Confusion surrounds the operational status of Croydon Arena, the council-owned sports stadium, after Tory Mayor Jason Perry announced yesterday that, thanks to his personal intervention, the venue had reopened.
Ready for business: it has been several years since the main stand at Croydon Arena has had any proper maintenance work
Users of the multi-sport venue accused piss-poor Perry of “fibbing” – effectively spreading fake news.
As was first reported by Inside Croydon, GLL, the council’s leisure centre operators, closed Croydon Arena last Friday for emergency safety repairs.
This had the immediate effect of forcing Croydon FC to postpone their vital league fixture on Saturday.
The long-neglected venue had been subjected to a surveyors’ inspection and the main stand and changing rooms placed out-of-bounds to the public.
Croydon FC’s chair, Gavin English, and Croydon Harriers, who have 250 athletes of all ages training at the Arena every week, both issued statements in which they said they would “continue to work with Croydon Council and GLL” towards getting the stadium reopened as soon as possible, to fulfil its “potential to be a transformative community facility for the thousands of people that use it every year”.
Prime seat: while part-time Perry (second from right) was enjoying another visit to Selhurst Park, council-owned facilities were being shut down as unsafe
Late yesterday afternoon, part-time Perry tweeted: “I am delighted that Croydon Sports Arena spectator stand and changing areas have been reopened this afternoon.
“Following a health and safety inspection which I asked officers to review minor remedial works have been carried out.” [sic]
Croydon’s £82,000 per year Mayor tagged Croydon FC and their women’s team’s Twitter accounts, although the self-proclaimed “proud Croydonian” did not appear to know the account name for the borough’s largest athletics club.
Perry has enjoyed repeat visits, and hundreds of pounds’ worth of corporeal hospitality, to Selhurst Park. He even used a photograph of him sitting in the Premier League ground’s dug-out in his weekly Mayor’s message last Friday – issued around the same time that GLL was shutting down the public sports facilities at the council-owned Arena.
Some suggest it may have been a while since Perry actually visited Croydon Arena, and even longer since he puffed his way around even just one lap of the track, and they questioned the accuracy of his version of events.
Regular users of the venue refuted Perry’s claim that everything was open for use, insisting that the Arena’s main stand still requires significant works.
Pants on fire: Croydon Arena users have accused Mayor Perry of ‘fibbing’
“We were advised as recently as yesterday that it would be out of action for the foreseeable future,” an official from Croydon Women FC said on Wednesday.
Another user tweeted at the Mayor: “You are fibbing. GLL state the stand is not open.
“Now come on pal fess up. Who’s telling the truth?”
Social enterprise GLL has a blank press office page on its website, its media official’s number is no longer in service, and no one was answering its office phone when Inside Croydon called several times today.
Visitors to the Arena today say that, despite what the Mayor claims, the stand remains closed. It seems unlikely to reopen for some time, although the changing rooms are now available for use via an alternative access route.
The council website’s news page has no updates on the situation at Croydon Arena.
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