We asked Croydon’s Conservatives to put up one of their 30-odd councillors – some of whom are paid more than £40,000 per year – for an hour’s podcast session and to face questions from Inside Croydon readers. When they refused, our readers still posed the questions that Mayor Jason Perry and his colleagues are too afraid to answer….
In the past couple of weeks, our council has closed, then announced a hurried U-turn, over the precious Croydon Carers’ Centre on George Street, then presided over “chaos” as they closed Access Croydon, the public consultation area at the council’s HQ.
And that’s before they turned up in court to pursue an eviction order without being able to prove that they own the property in Reedham…
With Croydon Council is a state of permanent crisis, and fresh from begging for another £136million bail-out from central government, our pannelists on the latest episode of The Croydon Insider ask Jason Perry’s stand-in, a Tub of Lard:
- What plan does he have in place for the council’s finances, beyond annual hikes in Council Tax and more cuts to our sadly reduced services?
- Under the circumstances, how can he possibly justify giving himself and his councillor colleagues a pay rise, and pay increases for the council’s highest earners?
- And just what is the truth behind the shadowy British Virgin Island owners of Polaska, the company behind the 220 retirement homes in Purley that Mayor Perry and MP Chris Philp have been quite so keen to foist on local residents?
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My question is “why this administration can’t manage the chaos that Labour in most cases created?”
Take a step back, Less, and have a look at what has never really changed: the professional management and executive directors of the council.
They want you to believe that there’s some kind of political control. It suits their purposes, as they claim their six-figure salaries and look forward to their gilt-edged pension pot, to encourage the public to fume about Tory or Labour.
The truth is, it is the council senior managers who created the chaos, mostly through incompetence (we have an absolute zinger of an example coming tomorrow), while they keep the public who pay their wages, and councillors, in the dark.
Remember that the next time Mayor Perry, wearing his Mitcham Belle driver’s short-sleeve shirt, puffs out his chest and tries to pretend he’s important…
From my reading of Inside Croydon news, neither Labour nor Conservative administrations have shown great competence and compassion and neither has a monopoly of not creating ‘chaos’.
At risk of repeating ourselves, neither Labour or Conservative administrations have held real control of the council for many years. The senior management, the six-figure-salaried directors, wouldn’t let them anywhere near power…