Tory Mayor fails to act over doomed multiplex cinema, as he uses latest blow to ‘evolving’ town centre as an opportunity for a bit of late-term cosplaying. SANDRA STEAD reports
Jason Perry, Croydon’s impotent and out-of-touch Mayor, had no idea that the town centre multiplex cinema was to close – until he read the report on Inside Croydon.
Off-screen: the Grants centre is about to lose its multiplex cinema. Croydon’s Mayor did not know about the closure plan
And when he found out what was happening to a major venue that is just a short walk from the Town Hall, rather than try to use his influence as Mayor to get the owners to reconsider, Perry instead used it as an opportunity for some political grandstanding.
Part-time Perry, who moonlights as a director of Croydon BID, the so-called Business “Improvement” District, failed to respond to questions from this website about the closure of the Vue Cinema in the Grants centre on the High Street.
Vue management has said their venue will screen its last Hollywood blockbusters this week, on April 9. With another multiplex less than three miles away, on the Purley Way, Vue has decided to cut its costs.
The 10-screen town centre Vue multiplex has been a feature of the Grants centre since it opened in 2000.
The imminent loss of cinema-goers to this part of the high street is feared to have a significantly detrimental effect on other businesses in the hospitality trade.
As Inside Croydon published its report on the latest signal of decline in the town centre, Croydon’s Labour politicians, MP Sarah Jones and mayoral candidate Rowenna Davis, were writing to the Vue cinema management and to the new owners of the Grants building, MGI Holdings, to seek a delay to the closure or to reconsider the decision.
Direct approach: MP Sarah Jones and Rowenna Davis wrote to Vue and the building owners
“Croydon residents have been devastated to hear that Vue Cinemas are leaving Grants in our town centre,” the letter from Davis and Jones said.
“Your cinema has been a real centre for fun, community and memories in our town…
“Croydon remains London’s largest borough, with more young people than anywhere else in the capital… Working together, we believe a cinema could easily turn a profit in our town centre,” wrote Davis and Jones.
Piss-poor Perry, who gets paid £86,000 per year as Croydon Mayor, meanwhile had done nothing.
The day after the Inside Croydon report about the closure of Vue was published, Perry sent off a snivelling note of complaint to Lisa Nandy, who while she is the government’s culture secretary, has even less influence over a commercial decision by the Vue cinema group over a Croydon venue than Perry has.
Perry’s letter to Nandy was just for show, a bit of late-term mayoral cosplaying.
The letter to Nandy was not a formal submission as the Mayor of Croydon (which is, after all, his job, even if he does it only part-time), but a piece of political arse-covering in the lead-up to next month’s local elections. Perry used his campaign masthead, which describes himself as “Conservative Mayor of Croydon”, instead of his official council stationery.
Performance politics: Perry has failed to intervene over the Vue closure, but did some campaign grandstanding instead
But the message was much the same as Croydon residents have become familiar with over the four years of Perry’s time in office: it’s all someone else’s fault, and Perry takes responsibility for nothing.
Perry appears ready to allow the town centre’s biggest cinema to close without a fight.
Being a good Tory, and a small businessman (in all senses), Perry’s note to the minister said that he recognises that “decisions of this nature are driven by commercial realities”, and that the closure plans “are unlikely to be reversed at this stage”.
Perry fails to offer any explanation over why he and his colleagues at Croydon BID have been left looking flat-footed over Vue’s closure decision.
According to Perry, the closure of the Croydon Vue has nothing to do with his inept and ineffectual handling of the declining town centre, and is down entirely to the government’s increase in employer National Insurance.
“Let’s be honest,” Perry dribbled, “this isn’t happening in isolation.”
Failed Mayor Perry described Croydon town centre as “evolving”.
Nothing is ever Perry’s fault. Not the unlawful LTN fines that will cost the council £10million. Nor the £50,000 golden handshake to his departing CEO. Not the £500,000 hush fund to a property business that stiffed the council for £22million.
In his letter to Nandy, Perry simpered: “We’re doing everything we can locally to get Croydon back on track – but national policy is making it harder, not easier.”
There have been no recent reports of Vue cinemas being closed in town centres in other London suburbs. Just in Croydon.
Perry’s pleadings drew derision in public comments on social media.
“Croydon town centre is evolving?” one wrote. “LOL.”
Another wrote: “This doesn’t happen with a thriving town centre. You can’t expect a great experience at a cinema given the current atmosphere in the town. The masses are not going to flock to Croydon just for the cinema when the shopping and hospitality is on its knees.”
Another astute observer noted the contradictions in Perry’s letter. “Kind of weird to complain about minimum wage increases and stagnant wages in the same breath,” they wrote.
“Not entirely sure tax-payers should be subsidising people watching movies,” said another.
Others noted feeling unsafe in Croydon town centre in the evenings. Some noted that Perry had been fully supportive of the Liz Truss government, with Croydon South MP Chris Philp, whose clusterfuck budget managed to double most home-owners’ monthly mortgage payments – making a night out at the pictures less affordable for many.
Parking charges in Croydon were also identified as a factor in fewer visitors, and fewer cinema-goers.
And as one other comenter on the Mayor’s Facebook page said: “Nice try with the political deflection.
“Now how do you spin the failure in every other part of the town under your watch?”
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