CROYDON COMMENTARY: The announcement of the departure from the council of its long-standing planning director has been widely welcomed by many residents. But as WAYNE MULLEN explains, after his four-year battle with the council over planners’ misconduct, some of those responsible remain in office – including the chief exec and Mayor Perry
Going but not forgotten: planning director Heather Cheesbrough came to symbolise the distrust between the council elite and the residents who pay their salaries
No homeowner should be forced to spend thousands, as I did, to protect their home from a development that would use part of their own property, remove their privacy and compromise their safety.
Yet Heather Cheesbrough spent thousands of pounds of tax-payers’ money on legal fees for a development that her own planning team’s emails showed they knew to be harmful and that was in breach of the council’s own policies.
Two years ago, in some detail, Inside Croydon covered the saga, which had been doggedly pursued by planning expert Steve Whiteside, here: Home owner’s victory after four-year battle with planners
Including the hundreds of hours of council staff’s time across multiple departments, all told this one development will have cost the taxpayer six figures – all money that was wasted.
During Cheesbrough’s time as Croydon’s director of planning and sustainable regeneration, my situation will have been replicated multiple times. How much has she cost the taxpayer in total by trying to push through harmful developments over those 10 years? And how many of those managed to get through?
I’m not against development (I grew up in social housing in Croydon) but policy and law exist for a reason. At various points the council had to apologise for the actions of Cheesbrough, Nicola Townsend (the chief planner) and Ross Gentry (a senior planning official) for various offences, including withholding documents and making misleading statements.
Block heads: a private developer’s proposed block of flats, housing for 19 people on the site that has only ever been a single household, while intruding on a neighbour’s own land, was backed all the way by council planners Cheesbrough, Townsend and Gentry
These people clearly believed they were above the law, and that they were not subject to the Nolan Principles.
In my view, none of them them should be holding public office.
Council chief executive Katherine Kerswell knew, and she did nothing.
On one occasion, when I filed a Stage Two complaint about the conduct of Heather Cheesbrough through the council’s formal complaints procedure, my complaint was handled by… Heather Cheesbrough. Her boss was not available to deal with it – Shifa Mustafa had been suspended from duty because of her part in the financial collapse of the council.
As chief executive, Kerswell’s tacit endorsement of the conduct of planning officers, and her failure to act, makes her equally culpable.
Cause for complaint: CEO Katherine Kerswell allowed Heather Cheesbrough to ‘mark her own homework’ over a serious Stage Two complaint
It’s been an abject failure of leadership. No governance, no controls, no scrutiny, no ethics.
I wrote to both Kerswell and Mayor Jason Perry about what was going on – concealing documents, lying, ignoring FoI requests for a year and a half on basics like the height of the development, when their own documents revealed that they knew the development was harmful and so on. It wasn’t just my correspondence that Cheesbrough ignored: she “ghosted” an elected councillor, and didn’t even bother to show up to an agreed appointment with the councillor.
I also remember the panic on councillors Chris Clark and Paul Scott’s faces when I told the planning committee that the developer was in breach of the Town and Country Planning Act by using a back-dated letter to serve notice.
Kerswell didn’t respond. She got solicitors to send me a threatening letter.
I started my career in central government. It was drummed into us that everything we did was subject to public and legal scrutiny, so we observed the letter of both policy and the law. To find that planners can mislead committees, ignore FoI requests, withhold documents, make statements that are untrue, and ignore law and mandatory policy, was a shock.
It’s much more than planning. When the likes of Heather Cheebrough, Ross Gentry, former councillor Paul Scott and current councillor Chris Clark are prepared to dismiss residents’ rights and concerns and disregard policy and law, they are reducing public participation and eroding the democratic process.
Scott’s puppet: ‘Thirsty’ Chris Clark was the councillor who chaired the planning committee. He is now Labour’s lead on planning matters
But why did it take for the council to go bankrupt for Jo Negrini, Scott, Alison Butler et al to leave the council.
Inside Croydon had been realising concerns for years. Why are there still no internal controls?
If Cheesbrough is replaced, it should be with someone from outside of Croydon Council. I hope the first thing that they do is go through that department with a fine-tooth comb. Both Kerswell and Mayor Jason Perry are under notice of potential misconduct and misfeasance, so I hope they are prepared to step down too.
I served notice on Kerswell, Clark and Cheesbrough that that they had failed in the statutory duty to prevent harm (their own documents confirmed they knew the development would be “harmful”) and that if the development went ahead I would be filing claims against them personally.
