Croydon Town Hall: having 70 councillors in the borough is an anachronism in the 21st century
CROYDON COMMENTARY: Politics is broken and we need to fix it, says DAVID CALLAM, as he offers some radical solutions to reduce the costs of democracy at the Town Hall and at City Hall
Our institutions need some major surgery if we are ever to reach a position where we trust them. Let me float a few ideas.
Locally, we need to reduce the Town Hall shenanigans as well as the costs. We have too many representatives with too little to do.
At the moment, 22 wards in Croydon have three councillors, while two have two, making a total of 70 councillors for our borough. Croydon spends around £1.2 million per year in “allowances” on these 70 councillors.
The numbers are an anachronism in the 21st century, determined at a time when society was structured very differently and few people had access to a telephone or a car, let alone more modern means of communication.
I would reduce the number of councils in Greater London from 33 to five. I see Croydon as part of a south London grouping made up of six existing boroughs – Croydon, Kingston, Merton, Richmond, Sutton and Wandsworth.
If we elected four representatives for each of the 11 Parliamentary constituencies in the area, we could create a lithe “South London Assembly” of just 44.
The change would result in an immediate cut of almost 85 per cent in the public money being spent on councillors’ expenses and executive salaries, together with a reduction in the overall salary bill due to greater efficiency. It would allow the new assembly to maintain or even to reduce current levels of council tax. Continue reading →
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CACFO, the Croydon African Caribbean Family Organisation, which was established in Northwood Road 20 years ago by Gee Bernard, has seen its education funding fall by 40 per cent and its adult care funding cut by 70 per cent.
