If you weren’t able to attend Croydon’s Cabinet meeting held last night, then fear not! We watched it so that you don’t have to. Here are the top five highlights:
1. A £1m cut to Children’s Services
As we all know, the Failing Labour Council has completely bankrupted the Borough – and this means that they are having to cut spending on vital services. This includes a £1m cut to Children’s Services.
The original plan was also to close multiple Children’s Centres in the South of the Borough, leaving areas like Purley Oaks and Sanderstead with nowhere to go – but thanks to fierce lobbying from your Conservative Team and over 90 letters from residents, these Centres will now be kept open (albeit on a reduced service).
2. Concerns around the Rough Sleeping Fund
The Government has recently announced a Rough Sleeping Fund of over £200m, of which Croydon Council will receive just over £1.7m. This large grant could make a real difference to the lives of rough sleepers in our Borough, but we are concerned that the money will be spent on more Council staff salaries, rather than front-line services, where it is needed most.
3. Labour are #MakingYouPay for their Fairfield Halls Failure
A new article in “The Stage” laid bare the complete failure of Croydon’s Labour Council throughout the process of the Fairfield Halls Renovation. The renovation has taken three years longer than planned, and is £40m over budget – another bill which Croydon’s taxpayers will have to pay. Click here to read the article!
The building is still not usable, according to a report submitted to Council – but Croydon Labour have been trying to paper over the cracks since 2019, including hosting a “re-opening” event that required the attendance of Fire Wardens, to make up for the fact that the fire systems were still not in operation.
4. A new Housing Improvement Board
Croydon have announced an independent Housing Improvement Board in light of the appalling conditions faced by Council Tenants on Regina Road. Cllr Lynne Hale pressed the Cabinet Member for Homes on how this Board would actually be holding the Labour Council to account. Labour also announced that they would begin to ask Council Tenants whether they were satisfied with their accommodation, which makes us wonder why this was not being done already!
5. Cllr Ali continues to ignore residents around Road Closures
Failing Labour’s Road Closures are causing chaos in the North of Croydon, particularly around Crystal Palace and Norwood. They have made main roads almost unusable, caused delays for emergency services, and dramatically worsened air pollution (one of the things they were supposed to tackle!)
Cllr Scott Roche asked Cllr Ali how residents would be consulted before the next wave of damaging Road Closures, but no answer was forthcoming. This isn’t surprising, considering the last consultation resulted in a 60% opposition to the scheme, and was promptly ignored.
On the whole, then, residents of Croydon will not have been at all reassured that this Failing Labour Cabinet – barely changed from the previous Cabinet led by Tony Newman – is able to get this Borough out of the mess that they have dragged us into. It gets clearer every day that the only way to turn Croydon around is to sweep out Failing Labour and elect a fresh, new Conservative Administration in 2022!
