At a Cabinet meeting last week, Croydon Labour again exposed how they could not stick to any promises they make.
The Government gave Croydon Council £3 million to distribute to businesses who have been impacted by the COVID pandemic. Despite a promise made at the start of the year to do everything they could to tackle ingrained inequality in Croydon, only 0.3% of the funding will go to businesses in New Addington.
Before the last election Croydon Labour produced a manifesto that was entitled ‘Ambitious for Croydon’. This glossy document set out over 280 promises laying out how Labour was going to make Croydon a great place to live. Including details of how it would set up its own property developer ‘Brick by Brick’, how it would refurbish Fairfield Halls and work with Westfield on a multimillion pound project to rebuild Croydon Town Centre.
Earlier this year when Labour realised that they had spent all the money that residents had entrusted to them, they ripped up their glossy manifesto and set out a new vision for Croydon’s future, it consisted of just three promises:-
1. To live within our means, balance the books and provide value for money for our residents.
2. To focus on tackling ingrained inequality and poverty in the borough.
3. To focus on providing the best quality core service we can afford. First and foremost, providing social care services that keep our most vulnerable residents safe and healthy. And to keep our streets clean and safe.
Last week Labour showed they could not stick to these simple promises.
They made it clear that they have no intention of ‘tackling ingrained inequality’ when they announced that New Addington, the most deprived area of Croydon, would receive just £10,000 in Additional Restrictions Grants - when other areas will be receiving five times as much.
Cllr Andy Stranack Shadow Cabinet Member for Safer Croydon, Communities and Business Recovery said:-
“This is just another example of how Labour are failing the people of Croydon. Labour Councillors write warm words about tackling inequality but when it comes to distributing funding New Addington gets forgotten. Some areas of Croydon are receiving five times more funding than New Addington. This surely cannot be right?”
