If you spot graffiti blighting your street or neighbourhood, don’t expect Croydon Council to come and clean it up any more. At last week’s Council meeting, Cllr Stuart Collins, the Labour Cabinet Member responsible for clearing up graffiti, confirmed that our entire graffiti removal team are in danger of being made redundant and losing their jobs. These are hardworking frontline Council staff who do a fantastic job in clearing up graffiti, some of which can be racist and offensive.
Graffiti has long been a problem in Croydon, which makes neighbourhoods look rundown and dirty, much to the anger of local residents. Now that the entire graffiti removal team is being sacked, who is going to clean up future occurrences? When asked, Cllr Collins was unable to answer this very simple question. Remember at the last Council election the Labour Party promised to be the cleanest and greenest administration ever!
The reason the Council have had to take this retrograde step is due to way they have mismanaged the Council finances, leaving them with a £65 million hole in their budget. Instead of protecting the jobs of frontline staff, they choose instead to invest millions of pounds in unprofitable property deals.
Cllr Vidhi Mohan, the Conservative spokesperson for Clean, Green Croydon said, “This is a huge slap in the face to both Croydon residents as well as hardworking Council staff. Graffiti removal is a much valued service which helps keep our town clean and welcoming. This is a retrograde step which will be hugely damaging to out town, as well as detrimentally affecting staff who will lose their jobs. We urge the Council to reverse this decision.”
