CROYDON IN CRISIS: ‘Go climb in a skip. No one’s paying that’. Residents’ outrage at Council Tax hike sees demos and petitions planned
In the 24 hours since Inside Croydon broke the news of Croydon Mayor Jason Perry’s request to increase Council Tax by 15per cent from April, there has been widespread shock and anger, even fury, vented by residents from across the borough.
Not least from members of the residents’ associations in the south of the borough, who were among those who campaigned hard to bring in the mayoral system, and many of whom now feel betrayed by the part-time Mayor.
“He said he had a plan to fix the council’s finances when he was campaigning for our vote,” one Purley resident said today. “But he never told us that plan was to fleece the very residents who have already suffered all the cuts in services because of the way the council has been mismanaged.”
There was what amounted to a Croydon-sized Twitterstorm last night, particularly in response to Perry’s unapologetic statement.
“No, I’m not paying an extra £200 to a Tory-led council that does nothing for me,” wrote one resident.
Palpable anger: residents are clearly furious that the Mayor has asked for a 15% Council Tax hike
Another wrote, “I appreciate Mr Perry’s position as we pay for the questionably less-than-honest use of Council Tax of the previous Labour administration. They do the crime, the rest do the time?” They added the hashtag #unfair.
Another tweeter was a tad more blunt. “Go and climb on a skip. Nodbody’s paying that.”
It did not take long for social media comments to contrast the Tory government’s condemnation of above-inflation wage demands of our nurses, teachers, civil servants and firefighters, and their more relaxed approach to making the public pay for the mistakes of fellow politicians.
“Whilst the government limits pay rises to public workers to below inflation, Croydon residents are getting an above-inflation Council Tax hike!
“The public services we receive at the moment are piss poor,” they wrote, perhaps not realising that under Mayor Perry, those services are about to get even worse.
On the NextDoor social website, Croham Road resident Helen Ascott wrote, “Is anyone else furious about the 15per cent Council Tax increase? Unlike nearly every other council in the UK, [where it is] capped at 4.9per cent.
Piss poor: residents are beginning to notice that for top-end Council Tax they are getting bottom-end services
“You’re supposed to have a referendum to go any higher than that.
“We’ve already paid the price for the Labour council’s devastation of our borough, now we have to pay again.
“At a time when Croydon is on its knees, why would anyone want to live here, let along invest here?”
Back on Twitter, one Palace fan described it all as “A clusterfuck of a mess. And what are we getting out of the council? The absolute bare minimum.”
As well as calls for demos and petitions, there have also been the first suggestions of a Council Tax boycott – something which really could see the council grind to a halt if well-organised and handled carefully.
“What @JasonForCroydon fails to mention is Croydon Tories and how they played their part in it all. You have to look back further than a couple of years [at the] finances.
“This is the same Mayor who keeps spending money rather than saving it. Don’t pay the tax! Refuse!”
Disability campaigner Paula Peters expressed her concern, posting on Faustbook: “Absolutely horrendous. The residents paid twice for Negrini’s greed and council mismanagement of finances. Massive cuts to services. Residents won’t be able to afford this.”
Long-time iC reader Derek Thrower commented, “Looks like part-time Perry’s attempt to get Croydon’s debt written off by the government has failed. So he intends to write-off local Council Tax-payers’ incomes instead.
Political high ground: Labour’s Stuart King has not been on the right side of a debate for a very long time
“They can argue about who to blame for the dire straits the Council is in till the cows comes home, but such a huge hike in taxation at the behest of Gove in central government, who has not provided any material support, shows how toothless Part-time Perry is with influence, and the desperate state the country (let alone Croydon) after 13 years of Conservative misrule.”
The decision to push ahead with such a big rise in Council Tax is also looking like a major political gaffe, not just by Perry, but also by Gove. For the first time in a very long time, Labour in Croydon was given a foot-hold on the political high ground.
“Mayor Perry seems to want to punish hardworking residents rather than get a fair deal from his government,” said Stuart King, the leader of the Labour group at Croydon Town Hall.
The Green Party’s Peter Underwood said, “Conservative ministers dodge paying tax. Conservative councils put your tax up by 15per cent.”
And Claire Bonham, Croydon’s only Liberal Democrat councillor, said, “Croydon residents shouldn’t pay the price for the mistakes of others. Mayor Perry should try to get a better deal from his government, not punish our residents.”
