Time for a reminder: climate protesters outside Croydon Town Hall five years ago. Progress at the council since on the issue has been … ahem… glacially slow
It is now five years since Croydon Council grandiosely issued its Climate and Ecological Emergency statement – and a group of environmental organisations are planning to protest on the steps of the Town Hall ahead of Wednesday’s meeting of full council to ask: just what has been accomplished by the council since then?
As loyal readers might be aware, Croydon has more excuses than many all lined up for doing sweet FA to meet its climate emergency commitments – there was covid, and then the authority’s financial collapse. But as latest data demonstrates, the relentless march of a climate disaster will not wait for such distractions to be squared away.
The Croydon Green Network, Croydon Community Energy, Christian Climate Action, Croydon Climate Action and Extinction Rebellion are among the groups who will be in central Croydon on the evening of April 17 demanding greater urgency from Mayor Jason Perry and the borough’s councillors.
“This protest coincides with the full council meeting, during which questions will be asked about Croydon Council’s lack of transparency on this matter which is crucial for the health and well-being of its citizens,” a statement from the protest organisers says.
As part of the Climate and Ecological Emergency pledges made by the then Labour council under leader Tony Newman (someone never known to hold good to a promise), the council committed to being Carbon Neutral by 2030 – now not even six years away.
“Since that date, there has been a Citizen’s Assembly, a Climate Commission and an Action Plan, all of which required the time and effort of local volunteers and other citizens of Croydon, not to mention the costs to the council, but it has resulted in very little meaningful action,” a spokesperson for the protest group said.
Words not deeds: Tony Newman offered empty promises in 2019
Newman’s promise from five years ago of “Deeds not Words” has, the environmental groups say, “sounded increasingly hollow with each year that passes”.
At Newman’s launch event, he claimed to be “ambitious” for Croydon to become “London’s Greenest borough”.
There is a perverse irony that this week, Newman’s effective successor, Jason Perry, has also claimed the mantle of “London’s Greenest borough”, in the midst of the Tory Mayor selling off Croydon’s parks and green spaces (while also being caught lying over having held secret discussions about off-loading a large section of Green Belt to private business interests).
Most of Labour’s Newman’s anti-environmental policies remain firmly on Croydon Council’s agenda today under Tory Mayor Perry:
- Support for the building of a second runway at Gatwick Airport – Newman had claimed that solar-powered aircraft will resolve his pollution dilemma for him
- A commitment to paying £10million per year to burn the borough’s rubbish, including material which should be recycled, at a polluting incinerator at Beddington, where Croydon has a contract with the operators which includes disposing of radioactive waste
- Backing Westfield’s plans to “regenerate” the town centre with hundreds of flats and a shopping mall – all that steel and concrete! – which was estimated to attract 10,000 cars and their exhaust fumes into the town centre daily
The only anti-environment council policy that has been firmly dropped since 2019 has been the concreting over of playing fields, kids’ playgrounds and patches of green space by Brick by Brick, the failed council house-builder. And that’s been abandoned not out of policy conviction, but only because Newman and his mates’ pet project managed to bankrupt the borough.
“In a year which has seen global temperature records topple month after month, droughts sweeping across southern Africa, wildfires blazing across Australia and increasing extreme weather events around the globe, it is inexcusable not to treat climate and ecological crises as an emergency,” the campaign groups spokesperson said.
“And yet Croydon Council seems unable to progress further than words without deeds.”
Next week’s peaceful rally will be staged outside the Town Hall from 5.30pm on Wednesday April 17. “Anyone who thinks that local authorities should play their part to tackle this global issue is welcome to join and add their voice,” the organisers say.
Read more: Extinction Rebellion challenge Newman’s hypocrisy on climate
Read more: Climate Commission report presents challenges for council
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ROTTEN BOROUGH AWARDS: In January 2024, Croydon was named among the country’s rottenest boroughs for a SEVENTH successive year in the annual round-up of civic cock-ups in Private Eye magazine
In 2022, Jason Perry made a number of promises in his bid to become Croydon’s first directly elected Mayor:
“I confirm my commitment to improving our local air quality in this climate emergency…. this means tackling air pollution, as well as moving towards ending our reliance on non-renewable energy sources.
I commit to developing policies that will help achieve our target of being carbon neutral by 2030 through a community-led approach … so that initiatives to cut emissions are genuinely co-created, not pushed from the top down.
I am also pleased to commit to implementing most – if not all – of the 23 Climate Recommendations detailed in the Climate Crisis Commission Report. As part of my own “Listening To Croydon” pledge, I will ensure that the community is brought with us as we implement these initiatives.
Any environmental schemes introduced by me, if I am Mayor of Croydon, will have evidenced based social and environmental benefits for residents and businesses, whilst not disproportionately impacting the poorest in our borough.
I will take strong action to protect Croydon’s vital and unique green spaces… It is vital that we protect the green lungs of Croydon, whether that be parks, woods or natural open spaces that help clean our air and support the physical and mental health of residents.
Development must be sustainable and I will ensure stronger planning protection for trees, to slow down the loss of mature trees and nature habitat which are so important to our ecology.
I will protect allotments and will look at how we can use ‘bits and pieces’ of land around the borough for some form of “green use” for local communities, creating a ‘garden city’ environment.”
All fine words. but as we found out last year with the blitz on wildflowers during no-mow May and this week with the plot to steal part of Shirley Hills, they don’t amount to much when written by part-time piss-poor porky pies Perry