Timothy Godfrey

Nestle Blow to Croydon & London

2012-01-05T15:08:00.000Z

So, it has finally come to pass. Nestle, after years of threatening Croydon Council to get its act together has finally decided to give up and move South to the clean streets of Crawley.

Economic Policy Vacuum

What this really shows is the complete and utter waste of time the current council is. It has been in charge since 2006 and has not tackled a single part of the economic agenda properly. 850 jobs going from London and from Croydon. Not a word from the City Mayor. Not a word.

Site History

Lets be clear, the previous Labour Council (that left office in 2006 5 and half years ago) had a grand scheme for the site that involved a big shopping centre being built. It would have ran from the Town Hall right through to the Whitgift Centre. The new Tory Council, like lap dogs, signed a revised development deal with Minerva, trying to breath new life into the project. That scheme collapsed, brought down the chain of Allders stores and left Croydon with a dilapidated St Georges Walk, a wind swept College Green and basically froze the retail offer in Croydon circa 1990. The scheme finally collapsed in 2009. 4 years after the 'new broom' Tories took control of the Council.

The new broom 2006 Council also cancelled the deal to re build the Fairfield Halls and build hundreds of apartments around it to help pay for it. Something I broadly agreed with, but still, in 2012, the Fairfield has only had a new Foyer ceiling installed, and nothing has yet started on the promised £26million refurbishment.

Why is this important? Because Nestle directors would look out of their windows and see a town uncared for and wind swept. On their way into the office, they would find the area pretty much uncared for, apart from the bright Trams whizzing through the town. At night, they would leave their offices and witness ferrel youths roaming the streets who take over the town from 3pm every day. Then on top of that they saw Croydon burn on their TVs.

So, if you are a major international company, with visitors from all over the world, why would you want to bring those visitors and your staff into the centre of a Town that the Council seems not to care a jot about?

Once there was Cross Party vision

Once upon a time, Croydon had cross party support for things like Tramlink, Croydon Clocktower, The Warehouse Theatre, The Fairfield Halls. Over the last 6 years the Tories have walked away from the Warehouse Theatre, they have walked away from the Croydon Clocktower and although they should be congratulated for finally committing to refurbish the Fairfield, they still don't understand that it needs a revenue grant to be the sort of Arts Centre most people in Croydon want. The Tory Mayor of London also walked away from Tramlink. He sacked the development team that was working on extending it to Crystal Palace and into Sutton. We will get 6 new Tram cars very soon, but the original order was for 10. It was always known that Tramlink would need more capacity as the years went by. 6 will be very welcome, but once again, its a half hearted increase in capacity, and not the investment that we really need.

Retail Retail Retail and the Whitgift connection

I have been trying to find out when the last retail analysis was conducted in Croydon. I have memory of one being undertaken in about 1996. That is important because if you put all your eggs in one particular basket, you should understand what that basket means for local people, for jobs, for the health of the sector.

Croydon Council recently praised Westfield for entering negotiations with the Whitgift Foundation to develop a new shopping centre on the site of the Whitgift Centre. The local Conservative MP, Gavin Barwell welcomed it and heralded it as part of Croydons renaissance. Gavin Barwell is the Chair of Governors at Trinity School of John Whitgift. The Tories in Croydon have very close connections to them. So the Whitgift connection manages to bring the full weight of Croydon Council, led by its Chief Executive, Jon Rouse, to support the cosy deal.

But who is this deal for? Who does it benefit? In essence it benefits the long term interest of the Whitgift Foundation. It secures long term land values and long term rents. But does it benefit the town and the towns' people?

An alternative deal is being proposed by Hammerson the owners of the Centrale Shopping Centre. They want to develop the Whitgift and for the first time, unite the two shopping centres under one banner. That could be truly exciting and could help the surrounding, locally owned, shops as well. Good luck to them as they take on the vested interests of the Whitgift Foundation/Croydon Council.

The final nail was the 'Develop Croydon' conference

So the good folk at Nestle have witnessed a huge 'develop Croydon' conference that heralded investment in shopping centres and luxury flats. Not one announcement was about small companies, not one announcement was about support for employment.

Clearly they felt that they were not part of the 'vision' that the Council was pushing along with its developer friends and its 'in house' lobby group of the Whitgift Foundation mafia.

Ways forward

Croydon is London

The council has a great responsibility. It needs to forge alliances with the Mayor of London to keep jobs in London. To keep jobs in Croydon. It needs to understand the economy of Croydon. 850 jobs to Crawley is not just bad news for Croydon, it is bad news for London. Too often Croydon politicians and officers stand aloof from London. The press release about Nestle from the Council bangs on about the economic development zone that stretches from Croydon to the Coast. That may be the case, but primarily we are a major Town in the City of London and we should use the tools available to us, like the Mayor of London to bat for us. Sadly the Mayor of London thinks so rarely about Croydon he gets on a train to East Dulwich.

Economic analysis

It needs to commission proper retail analysis and understand the diversity of the Croydon Economy.

Valuing what we have - finding out what is already here

The likes of Saif Bonar @BizzyRascal and his amazing http://www.cr0tech.com/ initiative shows what can be done with little resource. His template could be so easily adopted to really big up the various sectors of the economy, with just a little will from the Council. Far better than spending millions of "Riot Aid" money on Wellesley Road, paving schemes and PR. A budget of a few hundred thousand pounds could pay handsome dividends to help grow existing Croydon businesses and help replace those 850 Nestle jobs.

Valuing what we have - Allders

It needs to understand the training and skills gaps and work to fill them. It needs to avoid the trap that it is currently in of doing deals with Westfield and dreaming of a John Lewis store to change Croydon for the better. It needs to understand that retail, in the main, offers low quality jobs, with few prospects. The only major retailer in Croydon with a full range staff, from sales to buyers, to planners, to finance is in Allders, yet the Council is clear that if it got John Lewis, Allders would be a price worth paying. It is quite shocking that our Council doesn't value the only unique major retailer in our Town. Allders has so much more potential to drive the uniqueness of our Town, rather than simply be a different version of Bromley, Kingston, Bluewater or Westfield. Allders gives this town opportunity. Opportunity to have a retail sector with proper career development, from the bottom up.

Valuing what we have - Croydon College

Croydon College has done very well with its new deal with Sussex University, yet this deal is the third in the last 10 years to offer degrees and a wider range of courses. Ive often heard Croydon politicians and officers talk down Croydon College. Ive rarely heard them value it for delivering a huge range of courses for youngsters across South London.

Valuing what we have - diversity

Walk down London Road and you see very clearly where local people set up shop. This road is an emporium of unique local businesses, yet all you ever hear is the Council going on about the Town Centre. That attitude has to change, because the Town Centre can only exist in partnership and co-operation with local shops and businesses. It would also help if the Tory Council didn't think that in order to be sensitive to a diverse area, you have to brand the post riots Christmas Shopping campaign as 'Winter Festival'. I'm proud to be a Christian, I'm also proud to wish Muslim friends a Happy Eid, Hindu, Sikh and Buddhist Friends a happy Divali and Jewish friends a Happy Chanukah.

Croydon has a lot to be proud of and a lot to improve. It doesn't take loads of money, it takes hard work and dedication. Maybe if we had some of this from our Council, we wouldn't have lost 850 Nestle jobs and we would have a fighting chance to create jobs, careers and wealth by keeping the employers we have, encouraging others to grow here but above all supporting our micro and small businesses to grow and thrive.

Incinerating Democracy

2011-11-11T19:52:00.001Z

The campaign logo - no incineration in Croydon

The Tories on Croydon Council are bringing a highly sensitive and highly secret document on their plans for an Incinerator to be operated by Viridor at Beddington Farm.

The same Tories who accused Labour of scaremongering and lies in both the Waddon By-Election in 2009 and the full council elections in May 2010.

You can read their position on their web site HERE (until they delete the story?!), for the record I have reproduced their article at the bottom of this article.

I do wonder why have local government at all if the people you elect say one thing to get elected and then completely do the other. At least the Lib Dems on tuition fees were embarrassed by what they did. Here in Croydon, the Tories are using the full force of the Council legal machinery to bully and intimidate councillors in not speaking out at all.

No wonder we have a poor recycling system in Croydon, when the very business plan for Viridor is based on incinerating as much as possible from the four boroughs of Croydon, Sutton, Merton and Kingston.

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

I set out my position on recycling in a post from June here, Greenpeace have proved how recycling levels should and could be much higher. It shocks me that the Council has no plan to put that into action. Instead it reduced green waste collections in 2011 and trumpeted food waste collections. Some progress, but not part of a proper plan to really green Croydon.

Now the Council is pushing ahead with incineration. Let me be crystal clear, I'm not completely against incineration if it is for the small amount of waste left over after an area has gone through the process of upping its recycling levels, but NOT BEFORE. It then needs to go through the test of public opinion and debate. Something clearly lacking in the world of the South London Waste Partnership.

Democracy

As a back bench opposition member of the authority you get used to the ruling Cabinet trying to be clever with its interpretation of the constitution, but this week we have faced the Council telling Labour Councillors that they are not entitled to even look at the confidential papers relating to the Viridor bid to build an incinerator. Those papers are exclusively for the 10 members of the ruling cabinet. No questions, No debate, Nothing.

As for the public? well, I guess they will be treated to a press release in good time.

As for the press? I understand they have been threatened as well, so you wont be reading too much about all of this in our local papers.

So, the only likely way that an elected councillor not on the Cabinet can see the papers is to physically take them from one of the Tory councillors at the meeting in question. No doubt this would lead to being arrested and taken to court under the Local Government Act.

Hiding behind procurement rules

The Council say they can not publish further details because it is part of a procurement process. Until all four boroughs have endorsed the process they wont have a preferred bidder to work with.

That argument is rolled out regularly by Croydon Tories, and one that shows they have no respect for the people paying their council tax and electing them to make decisions. Decisions have to be transparent, or they appear corrupt and those taking the decision appear corruptible.

*** just spotted the Inside Croydon story on this. Worth reading. ***
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Tory Press Release from May 2010

Selected story in full

03 May 2010

Labour's election campaign: built on two big deceptions

As we head in to the final week of the local election campaign, it is clear that Labour has a wholly negative strategy, founded on two great big untruths: the the Conservatives have a secret plan for an incinerator in or near Croydon, and that we plan to waste millions of taxpayers' money on building a new 'luxury HQ'.

This is the kind of scaremongering which reflects no credit on politicians and, most probably, this sort of negative campaigning accounts for much of the disenchantment the country has with all politicians.

In neither case is Labour's claim true.

On the Council offices issue, Labour is currently distributing literature which claims that each tax payer will have to pay £1,115 to build the Council a ‘luxury HQ’.

It’s complete rubbish. It is true that we are planning to replace Taberner House with a new Public Services’ Delivery Hub nearby, but it will cost the tax payer nothing.

The cost of it is being met from the profits of developing a number of council-owned vacant sites, which will also kick-start the regeneration of the town centre. We are borrowing the money to build the new hub, but that is being funded by the receipts from the other developments.

Of course, in the run-up to an election it is very easy for the opposition to mislead people and say “Council is borrowing £x million for new offices - that’s £y per household on your Council Tax”. It’s this kind of scaremongering that puts people off politics.

If you want to check who is telling you the truth, then when Labour knocks on your door during this last week before the election, ask them to show you the page in the Council’s revenue budget where this cost appears. They won’t be able to. Or look at your recent Council Tax bill and see if it has gone up by £1,115. It won’t have, because it’s the smallest increase since Council Tax was introduced, at 0.8%.

Regarding the incinerator issue, the current Labour Government requires all authorities to draw up a plan in which it takes responsibility for the permanent disposal of all non-recyclable waste within its own borders. The only means by which authorities will be able to get a dispensation to do anything other than that is if they partner up with other authorities and come to an agreement in which they take responsibility collectively, which is what we have done in conjunction with nearby boroughs. But we have made it absolutely clear that Croydon Conservatives do not support incineration at all and will absolutely not have an incinerator in our borough or support one close to our borders.

So don't believe Labour when they claim we have a 'secret plan for an incinerator'. The only plan is a very public one - to increase recycling still further (it's doubled in the four years we have run the council) and to work with our partners to deliver new means of disposing of the non-recyclables in an environmentally friendly way, but with no incinerator anywhere in our near the borough.

A lovely refurbishment of a council car park

2011-11-11T15:46:00.000Z

Ever wondered what goes through the minds of those that run Croydon Council and spend your council tax?

I wonder all the time. Now I know! They think a lot about the corporate branding of the car park under the Town Hall, used mainly by Councillors and Chief Officers. The Chief Officers own car park under the Mint Walk / Fell Road building was closed to allow for the building of the luxury HQ, so they moved across the road two years ago to join us councillors. Do you think that is why the car park has been re decorated in corporate colours and brand new CCTV installed? We also have a lovely new traffic light system, new roller shutter and new barriers!

I'm sure those that are waiting on a crucial council service waiting list are really pleased our exclusive, secure car park has been 'invested' in.

Recession? Austerity? Clearly not in the minds of Croydon's ruling Tory Councillors and their chief officers.

view of the newly corporate columns - they make such a difference to this high profile area...

The welcoming new barriers on Mint Walk.

The 'attractive' colour scheme up close

Tennison Road goods yard development

2011-11-10T17:17:00.002Z

The Tennison Road development as seen from Heavers Meadow

Fairview New Homes, a large property developer, has won planning permission to build 91 properties on the former railway goods yard on Tennison Road. The site may be familiar to you as it used to be used as a scaffolding storage yard and can be seen on the right hand side as you travel by train from Norwood Junction towards Croydon.

Fairview - a bad reputation

Fairview have a bad reputation in Croydon after they 'accidentally' started demolition of the listed workhouse on Queen's Road. Thankfully they were stopped and now we have a rather fine development in a restored workhouse building facing Queen's Road. Fairview also decided to knock down Cumberlow Lodge, days before a hearing to have it listed.

Basically they are an aggressive developer who often pay lip service to local people. However they do build out good schemes.

Fairview - trying harder

So it was with some surprise that they have engaged properly with local councillors and more importantly with local people on this scheme. They organised a proper exhibition of their plans, delivered at least one set of leaflets about their scheme and have made amendments suggested to them by the Council 'strategic planning committee'.

Unfortunately one set of those changes has led to the general purpose business units (large garage type buildings) being replaced with live-work units. I objected to these, as elsewhere they soon get converted to just 'live' units and the employment use is lost for good.

Impact on Heavers Meadow

I was primarily concerned with the impact on the adjacent meadow, as this is an important green lung that connects Norwood Junction to Selhurst Station. The original plans basically removed most of the old railway wall between the development and the meadow. It now has two wide openings at either end of the development, thereby making access to the meadow easier, but keeping it a quiet, tranquil place in the middle of this busy part of South Norwood.

I have been concerned at the lack of care of Heavers Meadow recently and asked a Council Question about improving it. I am pleased to say that the Council have agreed to make a start (in 2011/12 financial year) by replacing the fencing and welcome signs on Selhurst Road, close to Selhurst Station.

Future residents

I am worried that future residents wont have the best location in which to live, with a busy 24 hour railway and train-care depot to look out on, but i am confident that Fairview will build a good quality of home for future residents to live in

Full details

You can read all the application papers on the council web site here
Wikipedia entry for Heavers Meadow

Dumped rubbish on the rise

2011-11-10T15:21:00.000Z

The Council decided to get rid of its team of street scene officers as part of a review early this year. Street scene officers were the silent ears and eyes of the council spotting dumped rubbish, checking up of contractors and following up any street related environmental issues like oil on the road and blocked drains. As a councillor I found our local officer a brilliant resource. Often he would have already spotted a problem before I or a resident had.

