Where's your moratorium now?

The current edition of Croydon Guardian has photo of mine in Viewfinder:

Viewfinder is on the letters page. On this page is a letter from Nia (The Lois Project). She writes about Broad Green being "choked with the amount of flats being built." This got me thinking again about the response I received at Public Question Time earlier this month:

From Mr Shasha Khan 

Councillor Alison Butler  

Cabinet Member for Homes and Regeneration  

Question No. 

PQ058-14 

At the Broad Green hustings, for the 2014 council elections, Labour panellist,
Councillor Stuart Collins, said that he had been calling for a moratorium on new development in the London Road/Broad Green area. Now that Labour control the council, is a moratorium on new development in place in this area? 

Reply 

The new administration is committed to the regeneration of the London Road/Broad Green area. As local planning authority the Council are required in law to consider any scheme on its individual merits in line with the London Plan and the Croydon Local Plan and any other material planning considerations.

Green Party candidate Pravina Ellis and Cllr Stuart Collins
Picture taken at the Broad Green hustings just days before the local elections which Labour won

I find a good way to let off steam about politicians seemingly saying one thing but doing another is to write a letter. I've just sent this to the Croydon Guardian:

22.10.14

Dear Editor

I completely agree with The Lois Project [Residents should be consulted over plans for more buildings], West Croydon, Broad Green in particular is being overdeveloped at an astonishing pace, with little thought for the quality of life for those living here.

Interestingly, Broad Green Labour councillor Stuart Collins is not oblivious to the situation. At the Broad Green hustings, just before the May local elections, he advised those present that he had been calling on the Conservative administration to impose a “moratorium” on all new development in Broad Green until an infrastructure review had been carried out. Everyone in the room supported him.

Now that Labour controls the council, surely we can look forward to a moratorium on Broad Green development? I am afraid not. At a recent Croydon Council Public Question Time I asked about the moratorium, and the response was “the new administration is committed to the regeneration of the Broad Green area.” For “regeneration” read overdevelopment.

Those attending that Broad Green hustings have a right to feel disappointed with Councillor Collins.

Yours sincerely

Shasha Khan

Green Party PPC for Croydon North

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Tags croydon, greenparty

Residents angry in Broad Green

On Saturday 12th April, like many party activists, I was tasked with obtaining signatures for a consent to nomination form for the forthcoming local elections. That afternoon I was in Broad Green. When knocking on doors in one particular road, I was told by a resident that there was a stabbing across the road, and two weeks had elapsed and the blood of the victim(s) was still on the pavement. I went across the road to look for myself. I couldn't believe my eyes. My immediate reaction was that children in the area would view this. Without question, that would create a mindset of what they should perceive as normal, growing up to see blood splattered on the pavement. Additionally, you could even get children touching the blood. The question on my mind was: Are the authorities treating Broad Green as some sort of District 13, a place where violence and gangs were the norm, therefore, residents won't mind if cleaning up after such an incident was low priority? I took a photo and tweeted @YourCroydon. 

The following Saturday I went back to Broad Green and was relieved to see the blood had gone. I spoke to a shopkeeper and we both surmised that maybe the heavy downpour we had had a couple of days earlier had washed it away. Although what is more probable given that concrete is porous, the blood would have needed specialists to wash the pavement clean.

The shopkeeper recalled that he had heard the stabbing occurred with a glass bottle in the first weekend of April, late at night. The police came and cordoned off the area. After a few days the cordon was removed but no-one came to remove the blood.

I am not sure what the process is but, surely there has to be a system in place to deal with this kind of incident. Someone has to be responsible for reporting the blood stained pavement, and someone is responsible for cleaning it.  We need some answers because no family in Croydon should live on a street with this situation apparently being the norm.

Tags croydon, greenparty