2027 by July. The next few weeks will be more than interesting.

Perry has failed in so many ways. Continue reading →

Posted in 2026 council elections, 2026 Croydon Mayor election, Ben Flook, Chris Philp MP, Conrad Hall, Croydon Council, Croydon East, Croydon South, Croydon West, Elaine Jackson, London-wide issues, Mayor Jason Perry, Michael Pusey, Natasha Irons, Rowenna Davis, Sarah Jones MP, Steve Reed MP, Streatham and Croydon North | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 12 Comments

Croydon Fire Station Open Day, Old Town, Fri July 31

Posted on May 9, 2026 by insidecroydon

C O M M U N I T Y
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Blues at The Oval Tavern, May and June, free entry, 6pm start

Posted on May 9, 2026 by insidecroydon

C O M M U N I T Y
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Orangewash: Reform Ltd hands Sutton council to the LibDems

Posted on May 8, 2026 by insidecroydon

Number crunching: the Sutton Council election count at the Westcroft Leisure Centre provided some unhappy figures for the Conservatives

INSIDE SUTTON: Labour now have more council seats in Sutton than the Conservatives, after a  local election wipeout 

It was carnage for the Conservatives in Sutton overnight, as Barry “Basher” Lewis and his Liberal Democrats hardly had to lift a finger to end up with  51 of the 55 council seats in Sutton.

The LibDems took an iron grip on Sutton Council in the early hours of this morning, thanks to the still-waning popularity of the Conservatives and the corrosive influence of the 55 Reform Ltd candidates seeking election.

The Tories were totally wiped out, losing all 20 councillors. Continue reading →

Posted in 2026 council elections, Barry Lewis, Dave Tchil, Nick Mattey, Outside Croydon, Ruth Dombey, Sheldon Vestey, Sutton Council, Tim Foster | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | 6 Comments

#LocalElections2026: Live coverage from the Croydon count

Posted on May 8, 2026 by insidecroydon
  • Tory Jason Perry clings on to power as Croydon Mayor, dealing crushing blow to Labour’s hopes as he wins second term by 1,113 votes from Rowenna Davis
  • It’s Conservative carnage in Sutton
  • Labour losses in Wandsworth and Westminster
  • Reform charmer standing in New Addington fails to get elected in Essex 
  • The Tories cling on against Reform in Bexley

Welcome to Inside Croydon’s unmatched coverage of the 2026 local election count in Croydon, and across south London.

We have reporters at the count at the Fairfield Halls today, for Croydon’s second mayoral election, which will determine our cash-strapped borough’s direction for the next four years, at least.

Have Croydon residents opted to stick with Conservative Jason Perry? Has the social media campaign run by Rowenna Davis been enough for Labour to take back control of the Town Hall? Has Reform Ltd’s Ben Flook made in-roads into the traditional duopoly?

All will become clear with the mayoral election declaration expected sometime later this afternoon, with the votes for Croydon’s 70 councillors across 28 wards delayed until tomorrow, Saturday, May 9, when we’ll be back and do this all over again….

Bookmark this page and keep returning and refreshing the page for our live coverage, with updates on events nationally throughout.

Each new post will be timestamped, with the most recent postings being right here at the top of the page.

We welcome your election-day pictures and news, your comments and your observations, which you can send to us (confidentially if you prefer) by email at inside.croydon@btinternet.com Continue reading →

Posted in 2026 council elections, 2026 Croydon Mayor election, Addiscombe East, Addiscombe West, Adele Benson, Barry Lewis, Ben Flook, Bensham Manor, Broad Green, Chris Clark, Chris Philp MP, Claire Bonham, Coulsdon East, Coulsdon Town, Croydon Council, Croydon East, Croydon South, Croydon West, Crystal Palace and Upper Norwood, Dave Tchil, Elaine Jackson, Ellie Sandover, Fairfield, Graham Mitchell, Housing, Inside Croydon, Ken Towl, Kenley, Kola Agboola, Leila Ben-Hassel, London-wide issues, Mayor Jason Perry, Michael Pusey, Natasha Irons, New Addington North, Nick Mattey, Norbury, Norbury Park, Old Coulsdon, Park Hill and Whitgift, Paul Ainscough, Purley, Purley Oaks and Riddlesdown, Ria Patel, Rowenna Davis, Sadiq Khan, Sanderstead, Sarah Jones MP, Selhurst, Selsdon and Addington Village, Selsdon Vale and Forestdale, Shirley North, Shirley South, South Croydon, South Norwood, Steve Reed MP, Streatham and Croydon North, Sutton Council, Thornton Heath, Tim Foster, Tom Drummond, Tony Pearson, Waddon, West Thornton, Woodside | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 47 Comments

Why south London Is popular for extended business stays

Posted on May 8, 2026 by insidecroydon

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Extended business travel has changed quite a bit in recent years. More professionals are spending weeks or even months in one city, and where they choose to stay has started to change.

