CROYDON IN CRISIS: Careless comments made at a public meeting by the Tory Mayor over LTNs – Low Traffic Neighbourhoods – have already cost the borough’s residents dearly.
By our Town Hall reporter, SANDRA STEAD
Jason Perry, the failed Mayor of Croydon, and the council’s chief legal officer, Stephen Lawrence-Orumwense, have been given an anxious wait through to Christmas. Not to see whether Santa arrives via the Town Hall’s chimneys, but for the considered deliberations of Judge Edward Pepperall.
Not for the first time, Croydon’s less-than-dynamic duo of Mayor Perry and Lawrence-Orumwense have found themselves in the dock at the High Court, this time over the cash-strapped council’s use – or alleged misuse – of LTNs to generate extra revenue.With all their legal expenses, of which there are plenty, paid for by Council Tax-payers
Candid cameras: the case against LTNs is that they work, fining drivers who can’t read road signs
A Judicial Review into Croydon’s use of Low Traffic Neighbourhoods has just concluded, with the council accused of using the £160 fines from Penalty Charge Notices (PCNs – the council loves an acronym) as a “fat cash cow” to balance the books.
The case has been brought by the shadowy Open Our Roads organisation, which has kept under wraps the identities of its major sources of funding.
In its early days, Open Our Roads readily accepted donations from a leading figure in ABD – the Association of Bad Drivers – based in Chislehurst.
Open Our Roads initially campaigned against LTNs in the Crystal Palace and South Norwood areas.
The High Court case has been brought in the name of Open Our Roads member, Karen Lawrence, who is claiming that the council has misused their powers under the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984 in respect of revenue generation.
Their case put before the judge at the Royal Courts of Justice in The Strand is that Mayor Perry and the council acted unlawfully, and that six LTNs first introduced during the covid lockdowns in 2020 were “dressed up” as having environmental benefits that were used “for the dominant purpose” of raising millions of pounds from fines.
And while that is not actually true – certainly, the complainants brought no direct evidence to prove that contention – the Trumpian road lobbyists’ case has been made all the stronger by none other than… Croydon Mayor Jason Perry.
Big mouth strikes again: remarks made by bungling Mayor Perry at a public meeting have been cited in evidence at the High Court
Before he was elected as Croydon Mayor, the pro-pollution, anti-cycling Perry had pledged to remove all the LTNs “from Day One” of his term in office. But a year or so later, the LTNs remained firmly in pledge, and drivers continued to fork out for the hefty fines.
The complaint brought to the High Court centred on remarks made by Conservative Mayor Perry during a public appearance at a far-right ginger group, when he was challenged over another broken election promise.
At the meeting, Perry admitted that his cash-strapped council needed the millions of pounds in income the schemes had been generating. “£20million of future income… would have to be replaced,” Perry said out loud.
The problem with that, however, is that income-generation is not a legal reason for having such road schemes. Croydon’s roads department projected annual income from fines from motorists for driving without permits through the LTNs or school streets of up to £10.7million over four years.
And there’s recent precedent to suggest that piss-poor Perry’s big mouth is going to get him, and the council, in deep trouble yet again – with Croydon’s long-suffering Council Tax-payers picking up the tab for the Mayor’s mistakes once more.
At a Judicial Review on traffic-reduction schemes in West Dulwich, that LTN was deemed unlawful and Lambeth Council was ordered to remove it immediately.
The High Court ruled there that the council had not properly considered residents’ concerns during the implementation of the LTN, and Lambeth was ordered to pay £35,000 towards the legal costs of the West Dulwich Action Group who brought the case.
In the Croydon case, Kevin Leigh, the barrister acting on behalf of the Open Our Roads, told the court that the introduction of LTNs was motivated “clearly by the huge revenue that comes from enforcement”.
Open roads: LTN schemes, often using planters, caused fury for many drivers when denied use of their cut-throughs and rat runs
He said: “It’s clearly about the money. That’s the driver here. It’s not coincidental that this happened at the same time the council was in dire financial straits. There’s an ulterior motive.”
