Our political editor, WALTER CRONXITE, on the latest bail-out from the Conservative-run council’s back benches
Short stay: Jade Appleton lasted less than three years as a Croydon councillor
Croydon Tories had selected their candidate for the forthcoming Park Hill and Whitgift council by-election before their current councillor had even announced that she was standing down.
Jade Appleton, who has been the councillor for the ward only since 2021, announced yesterday afternoon that she was resigning due to pressure of work from her high-powered “real” job at a London marketing agency. From the somewhat bitter reaction of some of her party colleagues at the Town Hall, though, they won’t miss her much, even if residents in Appleton’s ward had found her helpful and conscientious.
As if channelling their inner Valerie Singletons and John Noakeses, Croydon Conservatives had lined up a replacement for Appleton with one they made earlier: Andrew Price had already been selected to stand in Park Hill and Whitgift before the councillor had resigned.
Appleton’s departure had been well-trailed: the Tory councillor stood down from all her committee positions a few months ago, when the word on Katharine Street was that she was suffering some serious ill-health.
There was no mention of that, though, when she posted a notice on social media just before noon on Sunday.
“Following much consideration I can confirm that I have today submitted my resignation letter to the chief executive of the council,” Appleton wrote.
“I strongly believe that dedication, time and care are essential to effectively fulfil the role of a local councillor. Due to a change of my work commitments, I no longer feel available to commit to the time required to deliver the standard deserved by local residents and our community.
“It has been an hour to have had the opportunity to serve the ward I call my home…”.
Appleton then used her resignation statement to thank the residents and volunteers in her ward, including the “dedicated” residents’ associations, the local police, an infants school, parks groups, businesses and churches.
Next off the rank: Andrew Price, counsel likely to be returning to the council
The announcement attracted expressions of regret from residents: “You’ve been a marvellous supporter of the volunteers’ work”; “That’s such a shame, you are a great councillor and a good person”; and “Sorry to see you go, Jade. Definitely been one of Park Hill’s finest”. There were comments of regret from Labour as well as Conservative councillor colleagues, too.
But behind the scenes, things between Appleton and her Conservative colleagues had soured. Appleton has previously worked as a Tory advisor at the Houses of Commons and Lords, and was a Conservative Party employee at the Local Government Association at the time she was putting her name to bogus campaign material for Gavin Barwell (remember him?).
Yet the schisms in the Conservative Party nationally appear to have affected her working relationship with other councillors: “Given she hasn’t been speaking to other party members for over a year, it [her resignation] is overdue,” one source said.
“I’m sure that publicly, the party will say something about her three years as a councillor who couldn’t even manage to serve a full term.”
Highlighting Appleton’s 43% attendance rate at council meetings, the source added, somewhat acidly, “Won’t be difficult to find a harder working councillor, either”, although figures obtained by Inside Croydon show that in the past 12 months, she had submitted more “members’ enquiries” – on-the-record questions to council staff – than all but a handful of the borough’s 70 councillors.
Piss-poor Perry, Croydon’s Mayor, showed he has his fingers on the pulse when he said, “I know that she will be missed in the Council Chamber.”
Appleton joined London and Partners, the Mayor of London’s publicly-funded international PR agency, in April 2023, and in June last year was promoted to director of public affairs. It was soon after this that she stepped down from all her committee responsibilities.
For the residents of Park Hill and Whitgift, it means a second ward by-election in just three years: Appleton was first elected in 2021 after sitting councillor Vidhi Mohan, another Tory, stood down also citing pressure of his outside work.
Likely to be replacing Appleton in the Town Hall is Andrew Price, a resident locally who works as a barrister in criminal law from Drystone Chambers. Three times since 2019, Price has featured in The Legal 500 in the field of criminal fraud – a background which might have come in very useful at Croydon’s cash-strapped council.
The best they can muster: Tories out canvassing in Labour territory at the weekend. Fourth from left (next to part-time Perry) is their Woodside candidate, Titilope Adeoye
Price had previously been a councillor, for Addiscombe from 2006 to 2010. Croydon Tories had already lined him up before Appleton’s announcement yesterday. “Yes, we’re allowed to get on and do selections ourselves,” according to one Conservative source, revelling in Croydon Labour’s continuing misfortunes.
The Tories have also named their candidate for the Woodside ward by-election as Titilope Adeoye, who was out knocking on doors in the ward on Saturday with Perry, MP Chris Philp and Price.
According to the Tories, both the Park Hill and Whitgift and the Woodside ward by-elections are to be staged on May 2 – the same date as the London elections – although there has been no formal notification yet posted by Croydon’s go-getting returning officer, Katherine Kerswell.
The Woodside by-election, in a safe Labour ward, has been called after Mike Bonello stood down because of his work pressures.
Last week, Labour announced its candidate for Woodside as Jess Hammersley-Rich, while today local party members received a notice seeking volunteers for the thankless task of being the candidate in Park Hill and Whitgift. As with Woodside, party members from Croydon will not be allowed to select their candidate.
Masonic selections: Ealing council leader Peter Mason is overseeing Croydon Labour’s operations
Croydon Labour, like the council they bankrupted, remains in a form of special measures.
Local party officials are being by-passed and side-lined by Labour’s London Region, just as they were at Saturday’s Croydon East parliamentary selection hustings.
For Park Hill and Whitgift, “As we have a limited time to get a candidate in place, a truncated process is being used, as approved by the Croydon Campaign Improvement Board chair and regional office,” members were instructed.
The chair of the “Croydon Campaign Improvement Board” is Peter Mason, a sometime “public affairs consultant” and currently the leader of Ealing Council in west London.
This apparently… ahem… Masonic selection process for a candidate to stand in Park Hill and Whitgift will all be wrapped up this week, with a deadline of noon on Wednesday for applications and interviews (by Zoom, natch) with the regional executive committee panel held the following day.
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