CROYDON IN CRISIS: Louis Carserides is a third councillor forced to alter their register of interests after questioning from Inside Croydon, as the long-time aide of MP Steve Reed quits his government job.
EXCLUSIVE by STEVEN DOWNES
Late to update: former DEFRA SPAD Louis Carserides
An Inside Croydon investigation has uncovered a third Croydon councillor who has broken the Town Hall’s Code of Conduct by failing to update their register of interests promptly.
In this latest case, the councillor had started and quit a new day job before any council officials had even noticed, without any apparent admonishment from those responsible, such as the Monitoring Officer whose job includes maintaining standards at the cash-strapped council.
It was only late yesterday afternoon that Louis Carserides, the Labour councillor for South Norwood, managed to update his register of interests to reflect his current status (which is unemployed). But that was only after Inside Croydon had raised questions with the council’s senior legal official, Stephen Lawrence-Orumwense, and with Carserides himself.
For six months, since July last year – just after the General Election – Carserides had been a special adviser working at the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs for the Secretary of State, Steve Reed OBE, the MP for Streatham and Croydon North.
For some unexplained reason, letting the water companies continue polluting our waterways, lumping inheritance tax on Jeremy Clarkson and land-owning farmers, and having to cope with mountains of bullshit had somehow quickly lost its allure for Carserides.
Carserides appears to have left his job at DEFRA around the turn of the year.
Long-time aide: Carserides had worked for MP Steve Reed in various capacities since 2018
Not that his SPAD status ever made it on to Carserides’s register of interest at the council, since until yesterday it was still showing that he worked as a senior researcher in MP Reed’s parliamentary office.
Carserides has worked for Reed in some capacity or another since 2018, so his decision to move on, without immediately having another job to go to, has seen some eyebrows raised among his councillor colleagues.
Carserides has been councillor for South Norwood since a by-election in May 2021 – his selection for the ward vacancy supported at the time by the local MP, Reed.
Carserides is the third Croydon councillor that iC has discovered to be breaking the rules which are supposed to ensure public scrutiny, transparency and honesty.
Last month, we reported how Conservative council cabinet member Scott Roche had not updated his record for two years, leaving it providing false and misleading information.
Carserides and Roche both managed to update their personal LinkedIn profiles long before they got around to amending their official council register of interest. But unlike the council record, LinkedIn is not a legal requirement.
All councillors are required by law, under Section 30 of the Localism Act 2011, to keep their register of interests up to date.
As usual with Croydon Council, no disciplinary action appears to have been taken in any of the cases.
Catherine Wilson, the Labour councillor who is supposed to chair the ethics committee at the dysfunctional council, has also refused to answer questions about her lack of action over the cases of Fraser, Roche and now Carserides (there may yet be others…).
Why does any of this matter?
Croydon Council is a basket-case local authority in large part because it has failed to get the basics right, like keeping accurate and up-to-date records.
No action: Stephen Lawrence-Orumwense does not appear able to keep the register of interests up to date
There is a mechanism within the council for keeping a check on councillors’ (and council staff’s) register of interests, a responsibility that falls to the Monitoring Officer, the council’s most senior lawyer, who is Lawrence-Orumwense.
It was the failure to keep proper checks and balances in place, and to insist on such matters, that contributed to the council’s tailspin into effective bankruptcy in 2020. But as the examples of the councillors’ inaccurate register demonstrate, even on such a routine matter, those checks are not taking place.
When asked, the council falls back on its routine explanation that it is the responsibility of councillors, “… to update their register of interests within 28 days of becoming aware of any new interest or of a change to a registered interest”.
Clearly, this is not happening, often for months at a time.
This ought to be even more troubling since, as a council spokesperson repeated this week, “At every formal council meeting that is held with councillors, they are asked if they need to update their declaration.”
Again, this is clearly not working. “Thirsty” Fraser went the best part of the year without one mention of his new planning job at Hounslow Council as a declaration of interest, even when attending planning committees.
It could be worse. Much, much worse. Because if £150,000 per year council lawyer Lawrence-Orumwense and his legal team are missing this kind of routine stuff, what else are they failing to keep a check on, too?
Read more: #TheLabourFiles: MP Reed, Evans and the Croydon connection
Read more: ‘No records’ after council hired Starmer ally to advise leader
Read more: #PennReport wanted police probe into possible misconduct
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Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? Intus Croydon!
Res ipsa loquitur!
You wot?
Qui in potestate sunt, debet esse reus!
That’s enough dead language comments, Ed.
Nonne Latine in schola discis?
Correct. Dropped it after the Lower IV
Like AA and WWF, SPAD is an over-used acronym, but perhaps there really is a link between SPecial ADvisors and Signals Passed At Danger, especially as some of these charlatans are riding on both the Parliamentary AND Local Government gravy trains ?!
Seems a bit unusal for one of Reed’s in people to simply quit a nice little sinecure without having something immeaditely to fall straight into. The casual attitude to record keeping and good practice seems to be ingrained into the negligent Croydon political culture. Only financial penalties will keep the arrogant political class in line and this is the way to wake them from their negligence, but within this particular story is there more to meet the eye?
Did he jump or was he pushed?
Whatever red tape Louis has not abided to/by is a small issue, he has been a very helpful Councillor for the people of South Norwood, and that is the most important part of his job, which is to look after the people who he represents.
Maybe Louis was a thorn in the Councils’ side.
In my opinion, Louis has been a great help to the people of South Norwood.
The sense of entitlement inherent in the suggestion that “the rules” are for other people is what saw Labour bankrupt this borough.
Carserides broke the law. Yet he worked at Westminster, among the law-makers.
It may be that your view of Carserides as a diligent ward councillor might be at odds with others who live in the area.
Whether he’s a diligent ward councillor or not is pretty irrelevant I’d have thought. The rules require councillors to publish their interests for very good reasons, otherwise you end up with people taking money from companies and others who want decisions made in their favour on the basis that they are unlikely to get caught. I’m not for one second suggesting that anyone has done this in this case or any other that IC have covered. My guess is simple lack of time and not prioritising the register highly enough is the cause of this.
Oh by the way, I wish I knew Ottoman Turkish so I could have shown off like the Latin quoters above.