Complaint ignored: Croydon Council rejected a resident’s complaint over the unlawful fixing of the flags to lampposts along Coulsdon Common
Croydon’s failed Mayor, Jason Perry, went on the telly last week boasting of “zero tolerance” for fly-tippers.
Yet his council has refused to remove hundreds of St George cross flags that have been tethered illegally to lamp posts along Coulsdon Road, through Coulsdon Common and past The Fox pub, all the way into Caterham and Surrey.
The flags along Coulsdon Road – mostly at half-staff, which is generally regarded as poor form unless someone important has died – constitute fly-posting, which can be punished with fines of up to £2,500 if convicted in court.
Yet Croydon Council has refused to act to have the flags removed, even though it is well-established that the use of such flags is part of a co-ordinated hate campaign against minority groups.
Farage flag-shaggers and tragic roundabout painters have climbed out from under their rocks at the urgings of hardened and extreme far-right activists.
The co-founder of “Operation Raise the Colours” is Andrew Currien, also known as Andy Saxon, a long-time ally of Stephen Yaxley Lennon, the serial criminal who calls himself Tommy Robinson.
Currien was previously a member of the English Defence League’s “bodyguard team”, and he now runs security for the far-right Britain First party.
Currien has a significant criminal record: he was one of six men convicted in 2009 after a 59-year-old man was crushed to death by a car following a violent brawl, the attack being racially motivated.
“Across the country, many of the small groups that have come together to raise the flags are being organised by well-known far-right extremists,” Hope Not Hate is reporting.
“Britain First claims to have provided many of the flags in the North West. ‘Britain First has, so far, donated 75% of its flag stock to local teams in Manchester and the West Midlands for “Operation Raise The Colours”,’ tweeted [Britain First] leader Paul Golding.”
Saxon worrier: the far-right is claiming credit for the distribution of the St George’s flags
There is nothing wrong with raising the Union flag or cross of St George (provided the usual niceties of having the owner’s prior permission). Despite deliberately provocative claims to the contrary, it has never been illegal to be proud to be English or British.
And not everyone who has raised a flag in the past few weeks will be far-right.
“But the fact that much of this wave of activism is being organised by well-known racists and extremists does raise questions about the motivations behind much of Operation Raise the Colours,” Hope Not Hate says.
Which then brings us to the rights and wrongs of abusing public infrastructure, an area in which Tory Mayor Perry has form, having run a Facebook page which glorified, celebrated and encouraged some to deface and destroy ULEZ cameras and equipment when the clean-air zone was extended to outer London two years ago.
The ULEZ vandalism Facebook page was part of another concerted campaign which was described then as a “vile cesspit of racism”.
And now Piss-poor Perry’s council is refusing to act over the defacing of public property – mostly lamp posts along the main road to Caterham.
Zero action: Croydon’s Tory Mayor Jason Perry
“There’s not just one or two… There’s hundreds of the things,” according to a concerned reader.
They reported those that are in Caterham to Tandridge District Council. Tandridge told the member of the public to contact Surrey County Council. And Surrey referred the complaint to Tandridge…
With Croydon, the complainant was told to use the council’s CrapApp. The only problem being that the CrapApp has no category for fly-posting (or flag-shagging, for that matter). FixMyStreet, the alternative, and free, app, run by mySociety, does have a fly-posting category under which to make reports.
Undeterred, the concerned resident managed to jump through the CrapApp’s digital hoops to file their complaint, in which they noted: “I find it extremely upsetting and intimidating as this crude perversion of our national flag into political propaganda makes me feel like I am living in a fascist state.
“It is clearly one group’s attempt to claim ownership over public land and municipal assets. Please remove them.”
But after they pressed “Send”, they got a reply which summarily closed the complaint: “Your report has now been closed.
“Unfortunately, on this occasion it has been marked as ‘Not completed’. You can view updates on the report in your Love Clean Streets app.”
The response, from Croydon Council, said that common reasons for complaints being closed in this way include:
- this issue was recently reported at this location and therefore this is a duplicate report that is being dealt with separately. You can view other reports on the map in Love Clean Streets
- we were unable to locate the issue
- it is not within the council’s area to deal with
- it is on private land that we are unable to gain access to
- sometimes users submit the report incorrectly, for example selecting the wrong category or address
The concerned resident said: “None of those excuses hold good: the flags are on the public highway, within Croydon Council’s area, and can be seen quite clearly all along the road, as reported. If someone else has reported it, then why haven’t the flags been removed?
“I suppose the council’s fall-back, as ever, is to blame its own residents for not submitting the report correctly, and using that as an excuse for not doing anything.”
Half-staff: the raising of the flags has been half-cock and half-arsed
They tried again, not just with Croydon, but Surrey and Tandridge. And they got a response from someone called “Lauren”, who explained that she doesn’t actually work for any of the councils, but for the tech firm that provides the app software.
“Lauren seems to sort of Hoover-up all their complaints into a giant complaint soup and then she decides which ones should be acted upon or not.
“You can still complain to the council directly, through their complaints form. But how long will that all take? I guess the problem with this is that in this situation. it leaves Lauren, an expert in HTML and Java, with absolute authority to delete residents’ complaints but with absolutely no responsibility to taxpayers.
“Does Croydon Council care? How long will the flags be there for? Lauren can’t answer, because she believes that even posing such questions is some kind of harassment, when of course it is nothing of the sort.”
As, once again, the difference between what Mayor Perry says, and what his council actually does, is exposed to be glaringly different.
Read more: Tory minister is member of online group that salutes vandals
Read more: Perry’s Facebook group hosted video by Islamophobic ‘comic’
Read more: Perry’s Piles: Council refuses to act on 30 dumped mattresses
Read more: ‘Busted’: Mayor’s video shows rubbish contractors are failing
PAID ADS: To advertise your services or products to our 10,000 weekday visitors to the site, as featured on Google News Showcase, email us inside.croydon@btinternet.com for our unbeatable ad rates
- If you have a news story about life in or around Croydon, or want to publicise your residents’ association or business, or if you have a local event to promote, please email us with full details at inside.croydon@btinternet.com
As featured on Google News Showcase
Like this:
Like Loading…