CROYDON IN CRISIS: ‘Sinister’ and ‘pathetic’ are how some council figures have described the council’s internet ban on this website. A FoI request has unearthed details of how the £204,000 pa CEO has been spending her time pursuing her own personal whims. EXCLUSIVE By STEVEN DOWNES
While Croydon’s finances were “runaway” and out of control, and while the government was bailing out her council with a £136million loan, Katherine Kerswell, the council’s chief exec, was spending her valuable time ordering IT staff to block their colleagues from reading Inside Croydon on their work computers.
Since then, Croydon Council has broken the law in trying to cover-up and delay the release of documents that confirm that it was Kerswell who ordered a council-wide block on access to this website.
But this week, reluctantly, they finally provided an official answer to a resident’s request for the correspondence which led to possibly the most paranoid act yet of an increasingly secretive and anti-democratic local authority.
Emails between Kerswell and Ian Golland, the council’s “director of digital and resident access”, show the CEO chasing up a previous request to “blocking access to the Inside Croydon website and email address”.
Busy boss: CEO Katherine Kerswell’s focus was on Inside Croydon when she had council’s finances to consider
Sources inside the council told us in March that they had encountered this information block.
Anyone seeking to use an in-house council computer received the following message when they tapped in the Inside Croydon url to their browser:
“This site has been blocked in accordance with the Croydon Council Acceptable Use Policy as it may be inappropriate for business use.”
A brief survey of staff’s browser access to other parts of the World Wide Web suggests that there have been no restrictions placed on other sites. “We can still access quality news sites such as The S*n,” one of Kerswell’s demoralised staff said.
Council employees reacted with “utter disbelief” that senior management would resort to such an approach, spending council money and time to achieve their goal. One Katharine Street source described it as “sinister”. Another called it “pathetic”.
“It shows that it is not only the finances that are out control at Kerswell’s council,” said a Town Hall source. “This is an outright assault against freedom of speech, and senior council staff have taken this decision without any reference to the borough’s elected representatives.”
Some elected councillors were unaware of any ban on Inside Croydon. Until, that is, they tried to send an email to this website, and found that that was blocked, too.
“A custom mail flow rule created by an admin… has blocked your message,” is the notification received by councillors using their council email accounts, confirming that this is not an accident or “glitch”, but a deliberate action taken by officials at Fisher’s Folly.
“Sending to inside.croydon@btinternet.com is blocked.”
Blocked: the automatic message Croydon Council staff receive should they commit the thought crime of trying to access this website
But as with most things Kerswell and her lackeys try to do, their block on Inside Croydon was half-arsed, ineffectual and counter-productive.
“We can still access your Facebook, Bluesky and Spotify,” one staffer told us.
In the context of the multi-million-pound problems confronting the council, that Kerswell can find time in her busy schedule to bother about where her staff get their information seems an extraordinarily bad error of judgement. And waste of her time and the public’s money.
Kerswell is now paid £204,000 per year.
Following our previous report about the online block, one loyal reader submitted a Freedom of Information request. That was on April 23.
“Please provide a copy of the instruction to the council’s IT team or external partner requesting the blocking of Inside Croydon,” they wrote.
“Please identify all emails sent or received by Katherine Kerswell CEO since 1st January 2025 where ‘Inside Croydon’ is mentioned. This should be achieved through a simple e-Discovery exercise.”
IC, I see: correspondence provided by the council shows how £204,000 per year CEO Katherine Kerswell has been spending her valuable time
Simple for some, maybe…
Under the law, public bodies such as Croydon Council have a duty to respond to FoI requests inside 20 working days.
Croydon failed to meet that deadline.
The resident duly challenged them over this, seeking an internal review (the necessary next stage, to ask the council to mark its own homework, before any escalation to the Information Commissioner).
Dragged kicking and screaming, the council finally delivered up a response of sorts this week – four weeks later than required by law. And even then, they failed to provide all the required correspondence.
