Croydon’s Tory Council Leader grabs 22% pay rise for himself

At a time when Council employees are being told they will have their pay frozen, their pensions cut and that their jobs are at risk, comes news that Councillor Mike Fisher is proposing to award himself a massive 22% increase in the allowance he receives from the Council, which is funded by Croydon’s taxpayers.

These proposals are contained in a report that will be considered at the Corporate Services Committee on 30 June. This committee has a majority of Tory Councillors so even if Labour Councillors object they will be outvoted.

This proposal is particularly hypocritical, coming as it does at precisely the moment that the Tory Prime Minister has said that “we are all in this together”. Clearly Cllr Fisher thinks that does not apply to him. Croydon’s Labour Councillors are demanding Cllr Fisher changes his mind, shows some leadership and refuses to accept the pay hike.

Tories threaten jobs and services in Croydon

At the first Cabinet meeting since the election, Croydon’s Tories launched an attack on the staff working for the Council, vulnerable and elderly residents and anyone else who needs to use the services the Council provides.

These are serious issues that were not raised before the election and yet Cllr Fisher would not allow debate on these plans. This is an affront to democracy in Croydon and gives yet another example of the arrogance they are showing. In addition they have gerrymandered Labour representation on committees so that they can shut down any debate on the vicious cuts that have been hidden from the taxpayers of Croydon.

At a time when there are serious choices to be made in Croydon, Cllr Fisher continues to sound like a broken record, claiming nothing is his fault or responsibility, and the rest of the Cabinet are like sheep who blindly follow his lead. He fails to take responsibility for ploughing on with the expensive and unwanted new Tory Council HQ at a time when he is proposing to sell our low paid Council staff down the river.

Croydon’s savage cuts hit education and jobs hardest

The Tory led coalition Government have unleashed savage cuts on Croydon with our Town receiving the highest level of cuts of any outer London borough and the 2nd highest in London.

HEADLINE CUTS:
* £2.97 Million from Education.
* £169,000 from Supporting People.
* £1.943 Million from LEGI programme – business and jobs funding.
* £18,000 from Community Cohesion.
* £38,000 from Home Office programme.

Labour Opposition Leader Councillor Tony Newman said: “We are demanding answers, why have Croydon Tories failed to stand up for Croydon and defend us from these brutal cuts, for years they claimed if we had a Tory Government Croydon would get ‘fairer funding’ that is clearly not true.”

“We are today calling for the spending on the expensive new luxury Council HQ to be halted and will be launching a petition to present to Downing Street to demand the Tory Government stops targeting Croydon.”

Election day chaos in Croydon to be challenged

Election Petition issued against Chief Returning Officer.

On 6 May 2010 there was chaos at polling stations in Croydon with lengthy queues spilling down the streets from as early as 5.00pm. There is also clear evidence that across the borough polling stations were understaffed and ill equipped to deal with the increased turnout, the delays led many people especially the elderly to lose their right to vote and many others being turned away as the 10.00pm deadline approached.

Leader of the Labour Opposition, Councillor Tony Newman said: “People across Croydon have lost their right to vote because of inadequate election planning. As things stand the public have also lost the benefit of Labour’s pledges to deliver free school meals, freeze the Council Tax and scrap the planned £400 million luxury new Council HQ. That is why we are demanding justice and the restoration of democracy in Croydon.”

Croydon Labour promises pensioners a Council Tax rebate

Croydon’s Labour councillors make announcement that will benefit every pensioner household in the Borough.

They have promised that every pensioner household will be entitled to a Council Tax rebate of £130 if Labour wins the council election in May.

Leader of the Opposition Labour Group, Councillor Tony Newman said:

“In the last four years Croydon’s residents have been charged an extra £136 on their Council Tax bills by Croydon’s Tory Council. They have charged this extra at the same time as cutting services to the people who need them the most. Labour recognises that many pensioners are on small fixed incomes and we felt that they would benefit most from this rebate.

“In conjunction with our previously announced commitment to provide free school meals, increased policing and a weekly recycling collection to all properties, we feel that there is now a clear distinction between what you can expect from a Labour Council especially when you make comparisons with the Tory plans to spend £450 million on a new Council Headquarters.”

