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Category Archives: Hayley Lewis
Council’s newsletter gives the finger to LGBT month
Croydon Council’s press office is staffed, we understand, by six people. One or two used to work at the Sadvertiser, so we’re hardly dealing with Pulitzer prize-winning journalism here. The budget for the department is somewhere north of £500,000 per … Continue reading
Posted in Croydon Council, Hayley Lewis, Nathan Elvery
Tagged Croydon Council, Hayley Lewis, LGBT Month, Nathan Elvery
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Snap! Croydon Tories use same leaflet graphics as council
They look very similar. Less than two months before the local elections, and now Croydon Council – which is supposed to be neutral in the political bickering – is issuing official literature, all paid for by your Council Tax, that … Continue reading
Croydon calls for Army help after they run out of sandbags
Croydon Council has called in the Army to help with the week-long battle against flood water in Purley and Kenley, after the borough ran out of sandbags, having claimed to have distributed 10,000 to properties in high-risk areas. In common … Continue reading
Posted in Croydon Council, Environment, Hayley Lewis, Kenley, Purley
Tagged army, Croydon, Croydon South, flooding, floods, Hayley Lewis, Kenley, London Borough of Croydon, Purley, South Croydon
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Leaks in £140m council offices cause more problems
Florid-faced Mike Fisher, the Conservative leader of Croydon Council, is likely to be more red-faced than usual at tonight’s Town Hall meeting, as it emerges that there is a leak in the roof of his flagship new council headquarters offices, … Continue reading
Council silent as HR chief Parkes heads for the exit
Croydon’s Council Tax-payers look to be facing another expensive six-figure pay-off, after an internal announcement yesterday confirmed that the borough’s human resources director, Pam Parkes, one of the council’s five most senior officers, is to leave with immediate effect. There … Continue reading
Trebles all round? Croydon return pot-less from awards
Four tables booked at a five-star West End hotel. Around 40 councillors and council staff attending. Something like £28,000 spent on a night’s gala dinner, booze and jollity. And not a single award won. That is the summary of this … Continue reading
Council takes four tables at awards – against Pickles’ advice
Around 40 Conservative councillors, senior Croydon Council officials and their chums will be attending the annual binge of champagne-swilling and back-slapping at a five-star West End hotel next month that is the Local Government Chronicle Awards, all at a cost … Continue reading
Council’s Ministry of Truth spends record amounts on staff
Hayley Lewis, the trained psychologist who Croydon employs as its “Head of customer communications and strategy”, once suggested that a council communications department is “an unnecessary burden”. How prescient. On her personal blog, Lewis added a convenient “?” to present … Continue reading
Why did Croydon CEO Jon Rouse take a £100k pay cut?
Amid all the hoopla of the £1 billion “Hammerfield” announcement this morning at Fairfield Halls, with the usual dollop of Boris buffoonery as the London Mayor proclaimed the marriage of the two property developers, there stood a figure who went … Continue reading
£248,000 CEO Rouse quits Croydon for Health Dept job
Just after 5pm today, proof positive came through that Croydon Council’s press office routinely dissembles, misleads and lies. Because that is when a press release was issued to confirm that Jon Rouse, Croydon Council’s £248,000 chief executive, had quit his … Continue reading
Council gets all a’Twitter about something called… democracy
A letter arrives at Inside Croydon Towers. It is addressed from Taberner House. What could it be? An invite to join Jon Rouse for cocktails on his return from his summer sojourn to Tuscany, perhaps? A substantial discount on our … Continue reading
Posted in Croydon Council, Hayley Lewis, Jon Rouse
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Shrink-wrapped: council’s costly errors on consultations
One of the problems that Croydon Council has is managing to get the basics right. You know, things like posting the correct date of a London-wide election on its website; not missing out Kate Moss from its short-list of the … Continue reading
It’s official: Croydon appoints shrink to be council spindoctor
Our loyal reader may remember that back in December, we published a report stating that Jon Rouse, Croydon’s £248,000 per year chief executive, was about to appoint a trained psychologist with no media experience to head up the council’s communications. … Continue reading
Posted in Croydon 8/8, Croydon Council, Hayley Lewis, Jon Rouse
Tagged Croydon, Croydon Council, Lewis, LinkedIn, London Borough of Croydon, Taberner House, Twitter
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Complaints? We’ve had a few, then again, too few to mention
Croydon Council experienced a 150 per cent increase in complaints to the Local Government Ombudsman last year, but tonight has tabled a report that recommends a pat on the back for Nathan Elvery, Sara Bashford and Dudley Mead Taberner House’s … Continue reading
Council scoops yet more prizes from its own suppliers
Just when Nathan Elvery thought it was safe to put on his black tie and book his cab (on council expenses, natch) for the next back-slapping local authority awards ceremony, so more revelations of close commercial connections between his department … Continue reading
Council’s new media chief flogging story to tabloids
Another leak from Croydon Council‘s secretive press department in their lofty Taberner House office reaches Inside CroydonTowers. Danny Brierley, the Burnley supporting former deputy editor of Your Croydon, our very own “Town Hall Pravda” (copyright Eric Pickles), has been promoted … Continue reading
From shrink to spin doctor: now Lewis has gone all coy
Confirmation, of sorts, that Hayley Lewis, Croydon’s Head of Customer Strategy and Development, is being lined up for a move to lead the council’s Ministry of Truth (despite an absence of any previous press, media or PR experience) came within … Continue reading
Rouse ready to appoint psychologist as Croydon’s press chief
Sources inside the Town Hall suggest that Croydon’s chief executive, Jon Rouse, has lined up a trained psychologist who has no direct experience in the media to head up the council’s press department Ministry of Truth. This may be especially … Continue reading
