Our Town Hall reporter KEN LEE has got hold of a confidential letter from the Tory Mayor in which there’s an implied threat of action against a homelessness charity
Nasty Party: Tory Mayor Jason Perry
Croydon Mayor Jason Perry is a fully paid-up member of the Nasty Party, and he has no qualms about showing it.
Perry, who is paid £82,000 per year by the council for his part-time role, has taken well over a month before he bothered to provide the courtesy reply to a letter from 37 of the borough’s 70 elected councillors.
The letter, signed by LibDem, Green and Labour councillors but no Conservatives, appealed to Perry to drop all threats of legal action against Croydon Nightwatch, the borough’s biggest charity which provides food and support to rough sleepers and the working poor every night of the year.
The threat of an injunction against Nightwatch using the Queen’s Gardens public open space for their nightly food service was made in an email from the council’s “interim director of commercial investment and capital”, someone who styles himself “Huw Rhys Lewis BSc, BArch, MSc, MRIBA, MRICS, MAPM”.
On September 30, the majority of the borough’s councillors wrote to Perry, saying, “We call on you to support Nightwatch, a charity that has been serving some of Croydon’s most vulnerable people for almost 50 years, most visibly at Queen’s Gardens.
“Nightwatch has been asking for a dialogue with the council about a permanent shelter with lighting for the charity to operate from, which they would fund themselves. Despite their service, we are concerned about the council’s interactions with this charity, which they say have included repeated failures to reply, confusion and legal threats.
“This is a shocking way to treat one of Croydon’s most highly regarded charities, which has also been adopted as the official charity of the civic mayor.”
Surveys conducted among Inside Croydon’s readers found that 87% said that the council should not take legal action against Nightwatch, and 83% felt that the council should be doing more to help Nightwatch’s charitable activities.
But as one Katharine Street source told Inside Croydon, “Mayor Perry has no interest in looking after vulnerable people. In fact, it’s obvious that he wants to clear Croydon’s streets of rough sleepers, who he sees as an inconvenience for his mates in big business.”
Out in all weathers: Nightwatch volunteers keep up their regular service, no thanks to Croydon Council
This week Perry, or one of the several assistants employed by the council to help him with his less-than-onerous workload, finally managed to get round to replying to the councillors’ Nightwatch letter.
In his reply, which he had had six weeks to mull over, Pompous Perry writes, “Homelessness is a complex issue, and whilst immediate relief is important, our focus must be on long-term solutions that move people off the streets and into stable housing, with support from health, addiction services, and other agencies.”
Perry was clearly showing some reluctance to answer the question at the nub of the councillors’ appeal.
He had been absent, apparently ill, from the last meeting of full council, so was not confronted by public questioning on the matter. His deputy, Lynne Hale, was left to face the music.
“Deputy executive mayor councillor Lynne Hale,” Perry’s letter rambled on, “and the corporate director for housing recently had a productive meeting with Nightwatch. We aim to continue to work with Nightwatch to develop a collaborative action plan that addresses both their mission of supporting homeless individuals and the council’s goal of reducing street homelessness.
“You will be aware that at full council on 9th October, our appreciation and recognition of Nightwatch’s work was shared by the deputy executive mayor.
“We also stressed that no legal action would be taken against the charity,” Perry wrote, seven paragraphs into his windbag-esque response.
Threatening email: Huw Rhys Lewis BSc BArch MSc MRIBA MRICS MAPM
But this was not an unreserved declaration of support for the charity and its work. Perry now chose to double-down on the petty complaints of council bureaucrat Huw Rhys Lewis BSc, BArch, MSc, MRIBA, MRICS, MAPM.
“However, reports of antisocial behaviour, littering and drug paraphernalia in The Queen’s Gardens during and after food serving sessions are concerning,” Perry wrote. This repeats the complaints of Huw Rhys Lewis BSc, BArch, MSc, MRIBA, MRICS, MAPM, which were completely rejected by Nightwatch as being baseless and without any evidence.
“We have engaged with Nightwatch multiple times to address these issues,” Perry now claims.
The rest of his letter was a full-on effort in gas-lighting.
“Whilst Nightwatch have informally requested permission for a shelter in The Queen’s Gardens, but [sic] we believe this could entrench rough sleeping rather than encourage engagement with our services, which aim to secure stable housing. Our dialogue continues to find better and different ways of working.
“I would like to reaffirm our support for the vital work Nightwatch does in feeding vulnerable people. However, ensuring that The Queen’s Gardens remains a safe, clean space for all – including families, residents, businesses and those being helped by Nightwatch – is a priority.”
As summarised by a Katharine Street source to whom we showed the letter today: “What Perry’s really saying here is: ‘We appreciate and recognise Nightwatch’s help. But they can just fuck off because there’s too much litter’.”
And the source continued: “This is just further evidence that Perry is incapable of standing up to the council’s senior paid staff, even the bullies among them.
“Either that, or he is enjoying the trappings of his office too much and isn’t that bothered about helping the homeless.
“Or, of course, both.”
Read more: Perry’s council threatens legal action against homeless charity
Read more: Nightwatch blocked from feeding homeless by council building
Read more: £1,000 donation to Nightwatch as they battle cost of living crisis
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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
Publicity-seeking Perry could easily make himself useful by turning up and helping out at Nightwatch, talking directly to the service providers and users, and getting one of his lackeys to take a few photos of him serving food. Let’s face it, even Trump is capable of that. Instead our Mayor prefers to sit on his arse at home. I don’t think it’s the case that he’s incapable of standing up to the senior officers, rather that they are doing his bidding
Quite honestly I don’t know what anybody’s going on about with regards to Queen’s Gardens. I was wandering around Croydon the other day and went there for the first time since the Council commandeered it for their horrible flats. Before that it used to be pleasant gardens (as the name suggests); now it looks like the builders haven’t cleared up behind them – it’s hideous.
