‘A vision of the nation’s political future in Croydon’s concrete jungle’: the national media seems to have discovered Croydon this week
CROYDON COMMENTARY: With local elections fast approaching, the national press has been taking a closer look at Croydon. Business owner NITIN MEHTA posted a comment in response to an article in Murdoch-owned The Times, and here expands on his points
I have lived in Croydon for 50 years and served on many bodies. My experience is that there is a tendency everywhere to not rock the boat. Those in charge of taking decisions or entrusted to monitor the goings on of an institution never ask awkward questions. No matter how glaring the irregularities, there is a tendency to just nod and move on. “Do not rock the boat” is the mantra of Croydon’s Establishment. As a member of the committee that was set up to oversee the funds allocated to Croydon after the riots in 2011, I experienced this first-hand. When I queried the money spent, I was told the figures would be presented at the next meeting. At the the next meeting, I was told that the figures had not been calculated yet. After that, the committee was dissolved.
Look the other way: civic pride in our neighbourhoods has eroded, says Nitin Mehta
When the very people who are there to fight your corner, but do not, you know that a rot has set in. This practice is widespread, in all institutions. The first instinct of individuals on these bodies is to cover the institution they have been appointed to get justice from. In this “bargain”, it is the aggrieved individuals who just become a statistic.The bodies will proudly announce the number of people who approached them, but not how many had their grievances resolved.
That is why Croydon has been bankrupted three times. Once elected, most politicians are hardly visible. Most people will never have seen their ward councillor or the local MP. If you are Joe or Josephine Public, you will need to have a lot of perseverance to get the attention of your representatives. Your emails will get ignored. Your phone call conversations with the council or secretaries of prominent politicians will leave you with a distinct feeling of being fobbed off. If you ever manage to get through. There are a few exceptions of councillors who go out of their way to listen to people’s grievances. The tragedy is that they, too, seem to fail in bringing any relief to businesses or residents. Why else does West Croydon Station continue to be such a blight to the town centre?
The negativity has seeped into the citizens. Civic pride in our town or neighbourhoods has eroded. People just walk by avoiding eye contact with rubbish piled on the streets, alcoholics and drug dealers huddled in corners. It’s a dystopian nightmare. To add to the problem, failure in local government is rewarded handsomely. Council chief executives with salaries of much more than the Prime Minister have departed Croydon as total failures, and yet received “golden handshakes” as they departed. If they were not a failure, then the Whitgift Shopping Centre, which has been dying of neglect for years, would have been transformed by now.
I have an idea to stop the knife crime, if anyone would listen. Croydon does not deserve the reputation it has.
Nitin Mehta
29 April 2026
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