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Radically pragmatic Negrini exhibits award-winning chutzpah

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Nathan Elvery’s up to his old tricks.

And Croydon Council looks like a shoo-in for another empty “award“, to be handed over by the council’s mates in the property market, for being “pragmatic” planners.

Jo Negrini: Croydon is an economic powerhouse, apparently

MIPIM UK is a property developers conference being staged next month at Olympia. It’s the London-based version of the annual jolly staged in the spring in the South of France, where Elvery’s predecessor and one or two Tory councillors used to enjoy a few days on the piss in the sun at the tax-payers’ expense.

Croydon Council is up for an award, for its town planning. Seriously. A borough which has 130 Compulsory Purchase Orders being taken in front of a High Court judge next year, and which was supposed to have got a detailed transport report from Transport for London last November, which has thus far failed to materialise. Prize-winning stuff indeed.

Elvery is Croydon Council’s chief executive, a job which was never advertised. He has demonstrated in the past that he reckons that garnering bogus plaudits such as these, where insiders slap their mates on the back, provide useful validation for his organisation’s work. And, more importantly, for his own conduct.

He’s done it before, where Croydon Council won an award for which Elvery himself was one of the judges. One of just two judges, with the other being a contractor working for… Croydon Council. Trebles all round!

The MIPIM UK awards, being run with Estates Gazette, appear a little more credible than some in the sector, and there’s no Croydon Council judges to be seen this time round. Nevertheless, winning such a gong will only impress the seriously gullible. And, it seems, Elvery’s new bosses at the council.

“To be recognised as one of the best planning authorities in the country is a fantastic achievement,” Alison Butler, Labour’s new deputy leader of the council, gushed on the official Croydon website.

“We are leading the way with our approach to planning, which has a key role to play in delivering future growth in Croydon. Good planning foundations are vital in attracting developers to invest in our borough.” You could easily imagine the Conservatives who were previously in charge of the council spouting the same load of old flannel.

According to the council’s press office, the judges “were particularly impressed by Croydon’s ‘radically pragmatic approach’ to planning, which they said was an exemplar for how planning authorities should work across the UK.”

For “radically pragmatic approach”, read “Lie on your back and think of Westfield”.

Of course, Croydon’s not guaranteed to be named the winners of the award for sucking-up-to-developers-the-most: Southwark and Sunderland are also on the short-list.

But if you look through the speakers for this three-day jamboree of development, there to give a talk is none other than Croydon’s very own planning chief, Jo Negrini. Or, as the propaganda department in Fisher’s Folly will doubtless be referring to her very soon, “the award-winning Jo Negrini”.

The Conservative party parliamentary candidate for Uxbridge, and star turn at MIPIM UK: well worth the £650 ticket price

The other lectures on offer at the conference include “New Towns for Britain: Aspiration or Reality?” (the question mark suggests that they don’t know the answer); and “Get Radical! Planning and Delivering Housing Developments at Scale”, where one of the speakers is from Barratt Homes, who are running the massive Cane Hill development on what was publicly owned land.

There is also “What are Investors Looking for in the Shed Spaces of Today and Tomorrow?” Yes. Sheds. Or to most estate agents, “a bijou cottage which needs some work and will suit first-time buyers. On offer at £300,000”.

The usual rogues gallery of outsourcers and developers will all be there, including Taylor Wimpey, Berkeley, Crapita, PwC, and a “keynote speech” from none other than the Conservative party parliamentary candidate for Uxbridge.

On the old Goebbels propaganda principle that if you keep repeating something, however ludicrous, often enough, there will be some daft enough to swallow it, there’s even a session called “Croydon London: the economic powerhouse of the South East”.

Yep, “economic powerhouse”. This seems somewhat at odds with the view expressed previously by one of Negrini’s council colleagues, Mike Kiely, who last year, attending a similar event, drew a football comparison when he said, “We are not in the Premiership. We are not on a par with the Canary Wharfs of this world. We are in the Championship.”

“Economic powerhouse” or a Championship side? Who to believe? They can’t both be right.

Maybe Negrini should be getting an award for chutzpah. The “Croydon London” session, being held at lunchtime on October 15, comes the day before the awards are doled out, and will see Negrini address the conference. Australian-born Negrini was appointed as Croydon Council’s executive director for development having been hired for the role after having worked very closely with Australian-based Westfield on their Stratford scheme.

Oh, and if you want to attend the conference to witness Croydon’s crowning moment or to hear Negrini on the economic powerhouse of the south-east, a delegate’s ticket (including “database plus”) is a mere £545. Plus £109 VAT. But hurry, that early bird price offer runs out on September 30.

Coming to Croydon

Inside Croydon: Croydon’s only independent news source, based in the heart of the borough: 407,847 page views (Jan-Jun 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


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