Croydon Tories put Council Tax up by £136.78

Croydon’s Council Tax now stands at a record high having gone up a whopping 13.5% in four years, which is £136.78 per Band D household. A lot more for many Croydon households not in the standard ‘D’ Council Tax Band.

The ‘low rise’ for 2010 is a headline 0.8% but this is simply spin, because the Tory Council has in fact put up its tax by 1.07% for 2010. It gets down to 0.8% by including the Council Tax for running the GLA / police and fire service. The Tory Council finds it really very hard to be honest with its tax payer residents.

Croydon Labour opposition leader Tony Newman said:

“Labour Councillors have demanded a Tax Freeze. We have identified a number of areas where money can be saved. These include reducing the spend on overpaid consultants, the expensive ‘free’ Council newspaper and £450 million being spent by the Tory Council on building their new luxury Council HQ. It is a disgrace.

Free school meals not a free Croydon Council ‘newspaper’

Croydon’s Labour Councillors have started the New Year by committing to a ground breaking pledge ahead of the Council elections this coming May. They have promised to provide free and healthy school meals for all the children who attend Croydon’s Primary schools.

Leader of the Opposition Labour Group, Councillor Tony Newman said:

“This is a clear and costed pledge that will benefit all children in Croydon’s Primary schools and will improve health, behaviour and educational performance.

“We will pay for the free school meals by scrapping the free newspaper the Council publishes and distributes (£80,000), disbanding the Council’s private police force, the Neighbourhood Enforcement Officers (£800,000) and shut down the Council’s failed economic development company, saving a minimum of £1,500,000, and of course we will also use some of the money saved from scrapping the Tories planned new Council Headquarters.”

Christmas meeting to discuss Croydon’s secret Tory deals

The seriousness of the mounting financial crisis engulfing Croydon’s Conservative Council is finally being acknowledged. The Mayor has agreed to Labour’s demand for a special Council meeting to discuss the decision to gamble with £300 million of Croydon taxpayers money. The emergency meeting is to be held just 4 days before Christmas on the evening of 21 December.

There are two issues of deep concern which will finally be discussed in public at the meeting. The first is the decision to build a new Council headquarters building costing hundreds of millions of pounds. The second issue is the way in which the ruling Tory Cabinet attempted to cover up the taxpayer funded bail out of the Croydon Economic Development Company which has now been brought under Council control.

Labour Group Leader, Councillor Tony Newman said:

“At a time when our hard pressed residents are struggling to find the money to ensure that their families are able to have a good Christmas, it is shocking that it has now been confirmed that those same Croydon taxpayers are going to be asked to pay the costs of the entire multi million pound new Council headquarters is nothing short of a disgrace.

Croydon Tories push through secret £145m funding deal

The Croydon Guardian revealed this week the level of bailout that the Croydon Tories have handed to the private firm that is behind the new luxury HQ.

£145million is to be handed over to the ‘CCURV’ a joint company with construction company Laing. This is because the private markets refused to lend to the joint company at viable interest rates.

The incompetent Tories have now propped up this joint company with £145million of taxpayer cash. If they were being sensible they would now scrap the joint deal and instead revert to a traditional model of building. This is a perfect time to scrap the project and save money.

They now have a ‘half cow half pig’ that is on life support provided by Croydon Council. All the risk has been transferred to the Council.

Croydon Labour commits to providing accessible and affordable council services for all residents

At the budget-setting Council meeting on Wednesday, the Labour Group Leader, Councillor Tony Newman and other Labour Councillors set out their vision for Croydon, providing an alternative to nearly three years when residents have had to suffer a succession of Tory incompetence and cuts.

Councillor Newman said:

“I continue to be dismayed by the lack of vision shown by this Tory administration. Instead of building a £450 million town centre headquarters for the Council we are committed to making it easier for residents to contact the council by opening a series of high quality and accessible area offices that will offer all Council services in each neighbourhood. We have already identified New Addington, Thornton Heath, Purley and the Town Centre as locations but want to know where residents think they should be located. We will be contacting as many people as possible over the coming weeks and months to find out their views. We think that by combining this proposal with the Labour government’s pledge to have broadband internet available in every home by 2012 that a truly responsive service will be able to be achieved. This approach is in stark contrast to the Tories plans to build themselves and the Council a luxury town centre headquarters building.”