The LTNs were made permanent in February 2024, with official council reports confirming the amounts of fines expected to be generated from enforcement notices sent to motorists who enter the designated roads.
Leigh said the council had “put these traffic orders in place expecting them to be breached regularly” and claimed they were having “Draconian effects” on residents.
“They can’t get to their homes, people can’t visit them, and all the traffic gets pushed out into the surrounding area,” the lawyer said.
And the court heard that Perry’s public admission was of great significance. “Even the Mayor has effectively acknowledged the importance behind the council not wanting to let go of this fat financial cow.
“You can’t get better evidence than that.”
Saira Kabir Sheikh was the expensive KC hired to present the council’s case. She said: “The decision was made following a statutory process and there’s no suggestion by the claimant that statutory processes were not followed or any steps in that process were missed out.
“It doesn’t matter whether the claimant doesn’t agree with the decision, it’s about whether it was lawful.
“There’s nothing in that report which suggests that the order was made, or recommended to be made, for any financial purposes.
Judgement reserved: High Court Judge Edward Pepperall will had down his ruling later this month
“It didn’t form any of the reasons for that decision.”
She said that “only lawful recommendations were made” to the Cabinet and “that’s enough to dispose of this claim”.
The council decision was taken in the final days of the Labour administration which preceded Tory Perry’s election as Mayor.
At the conclusion of the hearing, Judge Pepperall has deferred his judgment, which he will hand down in writing later this month.
Read more: Mayor Perry on trial: LTN admission could cost council millions
Read more: Removal of LTNs was unnecessary says cycling campaign
Read more: The next battle in the culture wars? Traffic bollards
Read more: London’s toxic air is ‘a public health emergency’ says charity
A D V E R T I S E M E N T
PAID ADS: To advertise your services or products to our 10,000 weekday visitors to the site, as featured on Google News Showcase, email us inside.croydon@btinternet.com for our unbeatable ad rates
- If you have a news story about life in or around Croydon, or want to publicise your residents’ association or business, or if you have a local event to promote, please email us with full details at inside.croydon@btinternet.com
As featured on Google News Showcase
- Our comments section on every report provides all readers with an immediate “right of reply” on all our content. Our comments policy can be read by clicking here
Inside Croydon is a member of the Independent Community News Network
Is the loathsome Peter Morgan (of Coulsdon East, not Chislehurst) involved with the Association of Bad Drivers (ABD) or Open Our Roads, or are they another two “organisations” that have thrown him out?
Less than six months to go now until the council and mayoral election when Piss-Poor Perry will get thrown on the very large Croydon Council scrapheap…………..!
Careless talk costs money
I’m wondering here?
If Criydon has £1.4bn debt.
Should we be hoping that he loses this case and then be £1.42 in debt?
Or that the council wins it?
I appreciate that these neighbourhoods should never have been introduced in the first place by the Labour admin at the time, but sometimes we may want things to go Croydon Councils way for the good of all Croydon residents even if it’s not Perry who claims the credit.
Not publishing this comment would speak volumes.
We’ve published the comment, just to show what ill-considered gibberish you submitted.
The campaign against LTNs is nothing more than a kind of cancel culture by Trump-style groups on the right who resent having to get out of their Chelsea tractors to walk their precious children a few hundred yards to their local fee-paying prep schools (no, haven’t made that up – that really was the objection raised by one of the founders of Open Our Roads).
The council’s introduction of LTNs was rushed, poorly considered and badly implemented. But it was not done to raise extra dough to pay down the debt. They can’t use parking permit fees and PCN fines for that in any case: it is in a ring-fenced transport fund that pays for travel passes and road resurfacing.
Fines paid by motorists to local authorities for not sticking to rules made for the public good will not reduce Croydon council’s debts.
By law, councils must spend this money on transport-related purposes such as road maintenance, traffic management, public transport, and environmental improvements. They cannot use it for general council spending.
Perry was either ignorant of this simple truth or deliberately told a lie