Croydon’s part-time Mayor’s misuse of public resources takes in photo-ops for his Tory mates, and political appointments paying six-figure salaries. By our Political Editor, WALTER CRONXITE
Jason Perry, Croydon’s self-important but impotent Mayor, continues to spend hundreds of thousands of pounds of tax-payers’ money on personal publicity stunts and political appointees.
Yesterday, despite supposedly being busy working on how to reduce the cash-strapped council’s debts from £1.7billion (it was “only” £1.4billion when he took charge of the Town Hall in 2022), part-time Perry found time in his schedule to go on a guided tour of Croydon’s run-down town centre with James Cleverly, the Essex MP who wants to be the Conservative Party’s candidate for London Mayor in 2028.
With Croydon and Sutton’s potty-mouthed Assembly Member Neil “Father Jack” Garratt in tow, there were, of course, multiple photo ops…
The three stooges go walkabout… : Mayor Perry: ‘You can get anything you need in Surrey Street, Sir James.’ Cleverly: ‘Rohypnol?’
How any of this serves the people of Croydon is a mystery.
“From new shops on Allders Parade to historic Surrey Street, there’s plenty to be proud of,” sub-literate Perry posted on his personal Twatter feed during work hours. Perry is paid £86,000 per year for doing the job of Croydon’s executive Mayor. Promoting Conservative Party colleagues was never in the job description.
Perry said that he and Cleverly discussed “investment, safer streets and our borough’s huge potential”, none of which the MP for Braintree, a backbencher in opposition, has any control over whatsoever.
So this “tour” was nothing other than a political stunt, staged for Cleverly by Mayor Perry, as he continues his second term increasingly using public resource to pursue his party’s own agenda.
The abuse of public resources may also explain the frequent sightings in and around Fisher’s Folly of Mario Creatura, the ex-councillor for Coulsdon Town who was a long-time aide to Gavin Barwell when he was MP for Croydon and later Chief of Staff to Prime Minister Theresa May.
Tory candidate: Mario Creatura, back at Croydon Council
It is more than seven years since Creatura worked in No10, though he still trades on his brief spell in charge of the PM’s Twatter account: “Former Downing Street Special Adviser”. His personal pursuit of political power saw him firmly rejected by the voters of Croydon Central in 2019, and then discarded by Conservative Party members in Surrey when he tried to get selected for a safe(r) Tory seat before the last General Election.
Moving his family home to Banstead was a bit of an own goal for Creatura, as he disqualified himself from standing for re-election as a Croydon councillor in May. But if anything, Creatura has been spending more time around the Croydon Council offices than he did when he was supposedly serving the people of Coulsdon.
Since he lost his council sinecure in May, Creatura has listed himself as being a self-employed “senior strategic adviser”. He’s never had anything resembling a proper job, having trousered salaries and fees, often paid for by tax-payers, for dispensing public relations “advice”. Creatura’s never managed to last more than a couple of years in any one position.
He’s currently hitched to another public relations firm, Woburn Associates, who farm out their new senior adviser as someone who “has more than a decade’s experience helping organisations navigate complex political environments, build influential relationships, manage reputation and turn strategic objectives into practical outcomes”. It’s a description which is hard to match with the realities of someone who depended on support from the fraudsters of the SPAC Nation cult church during his 2019 election campaign.
Last December, Creatura registered himself as the director of a company, Add Impact Advisory Ltd, alongside an old Croydon chum, Jonny Cope (a Tory councillor in Surrey), offering “management consultancy activities”.
Gone: head of propaganda Susie Rundle
But how any of that brings the unelectable Creatura back to the centre of Croydon Council remains unexplained. Neither Creatura, Woburn nor Add Impact appear to have received any payments from the council over the past few months. And Creatura is not known for doing voluntary work.
Council insiders note that 39-year-old Creatura worked on Perry’s re-election campaign, where he was responsible for the lurid social media messaging. More recently, Katharine Street sources note that he continues to operate a council email address, despite giving up his council seat almost six months ago. Creatura “seems to have become a pretty significant figure around Perry and his operation”, they say.
“For someone who no longer holds elected office, he appears remarkably close to the centre of things.”
Creatura’s long-time colleague in Barwell’s office and at No10 was Jason Cummings, who Perry has recently promoted and given a pay rise as one of his deputy mayors – despite Councillor Cummings being the cabinet member for finance whose mismanagement of the borough’s budgets saw the government send in Commissioners in July 2025.
Council sources suggest that the unelected Creatura has been involved around the council’s communications and appointments. “What authority does he actually have?” they ask.
“He seems to have a lot more access and control than opposition councillors.”
Under piss-poor Perry. the council’s management and comms has become ever more opaque, to the point of secretive. as if the administration is paranoid.
Secret: Stephen Gaskell
The appointment of Stephen Gaskell as the council’s interim assistant chief executive – Croydon’s third in nine months – was never announced publicly. The decision to recruit £1,000 per day Gaskell by-passed the cross-party appointments committee.
The revolving door at Fisher’s Folly has been spinning quicker than usual recently, with a couple of high-profile departures, too.
