CROYDON IN CRISIS: There’s no shortage of money available at Fisher’s Folly when the borough’s floundering Jason Perry needs someone to hold his hand. By WALTER CRONXITE, political editor
‘Depth of political incompetence’: £82,000 per year Jason Perry needs help
Cash-strapped Croydon Council might not have enough cash to pay for even basic services for the public, but money is no object when it comes to recruiting a full-time, expert political adviser to assist the borough’s part-time Tory Mayor Jason Perry.
The job ad was posted just before Christmas for a “head of strategy and policy” on nearly £100,000.
The role appears to be to replace Helen Reeves, who has held the post only since last September, but is on secondment from the Local Government Association. Reeves’ previous jobs have included being an adviser to Lib Peck when she was leader of Lambeth Council in the period immediately after Steve Reed moved on to bigger and better things.
Given that Perry was noted in the latest edition of Private Eye for the “depth of his political incompetence”, whoever replaces Reeves will certainly be earning their money. Although no amount of sage political advice will be able to prevent the £82,000 per year Mayor lying to Town Hall meetings, as he has been caught doing in the past.
David Courcoux, Reeves’ current boss and the “director of policy, programmes and performance” at Croydon Council, got round to posting a little message about the vacancy on his social media last week.
He wrote: “Fancy a local government challenge for 2024?”
Hmmm. “A challenge”: that’s one way of describing it.
Courcoux has enjoyed a meteoric rise in the past three years, since he was basically in charge of the admin in Hamida Ali’s leader’s office in the immediate aftermath of dramatic fall from grace of her boss, Tony Newman. Now, Courcoux is among five directors working in Fisher’s Folly to assistant chief executive Elaine Jackson (another appointee courtesy of the LGA).
Easily excited: council director David Courcoux
According to the Courcoux’s council job ad, the head of strategy and policy “is an exciting cross-council role responsible for a portfolio of corporate functions”.
The gormless councilspeak goes on for a few more paragraphs, but it is clear that whoever gets the role is basically there to hold the hand of piss-poor Perry and Katherine Kerswell, the council’s increasingly gaffe-prone chief executive.
“Working closely with the council’s political and corporate leadership,” says the job ad, the head of strategy and policy will inform and shape effective decision making and support the delivery of the Mayor’s business plan and the council’s wider improvement journey.” Yes, that’s right: it’s a “journey”.
And apparently, “this will be a varied role with the opportunity to make a real impact”. So whoever gets the job will need to be able to make tea as well as coffee, but they will have the scope to bring in packets of biscuits from Lidl on Church Street if they want to score bonus points for initiative.
That this is really a political appointment, to see the floundering Tory Mayor through the last two years of his term is underscored when the ad says that they are seeking someone “significant experience working in a political environment and providing support and advice to elected members [they mean councillors] and senior officers [they mean council employees] and a strong understanding of the local government policy and equality landscape”.
It could well be that Perry and his bag-man, Councillor Jason Cummings, already have a Tory Party colleague in mind for the £89,732 to £95,296 cushty appointment. The smart money is that it won’t be Mario Creatura.
If you are a fully paid-up member of the Conservative Party, you’d better hurry. Closing date for applications is January 17. And while the ad doesn’t say it, given that Perry’s 15% Council Tax hike has confirmed that he is just a one-term Mayor, any successful applicant can expect to be moved on soon after the first Thursday in May, 2026.
Read more: Hat-trick heroes: Perry and Philp set an Eye ‘awards’ record
Read more: Investigation into housing scandal finds systemic failure and incompetence in council
Read more: After two years Perry claims credit for 4 TfL bus shelters
Read more: Perry struggles with numbers to offer us: Pay More, Get Less
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ROTTEN BOROUGH AWARDS: In January 2024, Croydon was named among the country’s rottenest boroughs for a SEVENTH successive year in the annual round-up of civic cock-ups in Private Eye magazine
Words fail me .
As part of a number of savings the council should live within its means and recruit younger officers who can make their name in Croydon while on lower salaries and then move on.
When Croydon residents are struggling to pay the second highest council tax in London it is tragic that the council is so extravagant.
One of those corporate meetings was hosting military veterans on Remembrance Day. That got scrapped. And I won’t be voting tory ever again.