Fewer than 5% of Inside Croydon readers consider the Croydon Mayor’s banner to be ‘honest’, as the biased messaging is removed from outside council-owned leisure centre. By our Political Editor, WALTER CRONXITE
Pooled resources: this is the only pool in Purley that Jason Perry has delivered after four years as Mayor
Contractors have been ordered to remove a banner placed on council-owned Purley Leisure Centre “immediately”, after the Town Hall’s most senior lawyer issued a ruling following complaints that the prominent hoarding, decked out in official council colours and logo, was in breach of pre-election “purdah” rules.
The hoarding has been condemned by rival candidates for Croydon Mayor as “political spin, dressed up as a council regeneration message, and paid for by the public”.
Last night, Stephen Lawrence-Orumwense, the council’s Monitoring Officer, ordered the banner’s immediate removal.
The fate of Purley Pool has been a recurring election issue for more than a decade. In 2021, Conservative Jason Perry said that he would re-open the pool if elected Croydon Mayor, claiming all necessary works could be done with a relatively modest amount of infrastructure levies paid by developers on nearby sites.
Five years on, and Purley Pool remains closed and abandoned, after another of Mayor Perry’s deals, this time with a dodgy-looking developer based in an overseas tax haven, has ground to a halt.
Opposition politicians were furious when, at the end of March, the blatantly biased banner went up outside the leisure centre, claiming the property as a “major regeneration project driven by Executive Mayor Jason Perry”. The text also used “restore pride”, a common theme in Croydon Conservative election materials.
Broken promise: the £86,000 per year part-time Mayor Jason Perry has failed to deliver on Purley Pool
The banner, paid for out of tax-payers’ money, appeared just as Croydon Council was entering a politically restricted period ahead of the local elections on May 7, when it is banned by law from making any electorally sensitive statements liable to influence voters.
Stuart King, Labour’s leader at the Town Hall, fired off another angry letter over this breach of election law, and last night, a week later, Lawrence-Orumwense finally sent a reply.
“Following legal advice, the council has decided to take down the hoarding (banner) of concern that refers to the Executive Mayor. Contractors have been instructed to deal with this urgently,” Lawrence-Orumwense wrote.
“Your representation and the legal advice obtained has led to the review of the previous decision and the decision now to remove the banner with references to the Executive Mayor immediately.
“Thank you for bringing this matter to my attention.”
Bad decisions: Stephen Lawrence-Orumwense
It had taken the council’s most senior officials seven days since receiving a formal complaint to admit that they had dropped another major bollock by allowing Perry to smear an election message over a council-owned building.
Croydon Tories are thought to be claiming a victory, of sorts, for having connived to having the public-funded messaging smeared across a council building for at least 10 days – and suffering no consequences for cheating the law.
The episode comes just a month since Tory Perry was ridiculed by a High Court judge for his mishandling of six low traffic neighbourhoods across the borough. Perry’s LTN scandal will cost the council around £10million, according to the latest estimates from the Town Hall.
The judge’s ruling was based on public comments made by Perry about the revenue generated by the LTNs – comments which it has now emerged were cleared in advance by the council’s lawyers.
The purdah banner also comes soon after it was discovered that Perry approved the council paying £500,000 hush money to Essex property developers after the collapse of a £22million property deal in Coulsdon. All because it might have cost more to take court recovery action over the flats at Red Clover Gardens, according to advice from council lawyers.
All three episodes reflect poorly on the standard of legal advice being provided by Lawrence-Orumwense and his department in Fisher’s Folly.
“It isn’t even just poor legal advice,” complained one Katharine Street source. “It’s a complete absence of simple common sense.”
Credibility issues: our readers don’t believe Perry is honest
In Lawrence-Orumwense’s letter to Councillor King, he suggests that the decision on commissioning the banner and having it installed in Purley town centre was made “some months ago”, as part of “site security measures”.
“The decision was approved by senior officers, who at the time considered the installations as business-as-usual and not a breach of the Publicity Code and Council’s guidance,” ” Lawrence-Orumwense wrote, without naming names.
At the weekend, Inside Croydon ran a completely unscientific online poll, asking which of three variations of the Purley Pool Purdah banner presented the most honest messaging.
The Mayor’s banner, the one that is being removed because it breaks pre-election law, received the support of just 4.76% or respondents.
- Paid-up subscribers to this website can listen to The Andrew Fisher Interview with Labour’s Rowenna Davis by clicking here
- Andrew Fisher has also interviewed Liberal Democrat candidate Richard Howard and his podcast with the Green Party’s Peter Underwood will be available later this week
Read more: CEO accused of spending public cash for Perry’s benefit
Read more: Labour’s Town Hall leader files complaint over Perry’s spending
Read more: Tory council loses £20m over Coulsdon collapsed property deal
Read more: Planning application for Westfield scheme stalled to mid-2026
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