It looks very much like Perry and his band of merry men (sorry, “people”) have used this as a diversion tactic. Unfortunately the council has reaped what it has sown – a poorer community who still need to be helped. Nightwatch cares about helping others – and is made up of decent people – and should be encouraged to fight against these nasty bullies who clearly don’t.
I’m going to agree with Perry here when he says, “our focus must be on long-term solutions that move people off the streets and into stable housing, with support from health, addiction services, and other agencies”. However, it becomes immediately clear that he uses these words without having any plan for this whatsoever, so he should be ashamed of himself on every level. 18 more months to go before he can belly flop right outta here!
This man Perry’s name is all over everything that’s wrong in and around Croydon.
Perry seems to be in step with our new government in hitting the most vulnerable.
Is this also why the seats at West Croydon tram stop have been removed? Did it put off buyers of the flats, sorry, apartments opposite?
There is a narrative constantly put forward by Inside Croydon and several of it’s contributors that Executive Officers are really the formulators of council policy and attitudes. This example demonstrates that it is rather more complex than that. The underlying attitude and desired outcomes that Officers have to follow is clearly set by the Political Executive and they have to operate this into practical policy within the legal context it obeys and the overriding power that can be exercised by Central Government. Forever simply picking on the Administrators is simplistic and naive. It is clear that the Mayor could act with compassion towards the Homelessness Charity on this matter and he clearly does not want to. He will have to accept that by not attempting to provide a practical solution to this matter, that this problem can only get worse. He has to take accept responsibility for this.
If you truly believe Perry is running the council, Derek, that’s fine. But all the evidence shows that he does not.
Just what then is his purpose?
You’d probably best asked Perry.
At a guess? To shovel almost £7,000 of public money per month into his pension pot.
Perry’s attitude is summed up in one phrase in that letter “move people off the streets”. The focus isn’t on helping people, Perry just wants to move them.
Perry doesn’t want to have to look people in the eye and see the consequences of what him and his Party have done to people. He doesn’t even want to treat them as fellow human beings, they are just a problem that needs to be moved out of his sight.
Croydon could be so much different if those in power were willing to work with people instead of just doing things to people.
I just noticed that the TV fundraising appeal video from St. Mungo’s, the homelessness charity, was filmed in Croydon https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pYm3oeRgAbk
While they are campaigning to give a helping hand to society’s most vulnerable, our Mayor wavers between outright hostility and casual indifference to the plight of people who haven’t had his advantages.
The word “homeless” only appears once on Perry’s website, and that’s only in response to a Supreme Court judgement last November where he blames Labour and promises action. A year later, we can see that he’s big on fine words but hopeless (or two-faced) about doing something about it.
Same is true of the word “homelessness”, where it gets a mention just before the 2022 heatwave, and that’s only to tell people to report rough sleepers to a government website.
He just does not care
”reports of antisocial behaviour, littering and drug paraphernalia in?
Just Queens Gardens?
Is Nightwatch being picked on because this area is trying to attract high end developments. Perhaps Mr Perry would like them to move to Broad Green and West Croydon? We already have food banks and charities and have all the same issues as is made out occurs at Queens gardens 10 fold.
Has Mr Perry any actual evidence of what happens and when it occurs? Does he not consider this may be before and after Nightwatch but nothing to do with them?
Nightwatch does not deal out soup by Southern house at 14.00 – 17.00 nope but the dealers deal there and hide stash in the grounds.
Nightwatch does not give soup in the subways during the day but all the drug users frequebt there daily
I could type most roads off the london Road to the Pond and and George street many with high rates of Anti social behaviours extreme littering drug paraphernalia crack and heroin addicts, homeless people, drug sellers body sellers, and provide Mr Perry with quite a lot of photo’s as could many in other wards.
Civil enforcement is non existant. Police are overworked overstretched and have scant resource. Does Perry wish to dump more onto their shoulders or continue to play pass the parcel with civil enforcement?
Could Perry please let us know to whom he and his administration have sent letters advising of legal action for those events happening in Croydon?
Bad Landlords? Developers that played hard and fast with Building regs and planning? Raves in Council run buildings? The list is endless of what this Council has failed to deal with.
I very much doubt we are alone and many areas of this Borough are suffering the same –
Mr Perry
These are streets Council and Public service employee’s have to walk to work and walk back from work.
These are streets that have families and vulnerable people all ignored by Mr Perry’s administration.
These are streets that have students coming in to learn and get safely home again
These are streets that have many small and large business and shops with employee’s and customers.
They all want to just live, work, play and shop in safe streets with reasonable facilities and cleanliness. They all pay taxes.
They all get lip and clap service by this administration.
The bleating is sounding like NIMBY ism at its hypocritical worst!
I personally would be really grrateful if you cut down on the wheeze and breeze and focused on getting some results in reducing Homlessness, anti-social actions, drug use and selling and plese improve street cleaning and litter/fly tipping.
And stop picking on Volunteers and Charities with random threats. Try conversations focused on solutions and supporting those giving their time and resource because You and your peers pissed the money up the wall over the last 14 years?