TOWN HALL SKETCH: Things don’t sound too good in the Chamber these days, and it is not just because the council has hired a cheaper contractor for its audio system. As tempers frayed at the most important meeting of the year, WALTER CRONXITE, Political Editor, turned the volume up to try to hear how Mayor Perry thinks he can get away with his cash-strapped council borrowing yet another £1bn
There was a rainbow over Croydon just around dusk last night, to the south of the Town Hall. Alas, there was no pot of gold to be found on the Town Hall steps, which might have made the next three hours a little less fraught.
Genteel: the Carers’ Centre Choir protesting outside the Town Hall last night
Instead, there was the Carers’ Centre Choir, singing sweetly (though disappointingly, not the obvious We Shall Overcome) about the latest service to be axed, the latest victim of council cuts.
As Town Hall demos go, it was a good deal less well-attended, or loud, than in 2023, when Mayor Jason Perry was putting up Council Tax by 15%. A 5% increase this time must be less objectionable to the people of Croydon, because so few turned up to object. As David Bowie almost said, it was so very Croydon.
But that was as genteel as the evening got, as inside the Chamber, our elected representatives had turned up for the most important council meeting of the year, the annual Budget and Council Tax-setting meeting.
Here, the red and blue politicians would slug it out between themselves, while the real villains of the piece – the six-figure salaried council directors and managers who are actually in charge – sat watching, unquestioned, still unaccountable. Just as they like it.
Wired for sound: last night’s full council meeting, the first for almost three months
There is a serious problem with the audio system in the Town Hall Chamber. A Katharine Street source traces it back to the council hiring a cheaper contractor. It made understanding some of the contributions on the night more difficult than usual.
It all started with Kola Agboola, the Labour councillor from New Addington, who chaired the meeting as civic mayor. That’s not the mayor you voted for, but the one who volunteered to dress up in ridiculous outfits for a year for a few thousand quid in extra allowances. By my reckoning, Croydon now has four mayors or deputy mayors, all of them paid extra for the privilege.
Councillor Agboola has a heavily accented, slow delivery, but his voice seemed to have an added gravelly quality thanks to his microphone.
Agboola read out an apology for absence, where the name of the apologetic absentee could not be heard, and he then became sombre and said something about “honorary alderperson”, “24 years on the council” and “dead”.
Announcement: the late Cllr Avril Slipper
But the name of said dead, ex-councillor was completely lost in the Town Hall sound system. Fortunately, during the minute’s silence, someone told me it was for Avril Slipper, the Conservative councillor for Ashburton from 1990 to 2014. Otherwise, we might have all been none-the-wiser.
Silence over, Agboola then read a list of flag raising, something which Croydon Council does really well, with LGBT-plus, St Patrick’s Day and Bangladesh Day all coming up, although sadly, Agboola announced, they have had to cancel a charity fish and chips and walk. Notes were being taken of all this, you understand, in case the sound system gave out altogether and we heard nothing further all night.
When we got to hear questions to the Mayor (the useless, elected one, not the overdressed civic one), Callton Young sounded like the 1970s northern comedian Norman Collier, whose entire schtick was that you only got to hear every other word he said into the microphone. In Young’s case, this was not quite so funny.
Mayor Perry, when he got to speak using the Town Hall microphone, sounded like he had acquired a lisp. As if things weren’t already bad enough for Croydon’s beleagured Tory Mayor.
When a Labour councillor, Christopher Herman, spoke later in the evening, the audio system made him sound as if inebriated, as he spent three minutes rambling on with some incomprehensible nonsense about windmills and then could not pronounce “Quixote”.
Tory staffer: bah gum councillor Ian Parker
Amy Foster, another Labour councillor, was rendered into a Dalek soundalike, while Ian Parker, a full-time employee for Croydon Tories as well as a councillor in Coulsdon, sounded as if he he was a member of Todmorden town council, or perhaps auditioning for a bit part in All Creatures Great and Small. Or maybe the microphone was functioning properly.
We must be getting closer to election time.
Parker spent his entire speech listing the achievements of Mayor Perry, none of which Perry has had any role in securing: “There’s bankin’ ‘ub comin’ to Coulsdon, ‘appen,” Parker said, referring to an initiative delivered by local residents’ associations and a conglomerate of high street banks.
