Mike Fisher, who has resigned as the leader of the Conservatives on Croydon Council after being caught red-handed secretly claiming an extra £10,000 in allowances on top of his £53,000 wedge, was all the time also receiving an additional £15,250 per year in allowances from another public body in the capital.
Looking for another hand-out? Mike Fisher has been making a lot of allowances lately
That all tots up to more than £78,000 of tax-payers’ money paid to florid-faced Fisher in the last year alone.
Fisher has been one of the borough reps on the London Fire and Emergency Planning Authority, or LFEPA, delegated to attend through being a Croydon councillor.
LFEPA runs the London Fire Brigade. Of the committee members of the Authority, eight are nominated from the London Assembly, seven from the London boroughs, and two are Mayoral appointees.
The 17 members of LFEPA each receive a basic allowance of £7,750 per year.
Fisher was also appointed to chair LFEPA’s audit committee. For that onerous task, he also received a “special responsibility allowance”, another £7,500, making a total of £15,250 for his fire brigade duties, all received entirely legitimately.
This was clearly a tough task for Fisher, on top of his full-time duties of being the leader of the Croydon Tories. Fisher was being paid an average of nearly £2,000 per meeting by LFEPA, who would usually have five meetings each year, plus three audit committee meetings.
According to the LFEPA website, despite Fisher’s Tories losing to Labour in Croydon in May’s local elections, the Shirley councillor remains a member of the authority.
Last year, as a member of LFEPA, Croydon’s Fisher voted to close 12 fire stations around London, to remove 18 fire engines and to axe 520 firefighter jobs – all as an economy measure at the behest of Boris Johnson.
Fisher’s extra £10,000 allowances claim was not illegal, just “doubly wrong” according to the Conservative MP for Croydon Central, Gavin Barwell. Given the context of the other public payments Fisher received, that allowances top-up he grabbed is looking ever more like naked greed.
There continue to be calls for Fisher to resign his position as a councillor for Shirley ward, for which he receives £11,239 from Croydon Council, without any special responsibility allowances, and demands for him to re-pay the £10,000 in “back-pay” that he pocketed.
- #WadGate: Questions that Barwell has failed to answer
- #WadGate: Fisher forced to resign as Croydon Tory leader
- Tory leader Fisher is caught red-handed with £10,000 pay hike
- #WadGate: The Movie
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Coming to Croydon
- Tell Me About Your Ex, Spread Eagle Theatre, Sep 9-13
- David Lean Cinema: Camille Claudel, Sep 11
- Warlingham rugby dinner with international Richard Hill, Sep 12
- Soul Symphony Community Choir sessions, Sep 16-Dec 23
- Police question time, LNK at Centrale, Sep 17
- Norwood Society Talk: War Memorials, Sep 18
- David Lean Cinema: Chef, Sep 18
- The Complete History of the BBC – Abridged, Spread Eagle, Sep 19-20
- Cinema Ruskin film show, Sep 20
- South Croydon business breakfast, Sep 20
- Open House London weekend, Sep 20-21
- David Lean Cinema: A Night At The Cinema in 1914, Sep 22
- Activity to Work back-to-work workshops, Sep 23
- David Lean Cinema: Jimmy’s Hall, Sep 25
- Streatham Common 6M race, Sep 27
- Fancy dress family funday, Sep 28
- Tree Sides, Spread Eagle Theatre, Oct 2-4
- The Goon Show, Spread Eagle Theatre, Oct 8-11
- Norwood Society Talk: From Fire Station to Theatre, Oct 16
- Cinema Ruskin film show, Oct 18
- South Croydon business breakfast, Oct 18
- This Was The World and I Was King, Spread Eagle, Oct 23-25
- Albert Einstein – Relativity Speaking, Spread Eagle, Nov 12-15
- South Croydon business breakfast, Nov 15
- Norwood Society Talk: Lambeth’s Archives, Nov 20
- Choose Your Own Documentary, Spread Eagle Theatre, Nov 21-22
- The Last Sense of Sudden, Spread Eagle Theatre, Nov 27-29
- Ghost Stories for Christmas, Spread Eagle Theatre, Dec 3
- Fog Horn Funnies, Spread Eagle Theatre, Dec 6
- South Croydon business breakfast, Dec 13
- South Croydon business breakfast, Jan 24
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In most jobs, there’s an understanding, (and often a clause in your contract), that if you do an extra task for an outside organisation, because of your position, the employer gets any fee paid. Being paid for doing things like this is completely out of line. He should pay the money back to the council.
Well done, Sherlock! I’d love to see what Anne Giles has to say on this latest instalment of #WadGate.
Every person claiming to represent us should have to declare every year how much they are receiving from every public office so that we all fully understand what is going on. There needs to be openness, honesty and transparency – it is not surprising that there is widespread distrust of politicians and suspicion of their motives.
I have already said what I wanted to say – to one of our Councillors, in private, of course.
Not like you, Anne, to keep your views to yourself. The rest of us are obviously very grateful