CROYDON IN CRISIS: Just hours before his council was due at the High Court to face a possible Judicial Review over its closure of Access Croydon, the Mayor announced that he was moving the housing service.
EXCLUSIVE by STEVEN DOWNES
Judicial Review: Mayor Jason Perry must have a season ticket for the High Court, his council has to defend cases there so frequently
With Jason Perry and Croydon Council virtually on the steps of the Royal Courts of Justice for today’s hearing before a High Court judge over the closure of Access Croydon, at the 11th hour yesterday evening the calamity council issued a note proclaiming a change in service.
Not that the shift of a housing front desk to a building on South End is likely to materially alter the grounds of the legal test case, since Perry’s omnishambles council maintains that appointments to see council housing staff will still need to be by appointment only.
It is almost as if no one at Perry’s council has quite grasped the fundamental point of the application for a Judicial Review over the closure of public access to statutory services.
The legal case, with the backing of 30 Croydon voluntary organisations and charities, is being brought over claims that the council’s cost-cutting move to shut itself off from the people it is supposed to serve breaks the law in respect of its statutory responsibilities for homeless people.
Inside Croydon broke the news in March 2025 of how, with barely one weekday’s notice, the then council CEO, Katherine Kerswell, ordered that Access Croydon should be closed to the public.
Instead, a much-reduced operation was established in another part of Fisher’s Folly, the council office-block, with access strictly on an appointment-only basis. And in Kerswell’s “digital-first” world, if you didn’t have access to a computer or tablet device – which is often the case for older residents or those without a home – then tough.
Purpose-built: Fisher’s Folly was commissioned by Perry and Croydon Tories and cost £20m overbudget
Kerswell’s bright idea, approved by part-time Perry, resulted in the farcical situation of council staff having to escort the digitally excluded around to Croydon Central Library, where queues formed of people waiting to use a council computer in order to make an appointment to see a council official in a council building that they had stood outside just minutes earlier.
Staff forced to endure Kerswell and Perry’s new appointments-only system described the scene at Fisher’s Folly in one word: “Chaos”.
Almost 30 voluntary and charity sector organisations wrote to Mayor Perry and CEO Kerswell demanding an immediate re-opening of the council offices to the public. They said that the council’s decision to close Access Croydon to anyone who does not have a pre-booked appointment is “denying residents access to vital support”.
Constant watch: Croydon Nightwatch was among 30 to sig a letter of complaint over the closure of Access Croydon
When Mayor Perry ignored the letter, the Public Interest Law Centre took up the case, with their application for a Judicial Review of the decision due to be heard today.
Then, at 4.30pm yesterday, Mayor Perry signed off an email about access to housing services. But it is not the game-changer that piss-poor Perry might have hoped for.
Perry’s email reads: “I am pleased to be able to provide an update on plans for a combined council reception service, which will include our housing needs and homelessness service.”
Perry’s “plan” has not even been given approval by councillors yet (mind you, the closure of Access Croydon was never even subject to discussion at council before the Perry and Kerswell imposed their late-notice edict).
In his email, he explained that he wants to move the homelessness front desk to Cavendish House, a 1980s office block at 51-55 South End. Once earmarked as a possible Brick by Brick development site, Perry’s cash-strapped council has failed to find a buyer for the building as part of his asset-disposal “strategy”.
Now Perry has decided that the “Turnaround Centre” is to be used as… a turnaroound centre, but only if given approval by Perry’s puppets at a cabinet meeting on July 29. “It is our intention to move there from the end of August 2026,” Perry said in his email.
“This would be a change of location only,” Perry said.
“The service would continue to be appointment-only, with same-day appointments available for residents in urgent need.”
Failed to grasp: Jason Perry’s council is accused of breaking the law. Again
So the reasons for the Judicial Review challenge remain.
“The proposed move forms part of the wider Town Hall Campus Programme, which is reviewing how council buildings are used and improving the way residents access frontline services,” Perry wrote.
And the Mayor claims, “Relocating the service to Cavendish House will provide a better environment for residents, visitors and staff. The new location has been identified because it offers improved facilities, including a larger reception area with quieter, family-friendly spaces, more appointment rooms and a layout that will improve how many residents and visitors can be assisted.”
Of course, Fisher’s Folly, commissioned by Perry and Croydon Tories and completed in 2013 at a cost of £144million – more than £20million over-budget – is architect-designed with purpose-built facilities including a large reception area and family-friendly spaces, appointment rooms and a layout specifically for council officials to meet the residents that the council is supposed to serve. They even called the public space “Access Croydon”, until Perry and Kerswell decided to make it No Access Croydon.
In his email, Perry chuntered on about Cavendish House: “This will help us provide a better experience for residents accessing housing support, whilst supporting the wider improvements being made across the Town Hall campus.” Take cover: Perry’s learned a new word. We now have a Town Hall “campus”.
Cavendish House, Perry assured in his email, will not change the other services provided there “which will continue to be delivered as normal”. That, of course, is “normal” by Perry and Croydon standards…
The move to different premises has been interpreted by some working in Croydon’s “third sector” as a grudging admission that the Kerswell closure of Access Croydon for use of a less accessible area at the arse end of Fisher’s Folly has never worked, has tried to adapt a space never intended for the purpose and continues – despite the filter of the online appointments system – to be over-crowded with visitors.
“Moving homeless people off Mint Walk and down to South End is a classic council attempt to have ‘out of sight, out of mind’,” one insider said.
“It’s typical of how the council tries to sweep its problems under the carpet.”
Read more: Council facing High Court challenge over ‘No Access Croydon’
Read more: No Access Croydon: 30 voluntary groups demand reopening
Read more: They voted to raise your Council Tax, then to increase their pay
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This Douglas Adams classic comes to mind (though probably lost on PPP)
“But the plans were on display…”
“On display? I eventually had to go down to the cellar to find them.”
“That’s the display department.”
“With a flashlight.”
“Ah, well, the lights had probably gone.”
“So had the stairs.”
“But look, you found the notice, didn’t you?”
“Yes,” said Arthur, “yes I did. It was on display in the bottom of a locked filing cabinet stuck in a disused lavatory with a sign on the door saying ‘Beware of the Leopard.”