The latest reports that I have sent in relate to dumped rubbish on Tugela Road and Elmwood Road.

With his departure and the other street scene officers it is now up to residents to report issues as soon as they see them.

The easiest way to do this is to use the Croydon Council on-line form or to call the Council on 020 8726 7100

alternatively use an online service like http://www.fixmystreet.com/ you can download their app for the iPhone, android or Nokia

Planning Blow for Selhurst Residents

2011-10-24T16:52:00.000+01:00

A2 Dominion, a housing association that bought a site on the Hogarth Roundabout has received planning permission on appeal.

Its plans are an insult to our area and will not provide the quality of development that we should expect. Local residents will be adversely affected by the provision of ZERO parking spaces for 38 flats. The new residents will have a lower quality of life than the residents in surrounding roads as the site has 24/7 traffic passing the doors.

Is this really a site that is suitable for high density social housing?

The development as seen from the two storey victorian houses on Thornhill Road.

This is the design of the scheme. A dull design which will significantly overlook the houses on Thornhill Road.

The Inspector in granting permission said

I conclude that the proposal would not have a seriously detrimental effect on the living
conditions of neighbouring occupiers in Thornhill Road, or Groombridge and
Ringstead Courts. Future occupiers of the proposal would have satisfactory
living conditions, including levels of private outdoor amenity space and
accessibility.

For those who do not know Thornhill Road, this road is comprised of modest 2 storey victorian houses.

In advance of gaining planning permission, this developer has already started demolition works on the existing building...

It is such a pity that this developer has chosen to go down this path because it is a site that could take a lot of extra homes, but could incorporate proper communal garden and parking spaces for residents.

Upper Norwood Library is an embarrasment

2011-10-21T15:13:00.004+01:00

The news reported in the Croydon Guardian and Croydon Advertiser that the Upper Norwood Library has been roundly attacked by Croydon Council Leader and the Chief Executive of Croydon Council comes as no surprise to me for the following reasons:

Upper Norwood Library vs Croydon Council Libraries

Its accounts are published, it contains everything within one simple budget. Buildings, books, staff. It costs only £400,000 a year to run, in comparison to the £8,563,022 spent on Croydon Councils network of 12 libraries and one central library. Yes an average of £658,694 per Croydon Library!

The Croydon figures are an embarrasment as they allocate 44.78% of available budget to 'back office' costs. Upper Norwood Library highlights this big difference each and every year.

Full facts and figures in my earlier blog paper

The politics - part 1

Sure politics plays a part in this. You can not expect local Labour Councillors not to stand up for their local library, can you? You also can't expect Lambeth Council to just roll over because Croydon Council refuses to honour the Joint Library Agreement, because Croydon Council claims it was never formally 'adopted'.

This photo shows the declaration of support for the Library from the 2010 elections. It was obvious then that the Tories from Croydon wanted to shut it down.

Chief Executives should be seen and not heard

I think it is clear that Croydon Chief Executive, Jon Rouse has crossed the line on this one. He has made a political play, in that he has not been forthcoming with the facts. He can legitimately blame Lambeth for not attending the recent AGM, but he cant have his cake and eat it. Croydon Council has broken the joint library agreement and he knows it.

If Jon Rouse, as Croydon Chief Executive, can have cosy chats with private companies to privatise Croydon Libraries to (Croydon Advertiser report of meeting with LSSI) Why cant he have a similar 'cosy chat' with the Chief Executive of Lambeth Council?

Previously, Jon Rouse has made it clear that the decision to break the Upper Norwood Library Agreement and appoint NO local councillors to its board was a decision of Mike Fisher, the Leader of Croydon Council. Why become a politican now?

The way forward

Croydon Council to match fund Lambeth Library, as per agreement
Croydon Council to appoint one local councillor to the board
Croydon Council CEO to meet Lambeth Council CEO and agree a list of any issues the two authorities might have
Croydon Council and Lambeth Council to sit down with the Chief Librarian of Upper Nowood Library and agree a list of any issues that the two councils have
The Board of the Joint Library to meet.

The politics - part 2

However, we return to the politics. Croydon Council is desperate to avoid scrutiny of its out of control library budget and the unpopular plans to privatise the whole library service.

Croydon Council is also adamant it will make savings in its library budget (despite the 44.78% it spends on back office functions). Upper Norwood Library is not immune to this plan.

Indeed, management staff at Croydon and Lambeth are both rather prone to make out that Upper Norwood Library is inefficient and could be run for a lot less. Croydon Council used the figure of £100,000 to run a branch library when they consulted on closing 6 branch libraries.

The Croydon Council Cabinet Member responsible clearly cant add up. 12 x £100,000 = £1.2million out of a library budget of £8,563,022

Institutional Failure at Croydon Council

What is the £44,359 a year Croydon Cabinet Member doing allowing 44.78% of the Library budget to be spent on expensive back office contracts?

What is the £200,000 a year Croydon Chief Executive doing allowing 44.78% of the Library budget to be spent on expensive back office contracts?

Ask a Croydon resident paying their council tax and earning far less I think they would be shocked that these excesses have not been tackled.

Labour's Response

The official Labour response to the current library crisis needs to be clear.

IF the current behaviour of Croydon Council leads to the closure of Upper Norwood Library then a future Labour Council will re open that Library and implement the joint agreement.
If Croydon Council privatises its Library service, a future Labour Council will not be committed to those libraries remaining in the private sector. A Labour Council must commit to ending those commercial agreements. Libraries must be run for the benefit of the community and in so doing, those privatised libraries must be brought either back in house, or preferably, within the safeguards of a community co-operative, with the assets (buildings and land) locked for their intended purpose and the service being run by residents with professional, qualified staff employed by the Council.

Council Tax Freeze

2011-10-03T09:34:00.000+01:00

Although funding from central government is welcome to help freeze Council Tax next year, it is only a small amount back from the hike in VAT that every family has had to pay.

This Daily Mail article showed how the VAT rise would cost £448 a year for a typical family

So the saving of £72 a year from freezing the Council Tax reduces the impact of the Tory Tax rises to £376.

Of course it impacts on local councils in the long term as it erodes their tax base. It also puts more funding pressure onto central government. Hardly a localist agenda.

Give me a choice and Id cut VAT back to 17.5% and put the Council Tax up by 2.5%!

It is the same story on the money found for weekly bin collections by the Government. £800million is a lot of cash, but once again it the Tory governments centralising instinct. It also raises the question, why have local goverment if the central government wants to tell local councils how and when to pick up their rubbish.

I want to see weekly bin collections, as we dont have proper recycling services in Croydon at the moment. You cant recycle Tetra Packs (cartons) and you cant recycle some other plastics.

However, it is up to the local voters to choose a council that delivers for them. I hear you cry that the Tories promised weekly bin collections in Croydon, and are the same ones introducing fortnightly collections...

Riots

2011-08-13T17:33:00.001+01:00

Monday night I looked out of my back window and saw a huge black cloud over Croydon. The smell of acrid smoke filled the air. I knew then we were in for a lot of Trouble.

I was a Councillor for the heart of West Croydon for 4 years before moving to represent Selhurst, a Council ward a little further down London Road that stretches from the old philips building to Selhurst Park stadium. I therefore have known many of the residents and shopkeepers along London Road for the last 9 years.

On Tuesday morning I joined my ward colleague Toni Letts just before 8am and walked along London Road meeting residents and local businesses. Many had been burnt out, looted or damaged.

Seeing people who you have known for many years completely devastated really was quite shocking and emotional. Meeting the family that ran the dry cleaners for years was particularly hard. I had done some casework on parking issues with her and had seen how many hours she and her family work each week. They are not rich, they earn just enough to be comfortable. They are typical of the people on London Road.

What was so shocking was account after account that no one was there to help them. No police came. No one. I will give my detailed views on the Police issue at a later date, but it can be summed up by my firm belief that we need more of them, not less.

I took photos as I went and these can be found on facebook here. I felt compelled to take these photos as the morning progressed. I felt guilty in many ways, as this was what was left of peoples homes and businesses, but I felt the need to share what had actually happened to our local community.

We had two nights of rioting in 2005 in the Town Centre and now we have had this along the London Road. Croydon learnt some lessons then, but the general consensus was to move on as quickly as possible. I led an investigation into the 2005 riots and one of the key recommendations was to digitise the boroughs CCTV recording. Thankfully that was done. That means that this time, we should have crystal clear images of the perpetrators of these ghastly acts.

The temptation will be just to move on and pretend all is well again, but we need to look at the causes of these riots as well as ways to protect peoples lives, homes and local businesses in any future emergency. That said, we must never excuse what these people did, but we must seek to understand what motivated them to do this.

All is not well in Croydon, and we must be careful how we rebuild our community.

Paying Tax

2011-07-18T17:01:00.002+01:00

I am an advocate of government doing things more efficiently and more effectively. Its common sense. I see no real issue with everyone paying their share of the cuts needed to bring public spending down. I also see no reason why people should not pay their fair share of taxation either.

I think I favour a world wide tax system that taxes you for activities in that country. So if you make £1 in UK PLC, then you should pay tax on that £1 to the UK government. If on the other hand you make £1 from the people of Belgium, i think its fair for you to pay tax on that to the people of Belgium.

So I was interested in a set of examples that have just arrived in my inbox from the folks over at UKUNCUT. Examples backed up by fact, that makes them so much more compelling.

The examples of Boots and HSBC PFI projects are strong, robust examples.

The government should be sorting out the country's finances by being fair. That means collecting tax and stopping avoidance. It means being fair in the distribution of cuts too. That combination has the possibility of leading to stronger economic growth, more jobs and less harsh cuts.

It also has the benefit of being progressive. The VAT hike we saw earlier this year was regressive because it hits poorer people harder. Collecting company taxation (at a proper level) is equitable and fair.

In the current climate of #hackgate we have the era of spin truly coming to an end, and I hope a new era of openness, transparency and accountability. That needs to stretch over to our wider politics, especially taxation and cuts. An example: when the government announced the 1p cut to fuel duty in March, they failed to mention that they had just put it up by 3p a litre because of the rise in VAT in January. Yes, a different tax, but to you and me it is still and always will be TAX.

Openness and accountability means that when decisions are made they are explained clearly and factually. The British people are not stupid, they can understand and appreciate the benefits of taxation (from defence to education to health, it all has to be paid for).

-----------------
UKUNCUT and the details of their Croydon protests on 30th July

The UKUNCUT tax facts:

1) Topshop owner Philip Green paid no tax on earnings of £1.2 billion. The £285 million he avoided (by sending the money to his wife in Monaco) would pay for 20,000 NHS nurses.
http://www.taxresearch.org .uk/Blog/2006/06/19/sir-ph ilip-green-the-rewards-of- tax-avoidance/

2) City bankers paid themselves £7 billion in bonuses this year, despite having caused the economic crisis and they're still not lending to local businesses. That £7 billion could reverse all the cuts to Higher Education funding or pay for 490,000 nurses !! RBS alone paid out nealy £1 billion despite making a big loss:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/ business/2011/feb/24/rbs-b ankers-bonuses-despite-los s

3) Banks are also dodging tax as well as helping others to dodge taxes: Barclays alone dodged over £2.5 billion on profits of over £11 billion. That's 175,000 nurses !
http://www.guardian.co.uk/ business/2011/feb/18/barcl ays-bank-113m-corporation- tax

4) Boots paid only 3% tax on its profits after moving its HQ to a PO Box in Switzerland, despite making nearly all its profits in the UK.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/ business/2009/feb/09/tax-g ap-boots-chemists

5) Vodafone avoided most of a £6 billion tax bill after coming to a cosy agreement with HMRC. The £5 billion they dodged would pay for 350,000 nurses.
http://liberalconspiracy.o rg/2010/11/01/why-are-ther e-protests-against-vodafon e-a-simple-guide/

6) HSBC has made £38 million profit at UK taxpayers' expense from publicly subsidised PFI schemes, including the refurbishment of the Queen Alexandra hospital in Portsmouth. The profits were banked in the tax haven of Guernsey and HSBC paid less than 1% tax on them! Meanwhile the Queen Alexandra has made 700 staff redundant in the last year and a half. This is almost exactly the same as the number of nurses that the 28% tax HSBC didn't pay on the £38 million profit would have paid for:
http://www.publicservice.c o.uk/news_story.asp?id=160 57

Council Questions

2011-07-05T11:54:00.000+01:00

One of the things that Councillors get to do is ask up to three written questions of those who run Croydon Council at the 6 meetings of the Full Council each year.

For information, my questions are below. It annoys me considerably that i cant find answers to questions that I have asked over the last 9 years as a councillor. To find questions and answers you have to download unsearchable PDF files. The other two questions are ward issues. I will post the answers after the next Council meeting.

1)

Heavers Meadow is a tranquil, green oasis, opposite Selhurst Railway Station and leading to Tennison Road. Will the Cabinet member give consideration to improving the entrances to the meadow with clear signage, proper fencing and the provision of more than one bench (seat) in the whole Meadow?

2)

Residents on Henderson Road are subject to regular fly tipping and are not provided with wheeled bins like other council tax paying residents. What steps will the Cabinet member take to ensure that these residents receive the same level of service as other residents that they pay for and expect from the Council? What arrangements will the Council put in place for these properties if you move to fortnightly refuse collections?

3)

With the increasing emphasis on open and transparent government, both by the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government and by residents, Will the council look urgently at upgrading its recording and publishing of Questions, petitions, motions and Freedom of Information Requests (FOI). to enable them to be searchable by topic, key word, cabinet member, ward and questioner?

Stop the rubbish and talk recycling

2011-06-25T02:30:00.001+01:00

I highlighted the Tory Council decision to scrap weekly bin collections on this blog HERE.

The Tory Council has decided to do this without any consultation with residents. Without trying to engage the community in what they are doing or want to do. I am sure it is driven entirely by cost, but interestingly they have not (yet) said how much they are saving by doing this. They have said they are saving money on Landfill Tax, but not how much on the operation.

It must be a touchy subject because Gavin Barwell MP has leaped to defend the Tory run Council HERE. Its always nice to see Gavin Barwell defend his two faced Councillor colleagues - to explain why they are two faced, Gavin and his colleagues bought a 4 page advert in the local Croydon Guardian accusing Labour of plans to introduce fortnightly bin collections and promising this would not happen under a Conservative Council. That was in MAY 2010. Yes, just over a year ago!

Personally I think Croydon Council recycling has been a disgrace for years. Why cant you recycle a Tetra Pack in your doorstep recycling?

What we need is a proper discussion about how we up our recycling rates and more importantly bring the community with us in that discussion.

Greenpeace has been at it for years. They make it clear that Councils should achieve an 80% participation rate and an 80% recycling rate of those participating. They published an excellent document back in 2001.

I want to see very high recycling rates in Croydon. I don't think the Council is doing enough to make this happen.

Where are the re-use schemes? The last one (started by the last Labour Council) closed down this year - the Appliance Reuse Centre. I'm told by those who know that the big opportunity is to re use slightly bulky things like building materials. A site exists that would be ideal. The old Waste Transfer Station on Factory Lane. However the Council says that it is being kept for the South West London Waste Partnership as a site suitable for waste processing (anything from recycling centre through to an incinerator).

For that to happen, the Council needs to have the will. The will to bring people together. The will to ask people for ideas and look at towns that have been successful.

In the meantime we will have to put up with the Council behaving like it is a secret society. This take it or leave it approach is simply bullying arrogance. Hardly an example of the listening council.

Police numbers and London Road Crime Update

2011-06-17T14:08:00.002+01:00

Below is a message from the Borough Police.
Crime reduction is a top concern of local residents and active
policing and good communications like this are vital to build trust
and support and help keep the pressure on reducing crime further.

