A blow to debate - the closure of Croydon Citizen

Suburban Design Guide Roadshow Farce

Yet another Council engagement farce took place on Thursday 22 September at Upper Norwood Library in relation to the current consultation of the draft Suburban Design Guide. I arrived just after 6pm, the first person since the session opened at 4pm. A few minutes later Councillor Jason Perry, his son and a colleague came. No one else came while we were there, and no one was entering as we left about 7pm.

Is this a failure of publicity or an expression of disillusion that there is no point attending such events because the Council does not listen? Staff on duty said that comments made while the draft document was being prepared had been taken into account, but they could not say which ones. Residents Associations have been informed but it now appears that the list used is not the complete list known to the Council. At least 3 Associations registered by the planners were not notified. 

Of course the title ‘Suburban’ may put people in the North off who probably regard themselves as urban and the South as suburban. Its ‘suburban’ because it does not apply to the Town and district centres. There is no meeting organised to discuss the draft with Associations. Cllr Perry is holding one of the continuing series of Conservative Group meetings with Associations on planning issues, which were very helpful during the Local Plan consultation process. 

The regrettable closure of Croydon Citizen means that there will be no opportunity to debate the design guidance and its potential effect in changing the character of neighbourhoods. This has been a very important aspect of the Citizen’s contribution. It has provided a platform reflecting a wide range of opinions on the Borough’s arts and culture, community initiatives, economy, environment, heritage, housing, planning,  politics, and ‘re-generation’.

Contributors do not always agree with each other, which has allowed readers to make their own judgements. There are no substitutes for this valuable function. Twitter simply encourages knee jerk reactions and trollism, while Facebook is limited and fragmented across a large number of sites about aspects of the Borough. Inside Croydon supplies a news and investigative journalism approach, but is not a vehicle for broad debate.

The closure of Croydon Citizen is evidence of the vulnerability of voluntary effort. Lack of funding, hinders the sustainability and development of community and welfare initiatives and organisations. The high population turnover, the number of grandparents involved in child care, the high levels of low income and poor housing, and the growth in the number of organisations trying to make a positive difference, means there is an enormous shortage of people who have time and energy to spare to be actively involved in in running organisations and the services and activities they provide.

Value of Residents Associations and Collective Organisation

Many residents do not understand the value of their local Residents Associations and therefore do not even join even if they do not become active. Others living in  neighbourhoods without Associations have no collective voice.

National political issues, like Brexit, erode further the sense of the value of collective solidarity based on social justice.

It is not just the community sector that faces these challenges. The trade union movement, one of the major historic vehicle of collective solidarity since the 18thC, is weak due to legislative restrictions, employers hindering unionisation and the gig economy. Retail workers have always been notoriously difficult to organise. New thinking is under way about how to turn the tide.

Croydon TUC and its linked Croydon Assembly does its best to contribute to debate in Croydon,  as has been reflected in some of my contributions to the Citizen, for example, on the local economy, housing, Brick by Brick, and the Council elections. While there will be growth in the number of trade unionists working in Croydon as the Home Office moves its workforce from Central London, most will probably live elsewhere and try and be active in their local communities rather than Croydon.

Parliamentary Boundary Reorganisation

The ability to develop stronger collective working and solidarity will be severely damaged by the proposed Parliamentary boundary changes, which will mean that some of the wards in Croydon North will be linked with wards with in  Lambeth and Merton in new constituencies cutting across Borough boundaries. The Party branches in these new constituencies will have to spend time on the affairs of the new constituencies dealing with multiple Councils, detracting from their ability to focus on Croydon.

The Quick sands of Croydon's economy

Croydon’s economy rests on two pillars in quick sands: property development and the gig economy. Not having an embedded diverse economy, the Borough has no resilience to cushion the large number of less well off residents, including working families, from the next phase of Government austerity welfare cuts, the further reduction in Government funding of the Council, the predicted global economic crash, the collapse of the development boom or any adverse effects from BREXIT. The retail and leisure jobs that are promised with the Westfield development are now years off from when they were first promised. Retail is in the process of collapse under the sledge hammer effects of Amazon and on-line shopping. If more businesses close, then the business rate revenue coming into the Council will fall.

It you think this is very gloomy, and it is, then consider this comment I have received:

‘I wonder if Westfield will ever happen at all. I speak to a cross section of people, neighbours and friends and one of the opinions emerging is that the socio-economic profile of Croydon has changed sufficiently to make it no longer a suitable place for a John Lewis and a mega shopping centre. There just isn't the disposable income available amongst the local population and the road infrastructure just could not cope with more shopping by car and there is also of street crime and even the possibility of riots again. Such a shopping centre will be totally reliant on people coming from outside the town, the town itself could not support it.’

The sadness about closure of the Citizen is the loss of a platform for debate about what can be done to mitigate the worst, and to explore the potential positive initiatives that keep bubbling up. How are we going to fill the resultant gap?

Postscript

The above text was written and submitted to Croydon Citizen. Unfortunately it was too close to the closure deadline for the team to be able to post it up. James Nayor, the Editor in Chief says on this and the next posting on this blog site: 

It's a real pity because these were excellent - thank you for your kind words and serious tackling of the issues the town faces with the losing the Citizen. I am very grateful for you writing this. 

Since the 22 September roadshow event mentioned above Steve Derrington, the lead officer for the consultation, has told me that there was a good attendance at the event in Kenley. 

See also my report on the latest Conservative Councillors convened meeting with Residents Associations discussing the consultation, including the text of the resolution agreed on my proposal at:

https://seancreighton1947.wordpress.com/2018/09/28/residents-associations-call-for-meeting-with-council-on-suburban-design-guide