The council’s long-serving head of Perry propaganda, Susie Rundle, once a reporter at the Sadvertiser, has quit the council where she has worked for 10 years to take an assistant comms director role at Ealing.
And Helen Reeves, who has been Croydon’s “head of strategy and policy” since September 2023 (and therefore a Perry-picked appointee) has done such a bang-up job that she’s quit to go and work for the Greater London Authority.
Gone: Perry-appointee Helen Reeves
Which explains the latest advertisement offering a six-figure salary at the council for a “head of strategy and policy” – which many might think really ought to be a role carried out by the Mayor himself.
Applications closed last night for a job that is “hybrid” and pays up to £104,131 per year, “plus fantastic benefits”.
Perfect for a currently under-employed freelance spit-baller – like Creatura, perhaps?
The job ad said: “With a renewed focus on growth, regeneration, financial sustainability and delivering excellent services, we are looking for an exceptional strategic leader to help drive the next phase of our improvement.” So not Jason Perry then?
According to the ad: “You will occupy a pivotal role at the centre of the organisation…
This is a unique opportunity for a highly credible and politically astute leader who enjoys operating in complex environments and bringing people together behind a common purpose.”
Job for the boy?: is this latest political appointment at Fisher’s Folly been shaped to suit unemployed Creatura?
For their £2,000 per week working from home, the successful candidate will provide “expert advice on emerging issues, supporting the delivery of the Mayor’s priorities”. And they will also help “to ensure the organisation remains focused on achieving better outcomes for residents”. Which would make a change.
So that’s another £100,000 a year of public money to provide political advice to piss-poor Perry.
The Mayor already has one hand-picked political appointee in his office, Andrea Perry (no relation), his “community engagement manager” (yep, another non-job) who he recruited in 2023. And as Inside Croydon reported last month, he has also been recruiting for someone to manage his office for him. As well as making Perry cups of tea and organising his paper clips, the Mayor’s office manager is expected to work “closely with the Mayor’s policy adviser”.
All in all, those jobs – office manager, community engagement manager and now head of strategy and policy – will see Council Tax-payers funding around £250,000 in salaries for the Tory Mayor’s political appointees – a huge public subsidy for Croydon Conservatives.
Trebles all-round!
Read more: Firm behind £60m Purley Pool project goes into administration
Read more: Fly-tips? It’s all your fault for reporting it, says Perry’s puppet
Read more: HR director’s suspension at Sutton raises serious questions
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I applied for this role. That said, I wanted to work for the people of Croydon which I guess puts me at a disadvantage
Did Croydon Council learn nothing form the Labour run council bankrupting the borough in 2020, mainly because Council leader Tony Newman bypassed the council and any scrutiny and ran things himself? The same seems to have happened with Piss-Poor Perry who is also bypassing the council (and the useless Government commissioners) to do everything for his own and his Tory mates’ benefit.
As we expected the Directly elected mayor thing is not “a bit less shit” but a whole lot more shit !
Your article states the abuse of public resources, this is a very important term. Whilst unrelated to this article I feel that all job roles and departments at this council need a serious audit to ensure the public purse is not being abused. The ratio of management and supervisors to staff needs to be revised and freshly audited. Further savings may then become very clear and achievable.
Perry has reached the point of true desperation. Perhaps Creatura has been called up to make himself feel better by seeing what a true political failure looks like, but Perry must be starting to realise he is now looking it into a mirror as he staggers on with no other purpose than picking up the rewards of a sinecure and dispensing goodies to mates.
‘”….. there’s plenty to be proud of,” sub-literate Perry posted on his personal Twatter feed.’
In my opinion that’s a very optimistic and somewhat misleading statement by Perry and just about sums up Perry’s care for Croydon. Everybody I’ve spoken to about Croydon either inside or outside the borough are ashamed about what it has become. The only thing which has any meaning in this place is the community, which is just about holding together as the infrastructure continuously falls apart.
Section 2 of the Local Government Act 1986 explicitly bans local authorities from publishing any material that appears designed to affect public support for a political party.
If we had a proper Opposition in Katharine Street instead of docile dumb-clucks, Perry wouldn’t get away with pulling these publicity stunts for himself and the rest of the Tory party with our money, aka “propaganda on the rates”
You are at it again, Throwing mud at politicians you don’t like. It’s the last thing that we, the British Public, care about. Stick to the facts and give your ego a rest.
It’s called holding them to account.
It is your money that they are spending on themselves.
“From new shops on Allders Parade to historic Surrey Street, there’s plenty to be proud of”
If he is talking about the town centre. Vue, Slug and Lettuce, Mecca Bingo and Foot Asylum have recently closed down. There are 3 Greggs, 3 Sainsburys, 2 Starbucks, 3 Mcdonalds, 2 Lidls, 2 burger kings, endless pound shops, charity , casinos and vape shops all within 200 metres of each other. Littered with rubbish and crime….this mayor is truly deluded.
This is a good variety of shops, it is a great start. I would like to see another KFC in the town centre.
Morleys, surely?