‘It’s like we’re some kind of grotesque human sacrifice’. KEN LEE, our Town Hall reporter, on how ‘deleting’ more than 400 council posts already this year just was not enough for the Whitehall suits
There soon will be hardly any council staff left at this rate
Staff consultations are due to begin next week to cut a further 130 council jobs, “at least”, according to sources within Fisher’s Folly.
That’s on top of the 400-plus council posts already “deleted” this year at the bankrupted council.
The move by interim chief executive Katherine Kerswell comes as Labour-controlled Croydon tries to plug a £66million hole in this year’s budget – £36million of which is attributable to profits and loan interest from loss-making house-builder Brick by Brick which remains unpaid.
These further cuts will come as a devastating blow to what’s left of the council’s staff, including many frontline staff who have survived having to work through two covid lockdowns this year and were already adjusting to the earlier “reorganisation”.
The six-week consultation process will run through the Christmas period, until January 29.
Katherine Kerswell: running a staff survey, while starting a consultation on more cuts
“Morale’s at rock-bottom right now,” one council staffer told Inside Croydon.
“Some people have been working here, not on sky-high wages, for 20 or 30 years. They’ve endured years of cut-backs already, but this has been a terrible year, the worst ever. Now they have to go through Christmas not really knowing whether they will have any job at all next year.
“We really have been treated like shit by senior management.”
Another council staffer spoke about how they feel “like we’re some form of grotesque human sacrifice”, with the additional jobs being cut “to appease the officials from Whitehall, just as Kerswell and the executive directors submit their application for a bail-out loan”.
The council worker said, “Kerswell says she wants to listen to us. They’re running another staff survey. But every time, their solution is the same: cut workers’ jobs, while the exec directors, including the very people responsible for the mess, continue to draw down their huge salaries.
“It has been noticed that while there is a recruitment freeze across the board at the council, Katherine Kerswell still managed to recruit another executive to help her to sign off on the cuts. It makes me sick.”
As Inside Croydon reported earlier this week, when the outline “renewal plans” for cuts were released, some staff expressed genuine fears that even within the council’s statutory services – those which it has to provide by law – such as adult social services, children’s services and the elderly, staffing levels will be so reduced that “mistakes will be made”.
Read more: Council forced to declare itself bankrupt
Read more: Officials to investigate possible wrong-doing at council
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We were told at Friday’s briefing that apparently, according to the condescending Kermit… sorry Kerswell, the pay-off received by the imbecile Negreedy is nowhere near the figure quoted in the BIG BAD insidecroydon. It’s a lot lower but nothing can be done about the recovering the money.
Also mentioned was a pay cut for the senior management at Croydon, but the same old rubbish was spouted about attracting the best talent to Croydon so they cannot change the salaries…
There are those who do the walk, and those who ably talk the talk and seem to be doing the walk.
It will take a clear-sighted CeO and Leader, who can identify the council teams that do the walk, and the ones that mostly talk (or write) the talk.
It will take a very brave CeO and Leader to ensure that the staff cuts fall in the latter category.
Even braver, to reduce the number / pay of top paid senior officers. The over £100k club.
But, even more seriously, 400 plus 130 staff to be cut? That’s not cutting any remaining fat.
It must wipe out the council’s ability to manage most functions.
As to the budgets allocated to mending the footways and roads, tree management, children’s play areas, park maintenance, street sweeping etc etc, these are going to be more than decimated.
Maybe Health and Care functions including social and children’s services should be taken away from local authorities and made the responsibility of the NHS ?
But that would probably cost the tax payer more.
Local authorities remain the place where many of society’s needs are met, and problems solved. Well-managed, they can do all of this to a high standard, but need enough money to do so.