The latest golden goodbye for a departing council CEO, the terrible state of even new flats around central Croydon, Westfield and the Allders kiosks, and what looks like the hot ticket for Christmas entertainment – all get discussed on our latest Croydon Insider podcast
In our latest episode of the Croydon Insider, our panel of Inside Croydon readers delve behind the headlines to look at the news that matters to you.
Top of the agenda in this programme is the £50,000 of public money handed to the departing chief executive, Katherine Kerswell, so she does not have to work her three-month contractual notice period.
Our readers’ panel this episode comprises someone who works in HR, a former Croydon councillor and someone who has worked in youth services in the borough – but trying to get to the bottom of whether Kerswell was forced out and given a golden goodbye by Mayor Jason Perry raises more questions about the way the council is being run.
“A continuation of the chaos,” was how it is described by one panel member, Anya Destiney.
Brian Finegan, a former councillor for Woodside ward, takes a sympathetic view of Kerswell’s time in Croydon, where the debt was £1.4billion when she arrived and was £1.4billion when she left, after three Section 114 notices of effective bankruptcy.
Finegan believes Kerswell’s task was “impossible”.
“There is no real way out of this… without selling off every asset and closing down every last non-statutory service,” Finegan says, and airs his fear that the government-appointed Commissioners intend to conduct a “scorched earth” policy on what remains of Croydon’s services.
HR specialist Austen Cooper describes as “bizarre” the circumstances surrounding Kerswell’s abrupt departure. “She left in a hurry with a sum of money,” he says.
“It doesn’t look good.”
Also in our news podcast, our guests talk about the work of the South Norwood Community Kitchen, they flag up this Christmas’s hot ticket – My Fair Lady by Theatre Workshop Coulsdon – and we get the first review of the Allders kiosks.
And there’s more discussion on Westfield and the state of Croydon town centre.
The Croydon Insider podcast is premium content for our paying subscribers on Patreon. This episode, and all our audio archive, is available on Inside Croydon’s Spotify page by clicking here
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Can we pay £50,000.and get rid of Perry as well, he is just a waste of space, all he does is like having his picture taken
That’s unfair, Simon. Perry likes accepting freebies, too, especially cake.
Anything else he can eat… he sure likes freebies and jumping the queue.
I have been in sales for over 50 years and everyone I know that have failed to achieve the minimum of agreed target had been FIRED without compensation. Why a Senior Council constantly being rewarded????.
On the other hand Kerswell might have done addition damage should she still be CEO but NO PAY OFF FOR FAILURE!!!!!!
I am no fan of Kerswell but, however unpalatable, the Council should meet its legal obligations. The Joint Negotiating Handbooks offer guidance on Chief Executive’s pay and suggest a minimum period for a payment in lieu of notice of three months in the contract. Assuming Croydon complied, the choice was between paying it out and going to an employment tribunal. So, to pay or not to pay? Neither are a very good look!
Kerswell resigned, we were told. She was not sacked.
Therefore there was no legal requirement to pay her for her notice period. She could have worked her three months’ notice.
Hence £50,000 for *not* working is a pay-off.
Either Kerswell wanted out straightaway and Perry foolishly agreed to her demand or he or the Commissioners responded to her resignation with a Cromwellian “You have sat too long here for any good you have been doing. Depart, I say, and let us have done with you. In the name of God, go.”
Which one was it Jason?