The next local election will be held on 6th May 2010, for which we will publish a full manifesto in due course.
However, at any point in time there are always 'hot topics' in local politics, for which it is important that Croydon residents understand our true position.
On Council Tax
Council Tax bills will increase by just 0.8% on 1st April 2010, the lowest increase since Council Tax was introduced nearly 20 years ago. A typical family living in a Band D home will see their bills increase by just over twenty pence a week. This is despite Croydon yet again receiving the lowest increase in government grant of any council in the country.
Since the Conservatives took control of Croydon Council in May 2006, Council Tax bills have increased by an average of just over 3% a year, compared with an average increase of nearly 12% over the four years of the last Labour administration.
But Council Leader Mike Fisher isn’t satisfied. “With everyone feeling the pinch as a result of the recession, we wanted to give everyone some of their money back. If it wasn’t for having to pay millions of pounds towards the costs of caring for asylum seekers - which should be entirely met by the Government, not in part by local Council Taxpayers - we would have been able to cut bills by 1.1%.
“We desperately need a Conservative Government that will treat Croydon fairly and help us get bills down. If we get re-elected and David Cameron wins the General Election, we guarantee that as a minimum we will freeze Council Tax for at least two years.”
On the replacement of Taberner House
Croydon’s Labour opposition is currently distributing a newspaper 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 the election, ask them to show you the page in the Council’s revenue budget where this cost to Council Taxpayers appears. They won’t be able to. Or wait until you get your Council Tax bill and see if it has gone up by £1,115. It won’t have, because it’s the smallest ever increase, to be followed by a freeze for two years (see above).
On incinerators and recycling
Labour and the Green Party are deliberately scaremongering by pretending that there is a plan to have an incinerator in Croydon at Factory Lane. There isn’t.
The facts about Labour and incinerators are these:
The Labour Government requires us to draw up a new waste strategy and THE COUNCIL IS NOT ALLOWED, BY THEM, to rule out using any site currently in use for waste disposal or recycling
They also WILL NOT ALLOW ANY COUNCIL, BY LAW, to rule out any technology including incinerators. That’s Labour’s choice, not ours.
Croydon North Labour MP Malcolm Wicks, who is in all Labour’s leaflets opposing this fictional incinerator, used to be Labour’s Energy Minister. In 2006 he FORCED an incinerator on the people of Bexley, against the wishes of the people there.
But whilst Croydon Conservatives control the council, there will not be an incinerator (or anything similar) in Croydon.
And that’s a promise.
On making people feel safe in their homes & on the street
Croydon Council is lobbying the Mayor of London for more police officers for Croydon.
Cllr Gavin Barwell, who is Cabinet Member for Community Safety and also the Conservative Party’s candidate to be the next MP for Croydon Central, said “Our local police do a great job but they simply don’t have sufficient resources. Croydon is London’s largest borough, a major transport hub and a retail and commercial centre with a large night-time economy. And it is a highly diverse borough, with the inner London character of the north being masked by the relative affluence of the south. The current formula that the Metropolitan Police use to allocate resources doesn’t properly recognise these challenges – there are three boroughs with fewer crimes than us who get more police officers!
“We know from our experience when the Met has given us extra resources on a temporary basis that more cops will help to cut crime. So we will be presenting our evidence to Boris but we also want as many residents as possible to show their support. Get behind our efforts and help make Croydon a safer place to live and work.”
To sign the petition:
text MORE POLICE followed by your name, the first line of your address and your postcode to 60660
Please do contact us with any issues or concerns you may have. We answer all our constituents' correspondence and value your comments. If you want your concern addressed by your local team, please follow the link above.
