CROYDON COMMENTARY: With the Green Party deliberately excluded from the planning committee by a Labour-Tory pact at the Town Hall, new councillor PAUL AINSCOUGH, pictured left, says that the borough’s two largest parties are still not listening to the public
Croydon’s system of executive mayoralty ought to make scrutiny more important, not less.
When substantial power is concentrated in the Mayor’s office, the distribution of committee roles carries more weight. It is one of the few visible ways of showing that oversight will not be confined to the established parties.
If the Conservatives and Labour have decided that the Green and Independent group of councillors at the Town Hall should hold no committee chair or vice-chair positions nor any role on the planning committee, the implication is that electoral change will be recognised in representation, but not in the allocation of institutional responsibility. That is unlikely to improve public confidence.
The electoral numbers do not support such an approach. After the 2026 local elections, Labour holds 30 seats, the Conservatives 28 and the Greens eight, with Liberal Democrats and Reform UK also represented.
The borough-wide vote shows how much dissatisfaction there is with the failing duopoly: Conservatives won 26.6%, down 11.9 points on 2022; Labour 26.3%, down 8.2 points; the Greens 23%, up 10.1 points; Reform UK 13.9%, up 13.9 points from no comparable 2022 presence; and the Liberal Democrats 9%, down 2.7 points.
This was not a result that justified the concentration of visible authority in the hands of the same two parties.
The new map of Croydon: but Paul Ainscough says that the old duopoly is blocking fair representation
It was a fragmented verdict that strengthened the case for broader scrutiny and a more proportionate distribution of influence within the council.
At the council, committee chairs and vice-chairs are important.
To deny such roles to a group, such as the Greens, that has made electoral gains is therefore not just a procedural choice. It is a statement about who is permitted to exercise authority. For voters who backed alternatives to the two largest parties, that distinction will not be lost.
That question is sharper on planning. The published planning committee membership now shows Labour and Conservative councillors on the committee, but no representative of the Green and Independent group.
In a borough where development decisions have shaped public trust in local government, that is not a technical detail. It is a choice about who is allowed to scrutinise one of the council’s most contentious functions.
The political inconsistency is hard to miss. Conservative voices in Croydon spent years attacking Labour’s planning record, criticising the repeated approval of Brick by Brick schemes, warning about building on green spaces and denouncing what they described as indiscriminate consent for overdevelopment.
In 2023, the Croydon South Tory MP Chris Philp argued that Labour had waved through poor applications that the post-2022 Conservative administration had then resisted. If that critique was serious, it is difficult to explain why Labour should still be treated as a reliable partner in the allocation of planning influence, while the Greens are excluded altogether.
Unrepresentative: how the Labour-Tory stitch-up shared out the committee seats – reducing the size of the planning committee to exclude the Greens
Croydon has reason to take this seriously. The borough is still dealing with the consequences of governance failures, financial collapse and a long erosion of trust in its institutions. In that context, scrutiny is not a secondary concern. It is part of the basic case for competent administration. A broader distribution of committee leadership would not solve the council’s deeper problems. It would, however, signal that the political system can learn from them.
If Croydon’s two largest parties want to show that they understand the electorate they now face, they should begin by adjusting to the implications of the result. An executive mayoralty demands strong scrutiny, institutional confidence and a willingness to share visible responsibility.
Refusing the Green and Independent group any chair or vice-chair positions or a voice on the planning committee suggest that the council’s electoral map has changed faster than its governing culture.
Until this happens the Green and Independent Group are the real opposition to the Conservative- Labour marriage of convenience.
Read more: Labour’s secret deal with Tories to block Greens on planning
- Councillor Paul Ainscough was elected in May 2026 to represent Fairfield ward
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“If Croydon’s two largest parties want to show that they understand the electorate they now face, they should begin by adjusting to the implications of the result.”
And pigs might fly.
I don’t understand why so many electors continue to vote for these self-centred incompetents.
So what happens when the cosy stitch-up of 4 Tory + 4 Tor – whoops – Labour councillors don’t agree? How long before this “marriage of convenience” ends in an acrimonious divorce?
Chair’s casting vote. Business as usual. The farce continues … at least until things (potentially) get far worse, when The National Scheme of Delegation comes in and the next phase of small site ‘intensification’ is managed/determined entirely by our unelected but (allegedly) ‘highly professional’ and dedicated town planners … all behind closed doors. Good luck Croydon!
Its self serving. They are so used to the musical chairs they will always help each other out to preserve that status quo. To add a third chair in their minds would mean no one loses, cant have that – They are either in power or are the opposition. The Greens, Lib Dems and Independents are the real opposition. Always have been. Once though they are bigger then it will be either the small Conservatives or Labour minority that becomes the party of no consequence and will need to re-invent itself to become honest and relevant again. Power comes from the fears of the middle ground.
And all the while, no matter who’s in ‘power’, the unelected ‘officials’ continue to do the dirty on us … and them if it suits!
As Councillor Ainscough writes planning is an important concern for Croydon Conservatives and their voters.
Securing a Conservative casting vote on planning will thus have been a concern for local Tories.
Keeping the planning committee equally balanced just between the Conservatives and Labour, as it was before the election, with a Conservative chair, gives the Conservatives a casting vote control if councillors vote along party lines. Such partisan voting is not permitted by whipping on planning but can still occur.
I expect that Labour is reluctant to work with the Greens having lost six seats to them, seats that they will seek to recapture. The huge antipathy towards the Greens from the Streatham and Croydon North Constituency Labour Party regarding Palestine is also a major factor here.
Thus the deal to pay off Labour with council tax payer funded remunerated chairing a few mainly functional committees in return for conceding that planning committee casting vote to the Tories seems like a good deal for the Conservatives.
It leaves Labour exposed to Green complaints that voters would not expect to vote Labour to gift power to the Conservatives. It is democracy in action though as the Conservative Labour informal coalition controls 59 of the 71 votes in the council chamber. Unlike Parliament it is usual in councils for the majority to retain all chair roles excluding at times the scrutiny committee.
The challenge now for the Greens is to come up with a full alternative balanced budget and co-work with Labour on this to use their combined prospective 38 vote Red Green majority. This did not happen in the last council when Red Green had a 36 vote majority. Labour, pole axed by bankrupting the council, were unable to formalise any coherent budget proposals from 2022 to 2026. Looking through to 2030 the Mayor’s budget could be threatened with being voted down if Green Red budget proposals are not accepted.
Mayor Perry has publicly noted that he does not have a majority in the council chamber but the Mayor will have little to fear If a Green Red co-working does not emerge. No other party combination that excludes the Tories has a majority.
On councillor party elections vote shares adjusted for different sized wards, I think the vote shares were Conservatives 26.6% Labour 25.1% Greens 22% Reform 13.9% Liberal Democrats 10.4% Others 2%.