Croydon council reveals £10m hole in parking budget

By Tara O’Connor, Local Democracy Reporter

Croydon council is not out of the woods yet, as it battles to fill a £10m hole in its parking budget, 18 months on from having to declare effective bankruptcy.

The hole in the budget was revealed at the first cabinet meeting of the new administration on Wednesday.

Cabinet member for finance, Councillor Jason Cummings, warned that managing the council’s finances was getting harder.

He said: “The council is on a journey in regards to its finances and we are only a few steps in, and it is getting harder.

“We have just finished a financial year where we were supported by £50million of Government capitalisation and going into a year where our budget is supported by £25million.

“We have to get out of all of that to a position where we are in true balance and we are self sustaining, it is going to be hard and involve a lot of tough decisions.”

Executive mayor of the council Jason Perry revealed there is a £10m hole in Croydon’s parking budget.

At the meeting, he said the council’s finances were on a “knife edge” and “if anything, heading in the wrong direction”.

In his priorities, mayor Perry has pledged to cut the council’s debt to under £1billion by ramping up repayments and calling on better funding from central government.

He wrote: “The Council will put its finances on a sustainable footing, avoiding overspends, obtaining value for money and delivering council services on budget to a good standard.”

Pictured top: Croydon town hall