Under-trained security officials, paid for with public money, are doing the bidding of Mayor’s favoured business group in ‘authoritarian thuggery and bullying’. By STEVEN DOWNES
Croydon Council has been accused of being tactless, uncaring and of persecuting homeless people, after slapping an exclusion order on the walls of one of the borough’s oldest buildings yesterday, the Whitgift Almshouses.
Rough sleeping: council enforcement staff have got tough with a small group of homeless people in the town centre
Inside Croydon understands that the Whitgift Foundation, which manages the almshouses and has its offices in the 16th-Century building, has even been providing hot meals for homeless people who have taken to settling down on the busy corner of George Street and North End.
The Foundation was completely unaware of the council’s intention to post the exclusion notice, which has ordered the homeless people to remove all their possessions from the location by 8am tomorrow, Friday May 15.
The council, with its new force of under-trained security guards, working together with Croydon BID, the business improvement district, and some North End shop-keepers, have been accused of unnecessarily heavy-handed treatment of homeless people who camp out in the town centre shopping area.
Last month, community outreach worker Emma Gardiner wrote of her shock and disgust of how half-a-dozen private security guards, all dressed in bogus police uniforms, had ganged up on a single homeless person just because they were quietly sitting, minding their own business, outside Centrale.
No-go zone: security staff at Centrale on North End now spend their time moving people along who are minding their own business
No drugs were being taken, no alcohol was being drunk. The man was just sitting in Croydon.
“A total of seven security guards, some of them paid for out of public money from a government grant, [were] tasked with moving one man from one bit of the pavement to another,” Gardiner wrote, barely able to believe what she had witnessed.
“What I’d like to know is,” Gardiner asked, “why is Croydon Council’s Community Patrol helping Centrale remove homeless people off its private property?”
Now, it appears that council resources are being used again to act as enforcers for private business, under Tory Mayor Jason Perry’s “zero tolerance” approach.
Locals report that no more than four homeless have been gathering at the George Street and North End junction, sometimes sitting on steps into offices next to the NatWest Bank.
From the blunt officialese document slapped on the 600-year-old walls of the Almshouses, they have “received several complaints of anti-social behaviour coming from an encampment on the land of Whitgift Almshouses, George Street”, opposite NatWest Bank.
Locals say that the homeless people have tended to leave in the evenings, and settle down in the area during the day.
Notice to quit: the council’s official threats, which have been posted with the knowledge of the Whitgift Foundation, and without any approval by police or a judge
In big red type, the notice claims that, by tomorrow morning’s deadline, the homeless people must “Remove depositing personal belongings on Whitgift Almshouses George Street oppo (NatWest Bank) which constitutes a danger and health and safety risk to users and staff members.”
And it adds, “Individuals are strictly prohibited from relocating or setting up at any location within the Borough of Croydon. Any belongings or materials found at alternative sites will be removed and disposed of without further notice.”
Your money’s paying for this: instead of extra, fully trained police, Perry has hired these guys and is working with his mates at Croydon BID, where he is a director
The notice goes on to state that, “Non-compliance with a Community Protection Warning may lead to the council serving a Community Protection Notice [which] carries criminal sanctions and can lead to a criminal record.
“Failure without reasonable excuse to comply with a Community Protection Notice can lead to seizure and forfeiture of items, default works and recovery of costs and/or a fine of up to £2,500 in relation to an individual or up to £20,000 in the case of a business.”
For good measure, the notice adds that they might also throw in a £100 fixed penalty notice for “non-compliance”.
None of this has been approved or passed for action by a judge, nor have the police been involved in this council-generated action.
“It’s disgusting. It’s authoritarian thuggery and bullying,” said one concerned local.
“There are ways to deal with these issues. And this isn’t one of them. It’s callous and uncaring. Our Mayor is a director of Croydon BID. He appears to be using council resource to satisfy his big business mates.”
Inside Croydon approached Croydon Council. Mayor Perry’s propaganda department refused to comment.
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Most homeless people aren’t homeless by choice and are very pleaaant. But most thugs are thugs by choice, perhaps because they feel the need to show power they don’t really have in their lives. This is a disgrace.
More sinister echoes of Trump’s ICE methods. Is Croydon planning to become a Sundown town too? (NB: these became illegal following passage of the Civil Rights Act 1968) 🥹
Council heavies?
The Police has long been the career choice for school bullies, but the council’s “security officers” are probably police rejects, who failed to even get over the low bar to join the Met.