The first document they offered up was an email from Kerswell to Golland, cc’d to one of the CEO’s two assistants, Elaine Jackson (so wasting three executives’ time, not just her own).
It was sent at 9.19am on Thursday, March 20. Kerswell chose her email subject: “quick query”.
Technical issue: Paul Golland
“Hi Paul – hope all is well,” Kerswell wrote. “Please can you update me in regard to the
access for staff to IC website and email address?
“Many thanks, kk.”
This suggests that it was not the first time that Kerswell had been in contact with Golland on the matter.
So the reply she got from one of her top team may have been a bit of a surprise.
It was not until 3.07pm that Thursday that Golland, who probably has more important things to concern himself about than responding to the latest whim of the chief executive, got round to replying to Kerswell’s chase-up email.
“I am well thanking you, hope you are as well?” Golland wrote.
“Can I clarify what the IC website and email address are?”
Oh dear.
Kerswell wasted no time in rushing back a response.
At 3.11pm – four minutes after Golland sent his email – Kerswell was right back at him. For Kerswell, this must have been top priorty stuff. Far more important than closing libraries, or the change in service provider for Croydon’s carers, or Veolia taking back the bins contract.
Unlike Croydon’s failing finances, Kerswell was all over this.
Copying in Jackson (another on a generous six-figure salary) again, Kerswell wrote to Golland: “Hi sorry – its blocking access to the Inside Croydon website and their email address, kk.”
Glad we got that cleared up.
But is this really how we expect our council chief executive to be spending her valuable time when we are paying her about £122 per hour?
The resident who raised the FoI has the dogged determination and a no-nonsense approach which is difficult not to applaud. They have asked again for an internal review of the handling of the request.
“I don’t believe that you have published all the information relevant to my request and seek an internal review so that the full chain relating to the instruction and execution of that instruction can be made public.”
Might the determined questioner get their reply before the Commissioners arrive to take over the management of Fisher’s Folly?
Read more: Business as usual for Kerswell – but remember to bring a pen!
Read more: McMahon acts after serious concerns on ‘aspects of leadership’
Read more: Kerswell’s ‘Stabilisation Plan’ has failed before it is approved
Read more: CEO Negrini’s long campaign to shut down Inside Croydon
Read more: Councillors now ordered not to complain over missed bin collections
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Agreed. Probably the most dreadful thing to have happened in England since 1066!
That might be overstating things a tad, Jim.
But it’s good to see Kerswell knows what her priorities are.
The lady doth protest too much, methinks
Ok the worst thing since the Brexit mistake?
We used to discourage colleagues from installing games on company laptops, or letting their kids use them. The company provided the laptops and allowed colleagues to use them at home for work purposes.
Ordering supermarket deliveries was allowed in moderation, personal email services were acceptable, social media was not.
We didn’t mind if colleagues read professional press items on company laptops, or researched work-related topics on the internet.
Porn was frowned upon, even after working hours, and even if viewed by a director.
The Council has every right to lock out what it might describe as “time-wasting” sites. However, to block IC is clearly just petty. Any member of staff can read IC on their phone anyway or on their home computer or tablet.
Will Kerswell be disciplining any members of staff who discuss IC articles while at work after reading them at home or on the bus? I wish she put as much effort into running Croydon properly, instead of into hiding the shambles from the Council Tax payers.
She’s now got herself into a right old mess over this. Par for the course.
Preventing staff accessing Inside Croydon during work time might be justifiable. However, stopping councillors emailing the editor is completely unacceptable censorship.
Croydon council’s Acceptable Use Policy https://intranet.croydon.gov.uk/lbc-policy-manager/acceptableuse.html says “Users of the internet are not permitted to visit, interact with, or download content from websites that are offensive, obscene or contain indecent material such as pornography or violence. Users must not access, publish or download material which promotes hatred or discrimination …”.
The Mayor and CEO might find Inside Croydon offensive but it’s hardly obscene, indecent, hateful or discriminatory And how else are staff and councillors going to find out what’s actually going on?
