The Croydon Renewal Plan. Its very name tells a story. To need renewing means that something has fallen into disrepair and failed. This is the current state of Croydon. A town that desperately needs renewing. Renewing from the disaster that Labour have made of it.
Unfortunately, for our residents, renewal is not what is coming next. The figures in this plan make all too plain what is coming.
For next year departmental budgets have had to be INCREASED by £105m. Sound good? No, this is Labour remember, that increase is just to correct budgets that have previously been massively underforecast. You get no extra services just a promise of an accurate budget, we’ve heard THOSE promises before. Then you apply in year savings of £41m which includes many of the cuts we are hearing about tonight.
That still leaves a £64m annual gap. This has to be bridged by either making savings (you might call these cuts!) or increasing charges. Every resident will feel this happen and be worse off because of it. Some, dramatically. Many will pay with their jobs.
And so back to the ‘plan’. My response to this plan is not about the content, a large number of very hard working council officers have put a huge amount of time and effort into producing this and they are to be commended for their efforts, but any plan is
only as good as those who will lead it’s implementation. The Council Leader, Hamida Ali was one of the cabinet that created this mess, The Deputy Leader of the Council was as well, in fact 7 of the 10 ‘new’ cabinet were members of the ‘old’ cabinet and the chairs of GPAC, Scrutiny and Health and Well Being Board are all the same people. You don’t ask the person who just crashed a car to drive you home!
Am I being unfair? Perhaps our leader is a breath of fresh air. Well if you are unsure, why not listen to Cllr Ali being quizzed by Vanessa Feltz on BBC London Radio last Tuesday. The absolute disaster of an interview will give you an insight into why we STILL aren’t allowed to ask individual questions and get individual answers at cabinet meetings. It demonstrates why Cllr Ali has copied her montor, Cllr Newman’s evasion tactics.
If you can’t answer simple questions I can’t trust you to make this plan work.
Madam Mayor, I cannot support Labours plan.