The problem we are currently facing is that the London Mayor is
cutting our Safer Neighbourhood Teams - In my ward we may lose our
Sergeant - it's vital that we don't as Selhurst has complex needs that
can't be covered by a Sergeant based elsewhere.

Hopefully these cuts will not end up in the bad old days of only one
beat bobby per ward.

----------------------------------//

Date: Friday, 17 June 2011
Message from A/Superintendent Steve Lawrie

Dear all,

Further to the messages you were sent last month about a serious
assault that occurred in London Road on 15 May, I want to update you
with the progress of the investigation.
A sixth man [F] was arrested on 14th June in connection with the assault.

[F] Emal AHMADI (dob 7/5/1980) of Truslove Road, SE27, was charged on
15 June with GBH with intent. He appeared at Croydon Magistrates Court
yesterday (16 June) where he was remanded in custody to appear at
Croydon Crown Court on 27 July.

To-date four people have been charged and I am happy with the way in
which the investigation is progressing. Could I ask that any of you
with connections to the local communities in the London Road area,
pass on this latest update to them.

I want to reassure you that tackling violent crime in and around
London Road and across the Operation Refresh wards, remains a top
priority for us and the area will remain the focus of enhanced police
activity, both visible and covert, as it has been for a while now.
If you or anyone in your community has information about this
incident, or any concerns, please don't hesitate to contact either me,
Jo Oakley or Adrian Roberts. I would also be grateful if you could
pass the Crimestoppers number - 0800 555 111 - onto members of your
communities and make them aware that information about this or any
crime can be given completely anonymously without having to give their
name or details.
Kind regards,

A/Superintendent Steve Lawrie

Tory Bin Promises

2011-06-08T17:07:00.000+01:00

So, what is Councillor Phil Thomas up to with his plan to introduce weekly bin collections?

He was shouting from the rooftops during the election that IF LABOUR WON we would introduce weekly bin collections.

We had no plans to, but clearly Tory Cllr Thomas did.

What a complete load of rubbish.

No consultation with residents on this one, though our beloved council seems to take no notice of consultations in any case.

Its also rather odd, because the Tory-led government is currently planning to bribe councils to re-introduce weekly collections!

I wonder if Croydon will apply for funding??

Protecting and Developing Croydon Libraries

2011-06-06T14:40:00.002+01:00

Protecting and Developing Croydon Libraries

A Paper by Councillor Timothy Godfrey.
Labour and Co-operative Party Councillor for Selhurst Ward

- download the combined PDF document with additional material - added 18 September 2011

Key Principles:

Keep all Croydon Libraries Open
Improve staffing levels on the front line
Engage and involve the Local Community
Tackle the obscene inefficiency of spending 44.78% of budget on the back office

Introduction

On working through the full budgets for Croydon Libraries, it becomes clear that the Current Council consultation was only looking at the very front line costs and how to reduce them. The savings achieved or achievable from the proposals are small in comparison with the overall budget. The question therefore is why? The answer is that 44.78% of this budget has been allocated to the back office. Much of it has been allocated to the large corporate contracts for IT and Facilities Management.

I have not been able to look at the whole Council, as I do not have the internal budget sheets that are necessary to see the full breakdown of how the Council spends its ‘top line’ budgets. However IF that back office figure of 44.78% was repeated in other council departments, it becomes quite frightening.

The inefficiency is staggering. The Merton Council Briefing paper that is attached to this document sets out just how bad Croydon Council is in a simple comparator based on population, user numbers, costs per visit etc. Since Croydon is to be working with Wandsworth, another high cost borough, it might have been better to look at the lower cost model operated by neighbouring Merton Council.

Privatisation / Market Testing

The Conservative Council has announced an exercise to market test the delivery of the Library Service by other providers. These providers could be charities, companies or other councils.

This completely misses the point. It misses the fact that it is our Councils duty to be efficient and spend our Council Tax in an efficient manner. Logically the Council should be doing this first before any market testing of the service, otherwise it is an open invitation for false comparisons to be drawn between an inefficient council model and an alternative provider who instantly strips out all the obvious wasteful contracts.

It is not good enough to say that the Libraries will be available to any willing provider including residents associations or other community groups because the level of capacity to produce meaningful, long term solutions is not there. The Council needs to lead on this, to provide the capacity which in term will strengthen the local community as well as the reputation of the Council.

If the Council can not manage to bring forward a scheme that builds positively on the public anger at the plans and the clear public commitment to our libraries, then it is not worthy of running any public service in Croydon. It has in effect already declared that it has failed and is on the path of privatising all Council services.

You can not be shocked at the plans to privatise our Libraries when they are privatising our Care Homes to Care UK, based on saving money on the back of cutting pay and therefore the skills and experience of the staff that have worked in Croydon Council Care homes for many years.

The for profit sector creams off a minimum of 5% of contract value and a usual 10-15% of contract value to cover operational profit as well as bid costs and ongoing contractual negotiations. That is profit that should be used to improve public services and maximise front line delivery.

The Alternative

This is a perfect time to harness the commitment, energy and the community spirit brought about by these closure plans by devolving the running of the Libraries to the professional staff and their community.

I set out below how to do this. I set out the efficient model of operation that is Upper Norwood Joint Library and why an amended version of this model could work so well across Croydon. I set out how to involve local people, staff and library members and use Libraries as a way to strengthen local communities.

A model that is both empowering as well as inspiring.

The dead weight of Contracts and other back office expenditure on the Library Budget

Below is the table for back office charges. Read them carefully because they are illuminating. These are the sums of money that the Council thinks necessary to spend in order to run 12 branch libraries, a home library service and a central library. Under normal accounting rules, you account for the actual costs of the services provided. This is necessary because if you decide to outsource this service (or another) to a private company, or stop running a service altogether, you need to know what that service is actually costing you. Not just the front line staffing figures.

Total for all of these back office functions £3,327,822.

The Total budget for Libraries is £8,563,022 including a depreciation charge of £1,132,616

In other words the library service has actual funds available of £7,430,406

Of available funds, the council spends 44.78% of its budget on back office functions and contracts.

Let us look in detail at some of those areas of spending

Support Services
BVACOP charges:
Corporate Finance	33,282
Financial Governance	51,574
Financial Services	9,163
Customer Focus	1,385,526
Human resources	111,577
Payroll	21,401
Accommodation	239,300
AFM	821,570
Legal	1,467
Strategy and Communication	21,437
Customer Services	224,537

Intra Community Services	406,988

Customer Focus

This is the provision of integrated computer systems, including the call centre at Taberner Houser, the web site and all the individual computers and printers in the Libraries. That charge is £1.385million.

Customer Services

That is the call centre – presumably for answering highly complex questions like where my local library is, or renewing a library book over the phone. £224,537

Payroll

This is the day to day arrangements needed to service the 115.2 Full Time Equivalent posts in the service – so that is a charge of £185.77 per person. A little high compared to what a small business would pay, but not too extravagant.

Human Resources

Includes recruitment, training etc. £111,577 is £968.55 for each employee.

Accommodation

This charge relates to provision of office accommodation for non library based staff. £239,300

AFM

Asset & Facility Management – this is mostly bundled into a huge contract with Interserve PLC. The cost to look after 12 branch libraries and one main library is £821,570 that is a separate charge to the £23,500 for repairs and maintenance of buildings.

Strategy and Communication

£21,437 – presumably this is the cost of putting together the consultation to close our libraries down.

Intra Community Services

£406,988 – the charge for running the department. However this is also supplemented in the Council accounts by a charge for ‘Cultural Central’ £377,000 which includes the senior management of the department (3.4 FTE posts)

Finance Charges

Corporate Finance £33,282

Financial Governance £51,574

Financial Services £9,163

Total recharge for Finance £94,019

Supplies and Services

Including the book fund of £277,376 Croydon spends £541,515 on everything from security to postage.

Transport

Croydon Libraries spend £12,169 on transport services for the library service each year.

How reasonable are all of these charges onto the Library Service?

The sums involved are significant. The amount paid over to large multi national contractors is huge. 44.78% of this budget.

The real question is, could this service be delivered in a different way that removed the need for the expensive senior management, large contracts for IT and so on and managed to put the majority of the budget onto providing the front line service?

This is not an abstract comparison, because in Croydon we have an alternative model that operates within a fully contained budget and with all the necessary charges applied to it in order that it can operate. It even publishes its own audited accounts.

Upper Norwood Joint Library – a joint library authority between the London Borough of Croydon and the London Borough of Lambeth.

That library receives a budget allocation from Lambeth and a budget allocation from Croydon. Croydon Council acts as the ‘agent’ for this joint authority and makes a recharge to the budget for corporate services including clerking the formal committee and running its finances. The Joint Library is also fully responsible for building maintenance, computer technology, book purchasing etc.

The Upper Norwood Joint Library does this for a total sum of £397,483 (according to its accounts on Croydon.gov.uk web site). Croydon Council will contribute £189,297 in 2011/12 Financial Year. Less than half the running costs because Croydon Council claims the difference in funding between Croydon and Lambeth is because Croydon provides support functions (such as accountancy and clerking the committee) with a value of £20,000 - £30,000 according to the Upper Norwood Library Campaign.

So, let us break the costs of Upper Norwood Library Down.

£30,000 for accountancy and clerking claimed to be spent by Croydon Council.

£315,616 for employees – 75.15% of budget to the front line of staff

£26,701 for buying books – 6.35% of budget to book buying

£77,655 for general running expenses

The Library manages to bring in approx £40,000 in earned income each year. A note of interest is that this is at least double any Croydon branch library. Selsdon brings in £18,778 and Norbury brings in £14,182. The Central Croydon Library brings in £212,252.

What are the unique characteristics of Upper Norwood Library?

All staff are front facing
No highly paid senior management.
More staff than a Croydon branch library, but many more users and no senior management.
High use of the Library, including Children’s Library, Archive, Reference etc.
Costs transparently contained within an annual budget
A bigger annual spend on book buying than any other Library in Croydon
Book buying to building maintenance responsibility of the staff in the library
Community committed to their library including a dedicated campaign group ‘Upper Norwood Library Campaign’

Why the negative pressure on Upper Norwood Library?

If you set out to deliberately mislead, you first of all strip out all of the expensive back office costs that Croydon spends from the Library budget, then you make the cost comparison with Upper Norwood Library. In those terms, Upper Norwood Library costs about twice what a Croydon Branch Library costs each year. Yet if you include all the back office costs, this shows clearly that Upper Norwood Library spends less than 20% of its budget on back office, building, IT and other costs.

It therefore makes an easy, perhaps cheap, political point that Croydon Council is pumping far more money into an ‘inefficient’ library that it does not directly run. Having this easy comparator on its doorstep is an inconvenient fact that in the long term, officers and Cabinet members would rather do without.

The Council officers and cabinet members have vested interests in keeping their internal empires and protecting headline budgets.

Senior Council staff and Council Cabinet members don’t like the idea of not having the day to day control of a Library (despite the rhetoric of ‘community involvement’ or ‘the big society’).

The Costs of contracts for IT / Building management etc has all been outsourced and is out of the control of the staff within the library department.

Corporately the Council has lost control of its own expenditure from outsourcing too much of its everyday operation into long term contracts.

The Library is not a branch library; it offers many different services and is very heavily used, but Croydon continue to make that (inaccurate) comparison.

Co-operative Community Library Trusts

The need to exploit Libraries as the centre of local communities and ensure that they reach out and develop is very important. We don’t want to go through this painful closure process in 10 years time. We need to enable libraries to be different in each locality. In some areas, ‘just’ being libraries, in other areas running the local community hall as well. In other areas being part of a school or running a community café. One size does not fit every community and it is important we enable communities to be distinctive, with high quality libraries as an essential and popular ingredient.

In the longer term, the ideal solution would be to transfer land and buildings to new local ‘Community Library Trusts’ that would be multi stakeholder co-operatives:

Local Councillors representing the interests of the borough, the tax payer and their own locality,
staff representing the professionalism of Librarianship,
User members being the active voice of the ordinary Library user. Trust members to be elected from open user meetings, for instance held twice a year in the Library.

This approach is not new. 20 years ago, every school was run out of the local council. Today each school runs its own affairs. Buys its own books. Has its own governing body. Most employ their own staff. This has, in the main, been good for those schools and has had the knock on effect of being good for the local economy. Schools employ small firms to undertake building works, they employ local people to clean their schools, they order stationary from local companies. They arrange their own IT (often through partnerships or network organisations to ensure they have the necessary skills and professional advice).

Risks and Rewards: there is obviously a risk that by devolving and empowering front line staff that you risk a range of different standards to exist. You risk a library being closed because staff are sick. You risk users not being familiar with the IT provision in different libraries. These are all risks that are worthwhile, if you can manage to cut costs and boost the front line of service delivery within existing budgets or within smaller budgets.

You can further mitigate those risks by ensuring staff remain employed by the Council, but directed by and a key part of each Community Library Trust. Employing Chief Librarians at each Trust. At Upper Norwood Library, the Chief Librarian is not on a ‘big’ salary, but manages the whole service they are responsible for. The reward is that they are the public face of that Library and a point of contact for the local community. They act as ambassador as well as manager. They command respect and loyalty from the local community.

You could also insist that each Library Trust had a duty to Co-operate with other Library Trusts. An example could be when staff were sick at one, lending staff to cover.

The biggest reward would be a better, lower cost service with more users and more community involvement.

Indicative budgets?

Upper Norwood library costs the taxpayer approximately £400,000 per year to run within a fully contained budget. It is a large library. Many Croydon libraries are far smaller. Economies of scale might be needed by running a community trust for the whole of a geographic area. For example, Coulsdon, covering both Bradmore Green Library and Coulsdon Library. Similarly pairing other libraries together might make management sense.

The Central Library would make sense to be run in association with the remaining budgets from the cut Arts & Heritage programme. It makes sense to run one building, including the closed David Lean Cinema, the closed Clocktower Arts, the closed Museum, the cut local studies library. One Community Trust for the whole of the Clocktower Complex makes sense. Similar back office costs are spent on this area by the council in addition to the costs set out in this paper.

If you allocated an average of £300,000 per library across Croydon you would end up with a spend of £3.6million on the 12 libraries.
£150,000 for the home library service
£1.5 million for the Croydon Central Library (actual spend this year, excluding central overheads £897,297)
£200,000 for Upper Norwood Library

Grand Total: £5,450,000

Current spend: £7,430,406

Saving at least: £1,980,406

These figures are just an outline of what could be achieved. Cutting at least £2million from the annual Library budget should leave plenty of scope for increased front line staffing, a bigger book buying budget and greater community ownership of their local library.

The next steps

The Council needs to take these ideas and work up a detailed budget for making this possible in a short period of time. Cross Party support will be needed and should be easily obtained.

The need to exit the expensive Central contracts for IT and Facilities Management Contracts are obvious. The first stage in ending these contracts should be to negotiate a swift exit for the Library Service.

Make it clear to the existing library staff that they will remain as Council employees (with full protection of terms and conditions) but will be working for and reporting to the new Community Library Trusts. The Council will act as ‘Agent’ for the new Community Library Trusts, just as they currently do for Upper Norwood Joint Library.

A Borough Chief Librarian will remain in post to co-ordinate the work of the Library Service in a light touch way, more akin to a professional network. Responsible for co-ordinating, training and knowledge sharing.

To help the Council work through these issues it should put all internal Council Budgets on line so that good ideas of staff and residents can be properly informed.

