We’ve been here before: the council is pretending to have a part in the re-design of the town centre
Patronising and puerile, the council’s latest attempt to “engage” the public has reached a new low, even by the subterranean standards of Fisher’s Folly.
The cash-strapped council is now trying to pretend it is doing something about the state of the town centre, after more than a decade of developer blight inflicted by Westfield.
The public survey bit has just a couple of days left to run (it closes after barely a month on February 28; they wouldn’t want to give the public too long and risk finding out what you really think).
But anyone who bothers to look for it will find that it appears to have been cobbled together by someone who has just watched a bit of children’s telly and seen a cityscape created from an old washing-up liquid bottle and some “sticky-back plastic”.
The whole charade – “get involved in a range of activities to learn and have fun while helping to shape plans for the future of the town centre”, according to our council – will be familiar to many in Croydon, and not just those who have just watched an episode of Blue Peter.
‘North End Quarter’: all the rebranding in the world won’t matter until Westfield decide what it is that they want to do
Westfield, then as the “Croydon Partnership”, put us through a similar sham about 12 years ago.
But then they actually bothered to spend some money (not very much, but much more than is being spent on the latest bit of nonsense), with stalls in the town centre, a few branded freebies to give away, and PR staff to fill out forms and tick the boxes for you.
This time around, the engagement budget looks to be about one-tenth of what was spent then. But this new exercise is a 100% match for the lack of honesty.
“Through surveys and workshops for adults and for young people, residents are invited to share their views on priorities for the town centre and what they would like to see in the future,” Croydon Council said at the time of the exercise’s launch in January.
The reality is that it doesn’t matter one iota what you, or your neighbour, or your elected councillors, or even the elected Mayor, piss-poor Jason Perry, thinks. The only thing that matters is Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield’s profits, and what they decide they want to do with their “development pipeline”.
Westfield have already declared that anything that they end up inflicting on Croydon town centre – where in 2012 they promised a £1.4billion shopping mall, cafés, bars and restaurants, a multiplex and loads of new flats would be completed by 2017 – won’t be revealed until 2025 at the earliest, and that they probably won’t finish the project now until 2038. And then it’ll be mainly flats. Lots of ’em.
So any of that scrunched-up tissue paper and washing-up liquid bottle towers that have been made at Turf Projects over the past few weeks has only really ever been fit for the recycling bin…
Patronising?: part of the council-funded ‘fun’ online engagement exercise
“Residents can be kept up to date and details of all activities can be found on the Croydon Urban Room website,” according to an over-excitable member of the council’s propaganda department, referring to another long-vacant retail space in Centrale or the Whitgift Centre that is being used for a low-grade publicity stunt.
They are now calling North End the “North End Quarter”… “Through conversations, stories, exhibitions and events, the Urban Room will bring together the views of those who live, work and visit the area to develop clear priorities for a plan to steer the town centre’s recovery.” And then ignore them.
Mayor Perry has a collection of at least half a dozen “top priorities”, and the dire state of the town centre is just one of them.
“Improving our town centre for everyone who lives, works, studies and visits Croydon is a top priority for me, and to make sure we get it right it is essential we understand what people think is important and want to see,” he is supposed to have said.
“The range of activities available through the Croydon Urban Room provide options for how people can get involved to make sure your voice is heard in the development of these essential plans. So whether you have five minutes or two hours, this is such an important time to get behind your town centre, so please do get involved.”
If you have two hours to waste at the behest of the borough’s useless Mayor and the cash-strapped council, you can be patronised by their survey by clicking here.
Read more: Hammer blow for Whitgift Centre with new delay to masterplan
Read more: What will the ‘new’ Westfield deal really mean for Croydon?
Read more: Westfield begins ‘cover-up’ at Allders – with pop art hoardings
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Is this the same infantile nonsense that We Made That / Turf Projects tried to promote a little while back?
Almost certainly…
Still sitting by the door waiting for you to pop by Martin :'(
Still waiting to hear the consultancy rate on offer! The underlying problem is skilled advice costs money – both of which appear to have been in short supply when designing this entire process.
Firstly thanks so much for promoting the surveys, much appreciated.