The Policy also says “The internet is primarily available for business use. Personal use must be reasonable and appropriate, not impact on staff productivity or system performance or bring LBC into disrepute.”
It’s not iC that’s bringing the Council into disrepute but the people taking shed loads of our money. Thanks to this website, we know who they are, what they’re doing and how much they’re being paid
Inside Croydon has been the ultimate truth syrup and those clowns are mighty pissed off IC is more efficent, truthful, transparant and available to all than they are. IC is tye only channel i trust when looking into the runnings of the place. Shame the council are not the great Gods they pretend they think they are.
Only one question for that Kerswell person – when is she resigning?
Kerswell-Reid still lives in the twentieth century and this episode simply demonstrates that she is out of touch and deluded.
As she raves on about IC her colleagues just probably open their iphones and search for what has upset her today on their personal data.
The usual Senior Management type in Local Government greatest skill is the ability to have two faces when dealing with the most risible Boss and not displaying any reaction to their ridiculousness. Acutal management skill in providing good service is a secondary concern.
She really is wasting our money and has to go asap.
Instead of sitting at her desk all day writing emails and arranging meetings,
why doesn’t KK get out and about in Croydon and meet a few residents in the street and ask them about their concerns ? Too risky I guess or not in her job description.
Getting out and about and asking about our concerns is not her job – that’s what our elected reps are meant to be doing. The CEO takes her instructions from the cabinet and mayor. Not from us!
Porn ‘frowned upon’!!! You cannot be serious! What was, is, this extraordinary outfit??? We deserve, demand, answers.
I remember hearing from council staff that when Tony Newman was getting slated by Inside Croydon, he too issued some kind of ban or warning that staff should not be reading Inside Croydon, I presume in work time.
No. We reported it. It was not to staff, but he issued an edict that Labour councillors were not to talk to iC. The Labour group edict remained in place until this year – neither Hamida Ali nor Stuart King wanted to, or managed to, have it overturned.
And it made no difference whatsoever
Well I heard it from council staff. I remember you reporting about Labour councillors being told not to talk to Inside Croydon.
Until KK put in this block there was not a ban on accessing this news site, or local blogger as KK likes to refer to it. There is however as part of every employees T&C’s a restriction on speaking to any media persons, and that has always been the case and applies to the BBC as much as IC. Any employee found doing so could face disciplinary/dismissal as a result
And there was the time that Negrini assigned a member of council staff to “monitor” Inside Croydon’s reports. Obviously a vitally important job.
And a complete misuse of public resources and abuse of her position. Just like this “ban”.
It’s nothing more than suppression of the truth. The S*N but not IC? Perhaps she’ll be willing to answer some Freedom of Information requests from residents about how much time staff are spending on Facebook, The S*N, Spotify etc what the cost is to residents?
Like a banana republic
Some animals are more equal than others
Indeed. When the town hall clock strikes thirteen, we are all in big do do.
What a petty, spiteful thing to do. If she focused on actually improving Croydon, she might get better press. But it’s iC that time and time again exposed real issues in Croydon that she is paid to be on top of, but wasn’t.
Would we still have the interim Director of Planning with a questionable career history, who can’t plan his taxes, had iC not covered it?
Unlike Kerswell, iC stands up for the people of Croydon. Instead of preventing Council Staff from seeing her incompetence, she’s amplified it. Own goal KK.
Very kind, Jess. Thank you.
If Kerswell was smart (I know…) she would use the appointment of Commissioners as the right time to resign and handover. They will find that she was no more suitable for the job than she was at Kent but there would be public outcry if Croydon paid a ‘Negrini’ payout to a second CEO or if she gets a second ‘Kerswell’ payout of over 400 grand for (another?) failure as a CEO. If she continues to cling on desperately when everyone can see she doesn’t have the skill or experience to be in a CEO role she will find her career in tatters like Heather Cheebrough who stayed well beyond her welcome. Better to take control of the situation and quit with a little dignity, than desperately flog the dead horse that is her career in Croydon.