The Croydon Communities Consortium ( https://croydoncc.wordpress.com/ ) held an open meeting yesterday on the subject of Bins, flytipping, recycling etc. Unfortunately the Labour cabinet member Cllr Muhammad Ali did not attend despite several invitations, but my colleague the shadow Cabinet member Cllr Helen Redfern was there, together with about 35 residents from all over Croydon.
Helen gave a short factual summary of the current situation, and the rest of the two hours was taken up with a succession of residents asking penetrating questions; they wanted to ask them of Cllr Ali, but as he wasn't there, Cllr Redfern had to explain the situation as she understood it. Many were very concerned about the imminent consultation over possible closure of one or more recycling centres, particularly as this was likely to result in much more flytipping, because of the greatly increased distance which residents in the South would have to drive to get to any other centre.
Sadly the Council's current state of virtual bankruptcy means that it needs to borrow about £70M just to balance the books for the year ending 31st March, and much more money over the next two years on top of the £1500M debts it has already accumulated (= £3800 per resident). Real savings have to be found somewhere, but it's hard to believe that closing recycling centres will actually save any money, because it will cost so much more to clean up the excess flytips.
Several residents in Labour wards also expressed anger that they were being totally ignored or even blocked by their elected local councillors when they raised matters of local concern. I urged these residents to lodge a formal complaint with the Council, because communication with and support of residents is surely one of the purposes of being a councillor in the first place..... What do they do all day?!
