Our transport correspondent, JEREMY CLACKSON, reports on how national publications are wising up to part-time Perry’s hypocrisy and lies
It’s a sign: Piss-poor Perry’s been outed as a liar by the Tories’ in-house newspaper
Tory Jason Perry, Croydon’s £82,000 per year part-time Mayor, has today come under attack from the unlikeliest of sources: the Sunday Torygraph, regarded as the Conservative Party’s in-house newspaper.
The far-right national newspaper has picked up on Perry’s decision, passed by his council cabinet this week, to make six of the borough’s LTNs permanent installations, to the fury of hundreds of motorists who struggle to read or comply with road signs.
As Inside Croydon has already reported, “Having boasted to voters when seeking election that he would roll back some of the poorly implemented LTNs – low-traffic neighbourhoods – that were introduced during the 2020 covid lockdown, at this week’s council cabinet meeting, Croydon’s Mayor approved plans to make permanent six LTNs (now called “healthy neighbourhood” schemes) at Albert Road, Dalmally Road, Elmers Road, Holmesdale Road, Sutherland Road and Parsons Mead.
“For poor old, pro-car Perry… it’s beginning to look a lot like blatant hypocrisy.”
Today’s Torygraph has also picked up on Perry’s U-turn, saying that Croydon’s Mayor has succumbed to the lure of millions of pounds in motoring fines.
Tory attack paper: how the Sunday Torygraph laid in to the Tory Mayor today
The newspaper quotes the official council report, circulated before last Wednesday’s meeting: “The modelling indicates the current six Healthy Neighbourhoods will deliver a £10.7million surplus (over the course of four years) after operating costs, from an initial £1.2 million capital outlay.”
The article, by reporter Steve Bird, continues: “However, in 2021, Mr Perry backed a petition opposed to the schemes, telling a local newspaper: ‘This council is simply fining motorists for mistakenly entering a new restricted zone. It is a money-raising exercise by a bankrupt and desperate council’.”
And it quotes Perry’s often-repeated pledge from 2022, when he was seeking election as Mayor, that he would “remove all the LTNs on the first day” he was in office.
Today is the
654th
day since Tory Jason Perry was elected…
The Tory rag quotes just one Croydon resident, who says that she is furious that she gets fined for breaking road regulations.
How Mayor Perry sold his voters down the river: the council report to cabinet this week that made six LTNs permanent. Rather than 20 pieces of silver, this is worth £10m
“I voted for Councillor Perry because he said he would remove the LTNs. Now I feel betrayed,” Lynn Leathem told the Torygraph.
“The Mayor hasn’t given one good reason for his sudden support for LTNs, which leaves local residents to conclude he’s going ahead to generate the projected £10.7million for the bankrupt council.”
The interviewee goes on to cite national hero Alan Bates and the grossly wronged Post Office sub-post masters, as if there is any kind of equivalence in negligently driving past a well-sign-posted road restriction with what has happened to the victims of the Fujitsu Horizon scandal.
The Torygraph characterises piss-poor Perry’s making the LTNs permanent as a U-turn, although what it actually shows is that Croydon’s Tory Mayor lied to voters when he was seeking election.
They quote Perry as saying, “The decision to introduce LTN schemes was made by the previous administration before I was elected as Mayor.
“The council’s budget is predicated, partially of course, on that decision, and I do not feel that I am in a position to reverse it.”
Awww… it’s always someone else’s fault.
Perry claims that he has listened to residents by giving those living on boundary roads permits to enter LTNs, has installed better signage and removed planters.
It all ends another troublesome week for piss-poor Perry, after he also made it onto the “Rotten Boroughs” page of Private Eye yet again. This time, it highlighted how his council had slapped £195 fines on motorists without first issuing £65 Penalty Charge Notices, as required by law.
Ooo, Eye: piss-poor Perry is becoming a regular feature in the fortnightly satirical magazine
The disconnect between the council’s automated issuing of penalty notices was first reported by Inside Croydon, and it was only after coverage by this website that the Mayor and the council began an investigation to discover what had happened, and then apologised.
According to Croydon Council’s own figures, at least 3,138 motorists have been affected, for driving offences between October and December 2023, due to what Perry’s council called a “computer glitch” (someone else’s fault again).
Refunds are now being issued, with the cash-strapped council set to lose out on at least £150,000.
The Eye, Britain’s best-selling fortnightly satirical magazine, also points out that Perry’s council has recently conducted an opinion poll which discovered that
71%
of Croydon residents have absolutely no idea who he is.
Clearly, Perry is doing his best, with coverage in Private Eye and the Torygraph, to improve on his piss-poor public recognition figures.
Read more: Perry has no plan to improve our borough’s toxic air pollution
Read more: Perry’s back-pedalling furiously on Boris-backed bike scheme
Read more: Tory minister is member of online group that celebrates vandals
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