The initial responses close on the 28th, but people are still encouraged to respond after that. The 28th date is because we have a deadline then for reporting on initial findings, but will continue to update the report after that based on further feedback. We just wanted to express that at that date peoples’ responses will be fed into a report at that point.
“cobbled together by someone who has just watched a bit of children’s telly and seen a cityscape created from an old washing-up liquid bottle and some “sticky-back plastic””
Are you talking about the surveys here, or the workshops? If you’re referring to the image knicked off twitter, this is a bit disingenuous. The table you’ve shown a picture of is work in progress of being created by local young and learning disabled people, expressing their thoughts about their experiences of the town centre whilst chatting with each other at one workshop. Not all can express themselves verbally or through writing but I do think they should still be given opportunity to respond and their responses still be valid… The second image is from the survey designed by and for young people which mentions it’s for young people a couple of times at the top.
We do get you on being weary about engagement processes, it’s very, very fair to say that a lot of people feel the same in our borough. However it’s also true that the majority of engagement on these issues is by seasoned respondents like yourself, and from a pretty narrow demographic. I don’t think our work is a step backwards on that. There’s also 14 other workshops (including fair pay for the local leads), 2 easy read documents, a family & schools activity guide, and production and distribution of the two surveys in both online and paper formats (at all local libraries). There are huge issues with ‘engagement’ as a whole and there’s not a straightforward solution answer to that, but we will always try to do right by our community (having access to the data ourselves is part of this).
One thing though literally who doesn’t love a bit of Blue Peter?
There is, of course, the important issue of objectivity in all of this.
We like to think iC has been supportive and encouraging of many of Turf Projects’ exhibitions and workshops down the years.
But this council, and Westfield, have established track records for “artwashing”, using art and artists to distract and cover-up their failures to deliver in other, significant ways. Anyone fancy a fibre glass giraffe?
So while we have your attention, Turf Projects, perhaps you might like to disclose:
1, Were you paid a fee or handed a grant to conduct the art workshops and your other activities in compiling the council’s town centre survey?
1a, If so, how much?
1b, And paid by who?
2, What expertise was Turf Projects able to bring to the workshops and sessions that drew on experience of town planning, urban landscaping or, to use a terrible phrase from the Negrini era, “placemaking”?
2a, If this involved hiring in consultants and experts, at what cost?
2b, Who paid these fees?
3, The current location of Turf Projects is in Centrale. What is the commercial rental value of the space you occupy (per year)?
3a, How long have you used this space?
3b, How much rent have you paid in that time?
3c, Has Turf Projects recently agreed an extension of your stay in Centrale?
3d, What are the financial terms?
3e, Who meets these costs?
None of which, of courses, changes the utter futility of the entire exercise.
Answer all those questions, you’ll get a gold Blue Peter badge.
I completed the survey as honestly as the questions permitted. Needless to say, when asked where I obtained news and information about the town I responded “Inside Croydon” – the Croydon Guardian online tells me little, the online Croydon Advertiser even less. Thanks, Inside Croydon, for keeping me informed about my home town.
Thanks Diana, Turf here, your response is much appreciated. That question was added in for just that reason; to get an overview of how people are staying informed, if at all. We think it’s extremely important. If you have any feedback on the survey itself please do pop us a message or pop in.
And the scores on the doors are –
An honest Council administration 3
All the rest just one
A place to buy what I need
A healthy & happy community
A safe & clean place
Protected community & heritage spaces
A place of safety & hope for young people
Inclusive & welcoming for all
A sustainable environment with lots of green space
This would help me feel safer:
An honest hardworking and effective Council administration with active and timely enforcement on all civil issues and less Thorton errors
How Croydon Town Centre has changed for me since I’ve known it:
Beyond all recognition. Everything good has gone and we are left with rubbish and gambling joints with lots of gangs loitering and selling drugs
The impact this has had on me:
Disgust and despair that a vibrant and integrated town has been so betrayed by those who are there to protect, preserve and invest for the future.
The questions I want answered about the town centre are:
Why is this Councils actions not subject to a public enquiry
When decisions are made about the town centre, I feel:
(tick any if they apply)
📖 Informed
🤝 Involved
👂 Heard
None of these!
I find out news about Croydon through…
Inside Croydon and Word of mouth or a ward meeting.
If that was a consultation about this town centre – mother help us!