Read more: Perry to preside over record-breaking 15% Council Tax hike
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Read more: Croydon needs deal that could set precedent for all councils
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- ROTTEN BOROUGH AWARDS: Croydon was named among the country’s rottenest boroughs for a SIXTH successive year in 2022 in the annual round-up of civic cock-ups in Private Eye magazine
The Tories, in particular in the south of the Borough, have been making great play of the fact that ULEZ is coming in during the cost of living crisis. I wonder what they think of this. It will affect far more people than ULEZ and starts making them look like hypocrites.
“Starts”?
I was trying to be kind🤣
Alleged rampant dissemblng hypocracy for some time is being kind!
That’s the price of years of Labour failure. Maybe he can use some of the 15% to prosecute those guilty of the negligence that got us here. Oh, and take back the £430k wrongly given to Negreedy as a reward for failure.
Ian, the Tories (including Perry when the Conservatives last ran Croydon) are responsible for £1 billion of the £1.8 billion debt.
And it’s Tory governments since May 2010 that have made our borough and others poorer due to the corrupt ways they run the economy and manage public spending.
Please explain your allegation of “corrupt ways”.
No doubt Arfur can give a list but as I don’t have to look very far for examples, I can offer a few examples of the many corrupt (government) ways- using his wife’s non- dom status to avoid UK tax, a Chancellor of the Exchequer salting millions away with one’s (overseas) father, then not coming clean about getting an Inland Revenue fine, a Home Secretary reneging on Windrush victim issues and misusing personal emails, a Chairman with more than 2 dozen allegations of bullying being kept on for weeks, a P.M who flouted his own lock- down rules and appointed a person to a national corporation who’d been involved in a big loan to him, another PM who cost the Bank of England billions in supporting the £ without seeking expert opinion for her half baked policies, at least 3 M.P’s involved in inappropriate sexualised behaviour… need one go on.
The old saying that power tends to corrupt seems to come true with a vengeance after 13 unbroken years of it.
Power corrupts and total power corrupts totally
Derek – have you been living off planet? Leave aside Johnsons gags and loans along with tax issues of ministers etc all publicised – a bit closer to home take a quick look at the amount of ombudsmans decision and judicial reviews that have gone against this Council. Many have comments from those reviews that frankly call into question the actions of many in this Council. Have you heard of any investigation into those actions? By anyone?
Any normal Company would be disciplining or dismissing employee’s for bringing the Company into disrepute.
How many times does a judge need to say something is wrong before this body acts?
So corruption meanings –
are the process by which a word or expression is changed from its original state to one regarded as erroneous or debased.
and
dishonest or fraudulent conduct by those in power,
So given that Care is a statutory requirement how did this Council deal with that?
Here is one The claim in P, R (On the Application Of) v London Borough of Croydon [2022] EWHC 2886 (Admin) succeeded on three of the four grounds submitted on behalf of the claimant.
Ground 1: Croydon had failed to meet the claimant’s needs;
Ground 3 (as substituted following a permission hearing before Mr Justice Cotter): the defendant council, in calculating the claimant’s personal budget, acted unlawfully in that it failed to comply with the Statutory Code; and
Ground 4 (also as substituted): the defendant council, in preparing and producing her Care and Support Plan (CSP), acted unlawfully in that it failed to comply with the Statutory Code.
That is one example of the actions being taken despite process and regulation. Is this isolated? No.
I do believe a number of people have taken the planning department externally also and those have been published – having read a few on IC alone and a number elsewhere.
These acts are not isolated and have many repeats in names of perpetrators working for this Council and still do.
So one can only assume that those individuals are not being disciplined because they are following higher instruction and guidance for purposes other than their statutory duty.
And no one wants to investigate why?
Have a read of the Nolan principles and see which have been followed.
Piss poor performance part-timer Perry promotes pollution petitions but can’t possibly act to prevent poverty. I can’t say what a let down as I never expected any better of him or his ilk!
If he doesn’t back down on the 15% he and his party will deserve the kicking they will get when elections come round. It’s mind boggling that anyone can make themselves as unpopular as Newman and co, but he’s making a good hand of it.
Everyone should stand together and not pay it..its not like we’re getting a good service. I cannot fathom how anymore cuts can be made to Croydon .Are we not already cut to the bone? I have heard rumours about child services how there are concerns that they cannot provide essential services to vunerable children. Its an impending disaster coming. This whole mess makes me sick to the back teeth
It actually feels like double taxation. We have ready paid with the cuts to services for years. This council tax hike means we pay again and then again with more proposed cuts to services and selling off of assets. How many times must we pay. The government reviews the councils budgets but has let this happen for years on end