A commitment to use local companies and local contractors in the new Trusts. This is an ideal opportunity to encourage local builders, cleaning firms, electricians, plumbers etc to play a leading part in their local community at the same time as improving reliability, response times and keeping Council Tax Payers money in the local economy and providing local jobs from local peoples Taxes.

Longer term Set up costs would include the legal structure of the new Trusts, but this could be done by specialist lawyers over time. It certainly should not be a hindrance to starting to put this plan into action.

Stand behind the new devolved structure to enable it to thrive and develop. No new structure can be left to its own devices. It will need active support and management

The Council to continue to provide the key support services of employment and accountancy services to the new Community Trusts.

Committed to get local councillors to lead on new ‘Community Library Trust committees’ alongside library users, staff and residents

A new level of trust and support by the Council in the new Community Library Trust Committees to know what is needed for their local library and their local community.

Background documents (hosted on Google Docs - just click to load):
Croydon Council Budget Sheet for Libraries Department
Upper Norwood Library Accounts 2009/10
Merton Benchmarking Data
Merton Briefing Paper

Lee Valley Park Newsletter June 2011

2011-06-06T13:17:00.001+01:00

I share the newsletter of our Regional Park Authority below.

Readers of this blog will be aware that I fully support the use of Croydon Tax Payers money being spent on a regional park, I just would like a regional park to cover key environmental areas like the Wandle Valley too.

That way, everyone across London would have a regionally funded park that was easily accessible to them.

Its easy for Councillors to rally against funding like this, as they do against Cross Rail Investment. But, I think you have to look at the wider picture and see that we all benefit from things like Regional Parks and Investment in our Railways.

-------------------------------------------
From: Lee Valley Regional Park Authority[SMTP:STAKEHOLDERBULLETIN@LEEVALLEYPARK.ORG.UK]
Sent: Monday, June 06, 2011 12:56:39 PM
To: Godfrey, Timothy
Subject: Valley View June 2011
Auto forwarded by a Rule

To view this email as a web page, go here.

Valley View

Welcome to a special edition of Valley View bringing you up to speed with two exciting new venues we've recently launched, which are attracting visitors from far and wide.

Find out all about Lee Valley White Water Centre, the only brand new London 2012 venue you can use and enjoy before the Games. We also take a look at Myddelton House Gardens, opened in May by The Duchess of Cornwall after a two year Heritage Lottery Funded restoration project restored the Gardens to their former Victorian glory.

White Water thrills as first brand new London 2012 venue opens

Lee Valley White Water Centre - the only brand new London 2012 venue the public can use and enjoy ahead of the Games - opened to the public on Good Friday, April 22 with ten thousand visitors attending the opening weekend alone.

Bookings for rafting have already been made from people in every single London borough and all districts in Essex and Hertfordshire - as well as people attracted from much further afield; from across the UK and Europe.

The opening of this world class venue is a major milestone in the London 2012 programme and allows visitors to raft the very same white water rapids which the world's best Canoe Slalom athletes will tackle in 2012.

In June and July more than 2,000 school children from every London borough and districts across Hertfordshire and Essex will raft the rapids for free as part of a special Lee Valley Regional Park Authority Schools Festival.

Visit our dedicated website: www.gowhitewater.co.uk

Read more >

The facts

13,000 litres of water powers down the Olympic Standard Competition Course every second.

Over 150,000 cubic metres of earth used - enough to fill the Royal Albert Hall.

There are five water pumps on the Olympic Course and three on the Legacy Loop, each weigh five tonnes.

Only a five minute drive from the M25 or a 25 minute train journey from Central London.

The Centre hosts five days of canoe slalom competition during the Games - Sunday 29 July -Thursday 2 August 2012.

During the Games 82 competitors will compete in four medal events.

Myddelton House Gardens celebrates a Royal opening

On 5 May, The Duchess of Cornwall opened Lee Valley Regional Park Authority's beautifully restored Myddelton House Gardens in Enfield, north London. The project commemorates the life and work of one of the 20th century's greatest self-taught expert gardeners and botanists, Edward Augustus Bowles - a former resident of Myddelton House itself.

The Duchess's 'royal seal of approval' celebrates the completion of a two year Heritage Lottery Funded restoration project, returning the Gardens to their former Victorian glory. During her visit The Duchess of Cornwall potted some box cuttings, taken from an original hedging that dates back to E A Bowles' day. Her Royal Highness, a keen gardener herself said: "I'm very, very happy doing a bit of gardening if you ever need a volunteer..."

£15,000 Mayoral Banquet is wrong in these tough times

2011-05-26T15:36:00.002+01:00

Just to be clear, why the Labour Group decided that we should not attend the Mayors Inaugural Banquet this year.

It was not to snub the Mayor, nor snub the work he will do this year with the numerous charities and voluntary organisations (many of whom had their funding cut when the Tories cut the 'Stonger Communities' fund by 66% last year).

It is to do with spending £15,000 on a banquet when you, as a council, are cutting support to the voluntary sector by 66%, have sacked over 200 staff this year already, are privatising care of the elderly to outfits like 'Care UK', smashing the Arts to pieces by closing the Clocktower, and making proposals to shut 6 Croydon Libraries.

We had a very nice reception following the Mayors Inauguration on Monday Night. Very nice sandwiches, plenty of wine and everyone was pleased to be able to toast the new Mayor and wish him well.

But going through a formal dinner tonight, at the estimated cost of £15,000 (how much depends how many guests they actually invite) is just too much to take.

So, I hope they all feel really guilty tonight. Noshing on tax payer cash that could have been used to support the vulnerable, elderly or such like. I wonder if they will have a toast to the new Luxury Council HQ that is rising out of the ground while they are at it?

Its just not right.

The Menu for the new Mayors Banquet

Serious Challenges for Croydon's Economy

2011-05-25T17:39:00.000+01:00

The latest report from the Centre for Cities has published a report titled: 'Linked In: Realising Croydon's potential now'.

It is a report that is about jobs and does a very thorough job in analysing where Croydon is and what needs to be done to keep jobs in Croydon and bring more jobs to Croydon.

The loss of 1,000 jobs at the Home Office in Croydon is a sad reflection of where government rhetoric does not meet practical measures. The Government is keen to take jobs from Central London and put them in lower cost centres. Anyone who looks at any of the commercial estate agents web sites will find out that Croydon is exactly that. A low cost centre. Office rents are a tiny proportion of the city of London and Docklands. That is the real Croydon advantage, yet our borough fails to take advantage of it.

Our beloved Council instead concentrates on being developer friendly for housing led schemes and conversion of office blocks like St Georges House (NESTLE). This is the wrong strategy for Croydon as we need to keep jobs in our Town and attract new companies and existing companies to locate here for the flexibility and value for money that our location offers.

I have only started to read the report, but it sets out the stark reality on its front page.

Average workplace based weekly wage (2009) £627
Business with 1-10 employees (2008) 87.1%
Private sector job growth (1998 - 2008) -10,500
Public sector job creation (1998 - 1008) +14,000
Public sector job losses (forecast by 2014/15) 2,000

They are alarming stats and show that Croydon has a real challenge ahead of it. I also think it brings into question the current councils plan to reduce the head count of staff by at least 2,000 by externalising services and therefore jobs. Lots of those jobs will go abroad or elsewhere in the UK. That means that our local economy will suffer. Our community will suffer.

READ THE FULL REPORT HERE

Whitehorse Road Action Needed

2011-05-25T17:22:00.000+01:00

Sometimes as a Councillor you get really pissed off at the length of time it takes the Council to do anything.

Well, I've just been chatting to my colleague Councillor Wayne Lawlor (@waynejplawlor) who has similar casework to me about the state of Whitehorse Road (our two wards share this main road).

Is this the worst road in Croydon? perhaps we should have a competition of local residents to find out? I cant believe that there are more than 30 roads in Croydon that are as busy as this road and in a worse state of repair.

Anyway, in discussion with Cllr Lawlor, I remembered that i had asked a Council question on this topic back in November last year. Seems the Council officers are extending the time frame for this work now till next year. This road is full of pot holes and long trenches of collapsed roadway. The roundabout is just appalling.

Residents in my ward (Selhurst) and South Norwood pay their Council Tax and expect things to be done properly.

Come on Croydon Council, resurface these roads this year and let our residents sleep properly at night without their houses shaking all night long.

My Council Question from Last Year:

CQ371 - 10 from Councillor Timothy Godfrey

EH

When will 1) Whitehorse Lane and 2) the junction/roundabout with Whitehorse Road /

High Street be resurfaced?

Reply

(1) Whitehorse Lane has been identified as needing resurfacing but it has not been

possible to confirm a start date due to major works planned by utility companies in

and around the area. Gas and water main replacement programmes have disrupted

our plans to resurface the road. The major resurfacing work on this road would

normally be undertaken outside the professional football season due to it being a

major access route to Selhurst Park. It is hoped that this scheme will be able to

undertaken during May to August 2011 following consultations on next year’s

programme of works which are due to take place at the utility company co-ordination

meeting to be held in January 2011.

(2) Whitehorse Road is a “Class A” road and resurfacing works for this type of road

are funded by Transport for London. Schemes are submitted to Transport for London

once a year but are funded by them based on the structural condition of the road.

Hammersmith and Fulham commission annual road condition surveys for all of

London’s Class A roads on Transport for London’s behalf. The results of these

surveys are used by Transport for London to prioritise scheme funding. There are

roads in worse condition than the Whitehorse Road junction with High Street so a

scheme for this location is less likely to attract funding. The location does not currently

feature in the top 30 sites in the Borough which at current funding levels will take 10

years to complete.

Youth Theatre work to be 'Nationalised'

2011-05-19T13:01:00.002+01:00

I have been a big fan of the work done by CYTO - Croydon Youth Theatre Organisation - for many years. A band of volunteers has built up the work of this organisation from a more traditional youth theatre organisation based in a scout hall to a busy and thriving youth service serving many young people from across Croydon.

It is a true example of the 'Big Society' where volunteers work in partnership with the local council to create huge value for money. The importance of the backing of the Council should not be underestimated.

The volunteers manage a building - the Shoe String Theatre (Hint: the name says it all) in South Norwood. The volunteers bring in extra income that subsidises the running of the building and enables the Council to co-fund much of the youth work around theatre. Simple tasks like opening the building up or applying for charitable funds are all done by volunteers.

Good stuff.

The newsletter below sets out in detail the impact of the Council decisions on the organisation. Staff posts are being deleted and new posts created. No money has been identified for productions (the very hook that makes CYTO so successful with young people). No summer programme is being arranged. New staff will begin their jobs in September (working directly for the Council, not for CYTO). A Real waste of the summer holiday and the demolition of the impressive working partnership that currently exists between the Council and CYTO.

The equivalent of Nationalisation or the rise of the Big Council
Included in the Council Plans is to have a new set of Youth Service workers in a new 'Performing Arts Team'. So a copy of what CYTO already does, but reporting directly to the Council. So instead of a 'Big Society' provider working with the Council, Croydon Council is stopping that true partnership working and employing its own team. An example of the 'Big Council'. The voluntary sector equivalent of Nationalisation?

This is typical of Croydon Council at the moment. It is unwilling to improve what it already has, instead it seeks to replace it. No doubt, someone in the Youth Service or the Council Cabinet thinks this will enhance their empire and status or maybe make it easier to privatise in one big contract or commission with other youth services in the borough. The risk to Croydon though is that it may make CYTO un-viable and unable to operate. The loss of a vibrant, independent CYTO to Croydon would be immense.

The CYTO newsletter. A must read to see for yourself what is going on with our Youth and Voluntary Services

Addiscombe Railway Park

2011-05-16T17:10:00.000+01:00

A reminder of the history of this park

I walked the Addiscombe Railway Park both ways this morning. It is an Oasis in the middle of Addiscombe. Quiet and well used. The Black Horse Tram Stop at one end and the busy Lower Addiscombe Road at the other end.

This park is the brainchild of local Councillor Sean Fitzsimons who has championed the concept of the Park over the last 10 years.

Local residents have set up a Friends group, and the next meeting is on 2nd July.

Addiscombe Railway Park: bland in places

From my visit this morning, it clearly needs the Friends Group. You cant really call it a Park. It is more a strech of land with a big path down the middle.

I think it has huge potential though. Much more attention to environmental stewardship and better use of some of the larger areas could make this an oasis for families as well as a destination to relax in.

A Council contractor was watering some of the planting, but the rubbish bins were over flowing and the pathway to the Tram Stop overgrown. Ive reported these to the Council and asked what the regiem is by Council to care for this area.

Steps to Blackhorse Lane Tram Stop: Overgrown

Uncared for by the Council

Cared for by careful park users..

Graffiti: not cleaned off for ages (you can see from the rain marks)

Good luck to that friends group. This Park should be a real gem in this densely built area of Croydon.

The clear park signs

Bridge carrying ~Blackhorse Lane over the park

London Road

2011-05-02T23:25:00.003+01:00

I was down London Road on Sunday night at about 9pm.
The road was filthy. Litter everywhere and only one street bin in
sight, despite this being a busy road for most of the day and night. I
get really frustrated that the Council provides so few street bins,
even in busy locations. I do think if you provide the bins, then lots
of people will use them. On the other hand, the bins were full and had not been emptied, so with no available bin in sight and you can understand why people choose to drop litter.

I attach two photos of Selhurst Ward on London Road that show how bad it was.
I've asked What's the cleaning schedule on this area and will update
this post when I have a reply.

Library Consultations

2011-04-26T18:32:00.002+01:00

The Library farce goes on... Still on the table is the plan to close up to 6 Croydon libraries.

The Council has now published the responses from the formal consultation. Surprise surprise, the consultation says... wait for it... Libraries are much appreciated and well used.You can read it for yourself here.

What I really hate about local government is the sheer waste of time and money that these consultations take in order to tell you the bleeding obvious. Even the promoter of the closure plan, Councillor Sara Bashford said she 'loves libraries'.

What would I do? I would ask the public to help shape the budget for the next year. That way you might possibly exploit the knowledge of local residents and the experience of the staff in the service to get more from less.

The Library budget has been cut by £1million this financial year (2011/2012). So, the later in the financial year the harder it gets to save that £1million or more.

In the budget book the Council has allocated £10.5million for Libraries, Museums and the Arts. That's a lot of cash!

The problem with the budget is that it allocates more than 30% of that to 'back office' functions like building maintenance, security, HR (Human Resources such as payroll etc), IT (computers and equipment), Senior Council Management, legal, transport etc. In previous years, that figure has been as high as 40%.

Clearly when the government is choosing to cut so fast and so deep cuts have to be made, but it must surely be up to local politicians to make choices that protect the front line?

The headline figure you will hear for the cuts to local government are 27% - but that is actually the cut to the grant to the local council. Half of local expenditure (excluding most of education) comes from Council Tax, so that 27% figure shrinks to 13.5% - a huge cut over 4 years, I am not pretending otherwise.

The Labour opposition on Croydon Council presented an alternative budget - you can view it at http://s.coop/alternative - that budget reduced the cuts by only £2million but made some significantly different choices. It was also put together in about 2 weeks. The time between the administrations published budget and the council meeting. It was put together and approved by the Finance Officer, so was a legal budget. My point is, with active, hard working councillors working with officers, the cuts to Croydon could be managed in a significantly different way that would ameliorate the impact on the front line services.

For the Library Service, I believe that we could spend that £10.5million budget differently and achieve a library service that was popular, well used and spent more than the £250,000 on buying books that the borough does at the moment. Not easy, but possible.

Council Goes for 8am - Midnight AGAIN

2011-04-07T16:46:00.001+01:00

The Council will shortly be consulting AGAIN on mad hat plans to inflict 8am - midnight parking restrictions on a great swathe of North West Croydon - in essence the roads off of the London Road in the vicinity of Mayday Hospital.

