CROYDON IN CRISIS: With each passing week, the impact of living in a cash-strapped, poorly managed and neglected borough is becoming clear to residents, even in what used to be regarded as the leafy suburbs.
PEARL LEE, our south of the borough correspondent, reports
Rack and ruin: Sanderstead Rec is just one of the borough’s parks that’s been neglected
Not all complaints about our council manage to make it through to the Local Government Ombudsman.
That, though, does not render some of them in any way invalid. So when members of the Sanderstead community ask “why our village is looking so neglected”, it is not only a question deserving of an answer. It is also a question which friends groups from across the borough, associated with many of Croydon’s parks and open spaces, might feel entitled to ask.
Croydon has the second highest Council Tax rate in the whole of London, yet not a weekend seems to pass without a group of cheery volunteers posting photos on social media of the bags upon bags of rubbish that they have had to go out and collect from their neighbourhood’s park.
Boarded up: windows and doors at Heathfield House show evidence of council neglect
There used to be a parks service and council streets waste contractor, paid for out of the public’s Council Tax, that used to look after such matters. Now, after a summer weekend, park bins are left overflowing, unemptied sometimes for weeks on end.
The state of what was once carefully mowed lawns and flower beds is now nothing short of a mess. Inside Croydon has reported before on the wanton neglect of Heathfield House, the council-owned listed building and its once award-winning rose garden.
The fate of Heathfield House remains unresolved, the Italianate villa allowed to rot.
This is more than a “no mow May” issue, too.
Across the borough, parks have been allowed to grow wild with tall thistles and weeds. Queen’s Gardens, the prime spot right outside the Town Hall, was supposed to benefit from the development of private flats, with some cash injection from the owners of the tall blocks that were allowed to encroach from the site of Taberner House and on to the public park.
The promised park café was never delivered (there’s no real planning enforcement in Croydon, never mind the other absent services), while the once proud jewel in Croydon’s register of parks has been left abandoned.
Unenticing: playground equipment in Sanderstead Rec has also been ill-maintained
A quick trim with some industrial-scale strimmers last month has only served to expose the sad state of the place.
It is, of course, because the council is cash-strapped.
Parks maintenance and services are not a priority like providing adult social care or collecting Council Tax are.
But this does also represent a desperate failure of management of what resources the council does have available.
Any suggestion from the current administration that it had suddenly discovered eco-credentials and was letting verges grow to help the pollinators and the environment is… for the birds.
The proof of that is that many areas have since been mown – before any wildflowers were able to set seed. So either the council propaganda department was lying (again), or the parks maintenance department is incompetent. Take your pick…
The reality is that in the spring, when it came to booking contractors to go out and cut grass areas, our council left it all too late and the casual staff needed were unavailable.
Mayor Jason Perry has recently boasted of spending £1.5million on new mowing equipment. Sources at Fisher’s Folly suggest that the council has barely any staff left trained to operate the shiny new machinery. But for £1.5million, at least piss-poor Perry got to have a nice photo opportunity.
Fade to green: public signs are left uncleaned for years on end, while overgrown by vegetation
Sanderstead Rec featured prominently in the movie All Of Us Strangers, and is soon to be the subject of a guided tour of the film locations. If it had been in its current state when filming took place in 2022, the production company might have been forced to do some maintenance themselves. Or choose a different location…
With the Rec and the playground in peak use during the school summer holidays, the despair of locals over its run-down state is entirely understandable.
In one social media post, they said, “Can someone explain why our village is looking so neglected, the open spaces which make the village so desirable are just left to rack and ruin?”
The obvious explanation is that successive council administrations, Conservative (£0.8billion) and Labour (£0.8billion) have racked up toxic levels of debt, which massive Council Tax bills can barely keep under control, without the council continuing to borrow tens of millions from central government.
The Faustbook post continued: “What a shame the old bowls club was shut. I don’t get how a public-owned building can be taken away, rented out privately and not having anything to replace it.” The obvious explanation is that successive council administrations, Conservative (£0.8billion) and Labour (£0.8billion)… etc
“I think we are losing our voice as a community and this is the result,” said the Sanderstead community voice, shouting into a gale.
“We need strong standards and strong, stand-up leadership. Too many people will stand by and do nothing to stop their area from going downhill.”
And while there’s no money available to keep bowls clubs open or parks’ grass cut, there’s still plenty to go round to pay for a government-imposed “improvement” panel, for the CEO and her hand-picked directors’ six-figure salaries, and the £82,000 per year paid to the non-executive mayor…
Read more: IT’S OFFICIAL: Croydon still among country’s worst councils
Read more: Public outcry as council tries to off-load historic Heathfield House
Read more: Council chief Kerswell has doubled up on £140,000+ executives
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