Volunteers banned from Mayor's office because 'they are wearing out carpet' (From This Is Local London)

Volunteers banned from Croydon Mayor's office because 'they are wearing out carpet'

6:50am Wednesday 13th May 2009 in News Exclusive By Harry Miller

Health and safety bureaucrats have banned community workers from the mayor’s office because they are wearing out the carpet.

More than a decade of tradition has been scrapped after Croydon Council officials stepped in to stop 20 community groups holding meetings in the mayor’s reception rooms at the Town Hall.

Incoming mayor Councillor Margaret Mead, whose inaugural dinner is next week, told one pensioners’ group it was no longer allowed to use the room because of the wear and tear caused on the carpet and the looming prospect of a health and safety nightmare if someone tripped on the frayed rug.

Michael Knight from OPeN (Older Peoples Network) and the Croydon Neighbourhood Watch association have been told the carpet will not be replaced and the doors are now shut to them.

The OPeN meetings, held quarterly in the mayor's parlour and welcomed by the previous mayor, the late Jonathan Driver, have been taking place for the past nine years, with other groups holding their meetings there for even longer.

Mr Knight, 71, said: “Now, in this age of credit crunch I can quite see that avoiding unnecessary expense is a laudable objective and that the council may well have given carpet replacement a lower priority.

“But the council is being so petty minded, for goodness sake come on.”

Promising to take care of the carpet Mr Knight said: “I pledge on behalf of pensioners that we will not move our wheelchairs and zimmer frames about in a manner likely to cause carpet wear.”

Leader of the Croydon Labour Party, Tony Newman, said: “Following the cuts and partial u-turn on after hours community group funding this is yet a further attack on community groups in Croydon by the current Tory administration.

“I call immediately for a rethink on the decision.”

Councillor Mead, cabinet member for health and adult social care and the next Croydon mayor said: “It is the current mayor’s decision.

"I have just informed the groups who will hold their meetings under my term as mayor that they will not be able to use the room because of the danger surrounding the wear on the carpet.

“We have had an accident where someone caught their heel in one of the frayed ends, but that is all I know about it.”

Asked why the carpet was not being replaced, Mrs Mead said: “In this climate we need to watch what we spend. The groups have been asked to move to similar accommodation within the town hall.”

A Croydon Council spokesman said: “The mayor’s reception room is primarily intended for mayoral and civic events.

There are several, more suitable rooms in the town hall for routine meetings.

“Community groups may still be able to use the reception room at the mayor’s discretion but we would expect run-of-the-mill activities to switch to accommodation elsewhere in the building.

“This will help preserve the mayor’s reception room for the kind of proceedings which quite properly need to take place within a fitting environment close to the mayor’s parlour.”

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