CROYDON IN CRISIS: The cash-strapped council’s Tory leader had no answers when asked why he has failed to refund ‘money which rightfully belongs to hardworking residents’. By our Town Hall reporter, KEN LEE
Croydon’s failed Mayor Jason Perry is sitting on £8million of residents’ money that his council ought to have returned.
That’s the total of Council Tax overpayments from almost 30,000 households in the borough, all gathering interest in the cash-strapped council’s bank accounts. The amount is almost twice as much as was held on account before piss poor Perry became Croydon Mayor.
The £8million figure exposes Tory Mayor Perry as a thundering hypocrite.
Five years ago, as part of their campaign to get Perry elected, Croydon Conservatives ran one of their data-scraping petitions: “Croydon Labour: Return our Council Tax Overpayments!” The article remains published on the local Tories’ website today.
Then, in August 2021, the amount of overpaid Council Tax in the council coffers was £4.7million.
And then, Croydon’s Tories complained about the borough’s high levels of Council Tax.
By next April, Conservative Mayor Jason Perry will have hiked our Council Tax by 39.7%.
Of the Council Tax overpayments which the Town Hall had failed to refund, Croydon Conservatives said in 2021: “This is money which rightfully belongs to the hardworking residents of Croydon. Any overpayments should be returned as soon as possible, not held on to in hopes that local people might not realise.” They have a point.
“When thousands of local people are struggling with the cost of living, trying to make ends meet after the covid pandemic, this is just another kick in the teeth.”
Tory hypocrites: the 2021 data-scraping petition was still on the local Conservatives’ website this morning
Since he was elected in 2022, failed Mayor Perry has continued to give the residents he is supposed to serve “just another kick in the teeth”.
The matter was raised at the latest full council meeting in the Town Hall Chamber.
Councillor Stuart King, the leader of the Town Hall Labour group, asked Perry if he knew how many Council Tax accounts were overpaid in the last financial year and the value of those overpayments.
Not for the first time, Perry didn’t have the figures.
King told the Chamber: “I’m surprised the Mayor doesn’t know, because this has always been important to him, I thought.
“After all, as Leader of the Opposition he ran a campaign to get the council to – and I quote, ‘immediately return any and all council tax overpayments’.
“… Let me help him out. Mr Mayor, would you be surprised to learn that since you became Mayor you have gathered almost £8million in council tax overpayments, affecting almost 30,000 accounts?
“Do you remember saying that ‘this is money that rightly belongs to the hardworking residents of Croydon’?”
And King had one final dig at Croydon’s mendacious Mayor: “So… will you be returning it to residents? Or is this another example of you saying one thing, but doing another?”
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