CROYDON IN CRISIS: After spending two years in a High Court battle to defend his decision to make six Low Traffic Neighbourhoods permanent, today Croydon’s Mayor tried to claim credit for their forced removal.
By STEVEN DOWNES
End of an error: council contractors were at work on Friday to cover over signage in Croydon’s six unlawful LTNs
Croydon Council will not be appealing against Wednesday’s High Court decision to quash six Low Traffic Neighbourhoods in the borough.
Inside Croydon has learned that legal advice received by Croydon Council on Friday night made it abundantly clear that, thanks to Mayor Jason Perry’s big mouth, they would certainly lose the case again.
It leaves another gaping hole in Perry’s latest budget, which is balanced this financial year only because of another £119million bail-out from government.
The cash-strapped council has so far refused to comment on the matter, or explain how it might fund the many thousands of claims for refunds of £160 fines from Penalty Charge Notices arising from Perry’s money-spinning LTNs that have been ruled “unlawful”.
After almost two years of legal arguments over whether the Judicial Review ought ever to have been heard, Mr Justice Pepperall handed down the decision that the council’s legal orders from 2024, which made six Croydon LTNs permanent, should be quashed.
Justice Pepperall’s judgement was devastating for Jason Perry, as it focused on the comments that the Conservative politician had made before and after he was elected as Croydon’s Mayor.
The judge’s ruling was implicitly critical of Perry and his shifting position and contradictory comments, as he opted to keep the schemes and the £10million-plus revenue they were expected to generate. The case was straightforward, the judge said: LTNs can be introduced to calm or reduce traffic and pollution, but they cannot be introduced to balance the bankrupt borough’s books.
Long sentence: the real, and the only, reason that the council is removing its LTNs
Croydon’s roads department projected annual income from fines from motorists of up to £10.7million over four years.
The schemes ruled unlawful are Albert Road in South Norwood, Dalmally Road, Addiscombe, Elmers Road, South Norwood, Holmesdale Road, Selhurst, and Parsons Mead and Sutherland Road, both in Broad Green.
In his ruling, Justice Pepperall wrote: “The schemes were controversial. In opposition, Conservative Councillor Jason Perry criticised the then Labour administration for the introduction of the schemes.
“While that was his wish, he cautioned: ‘However, owing to how Labour has constructed their budget this is simply not possible. There is well over £20million of future income within the budget which would have to be replaced if this happened’.”
The judge also highlighted how Perry lied to the public once he was elected. “He said that he did not support the schemes but did not pledge to remove them.”
The judge even quotes Perry’s porky: “I did not at any point say that I would remove all the [Low Traffic Neighbourhood schemes] because I just knew it was not a pledge that I could uphold.”
And today,
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days later than he said he would, Perry appeared in a little social media video trying to claim the credit for the removal of his unlawful LTNs.
“He’s looking just a bit pathetic,” one Katharine Street source said on viewing the video. “And increasingly desperate.”
The video – issued by Croydon’s Tories, not by Croydon Council – fails to mention the latest legal advice or the undisguised criticism of Perry’s hypocrisy by the High Court judge, as Porkie Pie Perry tries to take the credit for the removal of the LTNs.
“I’m scrapping Labour’s LTNs in Croydon,” Perry lies in his video. It’s the High Court’s decision, not his. As recently as December, Perry and council officials were saying that they were confident that they would win the Judicial Review brought against the LTNs.
As recently as Tuesday this week, Perry’s council was still banking the PCN revenue generated by the CCTV cameras that Perry had had installed.
“When these Low Traffic Neighbourhood schemes were introduced by Labour in 2020…” Perry lied, failing to state that it was his decision, in 2024, to make the LTNs permanent. It was these council orders that Judge Pepperall quashed.
“Residents and businesses across Croydon told me the same thing: they increased congestion, lengthened journeys and fined local people for driving on their own streets.” Another lie. Residents are issued permits to use their own streets. The only people issuing such fines has been… Jason Perry’s own council.
“This is nth-degree gas-lighting by Perry,” according to one resident who was shocked by the Tory Mayor’s efforts to spin a multi-million-pound mess of his own making.
Another described Perry’s video as “weapons-grade misdirection”: “The Mayor had the power to remove these when elected to office. He chose not to.”
Part-time Perry’s video continues: “As a lifelong Croydon resident and local business owner, I’ve always shared those concerns.” Apart from the time he signed the orders to make the LTNs permanent, that is. Or the past two years, when he has been writing the fines revenue into his council budgets.
Video nasty: Perry’s statement has been described as ‘weapons-grade misdirection’
Perry kept the porkie pies coming: “I always said Croydon should not rely on fining residents to balance the books.” Apart from the times when he said he was doing just that. And the time he made the LTNs permanent to do just that.
Perry goes on to claim that the the council’s finances are “stabilised”, which, of course, is also untrue.
“I’ve taken the decision to remove them,” Perry lied. He’s been ordered to, by the High Court, which ridiculed his shifting position on the matter.
One resident remarked on social media: “This is a decision made not in the interests of the council or Croydon residents, but for Perry’s own, personal political expediency.”
Perry’s self-regarding diatribe continued: “Croydon has come a long way since Labour’s financial collapse.” The council’s debts today, under piss-poor Perry, stand at £1.4billion, exactly the same as the day he became Mayor.
“While I am Mayor,” Perry boasted, perhaps puffing out his chest just a little, the LTNs “will never return.”
Perry might be in office only until May 8. Local elections take place on May 7, and residents are beginning to realise that he’s been taking them for fools.
“The only thing he’s managed to do halfway competently is increase his own wages,” one resident said this morning.
Politicians don’t often resort to using the words “lies” or “liar” when talking about political opponents. Too close to home usually.
But unusually, after seeing Perry’s latest video nasty, today they did.
“There’s no principles in any of this,” Councillor Stuart King, the leader of the Labour group at the Town Hall, said.
“Taxpayers in Croydon are now on the hook for millions as the Mayor needs to fill a gaping hole in next year’s budget that is entirely of his own doing.
“It was Jason Perry who introduced camera-enforced LTNs in September 2022 and it was Jason Perry who in February 2024 made those LTNs permanent, which he then fought a two-year court battle to defend.
“In May 2026, voters have the chance to sack this incompetent Mayor.”
After seeing the latest Perry video on LTNs, Peter Underwood, the Green Party candidate for Croydon Mayor, said: “So many lies in one video.
“A perfect example of why no one should vote Conservative on 7 May. Whatever your view of the issue, we need honesty in Croydon politics, not more shameless lying.”
Read more: High Court judge orders end to Croydon’s ‘unlawful’ LTNs
Read more: Council failed to include High Court LTN case on risk register
Read more: London’s toxic air is ‘a public health emergency’ says charity
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