Croydon (Parliament Politics Magazine) – Mayor Jason Perry faces legal scrutiny as his admission over Low Traffic Neighbourhoods (LTNs) could expose Croydon Council to multimillion-pound claims.
Lawyers for the council are anticipated to defend the mayor’s manifesto U-turn by arguing that “election promises are not a binding contract,” in response to a High Court complaint alleging the body has abused its control over Low Traffic Neighbourhoods.
This week, Tory Mayor Jason Perry’s crisis-plagued council will appear before a High Court judge as Croydon‘s Low Traffic Neighbourhood rules are being scrutinized by the courts.
Perry’s council’s future is bleak in light of recent judicial reviews of other traffic-reduction plans, such the one in West Dulwich, where the plan was declared illegal and Lambeth Council was forced to take it down right away.
Pandering to the road haulage and motoring lobby during the 2022 election campaign, Perry said,
“These LTN schemes have increased levels of traffic and congestion, increased journey times, increased pollution, impacted on business and fined residents for driving on their own roads… These schemes are having a huge detrimental impact on our communities.”
Croydon’s prospects at the High Court this week are not good, not least because the council’s lawyers’ best line of defence against the claim is, according to a Katharine Street source, to argue that “election promises are not a binding contract”.
The source said,
“So Croydon Council’s case hinges on something we all know: politicians tell lies to get elected.”
The goal of the lawsuit against Croydon is to make politicians—even mediocre ones like Perry—keep their electoral pledges. If successful, it would set a major legal precedent.
The enigmatic Open Our Roads organization, which has concealed the identity of its primary funding source, has filed the lawsuit. Early on, the Association of Bad Drivers, a prominent ABD organization with headquarters in Chislehurst, generously donated to it.
The unlawful cyberattack against this website in 2021 was also acknowledged by one of the founding members of the Open Our Roads organization.
At first, Open Our Roads ran a campaign against LTNs in the South Norwood and Crystal Palace neighborhoods.
In the skeleton arguments presented before the court date by lawyers representing Open Our Roads, it states:
“Jason Perry is [Croydon]’s elected mayor. Before being elected mayor on 5th May 2022, he campaigned based on reversing the traffic schemes. As mayor, he had full power to review – and reverse – any prior decision of [the council].
There has always been considerable opposition to the schemes from residents, who dispute that worthwhile environmental benefits will be gained while considerable practical inconvenience will be caused to residents and vehicular traffic in and passing through the borough.
Moreover, the driver behind the schemes is considered by [Ms Lawrence] and many residents to be financially to benefit [Croydon Council], which is experiencing financial constraints…”
The absence of thorough planning done before the implementation of the first experimental ideas hurts Croydon Council’s argument.
The council acknowledged that the air quality on the residential side streets within the LTN met legal limits prior to the scheme’s introduction, that it lacked pre-scheme local data for walking and bicycling, and that it lacked data on traffic levels on LTN boundary roads prior to the scheme’s implementation.
Six of Croydon Council’s seven trial LTNs were made permanent after Perry was elected mayor.
Citing the legal precedent of Vestey v Inland Revenue from 1979, Open Our Roads’ lawyers contend that,
“A local authority should not misuse a statute aimed at defined purposes for another (ulterior) purpose where that purpose is to raise revenue. Otherwise, it would be tantamount to taxation… Taxes are imposed upon subjects by Parliament.”
This is in addition to allegations that the deputy leader of the Labour-controlled Lambeth Council, Rezina Chowdhury, may have deceived the judge during the most recent hearing at the West Dulwich LTN High Court.
At the councillor’s monthly surgery, a resident’s group member used covert recordings to capture Chowdhury stating that she had disregarded resident emails and recorded-delivery letters because she believed the group targeting LTNs was acting dishonestly.
But The Times reports today that Chowdhury’s evidence to the High Court included her statement,
“I do not consider there has been at any point a ‘refusal to engage with those who might be critical of what the council was proposing.”
When lawyers go down to compare Mayor Perry’s erratic and dense public pronouncements with anything he presents to court this week while under solemn oath, they could have a field day.
What are the key issues in the trial?
The main question in the case is whether Croydon Council violated the Road Traffic Regulation Act of 1984 by employing LTNs to generate revenue, which is against the law for such programs.
During a public appearance, Mayor Perry acknowledged that the council’s budget was supported by the estimated £12 million in revenue from LTN fines. Legal reasons emphasize that this type of local taxation is illegal.
Mayor Perry ran on a platform of eliminating LTNs, but he later claimed that the council’s financial situation prevented him from fulfilling this promise.
Although the air quality in the impacted streets already satisfied regulatory requirements prior to the implementation of LTNs, the council acknowledged that it lacked pre-scheme data on traffic, walking, and cycling levels.