“There’s Coulsdon NHS ‘ub, too, which is reet ‘andsome,” Parker may have said, referring to a NHS facility funded mostly by the NHS.
“And there’s a reet luvly M&S comin’ to Purley as well, bah gum!” Parker said, securing a hat-trick of genuinely positive developments, none of which have had the misfortune of having to rely on Croydon Council, or Mayor Perry, to be delivered.
The reason Perry has delivered so little in his nearly three years in office, of course, is because of money, or the lack of it. Which was at the essence of this year’s Budget-setting meeting. The council’s finances are, all agree, unsustainable, because of the council’s huge debt. Which is why some have expressed surprise that Perry has allowed his chief executive, Katherine Kerswell, to persuade him that it is a good idea to go out and borrow another £1billion.
The meeting began with a degree of cross-party agreement, at least as far as the Conservative and Labour councillors were concerned. The Liberal Democrat councillor, Claire Bonham, and Greens Ria Patel and Esther Sutton, were disagreeable all evening whenever it came to votes, which was to their credit, as their votes tended to be in the interests of the Croydon public, rather than any party whip.
Seconding Tory pay policy: Labour’s Callton Young
The first vote of the night was on the council’s pay policy. The cross-party collaboration saw the motion proposed by Conservative Jason Cummings and seconded by Labour’s Young, with all the Labour and Tory councillors voting for it and only the disagreeable trio opposing.
There was another proposal to come, later in the night, for an increase in councillor allowances. Councillor Patel asked how, with Council Tax being increased and the borough finances in such a bad state, this could possibly be seen as “fair”?
“I don’t think it is an unreasonable position,” said Mayor Perry, whose £82,000 per year salary would be going up to £84,000 per year.
The Mayor warmed to his theme. He would not, he said, be reviewing the council’s pay structures which now have more director-level employees earning more six-figure salaries than in 2020, when the council first went bust.
“The Carers’ Centre is not closing,” Perry told the Chamber. “Four libraries are being turned into community centres,” he claimed, and added that the axing of the youth engagement team, which his council has proposed, “has not been decided yet”.
Perry, who normally rocks a middle-aged man’s puce, had reached close to scarlet as he spat out his condescension towards Green councillor Patel.
The nasty attitude betrayed the Mayor’s discomfort.
Condescending: Mayor Jason Perry was confronted with his failure at the council Budget meeting last night
When it came to Bonham’s turn to dare to question the Mayor, she probed Perry about his so-called “transformation plan” which requires so much more additional borrowing.
From what Perry said, hiring in extra consultants on big fees is a really good idea…
There seemed to be another microphone malfunction. As Mayor Perry began his big, set-piece Budget speech, he was clearly heard by the entire Chamber to say, “Council. We are currently grapping…”.
Perry paused for a moment. It wasn’t the microphone.
“… Grappling!” Perry said, his eyes fixed on his notes (because learning a short speech is clearly beyond him).
“Let me be very clear. I have always protected the council’s heritage,” said the man who played a key part in flogging off a chunk of the Riesco Collection of Chinese porcelain 10 years ago, and in the past fortnight put Heathfield House up for auction for £1million, and then tried to blame the estate agents hired by the council to sell the listed building for letting the cat out of the bag.
Probably the key speech of the night was that given in response by the Labour group leader, Stuart King. Fortunately, this was not subject to any microphone malfunctions.
King has now had three opportunities to bring down Mayor Perry and his Budgets.
And three times, King and Croydon Labour have bottled it.
It was a speech which King had, unlike Perry, managed to learn, and full of promise.
King said that he was tired of feeling like “a disempowered bystander”. He adopted the slogan of the No To 15% people’s campaign of two years ago: “Pay more. Get less”.
A D V E R T I S E M E N T
King said, “The problems of the past have become the problems of the present.”
The 2024-2025 overspend of Perry’s council, now reckoned to be £42million, showed that, “Under Mayor Perry, the finances have got worse. Weak management of the budget has exposed the fagility of the council.”
