Ottaway wants to breakaway
11:34am Wednesday 15th May 2002 in
Croydon South MP Richard Ottaway is urging the Government to re-establish the erstwhile Purley and Coulsdon District Council in the south of the borough.
The Tory MP said the move would be a logical solution to the fact the borough's southern wards, though overwhelmingly Conservative, are to be run once again by Labour following the recent local elections.
Croydon Council leader Hugh Malyan has put Mr Ottaway's calls down to sour grapes, and is confident the Labour Party is and can continue to be "a party for the whole of the borough".
Mr Ottaway suggested the old Purley and Coulsdon District Council offices (1930-65) on Brighton Road, Purley, could be used as premises and should not be converted into flats as Croydon Council plans to do, until a decision is made.
He said: "On election day 47 per cent of the borough voted Conservative against 39 per cent who voted for the Labour party.
"Yet Labour remains in control with their wards entirely in the north of the borough.
"Despite this, this minority administration will continue to treat the south of the borough with a cavalier disregard."
Mr Ottaway, who is to write to the secretary of state for local government, Stephen Byers, said the council has shown a lack of interest in the Cane Hill site, Old Coulsdon and the Coulsdon Bypass.
He also claimed the council merely allows house building in the south whilst focusing key-spending in the north.
Councillor Malyan said: "Croydon is one borough and the Labour Party is and always will be a party for the whole of the borough and that's why we were re-elected."
He added: "We have been extremely fair in spending resources. Our strong record on Cane Hill and the Coulsdon Bypass speaks for itself."
He cited the Smarter Croydon initiative as a borough-wide project, and spending on swimming pools in South Norwood, New Addington and Purley wards in all three constituencies.
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