With local elections across here in Croydon in May, we speak with Zachary Stiling, Reform UK candidate for South Norwood.
“I became actively involved in politics thanks to lockdown. I was appalled by the government’s sweeping attack on civil liberties and what amounted to the psychological abuse of dissenters”
Can you introduce yourself to our readers, and tell us what made you decide to run?
I have lived in Croydon all my life – 28 years – which I think makes me too young to remember a time when it was a beautiful and flourishing town; nevertheless, I hold it in affectionate regard as my home. I became actively involved in politics thanks to lockdown. I was appalled by the government’s sweeping attack on civil liberties and what amounted to the psychological abuse of dissenters, and my conscience made me contest the 2021 Kenley by-election on an anti-lockdown platform. I didn’t win, of course, but it was important to me that somebody stood to offer a choice to the voters who felt badly let down by the four main parties.
Outside of politics, I have been self-employed as a writer since leaving school. I balanced my writing career with shelf-stacking in a supermarket for five years before I was finally able to become self-employed full-time. I am personally involved with the preservation of vintage cars and bicycles, and belong to a number of groups involved with the preservation of historic buildings. Purely as a dilettante, I have an interest in antiques, fine art, literature and music – everything from the Baroque to the blues. My favourite book is Le Grand Meaulnes by Alain-Fournier.
I have decided to run for election as a councillor with Reform because I believe Croydon has been badly let down by year upon year of mismanagement by the Conservatives and Labour. For most of my life, Croydon has been almost a synonym for urban decay, but it is now at the point where, if you go into the town centre, you are very likely to witness some kind of antisocial behaviour. I have seen people lying unconscious on the floor of Popeyes where they have obviously lost a fight; I am sick of being bothered by persistent or aggressive beggars on night buses and outside East Croydon station.
Furthermore, I am determined to reverse the uglification of Croydon which, as yet, shows no signs of abating. It seems as if every new building to have been erected in recent years is bigger and uglier than the one before it. Last year, Shirley lost one of its few Georgian houses (the Swiss Lodge on Shirley Church Road), and I shudder to think what will replace it. Meanwhile, fifteen years after the riots which resulted in the destruction of the House of Reeves, there is nothing but waste ground where the fine Edwardian building once stood. Whenever I am standing on the platform at East Croydon station, I think to myself, “Here, there is no beautiful thing,” and I hope readers will agree that that is a profoundly depressing thought. What does it say for a town that it has the power to depress simply upon sight?
Order, beauty, tranquillity and cleanliness – Croydon Council seems to have forgotten what these words mean, never mind why they matter. But I am a civilised man, and Croydon needs a civilised touch.
“we need to make our public amenities truly public once more, and scrap the idiotic and unnecessary pre-booking policies so that they can be enjoyed by everyone”
You’re the prospective candidate for South Norwood ward, what are the major concerns in the area?
Strangely enough, the first concern many people express is to do with crime, but the council can do little to address that since the only body with real crime prevention and law enforcement powers is the Metropolitan Police. However, it is to be hoped that by improving the quality of the area, and the quality of life of its inhabitants, the crime rate may be induced to fall.
The second greatest concern pertains to the loss of local assets and amenities. This is particularly pertinent given that Croydon Council recently closed four of its libraries in 2024, and did away with an entire floor of the main library at the Town Hall. Fortunately, South Norwood library remains open and, as a bibliophile, I am committed to seeing that it remains so. Unfortunately, where damage has already been done is in the effective privatisation of Croydon’s leisure facilities by outsourcing their management to Greenwich Leisure Ltd. (operating under the brand name Better), which describes itself as “a charitable social enterprise.” If you are older than ten, you will have happy memories of being able to turn up at the local swimming pool, pay a nominal fee for a wristband, and enjoy a good hour of swimming lengths or splashing about. Now, with GLL in charge, don’t you be getting any high and mighty ideas about going swimming when you like – you must first go online to book a slot to swim when, and only when, GLL says you can (and you’ll pay well for the privilege). If, like me, you are self-employed and have to go to work on demand, or have other commitments which require spontaneity, that’s your problem and you can forget about swimming. I only found this out by turning up at one ‘Better’ leisure centre and being promptly sent home. I cannot remember how much the charge was for an hour’s swimming, and I am still none the wiser because I have been on the ‘Better’ website and find it absolutely bewildering.
