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Part-time Perry’s Leipzig dilemma as Mayor faces fixture clash

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EXCLUSIVE: ‘Life-long’ Palace fan is going to have to do some work to earn his £86,000 council salary, as opposition parties refuse to change date of Town Hall’s annual meeting on the night that the Eagles will be making history in their first European final. By STEVEN DOWNES

Busted: Croydon’s £86,000 per year part-time Mayor, Jason Perry, pictured this week, making his application for a refund on his flight tickets to Germany

Almost the first act of Jason Perry since he was re-elected as Croydon’s £86,000 per year Mayor was to ask for a change of date of the council’s annual meeting, set for Wednesday, May 27 – in order that he can go instead to Leipzig to see Crystal Palace play in the UEFA Conference League final.

Opposition councillors have rejected Perry’s pathetic request, describing it as “wrong”.

“The Mayor’s immediate priority should be focusing on fixing the fly-tipping and pothole epidemic in Croydon, not how to get to a football match,” Stuart King, the Labour group leader, told Inside Croydon tonight.

During his election campaign, part-time Perry made much of how he is “a Croydon lad born and bred”, and is a season ticket-holder at Selhurst Park.

And now he has been trying to get council business shifted to allow him to fly to Leipzig to see the Eagles play in their first-ever European final, where they are due to face
Spanish side Rayo Vallecano in an 8pm kick-off on May 27.

The venue and date of the UEFA showpiece final has been known for almost a year.

The Town Hall annual meeting is a largely ceremonial event, but is required under the council’s constitution to be staged within 21 days of the local elections, which took place on May 7, in order to formally confirm all the various appointments of councillors for the coming Town Hall year.

“Perry’s been Mayor for four years,” a Katharine Street source told Inside Croydon. “He could have arranged for the annual council meeting’s date to be adjusted, quietly, without much fuss, at any time since last summer, once Palace’s fate in Europe was confirmed.

“So either he didn’t think Palace would make it through to the final, or he never believed he was going to be re-elected as Mayor.”

Another Town Hall source suggested: “Now we know what all Perry’s tears were about at the election result declaration: he’d probably booked non-refundable flights for the final.”

And another senior source said: “So much for putting the interests of the Croydon public first. At the first test, Perry’s put his own self-interest ahead of the orderly running of the council.”

Many councillors were already unhappy with the choice of May 27 as the date for the council annual meeting, in a week with a Bank Holiday Monday when schoolchildren are on half-term holidays.

The decision over whether to shift the council meeting to Tuesday, May 26, as officials have requested on behalf of Croydon’s part-time Mayor, ultimately rests with Richard Chatterjee, the borough’s ceremonial, civic mayor for 2025-2026 who chairs the Town Hall meetings.

But this week, the various political groups in Croydon’s new, multi-coloured council were approached to seek their permission for the change.

According to Claire Bonham, of the now two-strong Liberal Democrats group on the council, “I said I would go with the majority view.” Which you’d kind of expect from the LibDems.

The Greens, who comprise seven councillors plus “independent” Mark Adderley, who is supposedly suspended by the party while his social media postings are investigated for alleged antisemitism, expressed disapproval that such a move should be suggested in accommodating the Mayor’s personal interests.

Ria Patel, the leader of Croydon’s Greens, said, “The very short notice in changing the date of the annual council is very frustrating. Rescheduling the first full council meeting of the term doesn’t set the best tone.”

Diary date: Perry could have had the date for the council annual meeting changed at any time in the past nine months

And Labour’s Stuart King said, “Labour councillors wish Palace the very best of luck for the European final. We also wish all Palace fans travelling to the game a safe and enjoyable journey.

“But changing the date of the first meeting of the newly elected council in order to allow Mayor Perry to travel to the game is wrong.

“Labour councillors will not support such a change and we have made this clear to him and the council. The Mayor’s immediate priority should be focusing on fixing the fly-tipping and pothole epidemic in Croydon, not how to get to a football match.”

According to Town Hall sources, late this afternoon the council’s democratic services department, responsible for managing business at the Town Hall, confirmed that the annual meeting will be going ahead at its original time and date, Wednesday May 27.

Anyone looking for two tickets for the UEFA Conference League final in Leipzig on May 27, contact Jason Perry at mayor@croydon.gov.uk, with “Cup tickets” in the subject field.

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