Croydon Council’s propaganda department was busy this week.
On Monday, they pumped out this cheery piece of social media, to big-up the great work they claim is being done on Croydon High Street and North End.
According to Croydon Council, something called the “Town Centre Taskforce” is “making our borough cleaner, safer and healthier”, something which they say is an “Executive Mayor priority”. That’s referring to Jason Perry, the Mayor who hiked Council Tax by 27% but failed to fix the finances (which was another of his “priorities”).
Apparently, according to the council’s PR department, if you witness a crime, you should report it to the police… Who knew?
North End appears to be getting some special TLC from our rubbish council, probably because Westfield, the property speculators who have inflicted 15 years of development blight on the area, think it needs a bit of a spruce up.
As part of this campaign for a “cleaner, safer and healthier” borough, the cash-strapped council has spent some money on plastic signs, which have duly been tied to trees and lampposts to get the message over about “cleaner, safer and healthier” streets.
Only it doesn’t appear to be working very well.
‘Cleaner, safer and healthier’: so much for the council’s PR campaign
Within minutes of the council’s tweet, one of Inside Croydon’s dedicated band of citizen journalists was in touch by email, with a couple of photos attached.
“Have you seen Croydon’s latest marketing campaign?” they asked, referring to the message boards and the council’s recent social media messaging.
“Looks like it’s not too successful so far,” our reader said, and suggested: “Maybe the marketing budget would be better spent on physical rubbish collection!”
But that would be the job of Veolia, the rubbish contractors who were sacked in 2023 for failing to do their job, and then re-hired by Mayor Perry in 2025 on increased payment terms.
Other concerned readers have also been in touch, with very worrying reports of seeing town centre traders coming out of their premises to fly-tips black bin bags on the street – the very antithesis of the council’s “cleaner, safer and healthier” messaging.
Perhaps most shocking was that this alleged fly-tipper was recognised as being the owner of a town centre business and a leading member of a business organisation which has “friends in high places”, or at least at Croydon Town Hall. Maybe the fly-tipper has some kind of inside info about there being insufficient enforcement officials on patrol in the town centre?
Read more: ‘London’s filthiest borough’ hands £40m rubbish deal to Veolia
Read more: Westfield looking for ‘bargain basement’ sale of Croydon site
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