Thank you, again, Inside Croydon and Steve Whiteside for holding them to account.
I have been told that Cheesbrough had been applying for other jobs for months before the announcement of her departure, for a “career break”, was leaked to Inside Croydon this week. I am not surprised no one wants to employ her. Her reputation is tainted – and entirely of her own making.
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What does Mr Perry have to say on this one?
He won’t know until someone writes it down for him to read aloud.
Perry should shove one of his family-made plastic soil vent pipes where the sun doesn’t shine and stick a pvc flanged pipe closer, also made in the family factory, in the other end.
What a dull, dreary, serial non-performer he is!!
How many Council homes could have been built with the money she’s wasted?
If the council had proposed sensible sympathetic development, in scale etc. Then people wouldn’t have fought them. But the planners in this town seem to want to just push stuff people don’t want.
It’s obviously a close cozy cabal of corrupt council co-workers who will keep schtum and say nothing now and just ride out this growing storm.
The fact that Cheesebrough has kept her job despite her inability to run and motivate staff in the planning department over many years and her toxic hobby, which clearly stimulated her, of niggling residents whom she clearly hated, is down to Katherine Kerswell. Its the job of the CE to put these things right.
Its been reported in IC that Cheesbrough resigned in 2021 and was persuaded to stay on. That’s not correct, Chessbrough left but offer of a job at the London Borough of Redbridge in 2021 was rescinded by Council Leaders after someone had looked into her track record at Croydon.
Cheesbrough came back, tail between legs, and Queen Numpty herself, Katherine Kerswell, offered her old job back.
Well done Kerswell – when are you resigning?
Major Perry. Are you listening? Will you now appoint an independent investigator into planning and members of the planning team and Councillors? Will residents who have so clearly been affected be allowed to submit their evidence directly to the investigator and will you take formal action – if necessary referral to the police and/or to their professional bodies – if an independent investigator finds evidence of misconduct?
We’re waiting.
Sadly, I can think of quite a few good reasons why Mayor Perry would not like to see an independent investigation (if such a thing could be found) into ‘planning and members of the planning team and Councillors?’ Some of them were raised almost five years ago!
https://insidecroydon.com/2020/05/30/objections-what-objections-opposition-what-opposition/
A timely reminder that when it comes to planning, Perry was, and still is, all mouth and no trousers
AI know Heather so well. Here’s her goodbye poem.
The Planner’s Folly
In Croydon’s halls where shadows play,
A planner walked, now gone away,
Heather Cheesbrough, a name once known,
In corridors where whispers moan.
With visions grand, she drew the lines,
Yet tangled plans, like twisted vines,
In schemes of growth, her mark was made,
But trust eroded, plans betrayed.
She promised parks and spaces green,
Yet urban sprawl’s the only scene.
Where once were hopes, now there’s despair,
A concrete jungle fills the air.
In tower blocks, she sees the prize,
A top, a middle, bottom—wise!
With concrete floors and glass so grand,
She says it’s quality in every strand.
Now bids farewell, she turns the page,
A chapter closed, a silent stage,
In memory’s vault, her legacy stays,
A cautionary tale of bygone days.
So here’s to Croydon, rise anew,
With lessons learned, and visions true,
For every planner, heed the call,
Integrity must guide us all.
Farewell to the Queen of Inappropriate Development
In Croydon’s halls, behind closed doors,
She spun her webs, she set her laws.
With glee she stamped, approved, and signed,
While locals begged, but she declined.
For years she reigned, her rule was clear—
Developers thrive, but not you, dear.
Tower blocks where gardens stood,
Concrete sprawled where green once could.
The voices rose, the protests swelled,
Yet still, her iron grip held.
Developers were all she saw,
While Croydon groaned beneath her law.
But time moves on, the tide must turn,
And now, at last, we watch her burn—
Not in flames, but in retreat,
A farewell speech, a last defeat.
The residents cheer, the air feels light,
Gone is the queen who dimmed their fight.
And though she leaves with purse in hand,
Her legacy is built in sand.
That’s enough AI poetry, Ed.
All our hard earned money to council tax bills goes to idiotic people like these. It’s really not funny.
Do you think, before she leaves us for good (??), that as the ‘officer’ responsible (??) Ms Cheesbrough might ensure that we can finally see the Council’s annual Infrastructure Funding Statement for 2023/24 on its website. This is an important document, which BY LAW should have been published by 31 December 2024!