Is the Croydon Ambition Train heading for derailment?

With the news that Croydon Council is asking most of its staff to consider taking voluntary redundancy as part of the next lot of cuts forced on it by the Government is its Ambition vision heading for derailment as its seeks to sell Croydon at the Develop Croydon Forum Conference on Wednesday 18 December? This potential severe disruption to service delivery will be even worse that I thought in my recent article about the cuts on Croydon Citizen.

Having turned its back on the organised labour movement (Labour Party and trade unions) in the Borough it has failed  to obtain support by not engaging in a dialogue about how to develop a strategy to campaign against the cuts and how to ensure that certain basic service priorities are protected.

Instead it has allowed itself to be partly captured by the developers who are dictating the pace of change without providing any money to keep services for local residents. The promised benefits are some way off like the demolition and rebuilding of the Whitgift Centre by Westfield and Hammerson, and the Dingwall tram loop. It now fancies itself as a developer with the proposed redevelopment of the College Green area and the two year closure of Fairfield Halls. Its £3m loan to Boxpark at East Croydon Station could damage the attraction of the South End restaurant quarter.

Theoretically the Town Centre economy looks like getting big boost from the possible establishment of a HMRC regional centre in Ruskin Square reported by Inside Croydon as possibly opening in April 2017. These will not be new jobs simply existing jobs involving up to 2,600 staff putting further strain on the rail network into and out of East and West Croydon Station.

And do not expect any help from Croydon’s Tory MPs Barwell and Philp against the cuts as they have voted for them.

Council staff voluntary redundancy

http://www.yourlocalguardian.co.uk/news/14030941.Cash_strapped_Croydon_Council_offers_redundancy_to_entire_workforce

Cuts discussion on Croydon Citizen 

http://thecroydoncitizen.com/politics-society/croydons-cuts-begin-kick

Developers dominance in the Town Centre

http://www.croydonadvertiser.co.uk/permitted-development-transformed-Croydon-town/story-28163009-detail/story.html

College Green and Fairfield Halls

 http://news.croydon.gov.uk/fairfield-plans-pass-scrutiny-test 

http://insidecroydon.com/2015/11/03/can-two-bedroom-flats-really-be-the-solution-for-fairfield-halls 

HMRC move

http://www.croydonadvertiser.co.uk/s-taxing-HMRC-creating-thousands-jobs-Croydon/story-28169351-detail/story.html

http://insidecroydon.com/2015/11/13/ruskin-square-considered-for-hmrcs-new-tax-supercentre

http://insidecroydon.com/2015/11/11/tory-mps-grandstand-after-voting-through-40-council-cuts