Now even once loyal, £1,000-a-day execs are publicly voicing criticism of Croydon’s former CEO. By STEVEN DOWNES
Katherine Kerswell’s abrupt exit as Croydon’s £204,000 per year chief executive was no surprise to someone who, until just a couple of months ago, was one of the more experienced members of the council’s leadership team.
Kerswell’s departure follows “failed leadership over the last few years”, according to Huw Rhys Lewis BSc, BArch, MSc, MRIBA, MAPM, MRICS, who until three months ago was the council’s interim director of commercial investment and capital – ultimately responsible for flogging off the borough’s assets, a role he had filled for almost two years.
Lewis is understood to have been paid close to £1,000 per day during his time in Croydon. He was among a string of interims appointed by the chief executive under her delegated powers, but in July he left his role almost as abruptly as Kerswell quit her own. Lewis’s departure came very soon after it was announced that government-appointed Commissioners were going to be arriving at Fisher’s Folly to take a long, hard look at the omnishambles council and its £1.4billion debt.
Lewis appears to have taken retirement after leaving Croydon, now describing himself as a “retired managing director”. He certainly won’t be receiving many offers of council work from timorous civic leaders if they read the broadside he has fired at his former bosses, Kerswell and failed Mayor Jason Perry, on his LinkedIn profile last week.
Erased: there’s no trace of his time at Croydon on Huw Rhys Lewis’s LinkedIn profile
It is uncommonly rare for senior civic servants ever to speak out, even when no longer in post. So Lewis’s little social media outburst has caused something of a stir among former colleagues at the council offices, and a fair amount of hilarity, too, according to insiders.
Responding to a two-faced tribute to Kerswell from Mayor Perry, Lewis wrote: “Not surprised since commissioners are in Croydon following failed leadership over the last few years and no reduction in the council overall debt position of £1.4b[illion],” Lewis wrote.
“Time for new leadership.”
Lewis has erased all reference to his time at Croydon Council from his LinkedIn profile, indicative of his discomfort during his time working at Fisher’s Folly, or the reputational damage any association with the dysfunctional council might have.
His reference to Kerswell and Perry’s failure to “fix the finances”, with “no reduction” to the £1.4billion debt, will sting the Tory Mayor and what’s left of the Conservatives in Croydon, as they have just begun a social media campaign in which they dissemble and lie over the council’s financial position.
And Lewis’s reservations about the council leadership will be just another blow to his former boss, Kerswell.
Broadside: Huw Rhys Lewis’s comments posted last week
The ex-exec’s comment echoes those made by the then local government minister, Jim McMahon, in June when he was preparing the ground for the Commissioners and referred to the final report from the “improvement” panel when he said, “the council’s financial position is deteriorating rapidly and the report documents serious concerns particularly on the council’s ability to improve, on some aspects of leadership and on use of resources”.
Lewis and Kerswell are among seven senior council executives to have left or announced plans to leave Croydon in the weeks since the appointment of Commissioners was confirmed.
Last week, Mayor Perry was forced to persuade Elaine Jackson, Kerswell’s assistant CEO, to postpone her own retirement plans in order to provide cover for her erstwhile boss, who Mayor Perry is paying £50,000 so that she does not work her three-month notice period.
Perry has so far ignored all calls for his own resignation.
Local elections in Croydon, including for the executive Mayor, are due to be held on May 7 next year.
Read more: The Kerswell Affair: Croydon is worse off after CEO’s five years
Read more: When’s a pay-off not a pay-off? When it’s 50 grand in Croydon
Read more: Auditors issue Perry with warning over ‘unsustainable’ finances
Read more: Council’s agency staff bill includes £726 per hour consultant
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So what use have those Commissioners been??? Have they initiated any cost-cutting/efficiencies?
Kerswell’s gone.
With fifty grand of our council tax in her Gucci handbag
You sure it’s Gucci? She always seemed more a Sainsbury’s Bag For Life type.
Well she did appoint him. Presumably he thinks that was something she got right yet many would consider that he appears too full of his own importance.And that is being polite.
Can someone list one thing this bloated bag of warm air, Hue Lewis, has done for this borough. He’s happy to be paid for seemingly doing fuck all – then sends off critical messages on social media. He can fuck right off. Nobody likes a failed architect.