Croydon Council, which has managed to rack up debts of more than £1 billion, has paid £272.69 to fit a replacement tap in its new headquarters office building which opened just four months ago. And the cost of furnishing Fisher’s Folly on Cost A Mint Walk has risen by almost £1 million from estimates provided at council meetings less than a year ago.

This information is not from a council leak (in the Woodward and Bernstein sense, anyway).

It was contained in official answers provided at last night’s Town Hall meeting by Conservative councillor Sara Bashford, the £43,000 a year, part-time “cabinet member for corporate and voluntary services”.

Fisher’s Folly, the new council offices built at a cost of at least £140 million, only opened in October. Yet already the building has had a problem with a leaking roof, while the short stretch of road immediately outside on Cost A Mint Walk has been re-laid twice in a few short months.

Now, it appears, the taps are a bit leaky, too. And very pricy indeed.

“Based on user feedback there is a replacement tap in BWH,” Bashford’s written answer stated, referring to what staff dismissively call Bruce Willis House, but which the Tories like to call Bernard Weatherill House.

“The cost to fit and supply a replacement tap is £272.69,” Bashford wrote. Her answer did not elaborate on whether said tap is gold-plated.

Not that there can be much wrong with the tap it is replacing. According to Bashford, “The old tap will be retained and reutilised throughout the council’s property estate as and when required.” So that’s alright then.

As Inside Croydon first revealed last year, the Tory-run council decided to spend more than £3.1 million on brand new fixtures and fittings for their luxury new offices, rather than try to save more than £1 million by utilising existing furnishings from Taberner House and other council buildings.

But in another written answer provided by Bashford last night, it was also revealed that the final bill for furnishing Fisher’s Folly has crept up from the £3.14 million “value for money” (the council’s words, not ours) discussed at the Town Hall less than 12 months ago, and has managed to reach

£3.958 million.

That’s nearly an extra £1 million being spent on furnishing an office block which council leader Mike Fisher once claimed – apparently seriously – was being built at no cost to the Council Tax-payer.

This at a time of “austerity”, service cuts, council redundancies and, last year, Council Tax increases.

Clearly, no expense spared when it comes to our Tory councillors. Trebles all-round!

• £3.1m on HQ’s furniture is “value for money” in Croydon
• Leaks in £140m council offices cause more problems for Fisher
• Road outside £140m council offices relaid twice in four months
• Council approves another £420,000 spend on Fisher’s Folly
• Well, Mike Fisher: How much are you spending on council HQ?
• £140 million: the cost of our council’s secrecy and vanity

Coming to Croydon

• Fairtrade Film night, Antenna Cafe, Haynes Lane, Feb 27
• Fairtrade event, Upper Norwood Library, Mar 1
• Coulsdon and Purley Debating Society, Mar 3
• Patchwork and quilting workshop, Upper Norwood Library, Mar 3
• Fairtrade stall at Food Market, Haynes Lane, Mar 8
• Upper Norwood Library Book Club, Mar 15
• Norwood Society talk, Upper Norwood Library, Mar 20
• South Norwood Lakes Playground group workshop, Mar 25
• Croydon Half-marathon, Mar 30
• Crystal Palace Overground Festival, June 26-29

Inside Croydon: Croydon’s only independent news source, based in the heart of the borough: 516,649 page views (Jan-Dec 2013)

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