This, King said, “has shaken members’ confidence”. The £136million bail-out that Perry and Kerswell had sought from the government was “no longer exceptional financial support”, King said, “it has become established financial support”.
In 2023, and again in 2024, King’s Labour group had initially voted against Perry’s Budgets, forcing the council to call a second Town Hall meeting, at which they duly let everyone down by abstaining on the crucial vote and letting the Budget pass and Perry keep his job.
On both occasions, Croydon Labour could have precipitated a real crisis in local government that might have forced central government’s hand. They chose not to.
This time, King revealed, Labour wasn’t even going to do that.
So while they would not support the Budget, Labour would not vote against it, thereby providing Croydon the small mercy of a saving of £100,000 on a pointless second meeting. Unwittingly, King had highlighted the pointlessness of the entire charade.
‘In our hearts, I don’t think any of us believe in this Budget’
Perhaps King and Labour’s approach was tempered slightly by Perry submitting an amended Budget, which included a Labour amendment that shifted one pot of money from one area, and moved it to another area of spending, for two dedicated enforcement officers to lead the battle against fly-tipping. There have been just four prosecutions brought by the council since Jason Perry became Mayor. Did someone just mention Titanic and deckchairs?
King made another telling point, though. Mayor Perry had not once used one of his favourite phrases all night: “toxic debt”. Might that be because, King asked, Perry now proposed £1billion of new borrowing over the next five years?
‘The finances are not getting better’: Waddon councillor Rowenna Davis
This had all been very collegiate, agreeable stuff in the main. More than once Jason Cummings, Perry’s cabinet member for finance, referred to “cross-party” initiatives (as he and Perry are clearly out of ideas). But that was about to end as Rowenna Davis, the former chair of the scrutiny committee, rose to make her speech.
Fortunately, too, her microphone worked just fine.
Outlining the catalogue of financial problems that have faced the council since 2020, Davis said: “Before the election, you knew all this and you still made a promise to fix the finances. That promise has been broken.
“In our hearts, I don’t think any of us believe in this Budget. All of us in this chamber know that it is dangerously unsustainable…”.
The Waddon councillor continued: “Under your leadership, four libraries have shut their doors, the council’s youth service is being slashed and the Carers’ Centre is about to close.
“It’s simply gas-lighting all the users of these services – who have told you how angry they are – to say that everything is fine… And for all your cuts, the finances are not getting better. They are getting worse.
“You are literally millions over budget this year, and the debt is predicted to grow… The people of Croydon are getting tired of the Blame Game. Being a leader means taking responsibility,” Davis said.
“And remember, that this Mayor promised to fix the finances, his promise is broken and he has failed.”
The microphones in the Town Hall Chamber are not supposed to pick up heckles or comments from other councillors during a meeting, but there was a clearly audible “Whoop!” when Davis finished with such a flourish. So probably another audio malfunction.
It was, by now, getting close to 9pm, the debate and discussion had been going on for more than two hours.
Jason Cummings has been cabinet member for finance for almost three years, and last night looked as if he has reached the end of his tether.
‘I’M TALKING’: no one needed a microphone when Jason Cummings bellowed across the Chamber
As he blathered on about responsibility, Davis, a councillor only since 2022, from the other side of the Chamber held up three fingers, indicating how many times Cummings had voted in favour of Labour Budgets under the discredited former council leader Tony “Soprano” Newman. Then, with finger and thumb, she signalled a zero, perhaps to indicate how many times she had voted for a Newman Budget.
This was too much for Cummings. “I’M TALKING!” he bellowed across the Chamber. There was no need for microphones now.
Cummings tried, but failed, to recover his composure. He mumbled on for a couple of minutes. “I am angry,” he said. “I am angry at the position this council finds itself in.
“This Budget is a warning to us all.”
He muttered something about “a shared challenge” and his desire to “put the politics away and get on with it” (this, remember, from someone who worked for Conservative Prime Minister in No10, and continues to support part-time Mayor and full-time politician Perry). Then he said something about “deceitful” and “manipulates”. But no one was listening to what he had to say any longer.
The time had come for a vote.
As part of last year’s recommendations from the multi-million-pound consultants, Katherine Kerswell, the chief executive, and Mayor Jason Perry are pinning their hopes on the council’s future by making it “Digital First”.