Central London is still the obvious choice for many, but it’s no longer the only one, and for longer trips, it’s often not the most practical one either.

South London has quietly built a strong case for itself, particularly for professionals who need easy access to the capital without paying premium central prices. Don’t just take that at face value, there’s a lot to unpack here, and the reasons are worth considering before you book your next extended stay. Continue reading →

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Here’s Croydon’s election results – from Coronation year 1953

Posted on May 7, 2026 by insidecroydon

In a special edition of the Croydon Chronicles as the borough goes to the polls, DAVID MORGAN has trawled through the Minster archive to take a look at how local elections were run more than 70 years ago

Allegations of parachuting candidates into safe seats, accusations of one party masquerading under the banner of another, massive cuts to council services and worries about getting the vote out were the main themes from the Croydon local elections.

But these were the Croydon local elections of 1953, when Winston Churchill was Prime Minister, post-war rationing still existed, and much of the British public was looking forward to the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II.

Election winner: Winston Churchill was back in government for the Conservatives after a General Election win in 1953

The first public meeting of the newly formed South Ward Independent Electors’ Association held in April 1953 produced verbal spats between the public speakers and the audience. People objected to Councillor Bell, a member of the Ratepayers’ Association, being transferred from the marginal Waddon to stand in South ward, which for years had been a safe seat for the RA.

The chair of the meeting Mr Duff, together with several others, felt indignant that a councillor from another ward had been foisted upon them without a general meeting of the Ratepayers’ Association being called or without any consultation of the electorate. Duff said the two candidates who they had chosen for the election came from the ward and understood its problems. Continue reading →

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Looking for a new home? Kirsty and Phil could help you

Posted on May 7, 2026 by insidecroydon

If you’re looking to make a home move very soon, then Channel 4 can provide you with the wisdom and advice of two of the best house-hunters in the business.

House-hunters: Kirstie Allsopp and Phil Spencer are keen to help south Londoners find their perfect homexxxx

Location, Location, Location with Phil Spencer and Kirsty Allsopp is back – the first episode of its latest series aired last night – but the producers are already working on the next series, and they are keen to find south Londoners, from across Sutton, Bromley or Croydon, who are in the market for a new home.

Location, Location, Location has been a fixture in Channel 4’s prime time schedule for more than 20 years and remains the biggest property buying programme on British television. Continue reading →

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Vote count delays raise ‘real concerns’ over ballot security

Posted on May 7, 2026 by insidecroydon

EXCLUSIVE: A three-day election count, and a pause between the polls closing tonight and ballot verification tomorrow morning, has raised serious questions over arrangements for the count, which is taking place at the Fairfield Halls.
By WALTER CRONXITE, Political Editor 

All the votes cast in today’s local elections across Croydon will be left unverified somewhere in the Fairfield Halls for at least 10 hours after the polls close.

Sources from different political parties have raised serious concerns over a lack of security in a public building for such a prolonged period.

Elaine Jackson, the council’s interim chief executive and the Returning Officer for the elections of Croydon’s Mayor and 70 councillors across the borough’s 28 wards, refused to comment when Inside Croydon asked her to explain how she intended to ensure that the votes will be tamper-proof. Continue reading →

Posted in 2026 council elections, 2026 Croydon Mayor election, Croydon Council, Elaine Jackson | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 14 Comments

King Size Slim at The Oval Tavern, Sun May 10, 6pm, free entry

Posted on May 7, 2026 by insidecroydon

C O M M U N I T Y
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Mayor Perry’s secret plan to privatise Croydon’s public parks

Posted on May 6, 2026 by insidecroydon

Buried deep in their uninspiring election manifesto, Croydon Tories have let slip that they want to hand over at least one of the borough’s public open spaces to a private company. SANDRA STEAD reports

In the swing: Tory Jason Perry wants to pay to play at being Tarzan in Croydon’s public parks

Jason Perry, the Croydon Mayor who tried to sell off a chunk of the Shirley Hills to a posh private golf club during his first term in office will, if re-elected tomorrow, hand over at least one of the borough’s parks to a private company.

