Green councillor RIA PATEL, right, says this is not a healthy democracy
It’s no wonder Croydon Council doesn’t work properly when it is relying on a jumbled mess of outdated and contradictory rules that are preventing residents being heard, while getting in the way of councillors trying to do the job they were elected to do.
It is more than three years since Croydon had a referendum to change to having a directly-elected mayor, but the council still hasn’t updated its rules to reflect that change fully. The rules, the council’s constitution, should have been updated straight away but it feels like it suits some people to delay the process and use the confusion to prevent residents and their councillors from having a say on how the council is run.
Let’s be clear up front, the old constitution for Croydon Council was awful.
It assumed that there would only ever be two parties elected, and it seems to have been shaped around fights between Conservatives and Labour, rather than what was best for Croydon.
More than a two-party system: Croydon’s electoral map the morning after the May 2022 election (the South Croydon ward vacancy was caused because Jason Perry stood for election as a councillor as well as for Mayor). The council’s constitution fails to reflect the changes
As Greens, we opposed the move to having a directly-elected mayor because we know it was a move in the wrong direction. But the change to mayoral system did provide the opportunity to update the rules and make some improvements. Unfortunately, that hasn’t happened.
We have been pushing to get the constitution re-written to reflect that there are four different parties now represented on the council and to make the council more democratic, reflecting the way Croydon residents voted.
But meetings to re-write the constitution have happened only rarely, have often been cancelled, and so democracy is still being denied. Even the meetings that do happen aren’t working properly: we don’t cover all the issues needed, and additional promised discussions don’t happen.
Last night’s meeting was no better.
Ever since my fellow Fairfield councillor, Esther Sutton, and I were elected in May 2022, we have had to fight to be heard in council meetings. Old rules have been used in an attempt to stop us from putting forward ideas to be discussed and even to try to stop us from having any opportunity to speak at all.
Both Conservatives and Labour, and of course Jason Perry as Mayor, have tried to exclude the Greens when it suits them and keep the council meetings just for them to go through the same old routine of wasting the entire meeting arguing with each other and ignoring what residents want.
State of that: Jason Perry on election night in 2022. The Mayor has failed to hold a ‘State of the Borough’ meeting, as required under the constitution
Even in the current constitution, there is supposed to be an annual “State of the Borough” meeting, where all parties and Croydon residents have the opportunity to put forward topics for discussion.
But almost three years since his election, and the Mayor hasn’t allowed this.
The same problem occurs with the committees looking at the council’s work in more detail. The rules have been used to suit the two old parties. The scrutiny and overview committee has been kept just for Labour and Conservative councillors – that is, the party that screwed up the finances before and the party that are screwing up the finances now.
Neither Labour nor the Conservatives were willing to let either of the Greens be a member of that scrutiny committee. Similarly, the Mayor insists on sticking to the old cabinet and shadow cabinet idea, which means that the cabinet meetings they have every month are stacked with Labour and Conservative members who are the only ones allowed to ask any questions.
At this month’s council meeting we wanted to put forward a motion to provide public toilets in the town centre.
The council threatened legal action against the charity Nightwatch, claiming that their work led to a health issue because of people using Queen’s Gardens and the surrounding area as a toilet. The obvious solution to that issue would be to provide public toilets for people to use. This would not only be of benefit to homeless people but to all of us who come into the centre of Croydon.
But just like the Mayor won’t let people pass one sort of motion in the town centre, he wouldn’t let us put a different type of motion in the council meeting.
The Mayor used one of the old rules to say that the Greens are not allowed to put a motion to ordinary council meetings. But he then he ignored the rule that says that the Greens should be allowed to speak on motions raised by Conservatives and Labour. I had to raise a point of order just to be able to speak.
I know that most people will not find council rules and its constitution the most thrilling of subjects. But these rules are really important. Croydon has got into the mess it is in because individuals and parties have been able to do whatever they want, regardless of what’s best for Croydon. And sometimes, regardless of the rules.
If we really want to fix Croydon Council, then we need a council has clear rules to make it answerable to residents and a clear process to make sure that it follows the rules.
That’s what real democracy means. At the moment, democracy is being denied.
- Ria Patel is a Green Party councillor who has represented Fairfield ward since May 2022
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