The last time the council 'consulted' the roads in this area returned the same level of 'NO THANK YOUs' as 65 other roads in the original (larger) consultation area. See my blog article for more details.

This was not good enough for the Tory Cabinet member (Councillor Thomas) who took this as meaning that local residents wanted an 8am - midnight parking scheme in their area. Why he did not inflict this on the 65 other roads has never been answered.

I have not seen the full paperwork yet (I am only a local councillor!) but it is basically trying to implement the original proposals (8am - midnight) across the area or in every road.

Some local residents have genuine concerns about parking and would like an extension from the 5pm end to say 6 or 7pm. That view wont be possible in this 'consultation' it will be 8am - midnight, 8am to 8pm or sticking with the current situation.

The impact on residents will be significant. Visitors in the evening or weekends will have to pay the expensive meter fees or have to purchase visitor permits (permits which you cant buy on line and take an age to arrange).

Lamposts

Hopefully the consultation wont be run by just sticking a few notices on lamp posts (like last time) but will go to every resident in the affected area. The knock on effect on local businesses and community organisations like the Mosque and Oshwal Centre will also be severe.

Community Campaign

Luckily active Croydon citizens will be taking up the fight again. Check out their excellent web site CroydonCouncil.com for more details.

Strange world where some people pay tax and others dont

2011-04-05T14:41:00.000+01:00

Usually when you read about tax dodges you read about Lord Rich of Central America or Vodafone avoiding £6billion in due tax (apparently an urban myth).

Not only has the Conservative Led Government announced a Tax Cut for big business (thats right - VAT up for us by 2.5%, a tax cut for them by 2%) but we have many neighbours and friends here in Croydon avoiding paying the Council Tax too.

Croydon Council is owed a staggering £40.2million in uncollected Council Tax - exposed very neatly by Inside Croydon.

Gavin Barwell meanwhile seems to be outraged at the inaccuracy of the figure and claims the figure is a mere £36.3million.

What i find staggering is that iether of these figuers is completely outrageous.

I don't like the Council Tax, because it is regressive, (generally speaking it hits poorer people harder than richer people). I don't really like Tax either, but I do value Tax, because it pays for things we all use. It helps build a stronger society. It helps people when they are sick. It helps people get from A to B. It helps the economy grow and creates jobs. Tax makes Croydon a nicer place to live and work. Tax does so much good, it is well worth defending.

So, why did Gavin Barwell when he ran Croydon Council and his Tory Councillor Chums allow so much Council Tax to remain uncollected?

I have a sneaking suspicion its because they really dont like the public backlash of going out and collecting that £36.3million (or £40.2million).

Could you really imagine Gavin wanting to send out court summonses in the run up to the General Election? Not really, and to be fair, not many politicians ever want to take on their electorate in this way, do they?

So, why is the MP for Croydon Central not calling on the Council to do better?

Its easy for Gavin Barwell to call on the Council to save Shirley Library, but not so easy it would seem to call on the Council to ask his constituents for the cash they owe.

I think the people of Croydon need to know

What plan the Conservative Council has to collect this outstanding tax and over what period of time.

Why is the award winning (!) efficient council quite so lax at collecting the Tax?

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
PS - Gavin Barwell is bound to point out that under the last Labour Council (5 years ago) Croydon had a problem with uncollected Council Tax too. It did - but not quite as large as it is now - 5 long years later of Conservative rule (including Gavin Barwell running the Council), why does our Council have such a significant problem??

Victory for Local Residents

2011-03-28T12:09:00.000+01:00

I was pleased to be able to speak to the Planning Committee on Thursday night in support of local residents living on Thornhill Road, close to Whitehorse Road and the Baptist Tabernacle on Spurgeons Bridge.

A developer, A2Dominion, had put in an application to replace the current 2 and 3 storey building with a block of flats of 4 and 6 storeys.

If you know this site you will know that it is a busy roundabout. The application was for 38 flats with a lot of the flats directly looking into the back of the houses on Thornhill Road. It only provided 3 parking spaces and barely any space for the new residents to sit outside. The flats also did not have balconies. Basically the developer was trying to shoe horn as many flats into the site as possible.

Thankfully the Committee overturned the advice of officers who had recommended approval.

The defeated scheme: 5 storeys overlooking 2 storey houses

I am clear that this site will be re developed, but as a local Councillor, it is vital that this scheme respects the neighbourhood it is in.

That means the area facing Thornhill Road should be two stories with the possibility of an additional top storey set back from the top.

Additional height could go on the Whitehorse Road side, as this faces a tall residential tower that was converted from an office block.

However, even in this area, (close to West Croydon Station) more parking is required and more amenity space (space to relax in outside).

It would also help if the developer bothered to meet with local people who would be directly affected by this development. The fact that they haven't speaks volumes.

Design

The application has been to committee twice, the first time it was sent away to be worked on further. This proved to be a waste of time, with more effort being put in to turn the building into a yellow brick faced block instead of the previous more modern design.

In my book, both designs were poor as this site could provide an opportunity to provide a strong local landmark at the same time as providing a good quality of life for the new residents and the existing residents.

Contrast and Compare

An application a few yards away has just been approved on the corner of Strathmore and Whitehorse. This scheme for 59 homes fits in much better to the local area and will create a much better quality of life for the new residents. The applicant bothered to do a leaflet for local residents and managed to design a scheme that respects the character of the area.

Brewing problems

The planning officers seemed to treat the scheme as if it was in the Town Centre. It isnt. None of Selhurst Ward is in the town centre. This area is close to the town centre, but it is a residential area. It has very little to do with 'City Centre' living.

The planners and the ruling Conservative Council want to build thousands of extra homes in Croydon. Yes, homes are needed, but they need to respect the right of the existing residents. That means treating this area of Croydon as a traditional residential area and not allowing 6 storey blocks of flats to back on to 2 storey houses.

Parking Decision Stands - Part 2

2011-03-16T23:37:00.001Z

So, the Borough Solicitor has written back to me re my previous post on the poor performance of our Scrutiny Committee re its failure to halt the decision to introduce draconian parking rules in North Croydon.

In essence the Borough Solicitor has said that just because the Traffic Management Committee has made a decision, it doesn't HAVE to be implemented. It is permissive, not instructive.

So that's OK then!

Not really... because we are now at the mercy of Councillor Phil Thomas, the Cabinet member responsible.

As for the lack of an Equalities impact assessment, more legal musings but the Borough Solicitor is careful and corporate enough to defend the council breaking the law on this one. (my description, not hers!)

Parking Decision Still Stands

2011-03-02T15:55:00.000Z

Labour Councillors in Croydon 'Called In' the decision to inflict draconian parking regulations on an Area of North West Croydon. That 'Call In' was heard by the full Scrutiny & Overview Committee last night. It was addressed by Malcolm Wicks MP and local residents objecting to the plan.

More coverage on this over at Inside Croydon

This committee is meant to be consensual and follow the model of 'Select Committees' operated by our MPs in Parliament. It is meant to be the forum for Councillors to look into issues on a cross party basis and ask questions.

Once the committee has looked at a decision it has some options, the first is just to make comments, the second and most important and powerful option is for it to refer the decision back to the decision maker - in this case Councillor Phil Thomas and the Traffic Management Cabinet Committee - with recommendations.

If the committee does the former and does not refer the decision back formally, the decision stands.

So, last night the Cabinet Member responsible for these proposals - Councillor Phil Thomas, made an announcement that he was willing to re consult the area by letter. A significant and very welcome concession.

The problem with this is that this position had been pre arranged with Councillor Steve Hollands. In a set piece display Councillor Hollands called mainly Tory Councillors and then allowed Councillor Phil Thomas to make the welcome concession. Councillor Hollands then proceeded to accept the assurance from Councillor Thomas and failed to formally send the decision back to the Traffic Management Cabinet Committee.

In failing to properly follow the Council Constitution, the Council is left in the position that it has formally AGREED the draconian parking restrictions and formally speaking they should now be implemented by Council Officers.

Hopefully sense will prevail and the Council will wait for the fresh consultation to take place, however what this shows is how weak Scrutiny has become under the Chair of Councillor Hollands.

Not only has the Council packed the full committee with Tory Councillors, but it now refuses to even make a simple recommendation back such as "This Committee refers the decision back to Councillor Thomas and the TMCC and asks it to look at the decision again". Such a soft referral would give plenty of scope for Councillor Thomas to do a fresh consultation and would stop officers in their tracks from implementing the decision.

Once again, this shows how the Council Constitution is in a right old mess, when senior Conservative Councillors give it and democracy, no respect at all.

I have written to the Council Solictor on this issue, as residents need to know what is going on and what will now happen.

------
Email to Council Solictor, 2 March 2011

Dear Julie,

1) With the decision still standing on Parking, the Scrutiny Committee having not made a referral to either the decision maker or Cabinet, Could you please advise on the legality of the decision given that the decision maker did not have the equalities impact assessment before them at the time of the decision being taken.

The council officer responsible confirmed at the Scrutiny Committee that the Equalities Impact Assessment was not completed until after the decision had been taken.

I believe that a ruling from you is quite important on this, because it affects how decisions will be taken in the future. I had presumed that the legislation and Croydons interpretation was quite clear, namely that when a change of service took place an Equalities Impact Assessment had to be undertaken.

Not only was this to be considered good practice but also to ensure the decision was legally robust and could not be challenged in the courts.

2) Could you outline how and when the Traffic Management Cabinet Committee will be able to issue a fresh consultation, as proposed by Cllr Thomas. Could you confirm what actions / mechanism the Council will be taking to halt the implementation of a valid decision, now that the Scrutiny Committee has met and not referred the decision back to the decision maker or Council?

As you will understand it is important that residents have reassurance on these issues.

With best wishes

Timothy Godfrey

Croydon Council Budget 2011/2012

2011-03-01T12:03:00.000Z

Last night saw the Budget passed by a full meeting of the Council. The Labour Group made some minor amendments that would have ameliorated the worst affects of the budget, but only in a small way. You can read our alternative proposal here. The meeting was one of the more serious efforts by Councillors on all sides. It had to be with such deep cuts being pushed through. It was sad to see the Conservative Councillors clapping the budget being passed. It surely can not be a happy day for anyone to see a budget that will see so many services cut back so quickly?

I shall return to the issues below in more detail over the coming weeks.

Below I reproduce the speech that I gave.

----------------------------------

Thank You Madam Mayor,

The Labour budget proposal is not where we would be starting from. It is a Conservative led government that is cutting so quickly and so deeply. Blame needs to be placed where it belongs, in the main, with Eric Pickles and David Cameron.
But I am not letting this Conservative Council off the hook. Not at all.
Locally it is about choices and about priorities.
Only a weak council would conduct an Arts Consultation that they had no intention of ever listening to.
Only a weak council would propose shutting half of our local libraries and ask the communities of Croydon to pit their local library against libraries that serve other communities.
The people have spoken across Croydon, hundreds have turned out on street protests and public meetings to protect these essential public services.
Labours shadow budget includes £200,000 more for the Arts. A small way of saying how important we consider they are for Croydon’s future. Savings have to be made, but it is how these savings are made which is the difference between our political parties.
Next year the Council Tax payer will be spending at least £10.5million on Libraries, Arts and Cultural provision in Croydon.
Yet You have closed down the Clocktower and you have no plans in place to support the Warehouse Theatre. You have no vision. You have no plan.
Front Line First. Labour seeks a programme that puts the skilled staff delivering the service first.
An example is the efficiency that is the Upper Norwood Library. For a total budget of £400,000 they deliver a busy vibrant library. The vast majority of that budget is spent on the Front Line.

On the Good Library Blog Croydon was named and shamed as spending 46% of its Library budget in 2008/9 on overheads.
The UK average is 13.1% (Source CIPFA via Good Library Blog)
A Labour Council would have no truck with replacing skilled librarians with volunteers nor would we undermine their terms and conditions of employment.
A Labour Council would work over the next two years to replicate the efficiencies of Upper Norwood Library throughout the Borough. We would form Co-operative Trusts that would involve local councillors, staff and the community to deliver first class library services in their locality
Take Coulsdon, we could harness the energy and commitment of the local people and form a community Trust with its own budget to run both of their libraries. We would give local ward councillors a real opportunity to help plan and run their local library. This is in stark contrast to the current administration who have refused to allow local councillors to serve on Upper Norwood Library Committee.
In this way we would remove obscene back office costs and enable the Council to deliver localised services at the same time as protecting borough assets like the Clocktower and our community halls.
This service can sustain some budget reductions, but IT is vital that those reductions are taken in the back office and support functions. I fear that this Council is not up to that challenge and will plough on regardless.
But I appeal to you all, to join with us and Put the Front Line First.

Madam Mayor, I support the amended budget.

Symptoms of a sick Council

2011-02-22T14:21:00.000Z

Sometimes you wonder about local government and despair at the lack of transparency and the lack of democracy.

The latest debacle is where Croydon Council handed Oval Primary School to be run by The Gipsy Hill Federation you can visit their fancy web site to find out what they are about. The council took this action because the school had suffered a poor ofsted report. It had a relatively new head teacher who was working on a programme of improvement, but the local Council decided to tear up that work and appoint the Federation to run the school.

Within a few hours of the Federation team arriving at the school they had started a programme of dubious educational 'improvement' that basically involved suspending pupils and introduced a whole set of new procedures. Within a couple of days the Federation had left the building, handing the school back to the Council. This has been covered in detail by Inside Croydon and the Addiscombe Labour Councillors.

The local Councillors have called for an enquiry into this and into a positive way forward. The school has a good 'community' of teachers, parents and local people who support it. It is vital that this is built upon and not thrown out in the interest of 'swift' action. The local MP, Gavin Barwell is also supporting the parents at the moment.

Key Questions

Why did the Council act so swiftly and without any consultation with the school, parents or local councillors. The first anyone heard about this was from parents distraught at what was going on in their school
What is the next step? Will the Council learn its lesson and involve the community that is Oval Primary School (teachers, parents, local residents, councillors MP etc)?
How was the Federation short-listed and approved?
Which other organisations did the Council consider before awarding this work to the Federation?
What was the plan of action that the Federation put forward? Why did the Council approve it?
Did the Council consider the risks of bringing in the Federation?
Why did the Council choose not to consult?

A sick Council

This is just one window onto how Croydon Council is currently working. Arbitary decisions taken without considering the context, the people involved or the long term impact.

We have seen decisions to cut budgets on the Arts, where all the staff have been sacked, but large 'back room' budgets remain unaffected.
We have seen consultations carried out which the Council had no intention of listening to (74% opposed option 4 on the Arts and Heritage consultation and they chose... Option 4.
The Council cut the grants to the voluntary sector by 66% (Stronger Communities Fund) at the same time as trumpeting the merits of the voluntary sector in the 'Big Society'
The Council asked residents to rank libraries in order of preference for closure (Question 6 of consultation)
The Council has imposed parking restrictions on the area around Mayday Hospital 8am - midnight, 7 days a week, despite opposition being broadly similar in this area as in another 65 roads.

Our Local Council should not be behaving like this. It should be genuinely consulting and listening to residents.

If the Council decides on a new budget it should consult on how that budget should be spent, not pitting residents of South Norwood against residents of Sanderstead or Coulsdon as in the Libraries Consultation.

If the Council decides action needs to be taken to improve Oval Primary, why not involve the community of that school in an improvement meeting, where parents and teachers can come together to discuss how this could be achieved?

Proper consultation does not cost a lot of money, but it does require a commitment from the Council and from the Council Cabinet to genuinely get involved and listen to local people.