Perry’s election manifesto was kept under wraps until just 10 days ago – probably because, after four years in power, the £86,000 per year Mayor has so little to show for his time in office.

Because as well as costing the council £10million over his unlawful LTN schemes and his failure to reopen the Purley Pool, Perry’s poor management of the council’s waste contracts and neglect of our public open spaces has been keenly felt by residents. Continue reading →

Posted in 2026 council elections, 2026 Croydon Mayor election, Business, Croydon Council, Croydon parks, Mayor Jason Perry, Peter Underwood | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

Labour’s Davis should be in front when final whistle is blown

Posted on May 6, 2026 by insidecroydon

ONE DAY TO GO: An unusually subdued local campaign enters the final day with a last-minute visit from the Leader of the Opposition to try to salvage the Tory Mayor’s hopes of re-election. WALTER CRONXITE, Political Editor, sifts through the last opinion poll results to make his final prediction. Plot spoiler: it’s close

Labour looks set to recapture executive power at Croydon Town Hall.

The result will be close, possibly as close as 2022 when fewer than 600 votes determined that Conservative Jason Perry would be Mayor for four years. So for the leading parties, getting the vote out will require a huge effort on polling day tomorrow.

Croydon’s 2026 local elections have been mostly about national and international issues.

Town Hall view: by Friday, Labour’s Rowenna Davis will know whether she is to be Croydon Mayor

Four years ago, Croydon’s local elections were primarily about how to chuck out a desperately failing Labour council. It was a genuinely local election.

This time around, it has been as much about Trump’s war on Iran, or Peter Mandelson, or antisemitism, as it has about bin collections, getting pot holes repaired or how Council Tax has risen by 33% in three years.

Warmongering US President Donald Trump has hurt Reform Ltd’s prospects in Croydon, Mandelson has hurt Labour and comments by some candidates across the country which have been portrayed as antisemitic, have hurt the Greens. Continue reading →

Posted in 2026 council elections, 2026 Croydon Mayor election, Ben Flook, Council Tax, Croydon Greens, Croydon South, London-wide issues, Mayor Jason Perry, Michael Pusey, Peter Underwood, Richard Howard, Rick Howard, Rowenna Davis, Steve Reed MP, Zack Polanski | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 14 Comments

Glasner’s Palace are one game away from Leipzig final send-off

Posted on May 6, 2026 by insidecroydon

Record-breaker: Crystal Palace’s Ismaila Sarr scored after just 21sec against Shakhtar Donetsk in the first leg of the UEFA Conference League semi-final. The second leg is at Selhurst tomorrow night

Twelve months after the biggest game in the club’s history, comes the biggest game in the club’s history, with a European semi-final at Selhurst Park tomorrow night. PETER GILLMAN gets off the Eagles’ fans’ emotional rollercoaster to talk about the ride they’ve been on

Here we go again.

Less than 12 months after their greatest match, the FA Cup final win at Wembley on May 17 last year, Crystal Palace have another massive final in their sights. That is the European Conference League final, to be played at Leipzig on May 27. Palace will be there if they achieve the right result in their semi-final against Shakhtar Donetsk at Selhurst Park tomorrow night – an occasion already hailed by The Guardian as the most momentous in the ground’s 102-year history.

Even after last year’s Wembley triumph, all this remains hard to believe if, like me, you have followed Crystal Palace for the best part of 70 years, though an era which brought a switchback of emotions when Palace hovered on the brink of extinction more than once, yet culminating in the Wembley ecstasy that can never be surpassed.

Palace’s European campaign began with a battle not on the pitch but in the law courts. Continue reading →

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Erato Orchestra concert, St Mark’s Woodcote, Sat May 23

Posted on May 6, 2026 by insidecroydon

C O M M U N I T Y
A D V E R T I S E M E N T

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Labour dumps their hard-working Thornton Heath councillor

Posted on May 5, 2026 by insidecroydon

THE TOSS-CARS 2026, Part 2: Inside Croydon reveals the borough’s hardest-working councillors. PLUS: Which Town Hall figure managed just 12 reports to the council’s smartphone app all year?

