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‘You never mentioned 15% tax hike when seeking election’

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Tonight, in the Town Hall Chamber, Inside Croydon contributor KEN TOWL, pictured right, presented a petition that opposes the 15% Council Tax hike and calls for fairer funding for the borough.
He was, in effect, speaking on behalf of the 25,000 people who have signed our petition to the council in the past couple of weeks. This is what he had to say:

Madame Mayor, Councillors, Mayor Perry,

Since your recent announcement that you intended to put Council Tax up by a record-breaking amount, I have been trying to remember if you mentioned this when you were seeking election.

You certainly were aware then of the parlous state of Croydon’s finances. You mentioned that a lot during the campaign. We both know, however, that you did not mention a 15per cent tax rise.

You wouldn’t have been elected if you had.

You wouldn’t get a mandate for it. You don’t have a mandate for it.

Politics is about choices and you were chosen by the people of Croydon to look after their interests.

How do you return that trust? Instead of representing the people of Croydon, you make us pay for the failings of politicians.

Of course, it depends on your politics who you want to blame for the mess that Croydon is in. You might prefer to blame the last Labour administration for its laughably bad attempts at property deals, or the debt-ridden Conservative council before that, or you might want to blame over a decade of systematic underfunding by a Conservative Government driven by a dogmatic drive to cut spending.

Your mistake, Mr Perry, is to put the burden of all this on the shoulders of the people of Croydon. You choose to punish the people who are not responsible, the people you are supposed to represent.

Mr Mayor, there are alternatives.

Chamber music: Ken Towl addressed Croydon’s Mayor and 70 councillors. But he was not allowed to speak from the Chamber floor

Instead of making everyone in the borough poorer, you could ask for more from central government, appeal to ministers’ better nature, explain that Croydon suffers from underfunding, explain that we are not even underfunded fairly. Ask why Lambeth receives more per resident than us when we have comparable levels of need.

Stand up for Croydon!

Perhaps, Mr Mayor, you do not believe in ministers’ better nature. In that case, appeal to their instinct for political survival. Explain that the Conservatives will lose seats in Croydon if you go ahead. If they don’t believe you, show them the figures of the Parliamentary petition – for every two signatures in Croydon North, there are three in Croydon Central and FOUR in Croydon South. It is in your heartlands that the motivation to sign the petition is strongest.

Tell them that this will not be forgotten; this will not be forgiven.

But perhaps you have thought long and hard for almost a year now and you are sure you want to go ahead with your 15per cent rise, especially after you had to go out of your way to get national government to allow you to breach the 5per cent barrier, the level where, normally you have to have a referendum if you want to go above it.

You knew you wouldn’t get a vote in favour from the people of Croydon, but you went ahead anyway.

So, perhaps I should address myself to the Conservative councillors who have the opportunity to vote or not vote for your tax rise.

Conservative councillors, I appeal to your better judgement. I appeal to your political creed, to your low taxation instincts. Let’s allow the people of Croydon to keep more of their own money and spend it in the borough.

I appeal, as well, to your instinct for political survival. Do not think for a second that frontloading a massive rise in Council Tax now means that you can have a low increase in 2025 ahead of the next council elections and redeem your reputation.

We are not fools. We will remember.

Politics is about choices. You can choose to stand up and be counted, choose to do what you went into politics to do, to make things better, not worse.

Please, stop the 15per cent rise. Thank you.

SIGN THE PETITIONS HERE

Read more: 10,000 signatures! Now government has to answer our petition
Read more: Public’s furious reaction to Perry’s Premium Council Tax hike
Read more: Government to write off £540m of council’s debts


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