Tory double standards on Parking

2011-02-15T16:14:00.000Z

Why the Council decision just does not add up

The Croydon Cabinet Committee responsible for Transport, and the draconian proposals, backed down on their plans for all but the area along London Road and up to Mayday Hospital.

The problem with this is that residents haven’t been properly consulted. Some might actually want it (Midhurst Avenue in Broad Green Ward might be the exception), but I have not (yet!) come across any in my ward (Selhurst) who are in favour of this scheme. Putting up A4 sheets of paper on lamp posts is never a great way to consult on a decision that affects so many people.

From the Consultation, the Cabinet Committee (all Tory Councillors) stated that they had only got 2% of residents opposing the scheme in the North Zone, so it must be wanted… in essence saying that the ‘silent’ majority must win out on this!

Apart from the number of objections within the new draconian zone is fairly similar to the areas not in the new 8 am – midnight / 7 days a week zone.

The total objections are fairly similar between each zone too.

East Inner – 315

East Outer – 541

North – 590

South – 438

West - 826

So what has gone on here?

Residents have pointed out to me the sums that the Council have raised from parking charges for the Zones:

Zone	On / Off Street	Total
East Inner	ON STREET	£150,546.51
East Outer	ON STREET	£220,690.95
North "N"	ON STREET	£536,720.25
South "S"	ON STREET	£74,254.21
West "W"	ON STREET	£347,864.93
Grand Total		£1,330,076.85

Is this what has really led the Council to target the North Zone for longer hours and thus more income from on street charges? The above figures exclude income from tow away fees and fines. I have asked the officer what the estimate of extra income is from these new hours of operation, the committee report does not make this clear. The cost of new signage etc is £15,000 (committee report paragraph 4.2.1).

Gavin Barwell MP

On my blog I challenged Gavin Barwell MP to provide the evidence for his statement that in a few roads around Mayday Hospital, residents want something done. His only response has been that residents on Midhurst Avenue wanted something done. Fair enough for the residents of Midhurst Avenue, if that is actually what they want (pity the 5 objectors), but what about the other 10 roads in the new draconian zone?

It sticks in the throat to have a Tory MP in another constituency praising the Tory council for listening and then following the Council line that these restrictions being imposed in North Croydon are actually wanted by local residents.

The figures below prove just how arbitrary the decision to impose these restrictions on residents in North Croydon actually have been.

If the Tory Council was consistent, then working on their own logic, they would have imposed these restrictions on the 65 roads listed below in addition to the 11 roads that are getting this treatment.

ROADS IN THE NEW ZONE

Bensham Lane – 4

Buxton Road – 3

Cambell Road – 1

Constance Road – 4

Dennett Road – 2

Earlswood Avenue – 4

Francis Road – 2

Lodge Road – 4

London Road (north of St James Road) – 12

Mayday Road – 2

Midhurst Avenue – 5

ROADS EXCLUDED FROM THESE RESTRICTIONS WITH SIMILAR RESPONSES

Addington Road – 2

Ainsworth Road – 3

Cornwall Road – 3

Cuthbert Road – 1

Eastney Road – 1

Mead Place – 1

Mitcham Road – 1

Montague Road – 2

Parsons Mead – 5

St Saviours Road – 1

Windmill Road – 1

ROADS EXCLUDED FROM THESE RESTRICTIONS WITH SIMILAR RESPONSES IN OTHER CONTROLLED PARKING ZONES

SOUTH ZONE

Addiscombe Road – 2

Anselm Close – 1

Bardley Close – 2

Beech Copse – 2

Brownlow Road -3

Chiltern Close – 1

Danecourt Gardens – 3

Deans Close – 4

Deepdene Avenue – 2

Delmy Close – 2

Digby Close – 1

Green Acres – 4

Langton Way – 3

Leyburn Gardens – 3

Lyndhurst Close – 3

Minster Drive – 4

Pageant Walk – 2

Ranmore Avenue – 2

Rosamund Close – 3

Rowan Gardens – 1

Rushmead Close – 2

South Park Hill Drive – 2

Spencer Road – 4

Sudbury Gardens – 4

Thanescroft Road – 2

The Avenue – 1

Waldgrove – 4

Witherby Close – 2

West Zone

Aberdenn Road – 3

Ashley Lane – 2

Bartlett Street – 1

Blunt Road – 3

Duppas Hill Road – 2

Haling Park Gardens – 1

Hurst Road – 1

Lower Church Street – 2

St Andrews Road – 2

St Johns Road – 3

The Waldrons – 1

Wayneflete Avenue – 1

East Outer Zone

Academy Gardens – 3

Colworth Road – 4

Grenaby Road – 2

Lamberts Place – 1

Morland Road – 1

Mulberry Lane – 2

Tavistock Road – 2

Turnpike Link – 1

East Inner Zone

Brickwood Road – 4

Colson Road – 1

Garrick Crescent – 2

Leyburn Gardens – 2

Park Hill Rise - 1

#Croydon MP Barwell wades into Parking Storm with both feet

2011-02-14T18:22:00.002Z

So, the Tory MP for Croydon Central gangs up with Croydon Council against residents in North Croydon.

First he accuses the Council of running a shambolic consultation (my words), then he writes to constituents to tell them that the Council has listened.

In it, Gavin Barwell MP (Croydon Central) says "I am delighted to inform you that our lobbying has paid off - on Wednesday night, the Council's Traffic Management Committee decided not to proceed with the proposals (apart from in a few roads around Mayday Hospital where residents want something done)".

I am gob smacked! I've not yet found anyone who wants the draconian parking scheme introduced in their neighbourhood. Apparently Mr Barwell has knowledge not shared with either local councillors, the local MP (Malcolm Wicks) or anyone else!

How can you be 'delighted' at something that has so much local opposition? How can you use the phrase ''residents want something done' when you are elected for a different area and live in Croydon South?

An open challenge to Gavin Barwell MP: tell us who wants this scheme on their street. IF you cant, then I am calling on you to withdraw your letter immediately.

The Tory Council still has not listened to local people in the North of Croydon. It is time they did. Perhaps he could lobby them to be fair and transparent? Otherwise it looks suspiciously like Tory Councillors helping out only their own (Gavin ran Croydon Council before being elected as MP for Croydon Central in May 2010).

Full text of letter:

2% object to #Croydon Parking changes

2011-02-14T12:56:00.000Z

Local residents are really quite furious and rightly so at the local Conservative Council extending their parking restrictions until midnight 7 days a week. Proposals for swathes of Croydon to be extended have been thrown out, but the Tory Cabinet decided that having 'only 2%' against the proposals in the North of the Borough was not high enough to warrant not bringing in these draconian measures, after all 98% of residents had not complained!

This brings in how the 'consulation' was run. Primarily through sticking letters on lamp posts in the areas affected.

So to get 2% of residents formally objecting is really very high. How many notices have you read on Lamp Posts? Do all local residents buy the Croydon Advertiser? Do all local residents read the Croydon Guardian? No they don't!

The Tory Council have voted to bring these restrictions in the North of Croydon just to raise money, not to tackle any real problems. (If a local resident is in favour of these plans I would like to hear from you, as I have not heard anyone in the area approve of them!).

A public meeting is going to be organised and local residents have been out door knocking to see what the views are. Responses have even amazed the residents themselves. It just goes to show that the Council has not consulted properly on these plans, and setting arbitrary thresholds to gauge public opinion (2% against is not enough - even when 0% are in favour) is just not good enough.

An excellent residents' web site can be found at http://croydoncouncil.com/
where you can find out how to help local residents campaign on this issue.

Let us also be clear, a Labour Council would scale back these restrictions. I have personally always opposed such mad cap schemes, and will continue to do so. Residents' parking is about balancing users demands and keeping our roads safe, not as a cash machine.

I don't see a case anywhere in Croydon that needs restrictions before 9am or after 10pm. I am a fan of zones that you see around London that have an hour in the middle of the day to stop commuters. These are easy to police and target just offenders, not friends and relatives popping round for dinner on a Friday night.

The roads affected are listed on the above residents' web site but are:
ROADS TO BE COVERED
London Road
- from St James’s Road to Brigstock Road
WEST OFF LONDON ROAD (south to north)
Dennett Road (top only)
Pemdevon Road (top only)
Midhurst Avenue
EAST OFF LONDON ROAD (south to north)
Elmwood Road,
- leads to Wellington Road
Bensham Lane - see below
Broad Green Avenue
Campbell Road
Mayday Road
Crossland Road
Earlswood Avenue
Alma Place
ROADS OFF BENSHAM LANE
Kelling Gardens
Constance Road
Francis Road
Cameron Road
Woodcroft Road
- leads to Jamaica Road + Buxton Road
Lodge Road (runs through to St James’s Road)
- leads to St Saviours Road

Blog: Lee Valley Regional Park Part 2 and Tory plans to sell our forests

2011-01-27T14:02:00.001Z

I've never visited Lee Valley Regional Park, but i value what it gives to the region.

Croydon Council tax payers pay for this park through their council tax. I would like to see more equitable funding of such facilities across London, including of the proposed Wandle Valley Regional Park.

Councillor Phil Thomas, an old fashioned right wing Tory on Croydon Council detests such expenditure, but while I may agree with him that funding needs to be more equitable, I do support the concept of collective funding of major parks and 'green lungs' across London.

That is why I also oppose the privatisation of our forests. They are too important to sacrifice on the alter of cutting the deficit so quickly. We as a country are already heading dangerously close to recession with the economy shrinking., and cutting the deficit so fast risks plunging us firmly into a 'double dip' recession.

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From: Lee Valley Regional Park Authority[SMTP:STAKEHOLDERBULLETIN@LEEVALLEYPARK.ORG.UK]
Sent: Thursday, January 27, 2011 1:30:47 PM
To: Godfrey, Timothy
Subject: Only two weeks left to visit London's 'national treasure' exhibition!
Auto forwarded by a Rule

To view this email as a web page, go here.

Visit 'A 2020 Vision for the Lee Valley', an exhibition showcasing Lee Valley Regional Park Authority's plans to create a world class visitor destination in the Lee Valley.

The exhibition is open until Saturday 12 February at New London Architecture - nearest Tube Goodge Street.

See how London's biggest open space was transformed from a neglected back yard into a world class, award-winning visitor and sports destination. Find out about the four London 2012 venues which the Park Authority will run after the Games.

The exhibition launched to acclaim last week with Government Minister Bob Neill calling the Park London's 'National Treasure' and Tony Travers from the London School of Economics dubbing it a 'London classic'.

Find out for yourself at New London Architecture, The Building Centre, Store Street, London, WC1E 7BT - open Monday - Saturday, 9:30am - 6:00pm. Free entry.

For more information and directions click here to visit the New London Architecture website.

This email was sent to: timothy.godfrey@croydon.gov.uk

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#Croydon Conservative Council still needs to answer questions on the Arts.

2011-01-25T15:16:00.000Z

The Conservative Cabinet of Croydon Council last night passed in full a paper that basically deletes the Arts from provision in Croydon.

The Deputy Leader of the Council, Councillor Dudley Mead declared that this was perfectly sound decision because the Fairfield Halls is still being funded. Councillor Dudley Mead failed to declare that he is also Chair of Fairfield Halls (Croydon) Ltd. An ‘independent’ Charity.

What the Conservative Cabinet decided last night:

To close the following:

David Lean Cinema
Braithwaite Hall
Main Exhibition gallery
Space ‘C’ gallery at the Clocktower
Stanley Halls, South Norwood
Selsdon Halls,
Canterbury Hall, Broad Green/West Croydon
Clocktower Arts

Remaining Budget of £2.282 million

The Conservative Cabinet decided to cut £1.482million from the ‘Arts and Heritage’ budget.

The full budget for this service in 2010/11 is £3.764million (budget book page CS1.1C)

The Cut of £1.482million leaves a service total of £2.282million

The Cabinet members and the Director of Finance refused to answer what this remaining budget will be spent on. It is understood that up to £1million is the budget for keeping the buildings open (or mothballed/closed?).

BUT the cabinet has now decided to cut ALL of the staffing of 34.5 FTE (Full Time Equivalent Posts)

Arts – 7 Staff

Heritage – 11.5 Staff

Operations and Business Support – 15.5 Staff

Total: 34

Remaining Staff

Paragraph 4.3 of the Cabinet paper lists the total number of staff to be deleted as “28-29 posts”

That would indicate that the Council is seeking to run the Museum and Local studies library with only 5 or 6 staff.

This is driven by trying to avoid paying back the heritage lottery grant of almost £1million.

Local Studies and Museum with only 5 staff?

How you can deliver a proper Local Studies Library AND a museum on 5 or 6 staff is beyond me. I don't think that either of these services is safe, until we see what they are actually proposing. A dedicated facebook exists to support this service.

Arts Council Grant Loss

The Clocktower was due to receive £94,037 for Venue Development from the arts Council in 2011/12. This has now been lost, in addition it is understood that the Clocktower Arts team were confident of having this external funding renewed.

This area was not even covered in the Council report

Community Halls

The community halls bring in an income of £335,000 per year. Their closure will mean this income stream is given up

Combined income Grants + rental income

The total of external funding and commercial income from hires is £430,000

Top Heavy Management

Above the cuts to the Arts & Heritage is a budget called ‘Cultural Central’ – this spends £414,000 and employs only 3.4 Staff.

What is it, and could this budget be directed to save our front line services?

Footnote

more background on this at the local blog 'Inside Croydon'

blog: excited for #CPFC But...

2011-01-20T20:34:00.000Z

A big change from Selhurst Park...

So the battle to control Crystal Palace by CPFC 2010 did have some long term vision - a new ground, back where the story all began over 100 years ago.

This might or might not come to fruition, but it explains why the deal to buy Crystal Palace was linked to buying the club and ground. If they move, and if Selhurst Park is developed for housing, then CPFC 2010 will have bought the ground for a bargain price of £4million

As a local Councillor, I want palace to stay at Selhurst Park, but I also understand that re developing Selhurst Park for football might be more costly and also unacceptable to local residents.

That is why today I have written to the Head of Planning/Development at Croydon Council, and the Cabinet member responsible asking for a full planning brief to be drawn up for the site.

The Holmesdale stand is huge, it dominates Holmesdale Road, and what I do not want is for a housing developer to then pretend that building a block of flats as high and as wide as this would be a suitable replacement!

I also want the community to have a proper debate about the use of the site. Croydon desperately needs a new school in the North of Croydon, could this be a suitable site? it could then keep sporting links with the football club and provide much needed employment in the area.

If housing is to be allowed, how much? how tall? what type? how much parking?

Can we take the opportunity to tidy up the Whitehorse Road frontage? currently it is quite poor with the road into the Stadium/Sainsbury and a petrol station.

This will be a big change for the club and for our local area. It is important we get this right, and it is important that local residents are not left paying the price once the club has flown its nest!

As one of the three Selhurst Councillors, I will keep you posted!

Passionate about local #Croydon Libraries

2011-01-14T17:12:00.000Z

I have been to two public meetings about the proposed cuts by the Tory run Croydon Council on our local libraries this week.

The first was in Old Coulsdon in support of Bradmore Green Library. This area is right on the edge of Croydon Borough (to the South). 200 people packed the local Congregational Church (people were standing in the entrance hall it was so busy).

Last night I was in Norbury. This area is right on the edge of Croydon Borough (to the North). 320 people packed the local Baptist Church with people standing in the aisles.

Within one week over 600 people have turned out on cold, dark evenings to support what they consider to be an essential local public service.

Each has been backed by local residents associations in a terrific show of support for their true community 'hub'.