League table: Croydon has the second-highest Council Tax in London, thanks to 27% increase under Jason Perry since 2023
So here, in public, Kerswell called out all the names of the councillors from a list on a sheet of paper, and a council official alongside her added up the votes on what looked like the back of an envelope. There was not as much as a pocket calculator to be seen. It was the only thing that the CEO had to do all night for her £204,000 annual salary.
Mayor Perry’s latest debt-laden, unbalanced Budget was passed, without a single Labour councillor voting against it. Patel, Sutton and Bonham were, just as in 2023 and in 2024, the only councillors to vote against the Budget and against the increase in Council Tax.
Agboola announced the tally, and then confirmed that there would be no council meeting on March 5. He appeared delighted to get a Wednesday night off (it’s a big evening for Champions League football after all).
There was one final item of business on the agenda, Agboola announced, and introduced Labour councillor Sean Fitzsimons to present it. This was recommendations to increase allowances paid to councillors. No debate. Straight to electronic votes, and within five minutes of voting through a 5% increase in Council Tax for the residents they are supposed to represent, the majority of Croydon’s councillors, and Mayor Perry, voted in favour of a pay rise for themselves.
Just three councillors voted against.
And with that, the civic mayor of a council that has at least £1.4billion in debt, which has just received its latest multi-million government bail-out, and then approved a pay rise for its top earners and councillors, announced that there’s nothing too urgent to debate or discuss before April 16, the next full council meeting.
In the scurry to collect coats and bags before heading off for the Spread Eagle, Jason Cummings crossed the floor of the Chamber and approached Rowenna Davis. The microphones were switched off by this point, so it can’t be reported with any certainty, but those who were nearby think that they heard him say “Sorry”.
Read more: #Binmageddon: Now Croydon named worst in UK for fly-tipping
Read more: Croydon’s finances are not sustainable warns council chief
Read more: Government grants Perry’s record £136m council bail-out plea
Read more: Council Tax hits £2,500 per year as debts continue to mount
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Perry’s cure is worse than the disease, or as Andrew Pelling once put it, he’s “killing the patient”
Croydon had a referendum for a Mayor – a referendum that reflected residents’ desire for change. Croydon Council’s leadership had devastated the borough, the new CEO had proved ineffective despite increasing the number of overpaid directors and having two deputy CEOs, and the planning department under Heather Cheesbrough was out of control.
Instead of change, Perry gave us more of the same.
To have Councillors vote for their own pay increases (on the back of Kerswell’s pay rise) is the definition of a corrupt system. Increasing Council Taxes and giving themselves pay increases shows that the Council is not just financially bankrupt but its leadership is morally bankrupt. Shameful.
It’s an absolutely nightmare in Croydon. Paying
Highest Council tax. All council cabinet staff increased
They Wages while Residents suffering life of hell
Why does the council pay the Chief Whips and Party Secretaries of both Labour and Conservatives? Aren’t they party political posts? I note Surrey, Kent, Bexley, Bromley and Sutton don’t pay such allowances.
“The six-figure salaried council directors and managers who are actually in charge – sat watching, unquestioned, still unaccountable.” We have read over the years via Inside Croydon and the Eye, how these people just move on from council to council despite the wreckage and havoc they have wreaked with no consequences for their actions or decisions.
However, they are allowed to do this because of supine elected councillors of all colours up and down the country, with some local exceptions. There are effective and top-grade council directors and managers up and down the country who must hold their heads in their hands in anguish at the exploits of their fellow colleagues and yet seem to have no voice or no inclination to have a voice to denounce these exploits which must sully their profession.
On a political local level, the local Croydon Labour Party Councillors are still just going through the motions of Opposition. The Labour Councillors from the Shawcross era up to Newman were bereft of any political nous, had no intention to institute a local model of municipal socialism but compared to the new councillors that have been elected since the Newman debacle, they were a seething maelstrom of revolutionary activism.
I have seen more radicalism from the Sally Army than the present Croydon Labour Group.
If I am being unfair then I suggest they hold public meetings at Ruskin House where they can explain their esoteric political strategies to us, the mere Croydon Borough electors.