CROYDON IN CRISIS: 87% of our readers said Croydon’s Mayor should not be threatening Nightwatch with an injunction for feeding the hungry in Queen’s Gardens. Now the council has announced there will be no legal action. By STEVEN DOWNES
Deputy dogged: Jason Perry was too ill to attend last week’s council meeting, so Lynne Hale had to announce the Nightwatch U-turn
Croydon Mayor Jason Perry has been forced into an embarrassing U-turn, and given an assurance (for all that might be worth) that the council will not be taking any legal action against charity Croydon Nightwatch for providing food and support to the borough’s homeless, rough sleepers and working poor.
Inside Croydon reported last month how bureaucrat Huw Rhys Lewis BSc, BArch, MSc, MRIBA, MRICS, MAPM, the council’s interim director of commercial investment and capital, had made the threats against Nightwatch, one of the borough’s biggest charities, for simply setting up a soup kitchen in Queen’s Gardens every night – just as they have been doing for almost 50 years.
According to the charity, the council bureaucrat’s email was “inaccurate in almost every single particular”.
In 2022, Croydon Nightwatch volunteers received the Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service “for their tireless work for the homeless and otherwise vulnerable people in Croydon”. The charity has even won Croydon Council’s Voluntary Organisation of the Year in the past.
At the council cabinet meeting at the start of this month, Tory Mayor Perry was given an opportunity to provide an assurance that Nightwatch would be able to continue with their charity work in the town centre.
Perry failed to do so.
But a cross-party letter of protest from 37 of the borough’s 70 councillors – only heartless Conservatives failed to sign – called for the Mayor to withdraw any kind of threat against the charity.
“This is a shocking way to treat one of Croydon’s most highly regarded charities,” the letter said, “which has also been adopted as the official charity of the civic mayor.” Ooops!
The letter called on Perry to “confirm that the council will not be using public money to take this charity for homeless people to court”, and to “confirm your personal support for Nightwatch?”
Offering help: Nightwatch provides warm food and groceries to the homeless and working poor every night
Well, Mayor Perry has yet to do anything about the latter request, because he was missing from last week’s Town Hall meeting of full council, one of only four such meetings at which he is subject to questioning by all councillors and the public. Perry was poorly, apparently.
But in his absence, his deputy, Lynne Hale, stood up and announced that there would not be any legal action taken against Nightwatch.
In completely unscientific polling conducted by Inside Croydon, almost 9-in-10 readers said that the council should not take legal action against Nightwatch, the kind of majority that a third-rate politician such as Perry might only dream about.
And 83% of respondents to our quick survey said that Mayor Perry ought to do more to help Croydon Nightwatch’s operation in Queen’s Gardens. The charity has been lobbying the council for years to allow it to erect a shelter in the public open space, all at zero cost to the council, to provide some shelter to its volunteers each night when providing hot food and other aid to their clients.
Let’s see how quickly the council’s planners, and Mayor Perry, get round to resolving this long-running issue.
At the council meeting, Deputy Mayor Hale failed to state whether any action will be taken over the bullying tactics of Huw Rhys Lewis BSc, BArch, MSc, MRIBA, MRICS, MAPM. Let’s see how quickly the council acts over that, too…
Inside Croydon’s ChatBot: In line with Croydon Council policy, and following the advice of Boston Consulting Group, no expense has been spared in installing an AI-powered chatbot for users of this website. It won’t work. It doesn’t matter how many times you click on it.
But hey, as we said, it’s in line with Croydon Council policy…
Read more: Perry’s council threatens legal action against homeless charity
Read more: No money, no plan, no honesty: Mayor still closing 4 libraries
Read more: ‘The council is dismantling our borough, service by service’
- If you have a news story about life in or around Croydon, or want to publicise your residents’ association or business, or if you have a local event to promote, please email us with full details at inside.croydon@btinternet.com
As featured on Google News Showcase
- Our comments section on every report provides all readers with an immediate “right of reply” on all our content. Our comments policy can be read by clicking here
Inside Croydon is a member of the Independent Community News Network
- Inside Croydon works together with the Bureau of Investigative Journalism, as well as BBC London News and ITV London
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
Report Huw Rhys Lewis BSc, BArch, MSc, to his institutes RIBA, RICS and APM, for bringing their reputation into disrepute with his threats against Night Watch – is this the calibre of their members?
He was only following orders
Clearly no one told Huw Rhys Lewis about ‘The Power of Love’
Think that was Frankie Goes to Hollywood, rather than Huwie Lewis…
It’s Huey, as in Back to the Future
You’re the pub boor that has to explain all the jokes, aren’t you, Chris?
Other way round. The jokes have to be explained to him
Spelling – it’s important.
Or was it Jennifer Rush?
That’s the Power of Love then. Do you think the Ed will call a stop to this BTTF dialogue? BTW, my favourites are 1, 3 and 2, in that order.