I was really heartened by the fact that at each meeting people spoke in defence of other libraries and against the Tory Council trying to pit one community against another. A key question in the council consultation asks residents to rank libraries in order of importance!

For London's most populous borough it has a lot of branch libraries. However each serves a very distinct community. Norbury and Coulsdon have nothing to do with each other in community terms, apart from being served by the same borough council.

It is clear that if the Conservatives go ahead and close these libraries, then it will be a requirement of a future Labour Council to seriously look at re opening them. That is, if the buildings have not been sold off. If they have been sold off, the cost to open a new library will be very high, but I would argue, worthwhile.

I say this because the last Labour administration in Croydon took library provision really seriously. It opened new Libraries at Broad Green, Selsdon and Ashburton. It invested in Upper Norwood Joint Library (with Lambeth Council). It also worked up the plans to refurbish Thornton Heath library.

So Labour in Croydon has a proud record on Libraries. Labour understands that they are a key part of bringing the community together, for providing information, for enabling residents to improve their life chances.

Plenty of local residents listed off the sort of people who use the library, and not just for books. Libraries are powerful community resources. They all offer Internet access, reading schemes for children etc. They are also a visible council service in the locality. In Norbury and Coulsdon, they are the ONLY Council service that is building based in their areas.

Coulsdon meeting. 200 people attended to save

Bradmore Green Library

A packed meeting in Norbury. This was taken while queues were still waiting to get in. Final attendance 320

#Croydon Council threatens staff for talking to councillors & press

2010-12-16T12:07:00.000Z

Youth Workers
Librarians
Museum Staff
Arts Staff

All have been effectively threatened by the Tory Council if they dare speak to the press or councillors.

The problem with this approach is that these are the same staff who are having their jobs threatened under the latest set of 'consultations'. They are damned if they speak out and the are certainly damned if they don't.

Why does this matter?

In a democracy, its not just an elite of councillors and senior council officers who have good ideas. The staff do too! I am aware of a raft of good ideas that staff have for how services can be delivered more effectively and efficiently, how reorganisation could lead to more involvement and help the Council meet its policy agenda as set out in the Community Strategy.

Staff tell me that they along with their immediate managers are all very keen to come up with interesting solutions that would or could protect our vital public services, but that senior management at 'director level' is only interested in making the cash cuts now.

Ive been told that the 'optimistic' Chief Executive, Jon Rouse has welcomed innovation and ideas from front line staff, but always ends his briefings by saying 'but the cuts will be made'. Hardly an open door for staff to come forward with suggestions on delivering more for less.

It must be sensible to look at the council finances over a two year time frame, enabling the council to re organise services over the next 12 months in a way that does not 'fire bomb' our towns key public services by making those same savings in a narrow 3 month window.

At 31st March 2010
General Fund Balances were £11.597m
Earmarked Reserves were £33.996m
Schools Balances were £14.916m
Contingency in the 2010/11 budget is £1.000m

Total reserves at the Councils disposal (excluding Schools Reserves) £46.563Million

£2.2million fund (5%) has been proposed by Councillor Tony Newman as a way to enable restructuring and ensure savings are made in a way that will protect the front line. A way of giving the services targeted by these Tory Cuts a breathing space. Proposals roundly refused by the Conservative leadership of Croydon Council.

The Councils plans, coupled with their treatment of staff leads to one conclusion only: these are ideological cuts on the back of a national picture of 'austerity'. In normal times, there is no way a local council would close libraries and reduce the youth service so substancially.

Difficult times leads to quite extraordinarily bad decisions

Get a Grit #Croydon Council

2010-11-30T17:02:00.000Z

The Grit crews are out in force and have been all day and night, yet Croydon roads are at gridlock - for the third time in two years.

The Pavements

Not gritted and when they have been gritted they have been gritted by operatives using shovels and their fingers

Roads

Gritting vehicles have been out across Croydon for the last 24 hours, yet the streets of Croydon are grid locked and have been for most of the day.

The solution

Pavement clearing staff need grit spreaders, just like the ones used by Westminster Council.
Sit on machines need to be used, some councils convert their grass cutting machinery and put salt sprinklers on the back of them and small ploughs on the front of them
All stations, main bus stops and shopping areas need to be cleared

Roads - more vehicles need to be used. I clearly remember (as a kid) the council having bolt on ploughs and trailers for its large fleet of vehicles. This would allow the posh purpose built ploughs to do the areas of the borough that are steep and difficult to get to with 'normal' vehicles.

You just have to do a search on the internet to find a vast array of trailers and devices available to councils. Why does Croydon Council not have any of these?

More equipment would enable the council to provide dedicated machines for the 'bottleneck' areas like the Croydon flyover. Radio Jackie is reporting that the journey time over the flyover has been at least 1 hour this afternoon. A dedicated vehicle covering this area and the slip roads around it would alieviate lots of the traffic problems.

New Addington and other difficult areas. New Addington has basically been without a bus service for much of the day. This is not acceptable. New Addington needs its own dedicated vehicles to clear roads and keep them open. I believe a similar situation exists in Coulsdon. basing extra resources in these areas will make a big difference.

Compare and Contrast

Snow is never going to be easy to cope with, but just look at the roads and pavements over in Lambeth. A lot better and the traffic is flowing a bit more too. You can check for yourself by looking at the TFL traffic cameras on http://www.londontraffic.org/a23/

Pink Grit is not the answer

much fanfayre was made by Councillor Phil Thomas that the Council was going to stop 'Salt Thieves' by colouring their precious grit pink. Over the border in Sutton the Council has given residents a bag of grit free. Instead of colouring the grit pink, perhaps Councillor Thomas and the Council could have invested in a few more tools for clearing the snow properly.

Come on Croydon Council. Get a Grit.

Congratulations to Ted Craig, #Croydon Arts Champion

2010-11-25T12:59:00.000Z

I am really delighted to see Ted Craig, Artistic Director at the Warehouse Theatre, win this award from the Croydon Guardian.

Ted has kept the theatre going for many years and truly understands the importance of the Theatre to the artistic and business life of the Town.

I served as a Board Director and Company Secretary for many years and know the hard work and dedication that Ted puts in, with no support from the corporate council and even less recognition from the Council.

So well done to Ted and well done to the Croydon Guardian for recognising the importance of Ted, the Warehouse Theatre and the Arts to Croydon's future.

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Croydon Guardian Article

Croydon Champions honoured at awards ceremony

12:00pm Monday 15th November 2010

By Kirsty Whalley

Croydon’s Champions were honoured at an awards ceremony to recognise the borough’s unsung heroes.
Hundreds gathered at the Hilton hotel in Croydon last Thursday for the Croydon Guardian’s ninth annual awards ceremony which aims to honour the bravery, selflessness and commitment of the people of Croydon.
Hosted by music mogul and MOBO winner Trevor Fisher with perfomances from dancers at Croydon College, Brit School’s Shanice Smith, rapper Scopes aka Adrian Grace from Harris Academy and indie band Zemitones.
Trevor Fisher said: “The jewel in Croydon’s crown is its people.”
Croydon Mayor Avril Slipper said it was wonderful to see so many recognised for their courage and devotion to the local community.
She said: “Many acts of kindness go un-noticed and unrecognised other than by those people who have benefitted from them.
“The excellent Croydon Champions awards are so very important. It enables those who are aware of a good deed by the unsung heroes of our town to get it recognised and applauded.
“I thank the Croydon Guardian for launching these awards nine years ago. Long may it continue.”
Assistant editor Matthew Knowles said: “When times are hard it is often easier to forego others and concentrate looking after yourself.
“But this year’s Croydon Champions entries shows that even a recession could not dampen the spirit of giving and helping within the borough.
“Everyone who was nominated was amazing.”
WINNERS:
Child of Courage - Laura-Anne Dellar.
Charity Volunteer - Ginny Harris.
Sporting Champion - Darrell Downie.
Parent of the Year Marie McAllister.
Teacher of the Year - Cathy MacDonald.
Community Champion - Hamish McFee.
Team of the Year - Croydon Visitor Centre.
Arts Champion - Ted Craig.
Business Champion - Megan Ward.
Act of Bravery - Diem Lac Truong.

Tories Fire Bomb Croydons future

2010-11-24T22:18:00.000Z

It is a sad period in Croydon. After 127 years of Croydon Councillors building on the works of the Public Health boards, sewerage, water, slum clearances, parks being created - the sort of great works that built the strong modern society that we have today, the Croydon Tories are proud to be putting forward plans that will devastate our artistic life in Croydon.

I voiced my concerns at the Cabinet meeting that approved a hideous 'consultation' that includes the closure of the Clocktower museum and arts complex, the closure of the Local Studies Library and the ending of the Croydon Summer Festival.

I believe that if these proposals go ahead it will be the equivalent of fire bombing our Town. Not just the actual cuts will devastate, no, the impact of removing that artistic life from the borough will impact on jobs and the attractiveness for investment in our Town for decades to come. After all, why would a business choose to locate 2,000 jobs in Croydon when Croydon can offer no more than a Nandos and a shopping centre?

Culture is a key attraction, a way of giving life to an area or a Town like Croydon.

My genuine fear is that the Cuts are so bad that after the consultation the Council will 'reprieve' the Summer festival (A saving of £150,000) or / and the local studies library. The cabinet member, Councillor Bashford denied this, and claimed it was a 'genuine' consultation.

I doubt that very much, but we are bound to have some 'good news' as a result of these massive cuts. Thats the way of spin and decisions made behind closed doors.

I asked the Cabinet member why she was bringing forward these cuts and not looking at different ways of working. The Council has worked on various plans for a 'Cultural Trust' at least three times over the last 10 years, yet they bring forward straight forward 'cuts' and closures. No thinking that could deliver the Arts and Cultural objectives of our Town in a different way.

This goes to the heart of how the Council operates. It is right wing, but does not believe in the 'big society' or working in partnership with community organisations. Instead it defends its empire and wants a series of 'contracts' in place to govern all its service provision - it cares not who delivers those services and what the ethos is.

We must convince the Conservatives that they have made a mistake. We must keep our Cultural and Arts offerings alive and well.

Former Arts supremo in Croydon, Alderman Raj Chandarana sets out his thoughts on an Arts Trust on his blog. and includes some of the important, but seemingly forgotten, history.

Lee Valley Regional Park. £397,000

2010-09-17T12:16:00.001+01:00

Just got this email from Lee Valley Park. Every Council in London contributes to its upkeep. Croydon tax payers contribute £397,000 a year to help run this park. £3.05 of a 'Band D' Council Tax bill. More on their funding. Ive never been to this park, but I do support the concept of protecting our environment on a regional basis.

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To view this email as a web page, go here.

	Welcome to the autumn edition of Valley View, Lee Valley Regional Park Authority's Stakeholder Bulletin bringing you up to date with the latest news from across the Regional Park. In this edition, find out about our white water rafting offer to schools, our 2012 vision and an exciting filmmakers initiative. There's also news of our partnership work, a London Borough Councillors tour and a new exciting sport on horseback. READ MORE

Schools first at Lee Valley White Water Centre

Schools from Boroughs and Districts across the region are being invited to enjoy a day of white water rafting for free, thanks to a new education pledge.

A vision for 2020:
a world class leisure destination

Lee Valley Regional Park Authority has announced a new vision for the next ten years: to develop the Regional Park into a world class leisure destination.

Lee Valley White Water Centre and VeloPark take centre stage at Open House

Models of Lee Valley VeloPark and White Water Centre will take pride of place at the London 2012 Olympic Park event as part of the Open House London weekend.

Country park development creates exciting visitor destination

Over £1 million of regeneration work completed in partnership has created one of the largest and most accessible country parks in the South East.

Senior Councillors get a taste of the Regional Park

Senior Councillors from across London explored some of Lee Valley Regional Park's highlights earlier this month.

Discover Horseball The Riding Centre leads the way

The horseball team at Lee Valley Riding Centre, Leyton, is saddling up once again for the Open Championships in Lincolnshire.

London 2012 film project inspires new filmmakers

Two short films shot at Lee Valley Athletics Centre have been chosen to mark the completion of a London 2012 'Inspired' film project.

About Lee Valley Regional Park Authority


	More than four million people a year visit Lee Valley Regional Park, a mosaic of award-winning open spaces and sports venues. The Regional Park stretches across 26 miles and offers hundreds of great days out alongside an impressive range of sports venues and parklands, conservation areas and nature reserves. The Regional Park has eight Green Flag awarded open spaces, two Green Flag Heritage Sites and four Quest accredited sports venues, plus eight Sites of Special Scientific Interest. Following the London 2012 Olympics, we will own 20% of Olympic Park and run four Olympic venues in legacy - Lee Valley White Water Centre, Lee Valley VeloPark and Lee Valley Hockey and Tennis Centres. Lee Valley White Water Centre will be the only brand new London 2012 Olympic venue to open ahead of the Games in spring 2011.

The water is flowing!

The pumps have been turned on at Lee Valley White Water Centre.

Click here to see the video

Please sign me up to future editions of Valley View

This email was sent to: timothy.godfrey@croydon.gov.uk

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Medical Aid for Palestinians has a good video with @ken4london

2010-08-13T15:17:00.001+01:00

MAP provide a lot of information and updates on their web site and in their regular emails. This one includes a good link to a video with Ken Livingstone as well as the Noble Peace laureate Archbishop Tutu.


Medical Aid for Palestinians works for the health and dignity of Palestinians living under occupation and as refugees 13 August 2010
NEWS
	Emergency Burns Appeal Without the appliances and services we take for granted, Palestinians must perform basic everyday functions using gas cylinders, petrol and naked flames as fuel. Cramped and inadequate living conditions can often lead to domestic fires. And because burns units are few, and military checkpoints on the roads make them hard to reach, accidents like burns can prove deadly. Read more Film: Chris Patten's Gaza Visit Visiting Gaza for the first time since becoming MAP President, Chris Patten spoke to the Guardian's Jerusalem correspondent, and described Israel's policy of blockading Gaza as a "terrible failure - immoral, illegal and ineffective", which had "deliberately triggered an economic and social crisis which has many humanitarian consequences". Read more Al Jazeera: Expired medicine donated to Gaza A recent Al Jazeera report highlighted the problem of inappropriate medical aid being delivered to Gaza. Watch the Al Jazeera video and read about how Medical Aid for Palestinians works directly with hospitals and health providers in Gaza to ensure that your donations go towards medical equipment and supplies that are a help, not a hindrance. Read more WHO Report: Health in the West Bank The Separation Barrier has adversely affected the health access of the entire population to urban areas, in particular East Jerusalem, where non-governmental hospitals are the main providers of routine, emergency, secondary and tertiary care for Palestinians from the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Read more
GET INVOLVED
	MAP Supporter: Desmond Tutu The Noble Peace laureate Archbishop Tutu spoke to MAP in London about his support for the Palestinian people. Read more MAP Supporter: Ken Livingstone The former Mayor of London on the situation in Gaza: "the real long term effect of this is what it does to the Occupier" Read more Congratulations Tabrez! Tabrez completed his journey from Land's End to John O'Groats in eleven days raising a brilliant £3,631.87, including gift aid, for MAP! "This was one of the greatest experiences of my life, and as I literally sped through it, it is only now that this small achievement is sinking in. The bigger feat was raising all this money from so many people – old and new friends, family and others who understand the cause and chose to donate. There are too many people to list, but along the 1000 miles, I was treated so well by everyone I met, especially in Northern Scotland where I got to appreciate the beautiful countryside and the wonderful nature of good people who want to help. This was also a huge mental challenge, and all the Twitter & Facebook messages along with the Blog followers really helped me get through this. Thank you and I hope we have all made a difference!" You can still sponsor him to support his efforts! Read Tabrez's daily diary from his trip
For more information on MAP's continuing response please sign up to our E-Newsletter - The Monitor / email us at info@map-uk.org / or telephone us on 0207 226 4114

Message from Acting #Croydon Borough Commander Supt. Dave Stringer

2010-08-13T14:55:00.001+01:00

This is a regular update that may interest you. It is emailed to community activists and local Councillors and intended for further distribution:

Message sent on behalf of acting Borough Commander, Superintendent Dave Stringer

Dear all,

I am writing to you in Adrian's absence to keep you updated with what is happening police-wise on the borough.

