U turn as Head of parking gets towed out

The front page of the Croydon Advertiser carried a fascinating story on Friday. "Head of parking goes as council slashes charges".

My immediate thought was hurrah! But on reading the story it appears that "Parking Manager of the Year" Roger Woodward has been made a fall guy for the councils controversial parking policy. Apparently the official line is that he has taken early retirement but considering it is suggested that he was at odds with other officers over the charging policy and was unhappy with the original levels it may be that a silent supporter of our campaign has been forced into retirement.

Heads should roll for the whole parking policy debacle, and I am sure they will at the next council elections when we, the residents, get to have our say on how well we think the elected members of Croydon Council have done their job. Policies should be thought through and all the risks assessed before implementation. If they are not, and I really have to assume that these steps were neglected else god help us all, serious economic repercussions can occur in Croydon's business communities as we are now witnessing, and the lifestyle quality of the residents can be greatly diminished.

If forcing out Roger Woodward is meant to appease the growing mob of Croydon discontents then again I think that once again the Councillors may well have wrongly read the mood. As residents we don't mind U-turns if they make things right - we are just exceptionally annoyed that the policy was introduced in the first place.

Posted by Simon at June 16, 2003 12:10 PM

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