EXCLUSIVE: Croydon’s £204,000 CEO is facing another crisis of her own creation, as her appointee as corporate director in charge of planning joins the growing exodus from the council. By STEVEN DOWNES
Nazyeya Hussain, the council official responsible for planning and ultimately for the regeneration of the town centre, has become the sixth senior director at Fisher’s Folly to quit the council in the past few months – many of them coinciding with the arrival of government-appointed Commissioners at the cash-strapped council.
Hussain has only been working in Croydon since last November, having been appointed as interim director of sustainable communities, regeneration and economic recovery by the council’s chief exec, Katherine Kerswell. Kerswell has used her delegated powers to make a series of high-paid interim appointments, without the need to refer to the cross-party council committee of elected councillors for approval. Few of Kerswell’s picks have proved to be successful.
Many interim directors are paid close to £1,000 per day, often through their private consultancy companies.
Distracted: Nazeya Hussain
Hussain joins the queue for the exits at Fisher’s Folly behind Elaine Jackson, Kerswell’s much depended-upon deputy CEO, Jane West, Croydon’s chief finance official, and “Interim Adam” Wilkinson, who lasted just a couple of months as the council’s top planning official until exposed by this website as having a less-than-optimal relationship with the tax man.
Then there was Huw Rhys Lewis BSc, BArch, MSc, MRIBA, MAPM, MRICS, who failed in his mission to dispose of much of the council’s property portfolio, and Karen Agbabiaka, the council’s head of highways and parking since November 2023.
Wilkinson and Agbabiaka had both worked in the directorate under Hussain’s control, and in the case of Agbabiaka, her exit was described by insiders as due to “a clash of personalities” with her immediate boss.
The news of Hussain’s imminent departure was shared with council staff in Kerswell’s weekly waffle on Friday.
Unlike the fond and warm farewell messages for the likes of Jackson and West, Kerswell’s note about Hussain, while including a few of the expected platitudes, was a little more brusque.
“A staffing update to let you all know that our interim corporate director of sustainable communities, regeneration and economic recovery, Nazyeya Hussain, will sadly be leaving toward the end of November,” Kerswell wrote.
“Naz has been a fantastic addition to Croydon, driving forward our growth plan and town centre regeneration.” That’ll be the six kiosks in Allders…
Droning: Croydon’s £204,000 per year CEO Katherine Kerswell
And Kerswell droned on: “Thanks to her for everything she has delivered…”, the CEO wasn’t able to actually identify anything that Hussain had “delivered”, but hey, “… and we wish her all the best in her new role as executive director of place and growth at Richmond and Wandsworth council.”
Hussain had long been suspected of being “distracted” while at Croydon, preoccupied with her non-executive director role at Solace, the Society of Local Authority Chief Executives and Senior Managers. And now it becomes apparent that for much of her time at Fisher’s Folly, Hussain has also been eyeing up better prospects elsewhere.
Council employees expressed “shock” at Hussain’s rapid departure, although she had failed to impress hard-working staff. One described Hussain as “nothing more than a saleswoman… I don’t think she was well-liked generally”.
The churn on the 7th floor at Fisher’s Folly represents something of a crisis for Kerswell, especially in Hussain’s directorate. Whoever replaces Hussain will be the third person in that role in less than a year (her predecessor, Nick Hibberd, left in January), and Croydon is already on to its third planning chief in barely six months, following the exit of the universally loathed Heather Cheesbrough (on an indefinite “career break”, apparently) and the bungled appointment of Wilkinson.
All this is happening as Croydon is still working on finalising a revised Local Plan, is waiting on a decision from the GLA over the massive Purley retirement home scheme, and is supposed to be getting the third (or is it fourth?) planning application from Westfield for regeneration of the Whitgift Centre.
“When it comes to looking out for the interests of the borough as a whole,” one Katharine Street source said today, “you can see why developers look at the council and say ‘the lights are on, but no one’s at home’.”
Read more: Now Kerswell’s deputy CEO joins the rush for council exits
Read more: Go West! Cash-strapped council’s finance chief is set to quit
Read more: £1,000 per day ‘Interim Adam’ was Kerswell’s personal pick
Read more: Council’s agency staff bill includes £726 per hour consultant
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