Firstly, I am sure many of you attended the recent Croydon Festival and Mela. From a policing point of view, I'm extremely happy to say that it was a quiet weekend for us, with only nine arrests over the weekend related to the festivities. These events have passed off safely and peacefully for the past couple of years now, and I think that we have a good struck a good balance between ensuring people are able to enjoy themselves, without things getting out of hand or people feeling unsafe. However, if you have any feedback about the way we policed the event, it would be welcome, as we are always looking at how we can improve even further.

I know Adrian spoke in his last message about a recent spate of robberies, where people wearing gold jewellery are being targeted by thieves who are snatching the jewellery from them. These snatches are still happening in Croydon - and in other parts of London - so our advice is to either ensure expensive jewellery is concealed where possible, or to leave it at home, particularly over the rest of the summer, when lots of people where open clothing. It also appears that the thieves are targeting people - both men and women - from the Asian community, who wear high-value gold, so please pass our advice on to your friends families and colleagues to help prevent this type of crime from happening. Officers from our Robbery Squad are investigating these incidents, and we will certainly let you know if there are any people arrested or charged.

Below is the latest crime figures for the borough:

Crime Type                  Apr     May     Jun     Jul
Residential Burglary     151     173     212     231
Youth Violence               26       23     24      33
Knife Crime        34     44     47      31
Robbery                        137     145     116     112
Most Serious Violence   30       27       31      28

Not unusually, we have seen the number of burglaries increase in the summer months, which is fairly typical across London. There has also been a rise in the number of youth violence incident, which we are looking at. However, there is encouragement from the robbery, knife crime and most serious violence figures from July - all showing a fall compared to June.

Looking at the burglary figures, compared to this time last year, we have had considerably fewer burglaries this year, but we are still asking people to be careful and ensure their homes are secure so as not to give easy opportunities to burglars and to help us make the borough a hostile place for burglars, so please remind your friends and families to keep doors locked and windows shut.

Please don't hesitate to contact me if you have any feedback about the things I have discussed here or any other issue you may have.

Kind regards,

Dave
Superintendent Dave Stringer,
Acting Borough Commander, Croydon Police.

**********************************************************************

Council ignores rules on Contracts for Fairfield Halls

2010-07-28T18:51:00.000+01:00

Im delighted to see that the Council has released some money to be spent on the Fairfield Halls.

A local company, ITC Concepts of Purley Way, have been awarded the contract to refurbish the foyer of the Fairfield Halls. This from the pot of £1million that the Council awarded to the Fairfield Halls earlier in the year. Good news indeed!

Erm, except that this company seems to be on site doing the works already. Fairfield in Pictures mini web site shows progress.

So, it is interesting to note that no signed contract should exist for this piece of work.

The Council is obliged to list all decisions that meet certain financial criteria and then follow a process of scrutiny by the borough councillors, if those councillors think fit to check and ask questions. Value for money, or the correct procedure having been followed. The sort of things that you expect your local councillors to ask.

The Council even has a special area of its web site dedicated to these official notices.
http://www.croydon.gov.uk/democracy/dande/policies/keydecisions/

The key decision for the Fairfield ceiling is here, made on the 23rd July by the Leader of the Council

That key decision can only be implemented and I quote from the notice "[the] decisions may be implemented from 1300 hours on 30 July 2010 unless referred to the Scrutiny and Overview Committee:"

It is currently 28 July 2010. I am not aware of any 'call in' of this decision, but a group of councillors may wish to check this contract award out? Hopefully that is what borough Councillors are for?

I declare an interest at this point as a council appointed Director of the Fairfield Halls. I am delighted the works are going ahead. I just question why the Council can not do things properly. The Chief Executive of the Council is also a Director of the Fairfield Halls, as is the deputy leader of the Council and another Tory Councillor.

Surely it looks a bit odd for such highly placed people who run the Council (politically and managerially) to award contracts and then ignore the Council constitution that has serious checks and balances in place to protect the interests of the residents of Croydon?

Democracy and accountability must be seen to be done or we end up in great difficulty. I just want Council officers to plan decision making properly. Is that too much to ask? I hope not.

£500,000 threat to our local newspapers

2010-07-26T11:23:00.000+01:00

The Tory Controlled council is cutting the voluntary sector budget by 66%. A shocking amount. The Conservatives claim it is all Labours fault. A claim that can not stand up when the Conservatives choose to spend money on schemes like the luxury HQ or other pet projects. The Conservatives have refused to make cuts to areas that none of us would miss and put the money back into voluntary groups and social services.

The clearest example of this is the Councils monthly newspaper 'Your Croydon'. It officially costs £231,000 per year to produce, but apparently has no staff to produce it, nor an office to be produced in. That £231,000 per year rockets to something more like £500,000 when you add in these costs. The Council Newspaper is also very bad for democracy. We are lucky in Croydon in having two local newspaper groups that publish titles across our Borough. They provide news and information on community activities and information from the Council. Crucially, they also provide an independent voice to investigate and expose wrong doing and ill thought out council policies. Over the years, they have not shown any political bias. They have always been an irritant to the 'corporate' council view, regardless of which party is in power, and rightly so.

Without our local newspapers the Council would never have re-tendered the transport contract and exposed the scandal behind that award or the council bailing out the private company behind the Luxury Council HQ with a £145million taxpayer backed loan.

The Council newspaper has crossed the line. It takes adverts. It has a letters page. The only difference to one of our local newspapers is that it only reports pro council news. If it is not stopped soon, it will threaten our local newspapers as it gobbles up advertising revenue and finally stifles debate. For the good of democracy, it needs to close down. the savings could then be ploughed back into the voluntary sector.

Will our local newspapers be bold enough to take on the Council machine? or will they slowly die out? The Croydon Advertiser seems most at risk from this. Their paid circulation has dropped to around 17,000 copies a week across all sub titles. IF they tried to convert to a free weekly they would put that circulation up, but they don't have a reputation for successful door to door delivery.

The Croydon Guardian is best for online news, but again their door to door distribution is really very poor.

Co-op

2010-07-23T13:21:00.002+01:00

From the Croydon Borough Labour Directory of 1946. Co-operatives, Trade Unions and the Labour Party, working together.

The Co-operative Group Society paid me a dividend of over £150 this past year!

Pre-order Wenlock soft toy now

2010-07-23T12:19:00.002+01:00

Thanks London 2012 I am so excited by the Olympics, now that you have sent me the opportunity to buy a soft toy of Wenlock!!

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Voluntary Sector Cuts

2010-07-14T11:43:00.000+01:00

I was ashamed to be a Croydon Councillor on Monday night. The Tories cut 60% of funding to the voluntary sector in a 30 minute debate that they tried to frame as all being Labours fault.

Saving about £750,000 in a year from voluntary groups really can not be sensible when these voluntary groups bring in at least £5 for each pound of grant. That means that £3.75 million of value has been removed from the Croydon economy - much from isolated groups or the elderly.

At the same time as putting this cut through the council is still spending on pet projects.

I can not believe the council is really in deep financial trouble when:

•It spends £500,000 a year on it's propaganda newspaper (printing, delivery and staff)
•Has £33 million in reserves
•Pays the Chief Executive over £200,000 a year
•Spent £37,000 on a survey on Taberner House that they are going to pull down.
•Spending £100million more than the cost of fully refurbishing Taberner House on building the Luxury HQ

This is a tale of political dogma over public service.

Those voluntary sector cuts are not needed. They are paying the price of Tory spending choices. The Tories have got Croydon Council into a financial mess with their grand plans.

They still have time to see sense. The strength of feeling is shown in these photos as voluntary organisations turn out to protest. No Tory Councillor came out to meet the protestors.

Crystal Palace FC Good news

2010-06-25T14:05:00.001+01:00

Over on the Inside Croydon Blog they cover the excellent news that Crystal Palace have secured a 90% vote in favour of a CVA of the old club so that the new consortium of Crystal Palace 2010 can take over.

Really good news for all fans, and I dare to suggest (as a Selhurst Councillor) local residents. For the first time in a long time we have the opportunity to get Crystal Palace to communicate properly with local residents, let them know when games or events are on and involve them in community activities. Local people know all too well that the club is on their doorstep, some just get a little fed up that they have been ignored by the club for too long. Ill be taking these issues up directly with the new club management.

Last Saturday saw Dave Boyle speaking at the launch event for Co-operative fortnight. Dave is Chief Executive of Supporters Direct a mutual that works with supporters trusts like Crystal Palace Supporters' Trust - dave spoke passionately about why big money is bad for football. The example he uses is that cash strapped clubs get in to difficulty once every 10 years. Er, just like Crystal Palace then!

To avoid these big problems in the future it is vital that fans not only get involved in the running of their clubs but in the ownership and development of their clubs. Crystal Palace fans have suffered from high ticket prices and struggling club finances for too long. If the new owners of the club are serious fans then they will open up the ownership structure of the club to their fellow real fans and launch a 10 year programme to transfer the club into the ownership of the wider fans. Just like Barcelona, who go from strength to strength by sharing the burden of club ownership between them. Palace has a massive fan base so it should be an easy ask to raise funds and share the ownership of the club. 50,000 Barcelona fans turned up at their stadium recently to vote for president of the football club. Imagine what that sort of community engagement would do for Palace?

Turn the clock forward to 2020. Will we be in the same situation again, or will have a local club that is going from strength to strength, utilising the power of being at the heart of South London?

Other positives would also flow from this approach. I am sure local residents would be far more supportive of a ground redevelopment if they were actively involved and able to be co-owners of their local club.

Upper Norwood Library

2010-06-23T11:00:00.004+01:00

Upper Norwood Library. How the Tories and Labour approach public services differently.

If Labour had won Croydon Council (we almost did - just one ward short). We would have worked with Lambeth Council to develop Upper Norwood Library to work even more with the community. It would have fitted in perfectly to the Co-operative Councils model being supported by Lambeth and set out here by Steve Read, Lambeth Leader. Trusting local people is sometimes difficult for local councils to do, but Upper Norwood library has a proven set of local residents who are passionate and dedicated to their local library. They have their own committee as the Upper Norwood Library Campaign.

Instead we are treated to Croydon's Tory controlled council gerrymandering the Joint Committee (Lambeth and Croydon Council) to try and control this Committee by appointing Tory Cabinet Members to represent Croydon. The joint agreement between the authorities stipulates that some local councillors should represent their authorities on the joint committee. This has never been a problem, regardless of who wins the local council wards in each borough. Each borough has always respected the fact that this library serves two boroughs with sometimes different needs and requirements.

I suspect this has something to do with Croydon Councils plans to downgrade all library services across Croydon. The Tory administration in Croydon has shut two libraries for a third day each week and cut late opening of South Norwood. You can guess what they would like to do to Upper Norwood Library.

Croydon Tories are squarely blaming the Government cuts. Strange then that they are still pressing on with their £450million luxury council HQ. The interest payments on one loan are costing over £7million this year alone.

Local politics really is about choices. The Tories are choosing to cut Library funding.

Business sense?

2010-06-23T10:27:00.003+01:00

The Advertiser has reported that the Tory Council might be seeing sense on how to promote business and job creation in Croydon.

The Tory Council currently do this through the Croydon Economic Development Company (CEDC) a new organisation that has only just replaced 'Croydon Business', which in itself replaced 'Croydon Marketing and Development' (CMD). The big problem with this is that these 'arms length' companies end up with no one in control of them. They operate with large council or government grants and have no real understanding of their purpose. So much so that the council had to bail out 'Croydon Business' for almost £1million. The new 'CEDC' has had its plush new offices (AMP House) underwritten by the Council and lots of other costs taken on board by the Council.

The history of external business support in Croydon has been a disaster. CMD was founded with much flair by Labour, a hefty annual grant helped launch this body with a flamboyant CEO on an equally flamboyant salary. The net achievement of CMD was to design the CROYDON logo and have it installed on the sign in front of Mayday Hospital. From memory that logo cost tens of thousands of pounds. I don't remember CMD achieving anything else... Its successor organisation 'Croydon Business' did not do much better, though benefited from the Labour Governments £77million Local Enterprise Growth Initiative (LEGI). That funding has just been cut, mid year, by the Tory government. Meanwhile CEDC has sprouted up.

The problem with these three 'business support' organisations is that you really can never see what they achieve. Have they created a single, sustainable, new job in Croydon? Have they helped existing businesses grow and prosper?

As a Croydon Councillor, I have asked countless times for proof that these organisations have been working, yet all you get is meaningless reports, newsletters and conferences and expensive web sites.

In the old days, Croydon Council had a highly respected Economic and Strategic Development Unit (ESDU). It used to have a genuine over view of Croydon, its skills base, its market position, its employment position, work with employers etc. ESDU was a slim organisation that put the work in over many years to support the key aims of the borough, including projects like Tramlink and to understand workforce issues like retail and the public sector. Both crucial to Croydon.

Delete CEDC tomorrow, and I doubt many people would notice the difference. Build a new ESDU within Croydon Council and work with and support existing business support organisations like 'Croydon Business Venture' and the 'Chamber of Commerce' and 'Croydon Trades Council' and you have a partnership approach that would be far more effective than the CEDC ever could be.

Anti Democratic Changes at Croydon Town Hall

2010-06-18T15:37:00.001+01:00

Changes are being made to the constitution of Croydon Council. The thrust of those changes is to give fresh life to Scrutiny and shake it up a bit. That has to be welcomed in principle. The proposal is to create two sub committees from the existing three and focus more on 'task and finish' working groups. This format has been used elsewhere and found some success.

The problem that I have with the Tory proposals is that they have made a significant and undemocratic change to the main Overview and Scrutiny Committee. This committee is responsible for handling formal call ins and setting the overall agenda of Scrutiny.

The Tory leadership has spotted that if this committee has responsibility for education matters (alongside its general functions) it HAS to have 4 independent members from the education community (the old LEA committee functions). This means that the committee ends up with only 5 Labour Councillors to the Tories 11. This because the majority party has to have a majority over the whole committee.

Cleverly from the Tory point of view, this means that the committee will have a cast iron majority on all issues, because the independent members have a history of not wanting to get involved in any party politics, and so don't get involved in any issues other than education.

The simple solution to ensure that this main Overview & Scrutiny committee maintains a cut and thrust to it would be to deploy the education / LEA function with one of the sub committees or make a third committee with the same membership as a sub committee but with the additional majority group members and 4 independent education members.

Crucially, the Tories did not gain approval for this change from the Labour side. They knew all too well, that if this had been put to us we would have made the above argument. They did share the idea of task and finish groups and a re-organisation of scrutiny. Such re-organisations take place every so often and it is important that all sides in the Council chamber have faith in the structures that they participate in.

This is an important issue for anyone who cares about municipal democracy. The centre for public scrutiny has done a study that shows high performing councils have strong and robust scrutiny functions. Surely, on a cross party basis, we could agree that everyone in Croydon would benefit from Croydon having a high performing council?

So far Council leader, Councillor Mike Fisher, has shown he is weak and afraid of robust and open scrutiny of his administration and senior officers. He still has time to change his mind on this, to do so would be a good day for democracy and a good day for his administration and this Town.