Editing Waddon (section)

==Politics==
Politically, Waddon ward is a marginal ward on Croydon Council<ref>{{cite web |title=Five wards to watch out for overnight |url=https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/politicsandpolicy/five-wards-to-watch-out-for-overnight/ |website=British Politics and Policy |date=22 May 2014 |publisher=London School of Economics and Political Science |access-date=29 November 2019}}</ref>  and has seen its representation swap between the [[Labour Party (UK)|Labour]], [[Conservative Party (UK)|Conservative]] and Ratepayers Parties since the late 1920s. With elections every year Labour took Waddon in 1929 and in 1937 and 1938 with RA candidates winning in the intervening years and also continuously from 1919 to 1928.

The first elections to the new London Borough of Croydon council in 1964 saw all three seats go to Labour. The Conservatives secured all three Waddon seats in the 1968 landslide for the Conservatives in London. 1971 saw Labour take all three seats back. 1974 saw Labour hold two of the three seats but there were Waddon by-election wins for the Conservatives both in 1976 and 1977 electing Councillors Jim Nea and Michael Wunn respectively.

In 1986, the ward representation was shared between the Conservatives with two councillors and Labour one councillor after the Conservatives had held all the seats both in 1978 and in the 1982 Conservative landslide when the only five seats held by Labour were in New Addington.

In 1990 and 1994, Labour won all three seats with the Conservatives falling to third place in an August 1993 by-election. In 1998, the ward returned one Labour and two Conservative councillors, one of whom defected to the [[Liberal Democrats (UK)|Liberal Democrats]].

In 2002, Labour recovered all three seats, albeit with one of the Labour candidates crossing the winning line with a majority of just eight votes. In the [[Croydon Council election 2006|2006 elections]], Waddon returned three Conservative councillors. In 2010 the three Waddon council seats were retained by the Conservatives with Labour scoring its lowest vote share - 31.8% - during the existence of the post 1964 London Borough to Croydon. In 2014 the ward returned three Labour councillors, Robert Canning, Andrew Pelling & Joy Prince on a swing from the Conservatives to Labour of 7.1%. 2018 saw Labour retaining the three seats with an increased majority on the altered boundaries as detailed below.

In 2022 Labour held two of the three seats as it shed 2,035 votes. The other seat was taken by the Conservatives. The setback for Labour came after the financial collapse of the Labour council, none of the incumbent Labour councillors running again except that Andrew Pelling ran as an Independent. Pelling had been terminated as a Labour member for being pro having a Croydon Mayor, for speaking to the local press and for voting against a cut to council tax benefit. His 705 votes made it hard for either party to get all three party candidates elected.
 
In July 2017, the Local Government Boundary Commission for England altered, subject to the formality of Parliamentary approval, the boundaries of the ward as from May 2018 so as to exclude roads including and surrounding Pampisford Road and Haling Park Road to the south of Whitgift School and to include some additional parts of what is geographically Waddon including retail and industrial areas to the south of Beddington Park Road, Wandle Park tramstop, the gasometers at Factory Lane, New South Quarter, Waddon Marsh tramstop, Wandle Park and properties between Wandle Park and the Roman Way.