VOTE 2014: After eight years of running Croydon Council, the leader of the Conservative group, MIKE FISHER, the man who approved the building of a £140 million council headquarters building, calls for your support in tomorrow’s local elections by claiming to have cut waste and cut Council Tax
On Thursday, Croydon residents will once again choose who will control services and the direction of Croydon for the next four years. They have a straight choice to make between an efficient Conservative council or going back to the tax and spend policies of Labour. Whatever the other parties say, this is a two-horse race; only the Conservatives or Labour can win control of the council on Thursday.
Over the last eight years your Conservative council has controlled expenditure and cut waste, resulting in a real terms cut of 4.5 per cent in Council Tax. Compare this to Labour’s record when it was last in charge: it more than doubled the Council Tax that you had to pay in real terms. We understand that people have had to tighten their belts and the last thing hard-working families need is an increasing Council Tax. That is why we gave every Council Tax-payer a £25 efficiency refund in April. Labour councilors voted against this and have promised an “emergency budget” in June if they are elected.
This election is vitally important for Croydon for another reason. The town stands on the brink of a huge regeneration that will bring jobs, new homes and real opportunities for local people. At the heart of this is the £1 billion Westfield-Hammerson retail development in the town centre. This scheme alone will provide 5,000 new jobs for residents across the borough and provide hundreds of new homes in the town centre. Last week, London Mayor Boris Johnson visited Croydon. He reiterated that without the leadership of the Conservative council, this scheme would not have gone ahead.
Over the next five years the wider policies and plans your Conservative council has put in place will deliver 16,500 new jobs and over 9,000 new homes for local people.
We have also worked hard to improve local services. Recycling rates have almost trebled thanks to our expansion of recycling opportunities. GCSE A* to C passes achieved by Croydon pupils have risen every year that we have been in power and our adult social care department is rated as one of the best in the country.
So when it comes to running the council, we have a proven track record of financial efficiency, providing care for the vulnerable, ensuring our children get a good education and bringing about much needed regeneration.
The election of a Labour council would put all that at risk. Their record in power was appalling. Some people often use local elections as an opportunity to vote for other parties to send a message to the national Government. That is a risky strategy: if you vote for UKIP as a way of sending a message, you risk electing a Labour council and that is in nobody’s interest.
So if you want jobs for local people, new homes for local families, better services for all and the certainty that your council will look after your town, then you should vote Conservative this Thursday.
- Mike Fisher is the leader of Croydon Council and is standing as a candidate in Shirley ward
Inside Croydon’s recent coverage of the local elections:
- The Croydon party line: UKIP
- The Croydon party line: LibDems
- The Croydon party line: TUSC
- Policy analysis 1: The incinerator
- Policy analysis 2: Hammersfield
- Policy analysis 3: Crime
- ADDISCOMBE: Labour looking vulnerable to Barwell’s push
- Council CEO parrots Tory party line in official press releases
- Conservatives snub hustings as sham candidates exposed
- Council allowances and local politicians’ secret consensus
- The list of candidates for the May 22 local elections
Coming to Croydon
- David Lean Cinema: The Rocket, May 22
- Songs From The Ledge, Spread Eagle Theatre, May 23
- Greek Myths: stories and mask-making, May 27
- Howard Marks: Scholar, Smuggler, Prisoner, Scribe, May 29
- David Lean Cinema: Dallas Buyers Club, May 29
- Tales from Ancient Greece, Upper Norwood Library, May 29
- Upper Norwood Library Book Club, May 31
- Stitch Pitch quilting workshop, Upper Norwood Library, June 2
- Croydon Tech City “summit”, June 6
- An Improvised Murder, Spread Eagle Theatre, June 7
- Lakes Playground Action Group fun day, June 14
- Elm Tree Cottage garden open day, June 15
- Norwood Society Talk: The Concrete Church, June 19
- Classic Car Show at Purley Rotary Fields, June 22
- Crystal Palace Overground Festival, June 26-29
- Warnings to the Curious, Spread Eagle Theatre, June 27
- South Norwood Allotments open day, June 28
- Fragile, Spread Eagle Theatre, July 24-26
- Elm Tree Cottage garden open day, Aug 10
- Norwood Society Talk: War Memorials, Sep 18
- Norwood Society Talk: From Fire Station to Theatre, Oct 16
- Norwood Society Talk: Lambeth’s Archives, Nov 20
Inside Croydon: Croydon’s only independent news source, based in the heart of the borough: 72,342 average monthly page views (Jan-Mar 2014)
If you have a news story about life in or around Croydon, a residents’ or business association or local event, please email us with full details at inside.croydon@btinternet.com
Let me take issue with Mr Fisher on his suggestion that the Tories are building and will continue to build houses for local people.
Two bed flats at IYLO, now called The Island, a housing development at Spurgeon ‘s Bridge, West Croydon, are being offered for sale in Hong Kong for more than £300,000 each. It would be naive to suppose that flats in the Westfield and Hammerson development will be offered for sale at anything less. How are ordinary Croydon people earning average wages going to be able to buy one of these flats, or even rent one?
Isn’t the current vision for Croydon to develop into a dormitory town for City based professionals? They will be the future ordinary, able to readily raise mortgages to pay £300,000 for a small flat reasonably close to the stations. Ill-kempt socio-economically marginalised units of labour have no place in the future Croydon.
Today’s ordinary will probably be forced out or ghettoised, tolerated so long as they staff the sectors that service the future Croydon “ordinary” person.
Cutting front-line services and operational support units while protecting the back-office is hardly delivering efficiency improvements. Some of the early round of cuts hit the very low cost services that delivered to the areas that erupted during the riots. Services that provided family centred activities in the most deprived areas.
There is no benefit in reducing council tax if the overall quality of life declines and the community become fractured.
One wonders what the high paid strategic management advised Cllr Fisher and his Cabinet colleagues? Aren’t they supposed to help devise strategies & policies for a cohesive fit-for-the-future community.
Drop into the Clocktower and one is reminded of Birkenhead on a wet Wednesday afternoon, drab, dirty & despondent. Except Croydon is in the booming Southeast, and not a town in recession since the 1930’s.
Cllr Fisher should honestly be ashamed.
Will there be enough people to count the vote this time?