Reigning champion: Cllr Karen Jewitt

The Labour Party goes in to Thursday’s local elections with the hardest-working councillor in the borough not on the ballot paper.

Karen Jewitt, who has been a councillor in Croydon for 32 years, was one of the six sitting councillors blocked from seeking selection to stand for election by the Labour Party.

With Croydon Labour still under special measures since bankrupting the borough in 2020, Labour’s National Executive Committee supervised the panelling of wannabe council candidates for the party, and together with London region officials, they also oversaw the long-listing and short-listing of ward selections.

In: Ellie Sandover, niece of Keir Starmer, was approved by Labour’s NEC

It was under this entirely opaque and non-democratic system that Ellie Sandover, the 20-something niece of Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, was deemed a good enough candidate to stand for election in a safe Labour ward, as officials presented Labour members in three-seat Bensham Manor ward with a fait accompli, with only three candidates left on the shortlist, as Inside Croydon reported last year.

And it was the same nameless Labour officials who determined that Karen Jewitt was not suitable for selection in her home ward of Thornton Heath, where she has been councillor since 2018, having previously represented Woodside. Continue reading →

Posted in 2026 council elections, Callton Young, Chris Clark, Croydon Council, Janet Campbell, Karen Jewitt, Lynne Hale, Mayor Jason Perry, Rowenna Davis, Samir Dwesar, Simon Fox, Stuart King, Thornton Heath, Tony Newman, West Thornton | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

These are the questions that Mayor Perry is too afraid to face

Posted on May 5, 2026 by insidecroydon

ANDREW FISHER has interviewed three of the main candidates standing for election as  Croydon Mayor. Only Tory Jason Perry refused our invitations. What has Perry got to hide? These are the questions Perry has left unanswered

Failed Mayor: Tory Jason Perry

Apparently, “Mayor Perry remains focused on talking directly to residents about the progress being made to restore pride in Croydon and the work still ahead.” Yet he won’t talk to Inside Croydon because, according to him, it is “highly partisan”.

Inside Croydon is so partisan, in fact, that Labour, Liberal Democrat and Green candidates for Mayor all willingly participated in my podcast interview series – and all were asked probing questions about themselves, their policies and their parties.

Links to all three of the Andrew Fisher Interview series, plus the lively Inside Croydon Digital Debate – where Perry failed to show up – can be found towards the bottom of this column.

Given you won’t hear an interview with the incumbent Mayor, Jason Perry of the Conservative Party, here are some of the questions I will have put to him. Continue reading →

Posted in 2026 council elections, 2026 Croydon Mayor election, Andrew Fisher, Council Tax, Croydon Council, Mayor Jason Perry, The Andrew Fisher Interview | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 14 Comments

Purley Way: Croydon’s spill and contamination problem

Posted on May 5, 2026 by insidecroydon

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If you drive down the Purley Way today, it’s easy to see it as a stretch of retail parks.

Underneath the car parks of the furniture stores, there’s a much older story. This area was once the heart of Croydon’s heavy industry, home to massive gas works and power stations.

While the surroundings have changed, the legacy of that industrial past remains in the soil. Even now, with light industrial units still operating behind the retail frontage, small-scale spills are a constant worry. These incidents have a cumulative effect on the health of the borough. Continue reading →

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The Toss-cars 2026: We name Croydon’s laziest councillors

Posted on May 4, 2026 by insidecroydon

EXCLUSIVE by STEVEN DOWNES, Inside Croydon Editor

Two of Croydon’s councillors, who receive tens of thousands of pounds in allowances from the cash-strapped council over the course of their term in office, submitted not a single members’ enquiry through a purpose-made Town Hall system through the whole of 2025-2026.

That’s the startling discovery made by Inside Croydon as a result of our annual Toss-cars Awards – where we ask the council, through a Freedom of Information request for their official work log data.

With just a few days until the local elections, Croydon residents have a once-in-four-years opportunity to select who will work in their interests at Croydon Council.

After they gave themselves a pay rise last year, all Croydon councillors are now on a basic allowance of at least £12,367, going up to £86,000 for our elected Mayor.

So it would seem perfectly reasonable to want to know how much work Croydon’s elected representatives have been putting in on your behalf.

