This posting is based on my talk to the Croydon Unite Retired Members Branch on Friday 10 June.Members are active in the Croydon TUC, National Pensioners Convention and two were active in the work of the Croydon Climate Change Commission.
The election
of an Executive Mayor changes completely
changes the way Croydon Council is run.
All decision
making is down to the Mayor. If the Councillors disagree with the Mayor’s
proposals there has to be a two-thirds majority to require a re-think. But the
Mayor can decide not to make changes the proposals will be acted upon. In other
words all the Councillors can do is to delay implementation. This situation
under the Tory Jason Perry would have been the same if Val Shawcross had been
elected.
The
likelihood of a two-thirds majority is impossible. Labour has 34 seats, the
Tories will have 33 after the by-election to replace Jason Perry as Councillor
being held at the end of the month, and two Greens and 1 Liberal Democrat.
Perry has
announced his Cabinet but has decided that they are to be purely advisory. He
is reserving all decision making to himself, other than those the Council constitution
delegates to officers and those made by the semi-judicial committees like
Planning and Licensing. When I had a
discussion with him Thursday last week at
a Jubilee event in Norbury he explained he was doing this in order to
drill deep down into the various issues and problems he was having to consider.
He is particularly concerned about the rot in the Housing Department. New
problems that have been hidden from view are emerging. I did suggest to him
that he would not be able to keep up that level of involvement and would have
to think about when to delegate to his Cabinet members.
The context
in which he is operating is the same as if Val had been elected.
(1)
He
has inherited the cuts budget set by the outgoing Labour administration which
was approved by the Government’s Improvement Panel enabling the Government to
agree the capitalisation loan approval to bridge the gap between income and
expenditure.
(2)
Any
changes within the budget may have to have the approval of the Panel.
(3)
Any
increase in expenditure will have to be met by an increase in income. Some
extra income may result from on-going negotiations with the Government over
such things as the costs of looking after unaccompanied refugee and asylum children.
(4)
Increasing
costs and inflation due to the current economic crisis will require changes
within the budget and are uncertain.
(5)
If
he fails to deliver or messes up the Government still holds over the Council the
threat of appointing commissioners to take over the Council.
(6)
The
increasing deprivation of a growing number of residents because of the cost of
living crisis, requiring more support from the Council and the voluntary and
community sector.
There are more locally based challenges which would also have
posed problems for Val.
(1)
The
proposed Unite strike of its Veolia refuse
collectors and street cleaners could seriously damage confidence in him by
those who voted for him. While he can pressure Veolia he is only one voice in
the five Council South West London Waste Partnership which controls the
contract.
(2)
The
Brick by Brick scandal has not been resolved and has been highlighted in the
news about the empty flats across the road in Heathfield Gardens.
(3)
The
growing discontent with the management by BHL of Fairfield Halls and what to do
about it.
(4)
The
announcement by Westfield that it is going back to the drawing board on the
future of the Whitgift Centre, which means the likelihood of any substantial
improvement will not be complete for at least 5 years, leaving the Town Centre
as a continuing dead zone.
(5)
The
problems of trying to deliver an effective Borough of Culture programme from
April next year given the top—down control approach the outgoing Labour Cabinet
approved.
Perry has taken two very important
decisions.
(1)
He
is reviewing the draft Local Plan 2018 Review to ensure there are substantial
changes before it is approved and submitted to the Government for pubic
inquiry. He wants to reduce the intensification approach Labour adopted, try
and stop developers only building blocks of up to 9 flats to avoid the
requirement to include so called affordable housing, and drastically change the detailed design document. He is only able to do this because Val
persuaded the Chief Executive to stop work on finalising the Review to enable
whoever was elected Mayor to have the final word. I have asked him to ensure
that the Branch’s views on the housing needs of older people are adequately
reflected in the Plan.
(2)
The
commitment to re-opening Purley Pool.
Perry is
handicapped by the loss of several experienced Tories who did not restand as
Councillors and a lot of new inexperienced Councillors. The same is true of the
Labour Group.
The failure
of Labour to win the Mayor election by just under 600 votes was due to a
disastrously bad campaign by the Party. The Party’s National Executive
Committee has instructed the London Regional Office to supervise the Group so
the elected Councillors are hampered in their ability to democratically run
themselves, and be accountable to the branches in the wards they have been
elected.
The new
Labour Leader is Stuart King, one of the architects of the cuts budget, who
works for the property developer lobby company run by Peter Bingle, the former
Thatcherite Tory Councillor in Wandsworth. One of the two Deputies is Callton
Young, the other architect of the budget cuts. The Chief Whip works for Steve
Reed, who now effectively controls Croydon North Labour Party, to which he is
meant to be accountable. King has appointed Rowena Davis as Chair of the
Scrutiny Committee.. The Chair should have been Leila Ben-Hassel, who had
proved herself to be a probing Vice-Chair of Scrutiny under Labour. The
Vice-Chair of the Audit & Governance Committee is the new Norbury
Councillor Matt Griffiths. I have advised him to seek a briefing from Andrew
Pelling, who the Labour Group and Party treated badly and who was not
re-elected as an independent. He is standing in the by-election, but is
unlikely to be elected as he does not have the campaign machine needed.
With
Councillors having no real power there is speculation that the next four years
will see several bye-elections as individuals on both sides resign.
Those of us
who were largely unable to influence the Labour Council across a wide range of policies and
implementation have got to think of a new strategic and tactical approach in
the new situation. We cannot ignore the existence of the Executive Mayor, even though he is a
Tory. We have to try and influence him.
Priorities For Croydon's Trade Union Movement
The
priorities of the Croydon trade union movement should continue to be focussed
on:
·
The
local economy
·
Wages
and conditions
·
Really
affordable housing
·
Anti-poverty
and deprivation
I suggest
that it:
·
raise
these issues at the public enquiry on the Local Plan Review
·
set
up a working party of trade unionists from the affiliated branches on the
Croydon TUC with statistical skills to analyse the Census
·
use
the Borough of Culture to promote trade unionism with a focus on the creative
arts, poetry, films, and music, including a May Day weekend long Festival of
events at Ruskin House and venues in other parts of the Borough, particularly
North Croydon and New Addington.