If tennis is more your thing, worse luck, because council-owned courts which could once be used freely and spontaneously again require online booking and now cost more than £8.00 to access (it was £8.10 as of 2023). A lot of individuals and families in South Norwood and across the borough are struggling to make ends meet, and even those who would think of themselves as comfortably middle-class are feeling the effects of cost-of-living increases, and have neither the time nor the money to use what ought to be accessible, and in some cases free, services. Once it has been constructed, a tennis court can be left alone without expense for years. The withdrawal of basic amenities has been disgraceful, we need to make our public amenities truly public once more, and scrap the idiotic and unnecessary pre-booking policies so that they can be enjoyed by everyone. It is not surprising people become consumed by depression, when they are deprived of opportunities to enjoy or better themselves.
“On the subject of roads, Reform Croydon is committed to rollout the removal of 20 MPH speed limits and return to a 30 MPH default speed limit”
More widely what do you see as the big issues for Croydon and if elected what would you hope to champion?
In addition to my public amenities campaign as outlined above, I have several plans in mind for Croydon which I hope will remedy at least some of its many other problems. I will run through them now in no particular order.
Croydon Council works with no fewer than nine churches and charities which provide the homeless with free food and clothing, sleeping bags and temporary shelter, plus referrals to the Job Centre and mental health services. In addition, it works with the Fitze Millennium Centre in Upper Norwood which provides purpose-built accommodation consisting of studio flats and recreational facilities for up to eighty homeless young people while preparing them for the world of work and independent living. We need to move those begging from the streets to these facilities.
As far as fly-tipping is concerned, I want to see the council respond to all complaints of fly-tipping within one week.
To address the matter of civic beauty, my first pledge is the most straightforward. There will be no further building on Green Belt land, and I would desire even to create new areas of Green Belt to atone for some of those lost in recent years. To preserve Croydon’s fine old buildings and protect our heritage, I would like to see a blanket ban on the demolition of all buildings predating WW1 unless there was an absolutely compelling reason why they could not possibly be refurbished or repurposed. As discussed previously, permission for new buildings will only be granted if they exhibit genuine aesthetic merit and respect and sympathy for the surrounding area.
On the subject of roads, Reform Croydon is committed to rollout the removal of 20 MPH speed limits and return to a 30 MPH default speed limit. It is obvious that the council made no effort to consider where accidents occur or what the reasons for them are, and consequently motorists are forced to slither like a snail along roads where 30 or even 40mph would be a safe maximum.
In addition to being a motorist and car enthusiast, I am also a keen cyclist, a pedestrian and a voluntary public transport user, so I flatter myself that I have the advantage of understanding transport requirements from many perspectives.
A few years ago, I wrote a piece decrying the council’s decision to rip up some of its bus shelters and spend £6.8 million installing dystopian-sounding Smart shelters, with cameras feeding information somewhere viâ a permanent internet connection. Mercifully, these never materialised, because the council contracted them to a nine-month-old American tech company with no previous experience of building bus shelters. Rural parts of the Borough of Bromley have attractive wooden bus shelters which are far better suited to the rural and suburban æsthetic than the bland, textureless and generic style seen across the entirety of Croydon. Some large towns, such as Brighton, still retain attractive streamlined Art Déco shelters which would look wonderful in Croydon town centre and the northern parts of the borough. It doesn’t have to be hard to make a place look nice – it just requires somebody who cares.
How can people find out more or get involved in the campaign?
You can find out more in our booklet ‘CROYDON NEEDS REFORM – OUR CONTRACT WITH YOU’. You can also follow us on Facebook or contact us at chair.croydon@reformuk.com.
“It doesn’t have to be hard to make a place look nice – it just requires somebody who cares”