Or which of our 70 councillors have barely been bothering to make any members’ enquiries on your behalf. Continue reading →

Posted in Adele Benson, Croydon Council, Jason Cummings, Mayor Jason Perry, Norbury Park, Richard Chatterjee, Shirley North, Shirley South, Tony Pearson | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 7 Comments

It’s ex-teacher v ‘technocrat’ in Mayor debate on education

Posted on May 4, 2026 by insidecroydon

The National Education Union in Croydon sent a set of questions to the leading mayoral candidates standing for election this Thursday.

Top of the class: teachers’ union had some questions for Croydon’s mayoral candidates

Disappointingly, as far as the NEU branch secretary, Joe Flynn, is concerned, there were no responses from either the Greens or Liberal Democrat candidates.

Education, now that Croydon’s public education system has been outsourced to a number of private academy chains, is not a priority policy area for the Croydon Mayor – they have little real say or influence in the running of Croydon’s schools. Continue reading →

Posted in 2026 Croydon Mayor election, Education, Mayor Jason Perry, Rowenna Davis, Schools | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 11 Comments

True crime show live on stage at Cryer Arts, Carshalton, May 10

Posted on May 4, 2026 by insidecroydon

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David Lean Cinema screenings for May at the Clocktower

Posted on May 4, 2026 by insidecroydon

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Time travel by velvet and smoke back to a Paris club in 1896

Posted on May 3, 2026 by insidecroydon

Magnifique: three hours of almost non-stop music, dance, jokes and near-delirium can be had at Le Chat Noir, where Les Enfants Vagabondes bring their music to your table

STEVEN DOWNES takes a trip back in time and a sip of a once-banned liquor

Everyone these days appears to be on “a journey” of some kind or another.

If you were to take a half-hour journey from East Croydon, via Victoria and the District line, you could step through the doors of a disused Victorian laundry and into a Paris restaurant of la Belle Époque, where the champagne flows, there are Can-can girls (well, girl, actually), eccentric Erik Satie is tinkling a Gnossiene on the ivories, and you can sample intoxicating absinthe, before it got banned.

Le Chat Noir is an immersive theatre experience just opened in West Ken, where a small but energetic cast and band of musicians, plus dozens of hard-working staff, help to create a convincing sense of period, of 130 years ago, when electric lighting had only just been installed and the Eiffel Tower had only just been erected. Continue reading →

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Perry couldn’t fix the finances because he can’t even add up

Posted on May 3, 2026 by insidecroydon

Doesn’t add up: one of the increasingly desperate social media postings from Jason Perry and Croydon Tories has percentages of … 127.9.

As the Town Hall election campaign enters its final days, the simperingly pathetic ‘give me another chance’ messaging from failed Mayor Jason Perry has got increasingly desperate. And deceitful.
WALTER CRONXITE, Political Editor, reports

It’s no wonder Croydon’s Mayor Jason Perry failed to fix the finances. He obviously has no idea about maths.

As the Croydon Town Hall election campaign entered its final stages, the social media outpourings from Perry’s Croydon Conservatives have become increasingly desperate and deceitful.

Friendless: Jason Perry has hiked Council Tax yet the council’s debt has increased on his watch

There is the boastful nonsense about how under Mayor Perry, Croydon’s parks now have a grand total of four Green Flags, when the borough has 127 parks and open spaces. That equates to 3% of Croydon’s parks that, under Perry, have the Green Flag seal of approval. So not much to boast about. But then, Perry’s administration has very little to boast about.

Then there’s piss-poor Perry’s claim to have removed six troublesome Low Traffic Neighbourhoods, when the truth of the matter is that he was ordered to do so by a High Court judge, whose written judgement ridiculed pompous Perry for his public remarks. Cost to Croydon residents for this particular example of Perry’s incompetence? Just another £10million that our cash-strapped council can ill-afford.

The man who promised in 2022 “to fix the finances” has in fact increased the council’s debt burden in four years, from £1.4billion to £1.7billion.

That’s despite hiking residents’ Council Tax bills by 33% to record levels. Earlier this year, Perry had his begging bowl out to central government again, this time for another £119million of emergency borrowing. Continue reading →

Posted in 2026 council elections, 2026 Croydon Mayor election, Mayor Jason Perry, Transport | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 10 Comments

Croydon Bach Choir choral workshop, South Croydon, May 16

Posted on May 3, 2026 by insidecroydon

C O M M U N I T Y
A D V E R T I S E M E N T

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