EXCLUSIVE: Addiscombe West councillor Clive Fraser has been caught breaking the rules yet again. By KEN LEE, Town Hall reporter

Job clot: ‘Thirsty’ Clive Fraser

Clive Fraser, one of Croydon’s most experienced councillors and the deputy chair of the council’s planning committee, went almost nine months without declaring that he is employed by another London borough… in their planning department.

All councillors are required to keep their register of interests up to date under Section 30 of the Localism Act 2011, and the council’s own code of conduct.

Croydon Council’s records show that “Thirsty” Fraser never made any declarations of interest at any of the meetings he has attended this year – including planning meetings.

And Fraser’s register was only updated on the day after Inside Croydon had submitted a formal inquiry with the council propaganda department to ask why the Labour councillor for Addiscombe West had not amended his declaration of interests for more than two years.

“Clive’s been Labour group chief whip and on the ethics committee, so he really ought to know what the rules are,” said one Katharine Street source.

But Fraser has a well-earned reputation for ignoring the rules, and the law.

Fraser decided not to bother informing the police in 2019 when he was Tony Newman’s “enforcer” as chief whip and discovered that one of his Labour councillor colleagues, Niro Sirisena, had committed a violent sexual assault of a young woman.

Whoops: but Clive Fraser still has his X account listed on the council website

And in 2021, Fraser was implicated in the illegal hacking of this website, when he received thousands of documents stolen in a cyberattack, yet never handed over the material to the police nor informed the Information Commissioner.

More recently, Fraser has had his Twitter/X account suspended. “X suspends accounts which violate the X Rules,” is the message seen by anyone who tries to visit Fraser’s account. Goodness only knows what damage he’s been causing online. Fraser did nothing to bring that entry up to date on his council profile page.

Before taking retirement, Fraser worked for more than a decade as a planning team leader at Lambeth Council. Fraser worked at Lambeth around the same time that Steve Reed was council leader there. Reed, of course, is now a minister in Keir Starmer’s government, having been MP for Croydon North since 2012.

Now reduced to being a backbench councillor, Fraser pockets £11,691.96 per year in allowances from Croydon.

A spokesperson for Hounslow Council this week told Inside Croydon, “Clive started in his permanent role (Senior Policy and Infrastructure Planner) at Hounslow Council on April 18, 2024.”

Nothing to declare: how Fraser’s declaration looked until last Thursday

Croydon Council’s website for Fraser’s register of interests says it was updated on Friday, December 6, 2024, 11.31am – some 33 weeks after he started his Hounslow job.

The job, when advertised by Hounslow in March, came with a salary of up to £46,857.

Inside Croydon had submitted its urgent media inquiry to Croydon Council on Thursday, December 5.

After three reminders, the Croydon Council press office got round to responding on Monday (December 9), with a statement: “All councillors were required to complete a new register of interests form following the last borough council election in May 2022.

“Amendments on the councillors’ register of interests, which is published on the council website, are published when updates are received from councillors… The date of last update for each councillor is published on the website.

Hey presto!: and how it was transformed the day after questions were being asked

“Members’ code of conduct requires members to update their register of interests within 28 days of becoming aware of any new interest or of a change to a registered interest. They are regularly reminded to submit any updates.

“Councillors are asked to declare any interests based on a meeting agenda, which are recorded in the meeting’s minutes.”

It’s possible Fraser could be subject to a formal complaint to the council’s ethics committee – this is the new, more transparent, better managed, post-2020 council after all, as senior figures never tire of telling us. Any Croydon resident is able to raise a complaint with the ethics committee by writing to the Monitoring Officer, the council’s most senior lawyer.

And there may yet be calls on Fraser’s boss at the Town Hall, Stuart King, the leader of the Labour group, to replace Fraser on the planning committee, where the potential for conflicts between the interests of Hounslow, who pay Fraser’s wages, and Croydon, whose residents’ interests he was elected to represent, is legion.

“You’d expect better from a councillor as experienced as Clive,” another Town Hall source said today.

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