Newsletter of the Hartley and District Residents’ Association Autumn 2019 Protecting and Advancing the Common Interests of the Area WEBSITE www.hadra.org Lots of useful information about our area
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CAMPAIGN FOR A DEMOCRATICALLY ELECTED MAYOR HADRA has been closely following the progress of a collection of individuals who are campaigning for a democratically elected Mayor of Croydon. The group are known as “DEMOC” and you can visit their website at http://www.democ.org.uk. HADRA has been saying for a long time that developer-led planning applications are having a negative impact on our area and, with the creation of the new DEMOC group, we see this as potentially being able to address some of the concerns around planning that are manifesting with our residents. Planning policy is of course decided largely by Croydon Council in relation to national guidelines and local town plans. The local town plans are created by council officials who currently all report to the leader of the council. Unfortunately, as it stands at present, we have no recourse to replace the council leader as he is not democratically elected by members of the public but appointed in council meetings behind closed doors. DEMOC are campaigning for a borough-wide referendum which would ask all voters within Croydon constituencies whether they are satisfied with this current arrangement, or whether they would prefer a mayor for whom they could vote. Clearly an official who is voted into power, such as a mayor, can just as easily be voted out of power if they did not uphold the wishes of the voters. This is why we believe DEMOC is a force for democracy in our borough and why HADRA have agreed to support this campaign. In order to achieve this goal, it is necessary to obtain 14,000 signatures on their petition. Legally, Croydon council must then hold the aforementioned referendum. We support DEMOC. If you do too, please sign the petition at http://www.democ.org.uk