Inside Croydon

The Croydon Communities Consortium holds its annual meeting on Thursday evening, just eight months since the council-funded body staged its previous AGM.

It is doing so after refusing to make audited accounts available ahead of the event, and with its chairwoman, Elizabeth Ash, who has put herself in charge of the elections, accused of changing the rules to try to block people from attending, or voting.

Elizabeth Ash: changed meeting rules after receiving nominations to challenge her position as CCC chair

While CCC’s publicity had previously stated “everyone welcome” to the meeting, Ash’s attitude has been of ill-disguised hostility since it emerged on Friday that her position is to be challenged.

Three rival candidates – or “agitators”, as Ash calls any Croydon residents who dare to question her autocratic stance – have put themselves forward to stand for key posts in the organisation over worries about how a public organisation, funded by the local council, should have seen trades unions expressing concern about the manner in which CCC stages its meetings, and the borough’s police commander decide that his officers should not attend CCC meetings.

In 2013, CCC received a grant of £5,000 from the council, on condition that it should stage at least 20 public meetings in a year, and that it should be apolitical. In the 2014 calendar year CCC, with Ash now at its helm, struggled to stage a dozen public events, but managed to appoint to its committee at least two active members of UKIP, including one who was his party’s General Election candidate in Croydon Central. Continue reading →