The takeover of a residents’ association in Coulsdon by a rabid right-winger has turned very nasty over the past fortnight, as Peter Morgan has made a desperate attempt to cling-on to control of the Coulsdon West RA’s membership list and its £15,000 in the bank.
Notorious: Peter Morgan
Motoring lobbyist Morgan is a notorious figure in Croydon, not least because of his possibly unique achievement of getting himself kicked out of both UKIP and the Conservative Party.
Morgan does not even live in the area covered by CWRA, but after being invited on to its governing committee last year and handed the passwords to its Twitter account, in December he staged a “Christmas Day coup” to oust duly elected committee members and volunteers.
That move is now being challenged by concerned residents, who want to stage a properly constituted annual meeting via Zoom next Tuesday, when it is expected that Morgan will be formally booted out of the organisation once and for all. Morgan has refused all calls to convene a public meeting – using covid-safe online technology. Next week’s meeting – which will be CWRA’s first since 2019 – has the backing of the area’s Conservative councillors.
The AGM announcement has sent Morgan into a frenzy, setting up a bogus website, firing off late-night tweets defaming widely respected residents and officials of CWRA, and even sending hate mail to people in west Coulsdon with a series of baseless allegations in an effort to discredit local volunteers.
“He’s gone peak Peter,” as one bemused Coulsdon resident put it.
Mario Creatura: advising residents to oust Morgan
In his letter, which Morgan has circulated widely online and through Coulsdon letter boxes, he accuses others of turning up “uninvited and knocked on doors dressed in disguise for no good reason, apparently to harass and intimidate, and in breach of virus regulations”. The digital version of the letter carries a Morgan URL under the title “CWRA BAD PEOPLE”.
Some residents have raised concerns with their local councillors after receiving what they call “repeated demands for money”.
As one wrote this week, “I don’t appreciate such an awful letter being sent to me by name with such confusing but also appalling and unprofessional content.
“I just need to be clear if we want to continue supporting the CWRA, and which one we should be supporting!
“Many of us have paid subs to support the CWRA but will be very confused as to which residents’ association we are or should be following. Never in all the years I’ve lived here has there been such a mess or have we seen such bad-mouthing being posted through people’s letterboxes.”
Much of Morgan’s latest outbursts appear based around a grudge he holds against Lynne Rothberg, who last year publicly reprimanded him for using the CWRA Twitter account to express his own racist views.
By the end of the year, acting with the help of the CWRA treasurer, Michael Southwell, Morgan moved to oust Rothberg and any committee member who had crossed him – which basically meant everyone else.
Morgan’s racist tweeting resumed, as did expressions of support for various motoring causes, all carried out in the name of CWRA but without support from the association’s elected committee or its members.
Denied access to the association’s long-established, recognised website, Morgan went and registered a couple of domain names.
“Note,” he tweeted in capital letters, in typical style. “This is now our only official website. Other sites are out-of-date or fake.”
The map used by Morgan to show the CWRA area. His own home is located outside the association area
Conveniently, even Morgan’s fake website includes a map which he claims is of the area covered by CWRA.In fact, the map shows the area covered by the council’s Coulsdon Town ward.
Either way, Morgan’s own home, at 38 Cordrey Gardens, is shown clearly outside the area, making him ineligible to be a member, never mind a committee member or official.
Morgan’s nasty attacks have done damage, however, and left some volunteers questioning whether they want to be involved in community or association activities any more.
“I just don’t need the aggro,” one of the victims of Morgan’s verbal assaults told Inside Croydon.
“I have a busy career and many friends and hobbies – I just happen to be a bit of a team player in my road who wants to help others – and it’s descended into me basically being accused of fraud by some old weirdo who lives in his mum’s house.”
This week, in an effort to clam the situation and persuade as many residents as possible to take part in the annual meeting, Mario Creatura, one of the Conservative councillors for Coulsdon, gave his support to those committee members who had suffered Morgan’s abuse.
Creatura told West Coulsdon residents, “Please do attend the Zoom AGM to help elect a new committee so CWRA can reset itself and get back to helping the community.”
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What a fucking nasty piece of shit Peter Morgan is. This is my opinion.
It is a pity, but the Rule book of CWRA and probably many other similar organisations were generally framed many years ago, when there was an unwritten presumption that Committee members would act at all times in public and dealings with residents and officialdom, with the agreement of the Committee, as expressed through the regular Committee meetings via discussion and agreement and / or voting and resulting majority decision.
Now — with disfunctional Committtees, rogue and rude Chairs and other Cttee members unwilling to be subject to accepted models of behaviour being a common phenomenon, at least in Coulsdon West, for quite a few years, well before Pter Morgan entered the frame, the times have changed and old assumptions trashed.
It seems from now on that rule books need to be upgraded to place a duty of every Committee member to act reasonably, to show due respect to fellow Cttee members and the membership, and elected councillors and the council officers, to co-operate with the rest of the cttee to advance the work of the association, and conduct themselves with due regard to, and to uphold, the good reputation of the Association at all times –and have disciplinary rules attached.
The rules also need to sort out the issues of who is eligible to serve, and in what capacity.
Such rule book clauses should clarify whether Cttee members should live in the geographical area covered by the association (shown on a map to avoid argument) , and whether expert people living outside the area could be co-opted to serve for a defined period on the Cttee, and whether they have the right to vote, and whether they should be eligible to be Officers (Chair, Vice Chair, Secretary or Treasurer).
It must be possible to frame some text to safeguard against piracy of the website, finances etc,the setting up of avatar associations, and to define specifics which the Officers should be allowed and not allowed to do (and with consequences ). Such as the signatories needed to a cheque–and how e payments are made and authorised.
One hopes that CWRA have learned some lessons, and amend the rules to avoid re-occurences.
Lewis, the Coulsdon West Residents’ Association has always been clear that it is open to members in a defined area. Morgan knew that he lived outside it, but he didn’t care about “the rules”. Thanks to his Tory mates, including CWRA Treasurer Michael Southwell, he thought he’d just walk in and take over.
After all, in 2018 Southwell signed the election nomination papers for three Conservatives, all of whom lived outside Coulsdon, to become councillors for the town. And OK, he’s a weirdo, a bully and a racist, but that never stopped Matt Hancock, Priti Patel or Boris Johnson. This wasn’t so much a Morgan takeover of the CWRA, more a Tory-led infiltration.
When the proverbial hit the fan, Peter’s pals ran away and hid. He need not worry though. Once lockdown ends and political campaigning begins again, Philp and Creatura will let their favourite stormtrooper stand next to them outside Aldi, and pretend nothing happened.
God after 6 years away i thought this poisonous little toerag would have been disappeared from ANY local politics by now back into his hole. Sigh!, wrong again.